Giant Challenge waiting for Abel

Greg Abel is the next successor to 90-years old Warren Buffett as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway . (BRK.A, BRK.B); this was done in an accidental disclosure not announced by the company. Charlie Munger, the Vice-Chairman, discussed it in Berkshire's 2021 Annual meeting. Munger added in his remarks, "Greg will be keeping the culture alive." Buffett himself, in an interview with CNBC, elaborated, "We are discussing an agreement that if something happens to me tonight, it would be Greg Abel to take over from tomorrow morning."

Although there is no date disclosed by the company to be marked for the step down of Buffett as CEO, making Abel the next CEO would help the company be placed at the helm of the world's largest companies. The company posted $245.55 billion in revenue during last year from insurance, railroads, energy production, and manufacturing. The current market value for the company is about $645 Billion. Buffett was dubbed as ' Oracle of Omaha' for many decades due to the company's outperformance in the stock market. What would be a significant challenge for Abel? The major challenge for him would be to boost the badly lagged performance of the company in recent years. Buffett stated that if anything happens to Abel the next successor would be 69-years old Ajit Jain.

Berkshire facing serious criticism

Berkshire is being criticized for not announcing the next successor publicly. Buffett asserted to have such plans away before, even they were not publicly disclosed. He added, "We were always having unanimous agreements for the next successor. The world is paying a lot of attention towards this matter now”.

Age-Importance

Age is the crucial factor for consideration, leading 58-years old Abel to nod over elder Jain, Buffett indicated. "They're both hardworking and beautiful guys. The likelihood of someone having a 20-year runway is making the real difference here."

'A First-Class Human Being'

In the year 2013, Abel was called "a first-class human being" by Warren Buffet. Buffett continued the statement as: "There seem a lot of smart people in this world, but some of them try to do very dumb things. He is that smart guy who never gives a try to do any dumb thing." James Armstrong, a longtime shareholder at Berkshire, stated that Abel has excellent experience dealing with the situations and making possible outcomes and track record of company people.