More on Steve Tan: How to choose people and the evil of some systems
Below in blue, taken from FT this morning.
See how years ago, David Sokol had gained the trust of Warren Buffett? We humans are congenitally morally vulnerable and often we succumb. That is why beyond having the law, we need transparency and accountability.
Looks like Warren Buffet also felt the need to put in place his equivalent of is "executive president" by having his son as chairman of Berkshire Hathaway.
If I bother to, I bet there will be countless examples like this one I can use as blog entries because they happen so often.
In succession, there is absolutely no guarantees.
Mr Buffett also told a story that provided some explanation for those who thought he had a blind spot when it came to Mr Sokol. Berkshire purchased MidAmerican Energy in 1999, and proposed to pay Mr Sokol a $50m bonus in the event that targets were hit, and his fellow executive Greg Abel $25m.
Mr Sokol insisted they share the potential $75m equally, Mr Buffett said.
“I think 20 years from now I will not know what causes a man to turn over $12.5m to an associate, then ten years later buy stock before talking to me about Lubrizol”, he added.
However, he used the topic to lay out the reasons for his wish to have his son, Howard Buffett, eventually chair the board.
“The bible says the meek shall inherit the earth, but the question is will they stay meek?”, he said, arguing that it is not easy to displace a chief executive who is also chairman. Having his son as chairman would be a “safety measure for the possibility, however remote, that the wrong decision has been made”.
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