Warren Buffett explains what makes a good manager using a tailor and the pope
Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway wholly owns dozens of companies - over 10 of which would be Fortune 500 companies on a standalone basis - and yet his management style as CEO of the conglomerate is focused only on 1) allocating capital and 2) attracting good managers.
This second goal comes with another upshot: Buffett wants to stay out of the way.
In his 1986 annual letter to shareholders, Buffett crystallizes how he tries to fulfill this second aim, illustrating the qualities that make a good manager with - in classic Buffett fashion - a parable.
Here's Buffett (emphasis added):
Some of our key managers are independently wealthy (we hope they all become so), but that poses no threat to their continued interest: they work because they love what they do and relish the thrill of outstanding performance. They unfailingly think like owners (the highest compliment we can pay a manager) and find all aspects of their business absorbing.
(Our prototype for occupational fervor is the Catholic tailor who used his small savings of many years to finance a pilgrimage to the Vatican. When he returned, his parish held a special meeting to get his first-hand account of the Pope. "Tell us," said the eager faithful, "just what sort of fellow is he?" Our hero wasted no words: "He's a forty-four, medium.")
It's that simple: the best managers will succeed if they are completely consumed and fulfilled by their work.
A visit to the pope, for our Catholic tailor, resulted not in a highlight about seeing His Holiness, but as with all human interactions for our committed manager, about measuring this man - as any - for a suit.
Or as Buffett writes: "the thrill of outstanding performance."
Read the full 1986 letter here »