Who is the best manager in the world? This column’s nomination would go to an 82-year-old who does not rate a mention in the Thinkers50 awards for the best business minds, is not an innovator, does not do leverage, thinks derivatives are financial weapons of mass destruction and runs a bunch of the most basic industries imaginable. His company is a conglomerate. If you had invested $1 in 1965, it would be worth almost $6,000 today.

His name, of course, is Warren Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, and he is perhaps the most successful business person ever. He does not write business bestsellers, but he conducts a masterclass via his annual letters to shareholders. Every aspect of Berkshire’s performance shows by opposition all that is wrong with contemporary capitalism.

Buffett is thought of as an investor. But he is more than that. If Berkshire is so successful as a conglomerate – which are as popular in today’s corporate world as purple flares in a fashion house – it is because it is the entity 21st-century capitalism most desperately lacks: a responsible owner with a profound understanding of the management needs of the businesses it invests in.