Dean's CEO Convocations
William Child, the chairman of the board for R.C. Willey Home Furnishings, spoke at the Dean’s Convocation on Sept. 27, giving a presentation he called: "How to build a business Warren Buffett would buy." When Child started at R.C. Willey in 1954, the company had just one employee, besides himself, working out of a 600-square foot store. Today it has more than 3,000 employees and includes 14 large stores in Utah, Idaho, Nevada and California. Child talked about key strategic decisions he made that benefited his customers and helped his business grow and expand.
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway company bought R.C. Willey in 1995. Child said Buffett likes to buy healthy businesses run by people he can trust who have integrity and love their business more than they love the money it makes. Child said Buffett won’t buy the business unless those people who have made it successful agree to continue to run it after the sale.