I share your skepticism of the ranking of Berkshire. I would also add Costco’s ranking; both belong to the very greatest companies that civilization has produced. I assume that Time described its criteria of ranking, but given the very wide variety of businesses, how could they come up with a reliably accurate ranking? I’m reminded of the comment of the then dean of the business school at the Univ. of Chicago when asked about a recent ranking of business schools: he replied that the higher one was on the list the more one would like the list. Should we sell Berkshire and buy a higher ranked company to improve the ranking of our portfolio?
I kept going further and further down the list looking for Berkshire and around #100 I thought to myself that maybe conglomerates weren't included or there was some other criteria keeping it off the list. Then I searched for "Berkshire" and was surprised to find Berkshire Bank ranked almost 200 places higher than Berkshire Hathaway! 🤣
I long ago concluded that the media produces list to attract attention. The admiring quality of Warren and Charlie is that they never engaged in such activity.
Kevin.
I share your skepticism of the ranking of Berkshire. I would also add Costco’s ranking; both belong to the very greatest companies that civilization has produced. I assume that Time described its criteria of ranking, but given the very wide variety of businesses, how could they come up with a reliably accurate ranking? I’m reminded of the comment of the then dean of the business school at the Univ. of Chicago when asked about a recent ranking of business schools: he replied that the higher one was on the list the more one would like the list. Should we sell Berkshire and buy a higher ranked company to improve the ranking of our portfolio?
Thanks for your helpful reporting!
I kept going further and further down the list looking for Berkshire and around #100 I thought to myself that maybe conglomerates weren't included or there was some other criteria keeping it off the list. Then I searched for "Berkshire" and was surprised to find Berkshire Bank ranked almost 200 places higher than Berkshire Hathaway! 🤣
I long ago concluded that the media produces list to attract attention. The admiring quality of Warren and Charlie is that they never engaged in such activity.