Two things tell you all you need to know about a company’s strategy.
Its numbers, and its culture.
Greg Abel took over from Warren Buffett this year, and wrote this in his 2026 shareholder letter.
“… culture is a system for generating long term performance, not just a set of beliefs.”
Numbers are a starting point to analyze a business.
But numbers can be gamed and manipulated to present a rosy picture.
It’s much harder to hide the cracks in culture.
Numbers look back – telling you what a company did.
Culture looks forward – telling you what it’s willing to tolerate.
Handcrafted insight 