Warren Buffett grew Berkshire Hathaway to a giant of $ 1 Billion because they “consider the quality of the product as sacred”

“We consider the quality of the product as sacred.” Warren Buffett wrote this line in his 1983 shareholders’ letter while discussing see of see candies – and he reads today as a mission statement for Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) (BRK.B): Put the client first; defend the brand; And let the quality widen the economic moats over the decades.

Buffett’s comment was made at a time when Berkshire decided to continue buying the best ingredients regardless of the price at See, even if it has tightened other costs. The point was simple: never compromise what the customer has experienced. This position underpins the sustainable franchise to see and illustrates a wider doctrine of Berkshire – gain value, not gadgets.

In the same letter of 1983, he congratulated the Nebraska Furniture Mart as “the ideal company” – that which transmits savings to customers and converts confidence in higher economy.

Four decades of letters from Buffett shareholders echo the same idea with different words: widen the ditch. Berkshire is looking for companies with a long -term favorable economy and sustainable competitive advantages, then invests with the intention of making this advantage a little wider every day. Buffett and its long -standing trading partner, the late Charlie Munger, both explicitly thought that management’s work is to extend and improve the products and service to strengthen the moat – an orientation of the owner who resists shortcuts and greenhouse.

This philosophy rests comfortably alongside Buffett’s preference for brands and franchises whose value for customers, rather than their cost to be produced, fixes the price – what he calls economic will. Seeing is his canonical example, offering high yields on modest tangible assets because customer affection is the asset. In inflationary periods, he noted, the real compounds of good will-it is “the gift that continues to give”.

The ideology focused on the Berkshire client has evolved towards one of the largest public companies in the world. In mid -August 2025, Berkshire’s market value is around 1.0 billion of dollars – a testimony of decades of reinvestment behind the pits instead of hunting modes or financial engineering.

And culture appears several times in the letters:

• Protect the franchise: If there is a compromise between reported income and long -term deductible with customers, Berkshire promotes deductible (for example, inviolable quality costs and the quality of the quality of seeing elsewhere).

• Value on optics: Accounting never dictates operations; The intrinsic value does it. Berkshire prefers “$ 2 of income that is not to be declared” that Chase figures, because customers and cash flows, and not GAAP optics, support the moat.

• Low -cost and high confidence retail: The model of Nebraska Furniture Mart – Buy brilliantly, running Lean, going on savings – is the Berkshire par excellence: the customer’s surplus comes first, and the owner’s surplus follows.