No. of Recommendations: 12
"What do you think?"
Managers can certainly make costly mistakes, but so can CEOs. We've all seen spectacular examples of both. From what we've seen of Greg Abel so far, I think that he will be much less hands off than Warren when it comes to cost control. I even think that Todd Combs, as good as he is, could face more scrutiny. Ajit has commented more than once about sub-par growth and combined ratio at GEICO.
My biggest worry, though, is not operating expenses. It's dumb acquisitions, both at the subsidiary level and the corporate level, such as Lubrizol's purchase of Weatherford International's oilfield chemicals business and BHE's purchase of PacifiCorp. It's very hard not to buy when you're flush with cash.