Subject: Re: Million to Billion
I'll take a mildly controversial position here, and postulate Charlie's demise (and, maybe Warren's one day) will actually facilitate or unlock some options that haven't been afforded to Greg Abel/Ajit/TeamToddAndTed.

When I retired, I left a role I was really invested in, but though I was good at it (my boss's boss begged me to stay) and am writing a book on it, I was also culminating some. Peaking a bit. Eventually it is time for some new and fresh ideas to be given the opportunity to be pursued.

Back to Charlie - at the 2004 Wesco meeting, he said something very close to "it is a wasted year in which one does not destroy one of your most sacred notions." I think he was getting at you can't keep doing everything you were doing before, in the pursuit of something with a reasonable likelihood of being better. Creative destruction.