Biz to Go: Buffett Shares his "Winning Formula" with Coke

?We want to see what has caused businesses to go bad, and the biggest thing that kills them is complacency,? he said. ?You want a restlessness, a feeling that somebody?s always after you but you?re going to stay ahead.? Berkshire Hathaway, which Buffett has led for more than four decades, owns 400 million Coca-Cola shares after a share split last year, with a value of almost $17 billion. Berkshire favors companies that have loyal customers and can withstand competition, Buffett said. ?I?m the kind of guy that likes to bet on sure things,? Buffett told Kent. ?If you take care of a great brand, it?s forever.

Those are the kind of businesses I like.? Buffett reminisced about how as a 7-year-old boy in Omaha, Neb., where Berkshire is based, he would buy and sell bottles of Coke. He joked that the only mistake he made was not putting the nickel he made on each six-pack into Coca-Cola?s stock. He would eventually make up for lost time. Kent, who also is Coca-Cola?s chairman, asked Buffett about operating a multinational business amid wealth transfers in the global economy and the ?volatile environment? that ?leaves a lot of uncertainty.? ?You basically have to be accepted in countries around the world and bring them something that makes their lives better,? said Buffett, who once served on Coke?s board and whose son Howard Buffett is currently a director.

?If you can do it at a popular price, you can go to the masses of the world and say you?re going to live better because I?m going to be here ? and then behave that way ? you?ve got a winning formula.? Buffett will host shareholders at Berkshire?s annual meeting next week in Omaha. A subsidiary of Berkshire owns the Richmond Times-Dispatch. The gatherings, which draw tens of thousands of attendees, are a forum for the billionaire to praise deputies for their performance and promote Berkshire as the ideal buyer for managers seeking to sell their companies.

He said Wednesday that he wants a culture that promotes innovation and customer service. ?That belief that tomorrow is more exciting than today, you just have to have it permeate the organization,? he said. ?The world does not belong to the pessimist. Believe me.? Bloomberg Ne