点评：巴菲特作为即将年满94岁的CEO，这几乎也是最年长的大公司掌舵者，他自己承认阅读能力在下降，每天也就读读华尔街日报。即使在几十年前精力充沛时他的管理风格也是无为而治，重要的是找到合适的人，他们因为热爱而工作，例如收购公司时，通常会让创始人保持少数股权，继续运营原来的企业，这些创始人对待自己一生开创的企业就像自己的孩子一样，把股权转给伯克希尔是锚定一个温暖的港湾，因为下一代接班逐渐不再流行。
目前的实际管理者Greg Abel和Ajit Jain都来自公司内部，未来接班人Greg Abel1962年出生在加拿大的普通工薪阶层，父亲是消防安全公司的一名推销员，1984年获得阿尔伯塔大学商科学士学位，先在普华永道工作，后来任职中美能源公司，在1999年伯克希尔以总代价20亿美元收购该公司时加入伯克希尔，目前为公司服务25年了。Ajit Jain更是早在1986 年就加入了伯克希尔，为公司服务38年了。他们都有才华横溢，热爱自己的工作，不需要为每个季度、财年的KPI而精疲力竭，因为公司追求的长远的利益，巴菲特更了解他们的为人，信任是最好的奖励。
相比之下初创高科技公司就需要和时间赛跑，在纪录片《走进比尔：解码比尔·盖茨》中，微软刚成立时，比尔·盖茨说自己最忙的时候就是不停的写程序，困了就趴在桌子上睡一会，醒来再工作，这点就像田径中的短跑，要快速在市场上立足，技术优势稍纵即逝，而伯克希尔更像是马拉松，冠军绝不是前100米的领先者，伯克希尔管理像是个自制联邦，表面上官僚乏味，实际上是商学院学习的典范，总部只有28名员工，下属企业超过30万人，走出了不需要996模式的高效。
Becky Quick：这个问题来自德国汉堡的 Axel Mayerseek。自从 Greg Abel 和 Ajit Jain 成为副董事长以来，伯克希尔的运营 CEO 发生了什么变化？运营 CEO 是否还能直接联系沃伦·巴菲特？
沃伦·巴菲特：答案可能会让你感到惊讶，但绝大多数运营高管更喜欢与 Greg 或 Ajit 交谈。这是可以理解的，因为我实际上做的不多，而且我的运营效率不如 30 年前或 40 年前。我对经理的了解不如我们规模较小时那么多，那时我一天可以完成的工作比现在多。而且你有。当你有像 Greg 这样的 Ajit 时，为什么要满足于我呢？所以效果非常好。我几乎无法想象有什么比这更好的了，因为 Greg 在一年内就完成了。我的意思是，他能与更多人打交道，更了解他们的问题，能给他们提出建议。他精力充沛，没有人比阿吉特更了解保险。现在，他们已经与他建立了保险关系。在我们把一些头衔强加给保险业之前，他们就拥有了这种关系。而格雷格则在成为副总裁后，扩大了业务范围，除了保险之外，他实际上负责所有事务。如果你对他管辖范围内的经理进行调查，他们中的许多人都会发现，除非像少数人一样，他们不太关注自己的业务，我不会对此采取任何行动，但格雷格会。他们仍然喜欢他这样做。他能很好地向人们传递新闻。有些人会这样做。如果你有 20 个孩子，而且你非常富有，那么无论如何，你都会有一些积极进取的人，而有些人则不会。我们是一家非常非常富有的公司，我们不会——我们从来没有对那些随波逐流的人非常严厉的历史。我们有一些人会这么做。格雷格会为此做点什么。而查理和我不会这么做。不是因为我们不知道应该这么做，而是因为我们自己做得很好。
我们不会做出努力。我们不想那样改变我们的生活。此外，我们在各方面都放慢了脚步，无论是身体上还是其他方面。所以我会说，我接到的经理打来的电话数量几乎为零。格雷格负责处理这些电话。我不知道他是怎么做到的，但我可以告诉你，我们找到了合适的人选。而阿吉特则更少地进行身体上的移动，显然，多年来，保险人员更习惯与阿吉特合作。所以我不会说更换头衔真的会带来很大变化，因为他本来就是负责保险的。你可以去商学院学习，他们可以给你比我刚才给你的更好的答案，但这就是我们在伯克希尔的做法。
阿吉特·贾恩：是的。如果我可以补充一点的话。从我的角度来看，过渡非常非常顺利，但我认为功劳真正归功于沃伦对情况的处理方式。我的意思是，在宣布过渡之后，很多运营经理过去都习惯于直接打电话给沃伦，讨论一些问题。过渡之后，当他们继续这样做时，沃伦会非常巧妙地以他自己的方式处理他们，这样他就不会回答他们想要问的问题，但同时让他们感觉良好，并告诉他们他很高兴听到他们的消息并与他们交谈。因此，你知道，过渡发生了，人们收到了信息。他们收到了信息并对此做出了积极的响应。就今天而言，这不是什么问题。
Greg Abel：我可能会补充一点。是的，我唯一要补充的是，我们确实拥有一批出色的经理，涵盖非保险和保险部门。是的，沃伦让这一切变得非常容易，但他们也是如此。这是一个非常容易的过渡，因为他们非常关心伯克希尔，他们非常关心文化，他们非常希望它取得成功。我们很幸运拥有这些保险和非保险行业的经理。
沃伦·巴菲特：谢谢。是的。格雷格说的是，在某些情况下，他们确实需要比我给他们的更多的指导。你知道，我的意思是，我只是坐在那里读华尔街日报之类的，而格雷格就是这么做的。你知道，不管怎样，他一天有超过 24 小时的时间，我只是不知道他是如何覆盖面的。他确实如此，但他更了解人。在判断企业的吸引力和做出资本决策等方面，我们有同样的感觉。他愿意工作。我的意思是，我，你知道，我，你知道，无论如何我都无法完成那么多工作。你知道，我几个小时就能完成的工作，现在可能需要 8 个小时。我只是没有那么快阅读等等。但它运作良好。而且这个地方，如果我发生了什么事，第二天它会运作得非常好。我没有接到任何电话。实际上你可以。我们可以。我们可以安装一些东西，这样我们就有了一个答录机，让人们以为我还在，你知道，或者其他什么。所以，无论如何，那是。这比你在商学院学到的要少得多，但这就是我们在伯克希尔的做法。好的。第八站。
Becky Quick: This question comes from Axel Mayerseek in Hamburg, Germany. What has changed for Berkshire’s operating CEO’s since Greg Abel and Ajit Jain became vice chairman, for example? Can and do the operating CEOs still reach out to Warren Buffett directly?
Warren Buffett: The answer might surprise you, but they verwhelmingly, the operating executives, well, they prefer to talk to Greg or to Ajit. And that’s understandable because I don’t really do much and I don’t operate at the same level of efficiency than I would have 30 years ago or 40 years ago. I don’t know the managers as well as I would have when we were smaller and when I could get more accomplished in a day than I can now. And you’ve got. When you’ve got somebody like Greg in Ajit, why settle for me, basically? So it’s worked out extremely well. And I almost can’t imagine anything working better because Greg in a year accomplishes. I mean, he sees more of them, understands more about their problems, you know, can give them suggestions. He’s got incredible amounts of energy and nobody has more wisdom than Ajit about insurance. And they’ve got access in insurance to him now. They had it before we stuck some of those titles on in insurance. Whereas with Greg, he much expanded things when he became the vice chairman in charge of really everything except insurance. If you polled our managers that fall under his jurisdiction, which would be a lot of them, they would much prefer, unless like a few, they weren’t paying as much attention to their business and I wouldn’t do anything about it, but Greg would. And they still like it when he does it. He can deliver news very well to people. There will be some people. If you have. If you have 20 children and you’re very rich, you’ll have some that will be go getters anyway, and you’ll have some that won’t. And we are a very, very rich company and we don’t - we haven’t had a history of being very tough on people that coasted. And we’ve had some that would do that. And Greg will do something about it. And Charlie and I wouldn’t have. Not because we didn’t know it should be done, but because we were doing so well ourselves.
We wouldn’t make the effort. We didn’t want to change our lives that way. Plus, we slowed down in various ways, ways physically and everything. So I would say that the number of calls I get from managers is essentially awfully close to zero. And Greg is handling those. I don’t know quite how he does it, but we’ve got the right person, I can tell you that. And with Ajit, he does less physical moving and the insurance people are more used to working with Ajit, obviously, over the years. So I wouldn’t say that changing the title really changes as much there because he was in charge of insurance anyway. You can go to a business school and they can give you way better answers than I’ve just given you, but that’s the way we do it at Berkshire.
Ajit Jain: Yeah. If I can add a comment. From my perspective, the transition has worked out very, very well, but I think the credit really goes to how Warren has handled the situation. And what I mean by that is, after the transition was announced, and a lot of the operating managers used to be. They were used to calling Warren directly on some issue or the other. After the transition, when they would continue to do so, Warren would very skillfully, in his manner, handle them such that he would not answer what they were looking for, but at the same time made them feel good and told them that he sort of enjoyed hearing from them and talking to them. So as a result of which, you know, the transition took place, people got the message. They got the message and were very responsive to it. And it’s a non issue as far as today is concerned.
Greg Abel: I would probably add. Yeah, the only thing I would add is we do have an exceptional set of managers across both the non insurance and insurance. And, yes, Warren made it incredibly easy, but so did they. It was a very easy transition because they cared deeply about Berkshire, they cared deeply about the culture, and they very much wanted it to be a success. And we’re fortunate to have those managers in insurance and non insurance.
Warren Buffett: Thank you. Yeah. What Greg is talking about is they really wanted more direction in some cases than I gave them. You know, I mean, I just sat there reading the Wall Street Journal or whatever, and Greg is. You know, one way or another, there are more than 24 hours in his day, and I just don’t know how he covers the ground. He does, but he knows more about the people. We got the same feeling in terms of judging the attractiveness of businesses and making capital decisions and that sort of thing. He’s willing to work. I mean, I, you know, I, you know, and I couldn’t get as much done anyway. You know, what I could do in a couple of hours, you know, may take 8 hours now. I just don’t read as fast and everything. But it’s working very well. And this place, if anything happened to me, it would be working extremely well the next day. I don’t get any phone calls. You can actually. We can. We can rig something up so we got some answering machine thatpeople think I’m still around, you know, or something. So, anyway, that’s. That’s much, much less than you’d learn in business school, but that’s the way we do it at Berkshire. Okay. Station eight.