Devoted to Managers and those that seek to improve their management skills

Successful products, services or businesses, not sectors or specific areas

There aren't a lot of people or companies that can exist as successful conglomerates. Very few leaders know how to put something together and keep it together in a profitable way. One besides Buffett that did it well was Jack Welch at GE ... of course there are others too.

The point is that there is a certain way of looking at things that makes a company which is holding company for many others a success, and that is dealing with "Successful products, services or businesses - not sectors or specific areas."

Richard Branson and others have said at times that "once you know how to run one business you can run any business." There's a reason why that's true, and it's connected to Buffett's statement above.

This has been the whole theme of the Buffett posts, stories and insights: looking what is successful, not at specific sectors or areas.

Does this contradict "niche" business strategies? Not at all. All those companies owned or invested in by Buffett through Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A) are in reality niches. It's that he has the same business philosophy applied to everyone of them, as well as the managers that run them.

He looks at what they offer and its competitive positioning, measures the management, projects out into the future because he understands the business, and makes a decision based upon that. It has nothing to do with anything related to a targeted, specific sector that he only looks at.

On a smaller scale, we can learn to do that with anything within our businesses - any product or service we offer. We shouldn't care what does or doesn't work as long as we can move it and sell it. We don't subjectively fall in love with something and put it in a store or hold onto it as a service if it doesn't work. 

I know that these types of things seem too simple and too obvious, but then why do so many businesses and managers struggle to make these things happen? Many times it's the obvious and easiest that is the hardest to accomplish.

Other Buffett Resources:

Wisdom of Warren Buffett

Warren Buffett, investor

Warren Buffett: The trouble with being a legend

Warren Buffett: 'I told you so'

Company growth

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