VALUE: After Hours (S08 E16): Why Greg Abel Already Looks Like Berkshire Hathaway’s Next Great CEO

During their recent episode, Taylor, Carlisle, and Adam Mead discussed Why Greg Abel Already Looks Like Berkshire Hathaway’s Next Great CEO. Here’s an excerpt from the episode:

[Adam] I mean, I thought he was as confident as he’s ever been. He seemed very confident. It was a question, I think, towards the end, it was about succession or who’s his number two, and he was very clear that he was in charge.

I mean, it was like there should be one leader. I’m the guy. I thought he displayed a great grasp of Berkshire’s businesses.

They didn’t have a movie, but they played that classic Warren testifying in front of Congress with the Salomon Brothers scandal. He called it Berkshire’s anthem. So I really felt like there was this great balance of, I mean, Greg, don’t forget, Greg’s been with Berkshire since 1999, technically, 2000.

They bought MidAmerican. And so he’s got a quarter century under his belt as part of Berkshire. But I mean, I, they’re also implementing, he’s pushing things forward, like technology, taking the tech, the tech guy from Geico, putting him in VHE, in BNSF, this whole idea of operational excellence.

And you kind of heard some of those same words repeated by Katie Farmer from BNSF. So his message is getting out. And he’s not going to let anybody prove like Warren did.

He’s going to call him out.

[Jake] Yeah. I thought Adam Johnson was pretty impressive too.

[Tobias] Who’s Adam Johnson?

[Jake] He’s the CEO of NetJets, but he also has, I think, 32 other CEOs, subsidiary CEOs reporting to him. So he’s in charge of the consumer service and retail segments.

[Adam] Which, it’s one of my favourite clips. I’m going to, I think I posted it on, on exit, but the link actually worked. But Greg basically said, you know, hey, you know, here’s, here’s 32 other businesses, 31 other businesses for you to manage.

And oh, by the way, you know, we’re not giving you any resources, no other group from headquarters, like figure it out. No, I mean, Greg, I mean, there was one question about, you know, will you break up Berkshire? And his answer was absolutely not, you know, he said, we’re a conglomerate, but we’re an efficient conglomerate.

And, you know, that stuff is so refreshing to hear. And it, you know, it motivates me. It’s like, oh my gosh, this, you know, Berkshire is doing all this stuff.

You know, how much more can I do? Right. I mean, just can’t help but walk away from that meeting.

[Jake] What have I been doing?

[Adam] Yeah, I know.

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VALUE: After Hours (S08 E16): Why Greg Abel Already Looks Like Berkshire Hathaway’s Next Great CEO

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