BETTING ON A SURE THING

Back in January, billionaire Warren Buffett partnered with Quicken Loans to give away $1 billion to anyone who successfully predicted the outcome of every game in the NCAA Men’s basketball tournament.

That possibility of a perfect bracket vanished only days into the tournament, with bracket busters such as Mercer upsetting Duke.  But truly, the $1 billion was never in danger of being won or lost.

The contest rules for the Billion Dollar Bracket Challenge noted that the odds of winning the grand prize were one in 4,294,967,296.  One mathematician estimated that the odds of predicting a perfect bracket were more like one in 128 billion.

So here we are in the Final Four with Florida, Wisconsin, UConn, and Kentucky.  What was the likelihood of this?

A billion is all in a day’s work for Buffett, the world’s fourth richest man, who made that amount in the first 22 hours of March Madness according to Forbes.  Still, he knows a safe bet when he sees one.

We prefer to stick to safe bets too at Barnhart.

Every one of our projects is managed by a fully-trained member of our Quality Management System team with the appropriate resources to meet customer needs. Documented procedures are maintained for all functions that meet ISO 9001 requirements. Periodic audits are conducted to ensure all safety standards are met and opportunities for improvement are recognized and acted upon. We continually define, refine and control processes in order to provide higher levels of service.

We work hard to minimize upsets, delays and unpredictable outcomes.

It should be noted that not everyone in the Challenge walked away a loser.  As part of the promotion, Quicken Loans, which was founded by Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert, agreed to donate $1 million to Detroit and Cleveland non-profit organizations that work on youth education.