Why does Warren Buffett think Walter White, from Breaking Bad, is a great businessman?

Just imagine for a second it is not meth, not criminal. Just abstract it: Walter White starts the business in a rather established area, however he believes he has some edge - he is a brilliant Chemist, others are just punks. Instead of going on his own, he finds a partner, someone he knows - with some knowledge and experience in the industry, yet small enough to go 50/50. From the first working meeting Walt lays down his strategy - produce superior  product that works as advertised. Through all the ups and downs of his business, he never compromised on this principle. They produce the first batches, and achieve initial traction. Then Walt decides to look for a distributor. However when a distributor tries to use their size to force Walt into subservient relationships, Walt does whatever it takes to keep the payment arrangements as agreed, and his operations independent. Eventually he has to trade his independence to working within a large corporation, however he never gives up on his ambitions to run his own enterprise covering the whole process. When he comes across a good adviser (Saul), he listens to his advice, however keeps his own judgement switched on. He doesn't hesitate to invest in quality advice, services, products and equipment. He grows with his job. He learns new skills, develops new ways of dealing with people, learns to assess Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats adequately, and executes accordingly. Starting with a core technology, he grows up to be one of the most effective Chief Executives in the industry. If it wasn't massively illegal and immoral, sounds like a good Value Investment, isn't it? Just to make it clear - the product they produced was a nasty drug that nobody suggests should be legal, and some of the "whatever it takes" actions were murders. No, it is not a "personal growth" I recommend anyone to consider.

WHAT MAKES WALTER WHITE A 'GREAT BUSINESSMAN'In a word: BLUE-NESSI believe that Walter White qualifies as a 'great businessman' according to Warren Buffett's principles because he established a BRAND with his 'blue ice'.The characteristics of a successful brand are: DISTINCT - eg. logo, packaging, design CONSISTENT - eg. the experience at McDonald's is pretty consistent from Beirut to Beijing. Anyone outside their local area will often eat at a fast food franchise because they know what they will get. QUALITY PRICE Notes: 1 & 2: Being 'blue' made his ice distinct, but just as importantly, it made it consistent. It meant that if dealers 'cut' the 'blue ice' with other powders, the consumers would know it was no longer Heisenberg's blue ice. 3 & 4: QUALITY and PRICE combine to provide VALUE. Markets with a lot of segmentation, such as that for motor vehicles, provide room for lower quality market niches with lower prices where the best value, rather than the best quality, will win. That is, the high quality of Walter White's product was not necessarily its most important characteristic. Had Walter made his 'blue' ice at a lower 'purity' he may still have been successful if he had also lowered his price such that his value proposition was still superior to all products competing in his market niche. WHY BRANDING IS IMPORTANTThe reason that a brand is so important is because the market leader in a branded category has PRICING POWER. The ability to raise prices without losing customers means a company can always make a solid profit margin irrespective of cost increases. This was the golden lesson Buffett learned from his investment in the original Berkshire Hathaway business, whose suit inner fabrics did not have consumer brand recognition, or pricing power, and were doomed whatever quality they were.The importance of a brand can also be expanded to other conrnerstone concepts in Buffett's world such as the 'moat', 'simple and understandable' business and the all-important 'return on equity'.BRANDING WHEN YOU DON'T HAVE RELATIONSHIP WITH CONSUMERSWalter White's situation is interesting given the middleman could often also play the role of a traditional manufacturer that represents the final product as his own. As per the note on '1 & 2' his 'blue ice' enabled him to develop a direct relationship with consumers. Intel advertised directly to consumers to overcome that problem. Berkshire Hathaway suit liners would not have had enough revenue or margin to have adopted such a strategy.Once a market leader is established, they are difficult to overthrow - at least in a normal market where you can't 'get rid of the competition' (permanently).BRANDING OF DRUGS IN THE REAL WORLDNote that 'branding' has long been attempted by drug producers. Cocaine producers in South and Central American had long been putting brands on their 1 kilo packages, the 'Scorpion' being one of the most famous. However these brands never carried through to end consumers.Ecstasy tablets have often been made with pill presses that imprint them with brands, often borrowed, such as Mitsubishi or Harry Potter. However, within days other suppliers have usually 'passed off' inferior products as the higher quality ones, and destroyed any brand as fast as it arose.

Cynical answer: It seems to have been a successful effort on Mr. Buffet's part to get some from free publicity with a few throwaway lines about a popular television program. Since Mr. Buffett remains silent on his views regarding drug legalization and only in recent years has come out as being for government subsidized health care ( two cornerstones of the Breaking Bad series) it smacks of more than a little bit of opportunism for him to comment about his perceptions of the series' protagonist and his alleged "business acumen."

Because Buffet is cool, smart and creative. I am sure you cannot take this as a completely serious comment, yet at the same time it has merit for contemplation. Like all good citizens, he causes people to take notice, think and question reality. If we all thought just a little bit more, the world would better off. After spending time at Caltech as a physical chemist with some with time in the xray lab (yes xrays are dangerous along with all the other stuff in pchem labs), I have no idea where these screenwriters make this stuff up. Big Bang Theory and now this, it must be the proximity to Burbank I hope. I think about these shows al by myself.