Conference call | A small video producer is beckoned by Warren Buffett
Photo/Tim Greenway
Gene Landry, founder of Persistence Media, which recently produced a video of the "Oracle of Omaha"
When attendees gather in Laguna Beach next month for “The Future of Corporate Reform” conference, they’ll hear from the likes of Tom Brokaw, Condoleezza Rice and Ben Stein. Warren Buffett will also speak, and while most in attendance will hang on his every word, the billionaire won’t be anywhere near a stage in southern California.
Most likely, he’ll be where he is most days — in his office in Omaha, Neb., focusing on the business of doing business.
As the third-wealthiest man in the world, the 79-year-old Buffett simply can’t take time away from business to accept every invitation to speak. In this case, Buffett’s presentation will come in the form of a 40-plus-minute video produced by a small Portland-based company whose most visible work to date may be the Maine Beverage Co.’s OUI awareness TV commercials.
“Here in Portland on any given day, we might be working with a small nonprofit or filming a small TV commercial,” says Gene Landry, founder and executive producer of Persistence Media. “We’re not so successful that we can be picky.”
So how did Persistence land the Buffett gig? Persistence had produced a similar piece in 2009 for two of the conference’s organizers — The Corporate Library of Portland and San Diego law firm Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd. Based on the success of that project, featuring Vanguard Group founder and retired CEO John Bogle, Persistence got the call for the Buffett piece.
In June, Landry and his crew headed to the inconspicuous offices of Buffett’s company, Berkshire Hathaway, to film the interview, conducted by Nell Minow, co-founder of and editor for The Corporate Library. Berkshire Hathaway’s relatively small offices, which occupy just one floor of a downtown Omaha building, are in keeping with Buffett’s notoriously frugal business ethos. As Landry learned, Buffett’s philosophy is to remove the trappings of business — including ubiquitous and often interminable meetings— that take away from actually doing business.
As was the case with Bogle, Buffett’s persona, confidence, voice quality and comfort in front of the camera, combined with his business sense, made him the “quintessential interview” from a production perspective, Landry says.
“With both men, the language just rolls off their tongue in a non-scripted way. It’s not contrived,” he says. While the Persistence team was in Omaha, Landry says Buffett was approachable and easy to talk with. He and Landry share a connection to New Bedford, Mass., where Landry grew up and where Buffett had his first taste of owning a publicly traded company — and of business failure.
In those days, Berkshire Hathaway was a textile mill located not far from Landry’s childhood home. Even Buffett couldn’t save the New England textile industry, however, and Berkshire Hathaway eventually shut down. That Buffett’s company retained the name, even after making further acquisitions (Geico was next), demonstrates the impact it had on the billionaire’s business philosophy.
“Those are lessons he’s never forgotten,” Landry says. “He talked about it in his interview — basically, steer clear of bad businesses.”
Speaking of business decisions, why did Landry, whose resume includes a stint as an award-winning TV news reporter in New York, choose to set up shop in Portland in 2004? “The answer is the same you hear from a lot of people: family and quality of life,” he says. “It’s not because we get more work here.”
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