In 1995, Bill Child (pictured right), then owner of R.C. Willey Home Furnishings, sold his company to U.S. investor Warren Buffett for $175 million in stock. What does the owner of a Utah-based furniture store have in common with Warren Buffet, the second richest man in the world? They have great admiration for each other.
Bill Child was invited to speak at the opening session of BYU–Hawaii’s Great Ideas Exchange on Thursday, November 5, at 11:00 a.m. in the Cannon Activities Center (CAC).
James Ritchie, Director of the Willes Center for International Entrepreneurship, explained the decision behind inviting Child to the Great Idea Exchange: "We decided to bring Bill Child to the Great Idea Exchange because he is a perfect example of the Vision Statement that we're trying to get across: 'think,' 'plan,' and then go home and 'do.' "
Selling R.C. Willey to Warren Buffett was only the capstone to Child's highly successful career, which saw him take over the R.C. Willey company. With annual sales of only $250,000 in 1954, Child eventually guided R.C. Willey to annual sales of over $342 million in 1999. Eventually, it became "a business Warren Buffett would buy."
Ritchie explained, the Center for International Entrepreneurship is organizing something for each part of the Vision Statement: the Great Idea Exchange in the fall, where you 'think' of ideas; the Conference of Champions in the spring, where you 'plan' out your ideas; and, in the summer, students can go home and 'do' or implement their ideas.
Most notable among Child's admirable characteristics was his determination to keep his stores closed on Sundays. Despite this unorthodox policy, Buffett agreed at the time of buying R.C. Willey to maintain it as long as the stores continued to be successful.
Child not only maintained the store's success, but also expanded to new locations, continued to drive up the company’s annual sales, and won the admiration of Buffett in the process.
Buffet's admiration was evident when he stated, "Bill Child represents the best of America. In matters of family, philanthropy, business, or just plain citizenship, anyone who follows in his footsteps is heading true north" in his book "How to Build a Business Warren Buffett Would Buy: The R.C. Willey Store." (Child and Buffet pictured on book cover)
--Photos courtesy of meridianmagazine.com