I first encountered the Berkshire Hathaway website back in 2004 when I got my first job out of college – it happened to be with a company owned by Berkshire Hathaway. I was blown away to see how elementary the site was with default font on a plain white background and zero images. Now, in 2019, I see they still have the same website. So the question is, why does the company owned by one of the richest men in the world have the lamest website in the world? I wish I knew the answer. Maybe Mr. Buffett is onto something! Certainly the professionalism of his website has nothing to do with the success of his company. And vice versa, there are certainly fantastic websites out there with unsuccessful companies behind them. This is part of the beauty (and deception) of the web. One-person companies can appear to be huge corporations online, and in the case of Berkshire Hathaway, huge successful companies can appear to have outsourced their web needs to a kindergarten class. Definitely a “don’t judge a book by its cover” type of lesson to be learned from these types of websites.
But wouldn’t it just make more sense for Berkshire Hathaway to have a professional website? For the sake of my sanity as a web designer? Clearly Mr. Buffett is not a huge fan of the web world, and I remember my boss telling me that they had just started having email addresses in 2002… but I would think his good friend, Mr. Gates, could talk some sense into him and get an online presence that would better represent his stellar organization. It doesn’t need to be fancy or flashy… can still be simple without looking like its style sheet isn’t working! I would sure love to give it a shot! Give me a call anytime, Mr. Buffett: 402-610-1222.
I just checked and the website is stil the same, i hope Mr buffett sees your message and give you the work to re-design
Godspeed!