How to Build a Business Warren Buffett Would Buy: The R. C. Willey Story

Benedict tells the history of R.C. Willey Home Furnishings, a Utah furniture retailer that Berkshire Hathaway acquired in 1995, centred on Bill Child, who took over his father-in-law's small appliance store and built it into the dominant furniture retailer in the state.

The operating decisions are the content. Child grew the business slowly and from cash flow rather than debt, held a conservative balance sheet, and expanded only into locations he could supervise. He closed on Sundays for religious reasons and maintained the policy through the growth, which competitors treated as a handicap. The most cited episode concerns the expansion into Boise: Buffett was sceptical that the Sunday closure would work outside Utah, and Child offered to build the store with his own money and sell it to Berkshire at cost if it succeeded, which is what happened.

The book also covers the acquisition itself, in which Buffett bought the company after a short meeting and without an auction, and the arrangement under which Child continued running it with no interference.

The reference has not verified the specific figures in this account, which is written with the company's cooperation and is admiring throughout. It is a business biography rather than an analysis, and the lessons are stated rather than examined. Its interest is as a documented example of the kind of business Berkshire acquires and of an owner willing to bear personal risk to test a disagreement with his acquirer.