Berkshire board member Ron Olson says Greg Abel has the ability to make quick and solid judgments

Right now we want to bring in Berkshire Hathaway board member Ron Olson. He is seated with us right now and ready to take some questions. Coming straight out of this Ron, look this was a a pretty Berkshire intense series of questions that shareholders sent in just really getting to the heart of how Berkshire operates. And I think in a post Charlie world and and eventually post Warren, I, I think there were very pointed questions that came from shareholders on those questions. You’re on the board, you discuss this all the time. What were you thinking? I was thinking how smart our shareholders are that these questions were right on. If I, I mean these are the questions I guess I I would say that the Board has asked and want to ask and they’ve sharpened our every year. The commitment of these shareholders, their ownership adds to the value of the company. And I thought that’s what came out of today’s discussion and Warren and Greg and Ajit’s answers have been sensational. Do we miss Charlie? Absolutely. You know, nobody’s going to have quips like that first like the movie review. But the substance was I think better than ever. And just actually we haven’t mentioned it here yet, just about the way that Warren kind of characterized this as the company that Charlie designed, he being the architect and first of all, incredibly generous for somebody in Warren’s position to essentially give that kind of credit. But I guess it also suggests because of all the questions are about what are you going to do to make sure this place stays the same as it is it it, it shows you that it’s not like there’s any big problems or or challenges that that the next person seems to have instead of except for preserving it. Well, I think yes, stay the same as it is in the fundamental cost structure. But he also has underscored that Greg G, the next group of leaders of this company, are going to be their own people and they’re going to make judgments that they have been empowered to make. And will they be different than Warren and Charlie? Perhaps, but they will all in the end have a base of the fundamental culture that this is a company owned by people who have an ownership interest. It’s a company that wants to be around forever and we want to have the opportunity to take advantage of the special advantages we have such as $180 billion of cash. I could go on and on about the culture, but these Ajit, Gregg, they own the culture as much as Warren has. Hey, Ron. One of the advantages that Berkshire has is the ability to move very quickly in times of opportunity, times of uncertainty, market displacement. And that’s in large part because Warren Buffett has been able to make decisions the average CEO would not be able to make. He can choose to spend $30 billion and check with the board kind of as an afterthought. Will will Greg have that ability to move so quickly in times of chaos or in times of opportunity? The Board is as much aware of what Warren’s ability to move quickly has made, how how it’s made the company unique and better. We’re not going to slow that down decision making. And let me say about Greg, I recently had a opportunity to work very closely with him in the very disappointing pilot dispute that we had. This is a person who is strategic, who has the ability to make quick and solid judgments and the board wants him to make those, you know the unique deference the boards had to warn is is special, no doubt. And will there be changes? I don’t know. You know we will take it a step at a time, but getting in the way of quick decision and you know from my perspective we want quick glory. We had that last deal with Allegheny put together in 10 days and that’s the way Berkshire operates. It’s not complicated, it’s simple. You mentioned you know the deference that the board does pay to to warrant implicitly the investors, the shareholders deferred to to warrant on capital allocation and we were talking about the dividend situation and of course he’s always said you know we’re going to create more returns more wealth by me allocating that capital internally than just distributing it out its cash. Do you think that will be the case? Well, the next regime, let me say this, I think it’s been the case and I think it’s been the right way to go because frankly, as a shareholder, I’m a lot richer from that in effect for savings going forward. Will there be an opportunity to deploy the capital in a way that that will continue? That’ll be a judgment that Gregor made. And will there be the possibility of dividends? I don’t think anybody, you know, ruled that out. Frankly, I learned something today. I had forgotten that there was 1 dividend payment made early on the $0.10 when Warren said he went to the bathroom he he wouldn’t have made it today, I guarantee you. But you know, I think we will have opportunity, but as Warren and Charlie have demonstrated, patience is an incredible asset and they have had it and I think Gray will have it. He’s not going to go out and Willie Nellie throw that money.