????2009年，剛剛從哈佛商學院（Harvard Business School）畢業(yè)的特雷西?布里特?庫爾叩開了伯克希爾-哈撒韋公司（Berkshire Hathaway）的大門。當時，庫爾帶來了許多從自家位于堪薩斯州曼哈頓的農(nóng)場采摘的甜玉米和西紅柿。她希望公司大名鼎鼎的CEO沃倫?巴菲特能錄用她。這招很管用。第二年秋天，庫爾作為巴菲特的財務(wù)助理，加入了伯克希爾-哈撒韋公司。

????五年后，巴菲特給現(xiàn)年30歲的庫爾安排了她職業(yè)生涯中第一個重大運營職務(wù)。10月27日，被尊稱為奧馬哈先知的巴菲特宣布，自11月1日起，庫爾將接替多麗絲?克里斯托弗擔任廚具銷售商Pampered Chef公司CEO。作為創(chuàng)始人的克里斯托弗，仍將留在該公司擔任董事長一職。克里斯托弗曾經(jīng)是一位家政學教師，她于1980年創(chuàng)辦了Pampered Chef公司，剛開始只是在自家地下室銷售廚具。2002年被伯克希爾-哈撒韋公司收購時，該公司通過許多獨立顧問銷售其產(chǎn)品，模仿特百惠（Tupperware）的商業(yè)模式。雖然伯克希爾-哈撒韋公司沒有披露收購價格，但當時Pampered Chef的年收入已超過7億美元，旗下有6.7萬名銷售顧問。

????最近，該公司的增長陷入停滯。本已退休的克里斯托弗于2013年12月復出，臨時接替當時的CEO瑪拉?戈特沙爾克。戈特沙爾克曾是美國卡夫食品有限公司（Kraft）負責財務(wù)規(guī)劃和投資者關(guān)系的高級副總裁，于2006年被巴菲特聘用。雖然2009年P(guān)ampered Chef在戈特沙爾克執(zhí)掌下表現(xiàn)出色（巴菲特在當年伯克希爾-哈撒韋公司年報中列出了那些在銷售下滑情況下仍成功提高盈利的子公司負責人，而戈特沙爾克也位列其中），但該公司最近幾年頗為坎坷。伯克希爾-哈撒韋公司的年報顯示，Pampered Chef公司2011年盈利下降，而2012年和2013年則收入和利雙雙下降。該公司不得不通過裁員瘦身：自2008年以來，其員工人數(shù)已經(jīng)下降了20%。

????當然，巴菲特曾公開承認，由于科技不斷重塑消費者購物行為，伯克希爾-哈撒韋公司旗下零售業(yè)務(wù)一直問題不斷。但在過去幾年中，他委派特雷西整頓了一些零售子公司。現(xiàn)在，他希望特雷西是那個能讓Pampered Chef回到正軌的不二人選。

????特雷西?布里特?庫爾為人低調(diào)。與那些更善于和媒體打交道的同行相比，她并不渴求出現(xiàn)在聚光燈下，也不愛在電視及會議場合露臉講話。但庫爾和典型的中西部美國人一樣淳樸友善，讓人感覺親切，毫不做作，這一點與巴菲特平易近人的魅力不無相似。

????庫爾還相當認真。她在父親經(jīng)營的農(nóng)場長大（庫爾的父母已經(jīng)離異，各自經(jīng)營一家農(nóng)場），養(yǎng)成了認真細致的工作風格。庫爾的繼母露?布里特3月份向《財富》（Fortune）雜志表示：“我總是說她少年老成?！?。（庫爾沒有接受記者此次采訪；庫爾在本報道中的言論均來自她與《財富》過去的對話。）

????Just after graduating from Harvard Business School in 2009, Tracy Britt Cool showed up on Berkshire Hathaway’s BRK.A -0.27% door. In her arms: a bushel of sweet corn and tomatoes from her family’s farm in Manhattan, Kansas. She hoped to woo the company’s famed CEO Warren Buffett into hiring her. It worked. The following fall, Cool joined Berkshire as Buffett’s financial assistant.

????Five years later, Buffett’s giving Cool, now 30, her first big operating role. On Monday, the Oracle of Omaha announced that Cool will become the CEO of Pampered Chef on November 1, replacing founder and current chief Doris Christopher, a home economics teacher who started the Pampered Chef in 1980 by selling kitchen tools from her basement. Christopher will remain at the company as chairman. In 2002, Berkshire bought the company, which sells its products through a network of independent consultants, mimicking the Tupperware business model. The price wasn’t disclosed, but at the time, Pampered Chef had over $700 million in revenue and 67,000 consultants.

????More recently, the company’s growth has stalled. Christopher came out of retirement in December 2013 to temporarily take the reins from then-CEO Marla Gottschalk, the former SVP of financial planning and investor relations at Kraft, whom Buffett had hired in 2006. Though 2009 proved a bright spot for Gottschalk—Buffett listed her as one of the execs who increased profits despite declining sales in Berkshire’s annual report—Pampered Chef’s more recent years were bumpy. According to Berkshire’s annual reports, earnings declined in 2011—and in 2012 and 2013 both revenue and earnings took a hit. The company also thinned itself with layoffs: Since 2008, its headcount has declined 20%.

????To be sure, Buffett has admitted publicly that Berkshire has struggled with retail, in part because of technology’s constant reshaping of shopping behaviors. But for the past few years, he’s sent Tracy in to clean a few of his retail companies up; now he’s hoping she’s the one to right Pampered Chef’s path.

????Tracy Britt Cool isn’t an attention-seeker. She doesn’t command or crave the spotlight or spout rhetoric on small screens and conference stages the way some of her more media-trained peers do. But Cool’s earnest, Midwestern sincerity and her kind demeanor give her an unstudied relatability not unlike her billionaire boss’ folksy charm.

????She’s also quite serious. Growing up on her dad’s farm (her parents separated, and each ran one), her work ethic has often been described as meticulous. “I always said she was an old soul growing up,” Cool’s stepmother Lou Britt told Fortune in March. (Cool didn’t cooperate for this piece; her comments in this story are from past conversations with Fortune.)