‘Rare talent’: Two names this billionaire wants you to know
Billionaire Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett has two names he wants you to remember: Ben Graham and Ajit Jain.
Addressing Berkshire Hathaway shareholders at the annual shareholder meeting on Sunday 3 May, Buffett said Graham was one of the three smartest people he’s ever known.
“One of the things Ben Graham said he liked to do every day was something creative, something generous and something foolish,” Buffett said. “And, he said he was pretty good at the latter.”
But having a high IQ doesn’t necessarily translate to rationality, behavioural success or wisdom, the CEO added.
“I know some [people] that are extraordinarily wise that would not be in the top three in an IQ test,” Buffett said.
“But, if I wanted their judgment, or wanted to put them in a position of responsibility in some place, I might prefer them.”
Buffett also called Berkshire Hathaway’s vice chairman of insurance operations, 69-year-old Ajit Jain, a “rare talent”.
Who is Ben Graham?
Dubbed “the father of value investing”, Graham was Buffett’s mentor, and the billionaire CEO has famously copied Graham’s investment methods.
Graham’s strategy was to invest safely, and to treat the market as you would treat a business partner who is offering to buy you out or sell you his interest in a company.
The investor, who died in 1976, would purchase stocks at a price well below a conservative valuation of the business, which would allow for profit on the upside.
That strategy, laid out in his book The Intelligent Investor, is something Buffett still adheres to, but expanded the strategy to include looking at the quality of the business too.
Who is Ajit Jain?
Jain is a mechanical engineer by trade, but worked with IBM, McKinsey & Co prior to joining Berkshire Hathaway in 1986.
Buffett’s praised Jain, who looks after insurance businesses under the Berkshire wing, for handling operations with “capacity, speed and decisiveness”, and credited him with making shareholders billions of dollars.
"Ajit has created tens of billions of value for Berkshire shareholders. If there were ever to be another Ajit and you could swap me for him, don't hesitate. Make the trade!" Buffett said in an annual letter to shareholders in 2017.
Jain took on the role of vice chairman of insurance operations in 2018, with Buffett calling his and Gregory Abel’s promotion to CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Energy “part of the movement toward succession,” at Berkshire.
While Buffett has been tight-lipped on which one will succeed him, he said his successor is “better than him”.
“Berkshire doesn’t need me,” Buffett told Yahoo Finance’s editor-in-chief Andy Serwer in an exclusive interview on 10 March. “We’ve got somebody that’s extremely better than I am in many, many, many respects to succeed me.”
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