Company: BRK-A
Filing Date: 2025-02-24
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0000950170-25-025210
Chunk: 4

Company: BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY INC
Filing Date: 2025-02-24
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1
Chunk 4
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Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (“Berkshire,” “Company” or “Registrant”) is a holding company owning subsidiaries engaged in numerous diverse business activities. The most important of these are insurance businesses conducted on both a primary basis and a reinsurance basis, a freight rail transportation business and a group of utility and energy generation and distribution businesses. Berkshire also owns and operates numerous other businesses engaged in a variety of manufacturing, services and retailing activities. Berkshire is domiciled in the state of Delaware, and its corporate headquarters is in Omaha, Nebraska.

Berkshire’s operating subsidiaries are managed on an unusually decentralized basis. There are few centralized or integrated business functions. Berkshire’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Vice Chairman of Insurance Operations and Vice Chairman of Non-Insurance Operations participate in and are ultimately responsible for significant capital allocation decisions, investment activities and the selection of the Chief Executive to head each of the operating businesses.

Berkshire’s senior corporate management is responsible for establishing and monitoring Berkshire’s corporate governance practices, including monitoring governance efforts, including those at the operating businesses, and participating in the resolution of governance-related issues as needed. Berkshire’s Board of Directors is responsible for selecting an appropriate successor to the Chief Executive Officer. The Berkshire Code of Business Conduct and Ethics emphasizes, among other things, the commitment to ethics and compliance with government laws and regulations and provides basic standards for ethical and legal behavior of its employees. 

Human capital and resources are an integral and essential component of Berkshire’s businesses. Berkshire and its operating subsidiaries employed approximately 392,400 people worldwide at the end of 2024, of which approximately 80% were in the United States (“U.S.”) and 20% were represented by unions. Employees engage in a wide variety of occupations. Consistent with Berkshire’s decentralized management philosophy, Berkshire’s operating subsidiaries each establish specific policies and practices concerning the attraction and retention of personnel within their organizations. Given the wide variations in the nature and size of business activities, specific policies and practices vary among Berkshire’s operating subsidiaries. Policies and practices commonly address, among other things: maintaining a safe work environment and minimizing or eliminating workplace injuries; offering competitive compensation, which includes various health insurance and retirement benefits, as well as incentives to recognize and reward performance; wellness programs; training, learning and career advancement opportunities; and hiring practices intended to identify qualified candidates. Berkshire’s combined U.S. workforce data, based on U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission guidelines, is available on its website (https://www.berkshirehathaway.com), under