A message board, a digital mine, where Shrewds gather, for fortune design.
- Manlobbi
Stocks A to Z / Stocks B / Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) ❤
No. of Recommendations: 11
Til today we assumed Greg Abel was the next CEO.
Today the big news: Greg will have the responsibilities of Warren Buffett. That’s a HUGE upgrade.
Investments will be under HIS control. Sounds like his job description will be Warren’s today. Quite an evolution. Will be curious how and if Todd and Ted fit in.
No. of Recommendations: 5
I thought it was a sensible clarification to remove any ambiguity. In any rational world, Capital Allocation has to be the major job of the Berkshire CEO. It is simply not realistic for 2 managers who have been managing much smaller sums to be positioned to step up into the full role. In fact, this was a risk that I have been mentioning for a few years and I am glad it is pretty clear that it is up to the CEO to use Ted and Todd and anyone else as resources but the overall job at the Enterprise level is his.
Since the capital involves substantial fully owned internally controlled businesses, comparing individual stock picks to the S&P 500 etc would not be the correct metric to judge the allocators' performance. 5 Year price performance of the BRK stock would probably continue to be a pretty good yardstick to assess how good a job is being done.
No. of Recommendations: 8
Am much more impressed with Greg today.
I think it was last year's AGM when he was totally wooden and talking word salad. Eh, maybe he was just nervous.
And of course, it's says a lot if Warren is putting his trust in Greg to take the CEO reins plus his share of the portfolio.
I always thought Todd had enough on his plate with Geico. Why does he need to manage a share of the portfolio? And Ted is a sit-in-my-office-and-read dude. I'd rather have him managing Todd's share.
But hey, I'm just arm-chairing.
No. of Recommendations: 8
Abel might delegate the stock picking responsibilities to Ted and Todd, while he focuses on operations and other big picture capital allocation decisions like amount of cash, share purchases, dividends etc.
That might be the best use of his time, skills and interest. Unlike Buffett, he may not be interested in reading hundreds of pages of company financial reports. With the many problems faced by BNSF and energy businesses, his time maybe better spent monitoring them.
What Buffett does as CEO, is unsustainable. I doubt any one person can do what he does with massive size and scale of Berkshire today.
No. of Recommendations: 3
Abel might delegate the stock picking responsibilities to Ted and Todd, while he focuses on operations and other big picture capital allocation decisions like amount of cash, share purchases, dividends etc.
Greg might well delegate significant investment activities to T&T. But he won't delegate responsibilities. That's will be job, as Warren and Ron Olson made clear today.
No. of Recommendations: 8
Tex, that’s quite clear, yes. And it was my major take from the session. Hey btw I’m the former grahdodd your buddy from the ole AOL days. It was nice to find this place and even more pleasant surprise to see you. Learned more from you, robsny, & neuro than anywhere online. All classy, generous, brilliant folks. Warren talked about this culture today. It really resonated. Especially after losing Charlie. And Warren was SO close to Sandy G. How proud he was to talk about Ruth’s massive donation.
Hope you’re doing well!
John (aka grahdodd)
No. of Recommendations: 9
"Am much more impressed with Greg today. I think it was last year's AGM when he was totally wooden and talking word salad. Eh, maybe he was just nervous."
Yeah he is right to the point with no schmaltz whatsoever. Frankly speaking he's perfect for Berkshire shareholders. I'd say he's a little more Charlie than he is Warren but I don't think we're going to get the entertainment or anywhere near the pearls of wisdom we're used to. With that said, I'm tickled with a thousand feathers he's the guy that's going to be running the business!
