By WSJ City 

The myriad companies of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway have run completely independently of each other for decades. That isn't always the case any longer.

KEY FACTS

   -- Top executives from Berkshire units now gather regularly to share 
      strategies and best practices. 
 
   -- Some firms participate in purchasing cohorts to get group rates for items 
      like travel and raw materials. 
 
   -- Last year, employees from more than 40 Berkshire businesses met to 
      discuss sustainability. 

WHY THIS MATTERS

The rise in internal collaboration, which executives rarely discuss publicly, hints at what the firm might look like when Buffett is no longer running it as chairman and CEO.

"Even though we're in different industries and have different business models, there's so much that connects us. Why wouldn't we take advantage of the talent across the Berkshire Hathaway organization?" said Mary Rhinehart, CEO of Berkshire's building-products maker Johns Manville.

Last year the company's subsidiary CEOs started reporting to Buffett's lieutenants, Ajit Jain and Greg Abel, rather than to Buffett. Aat the subsidiary level, roughly one-third of Berkshire's business units have announced a new CEO in the past five years as an older generation of managers has retired or stepped back into chairman roles.

A fuller story is available on WSJ.com

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 04, 2019 08:36 ET (12:36 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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