Book Review — The Complete Financial History of Berkshire Hathaway by Adam Mead

This book was difficult for me to get thru but I cannot underscore enough how COMPLETE this book was in the history of Berkshire Hathaway — the book was very aptly named. The author did an incredible job of tracking the evolution of the company and how they strategically deployed capital in an almost non-speculative away. It seemed almost all positions had a high degree of probabilistic positive outcome.

I was particular interested in the detailing of M&A and capital allocation as it relates to the manufacturing sector for the Berkshire portfolio. I found the insurance and finance sectors to be rather mundane but important to the overall story and history of the company. It was intriguing to find out the origin store of Berkshire and the humble beginnings of a declining garment spinning company.

I would restrict recommending this book to those very interested in capital allocation and those with a serious interest in Buffett and Munger. It may seem that I’m not a fan of the book but in reality it was such a wholistic view of the history and evolution of such an important company to the investing ethos of a bellwether conglomerate in America. From the humble beginnings of textile manufacturer to Netjets, insurance, and reinsurance Berkshire and this book has found a secret recipe we can all learn from.

Book rating: 7/10