Organizational Culture and Berkshire Hathaway

To understand the organizational culture of a company, one needs to start by looking at the history. Lakeshore Learning Materials was born from a divorced mother of three named Ethelyn Kaplan, who took a dream and a chance by moving her family to California in 1954 to open a toy store. When she started noticing that teachers were interested in her material, Ethelyn realized that she needed to expand her business into educational materials. 60 years later, Lakeshore Learning Materials has grown into a company with over 2000 employees, 60 retail stores throughout the United States and growing. Lakeshore Learning Materials is currently headed by Ethelyn’s grandsons, Bo and Josh Kaplan. Under the supervision of Bo and Josh, Lakeshore continues to be a leader in the Educational Materials, yet still able to keep the family culture that their grandmother started. Highest quality customer service and hard work are the core values that shape Lakeshore’s Organizational Strategy. These high expectations aren’t hard for employees at Lakeshore because the company is so loved by everyone that works there, that they give nothing less than the best.

1. The work contained within this assignment is my own work, and is not directly taken from any other source.

You must complete this assignment without the assistance of persons other than the members of

“We certify that the attached work is entirely our own, except where material quoted or paraphrased is acknowledged in the text. We also declare that it has not been submitted for assessment in another unit or course.”

I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, it contains no material previously published or written by another person nor material which to a substantial extent has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma of a university or other institution of higher learning, except where due acknowledgment is made in the acknowledgments.

At a young age he had the drive and work ethic to make money. He was influenced to by his father who was a stock broker and bought stock at the age of 11. He finished his M.S. in Economics from Columbia Business School where his studied under Benjamin Graham and Phil Fisher. When working at Benjamin Graham’s partnership, he thought the guidelines of investment were too stringent, he felt there were opportunities for higher profits but company guidelines inhibited potential profits. After leaving Graham partnership, he was involved with 6 partnerships. Warren Buffet went on to organize the sale of his partnerships, ultimately securing his job as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. He used his critical thinking skills to build Berkshire Hathaway. One of his abilities is the ability to identify talent and recruitment of talent. Warren Buffet believes that gossiping, lying, breaking agreements, becoming defensive, feeling entitled, and withholding key information slows down the decision making process (Market, 2011). These are the key fundamentals that have made Warren Buffet a success.

I declare that this assignment is my own work and has not been submitted in any form for another unit, degree or diploma at any university or other institute of tertiary education. Information derived from the published or unpublished work of others has been

Buffett invest in businesses related to the field of his interest, whether it is related to an insurance business or other business. He intends to gain substantial and beneficial companies keeping in mind the end goal to give advantages to shareholders. Mr. Buffett's age does not affect Berkshire Hathaway's recent strategic moves, such as buying Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad instead of another large insurance company, because he has always adopted this approach while conducting a business. Mr. Buffett's age does not affect Berkshire Hathaway's recent strategic moves, such as buying Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad instead of another large insurance company, because he has

Please save this document before you begin working on the assignment. Type your answers directly in the document. _________________________________________________________________________

Company have approximately 110600 employees globally. It has total assets of $103 billion which is more than Coca-cola and other dominant companies.

The reason for the increase in the stock price in Berkshire Hathaway was dependant on several factors. With the GEICO stock rising with $12.875 to $68.625 on the New York Stock Exchange, Geico Hathaway gained approximately $440 million on their 34.25 million shares in GEICO. With the gain from the upcoming deal with Walt Disney Company, as well as the publication of the Value Line Forecast for GEICO, it is understandable that the Berkshire Hathaway stock rose. Another factor that also comes into play in this case is the famous track record of Warren Buffett when it comes to investing.

Please save this document before you begin working on the assignment. Type your answers directly in the document. _________________________________________________________________________

This is the final course assignment. When completing this assignment, keep in mind it is intended to capture the many concepts addressed in this course. As such, do not limit your content to just one aspect of the course. Also, be sure to write the essay as a scholarly assignment meaning there should be liberal use of citations of the course texts and notes in completing the assignment.

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Berkshire Hathaway was incorporated in 1889 as Berkshire Cotton Manufacturing, and eventually grew to become one of New England’s biggest textile producers, accounting for 25% of the United States’ cotton textile production. In 1955, Berkshire merged with Hathaway Manufacturing and began a secular decline due to inflation, technological change, and intensifying competition from foreign competitors. In 1965, Buffett and some partners acquired control of Berkshire Hathaway, believing that its financial decline could be reversed. Over the next 20 years, it became apparent that large capital investments would be required to remain competitive and that even then the financial returns would be mediocre. Fortunately, the textile group generated Berkshire Hathaway "Class A" vs. S&P 500 Composite Index enough cash in the initial $100,000 years to permit the firm to purchase two Berkshire Hathaway Inc. "A" insurance companies $10,000 headquartered in Omaha: National Indemnity Company and National $1,000 Fire & Marine Insurance S&P 500 Composite Index Company. Acquisitions of other

Berkshire Hathaway, Inc was a small textile company. Its chairman and CEO of the company is Warren Buffett, the world's third richest man. He invested his partnership in invests in Berkshire Hathaway at the price of $8.6 million (The Essential Buffett, p27). It took him over 35years to grow its book value from $19 per share to $37,987 per share with a rate of 24 percent compounded annually (The Essential Buffett, p44). Buffett started purchasing other businesses, which were primarily insurance companies, with profits from the declining original textile business. In 1985, the original textile business was shut down and Berkshire Hathaway started the insurance business.