Warren Buffett on Ajit Jain: The Unreplaceable Leader of Berkshire | Berkshire Hathaway 2024

[Transcript]

BECKY QUICK: Warren, you just said that you’d rather have Ajit running risk assessment at the insurance operations than any other thousand insurance adjusters in the world. So I’d like to follow up with a question that came in from Mark Blackley in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He said, Warren, for years you have spoken about the incredible impact Ajit has had on Berkshire. You often joke, if you and Ajit are in a sinking boat and we can only save one of you, swim to Ajit.

While we often discuss plans for the next CEO of Berkshire, little is mentioned on who will one day replace Ajit. How should we think about the future of the Berkshire insurance operations, given how challenging it may be to find another Ajit? And I’d like to hear Ajit’s thoughts on this as well.

WARREN BUFFETT: Well, I would say we won’t find another Ajit, but fortunately, he’s a good bit younger than I am, so I hope you have to worry a little bit about me first before you start worrying about Ajit. (Laughter)

You know, we won’t find another Ajit, but we have an operation that he has created and that at least part of it, there are certain parts of it that are almost impossible for competitors to imitate. And if I was in their shoes, I wouldn’t try and imitate them. And so we’ve institutionalized some of our advantages, but Ajit is — well, his presence allowed us to do it and he did it.

But now we’ve created a structure that didn’t exist when he came in 1986. Nothing close to it existed with us or with anybody else. And insurance is the most important business at Berkshire. Marketable securities are important, but they’re not in the class exactly as our insurance business.

We won’t have the same business if Ajit isn’t running it, but we’ll have a very good business. And again, that’s thanks to Ajit. You know, I’d been in the business when he came in 1986. You know, I first went to GEICO in 1950. We first bought National Indemnity in 1957, and it was something that we’d made quite a bit of money in the stocks of insurance companies, but we needed an Ajit.

Unfortunately, he came into the office on a Saturday and he was tired of working at something where he really didn’t — it just didn't challenge his intellect. And I said, "Well, we got a lot of challenges. You know, nobody's perfect. So you’ve never seen an insurance policy or owned an insurance stock, but here are the keys." And that’s worked out very well. (Applause)

AJIT JAIN: Well, thank you very much, Warren. Thank you very much, everyone. But the fact of the matter is, nobody is irreplaceable. And we have Tim Cook here in the audience, I believe, who has proved that and has set an example for a lot of people who follow. (Applause)

WARREN BUFFETT: That’s a great observation.

AJIT JAIN: Now, having said that, I will also add that our board is conscious of the succession issue, not only at Warren’s level, but also at my level. And every year they have me sitting in front of them answering questions and having me share my ideas with them in terms of what would happen to the operations if I get hit by a truck.

We go through the various operations we have. I review with them a short list of people I think ought to be candidates for replacing me. And in addition to that, I go a step further and identify a particular individual as the person I would hand over the keys to if something were to happen to me. Obviously that would be subject to change.

But we take this issue fairly seriously. And I think at the end of the day, as Tim Cook has proved to us, it will be the biggest non-issue of the day. The earth will still keep revolving around the axis.

WARREN BUFFETT: Okay, we know what we will do. We know it’s a good answer, but we know it isn’t. It isn’t. We won’t have another Ajit.
 

Source: https://buffett.cnbc.com/2024-berkshire-hathaway-annual-meeting/

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