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Covering the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting in person on the ground in Omaha is not without its surprises, at least for this journo. This weekend was the first time I covered it in person. So a lot surprised me.
Surprise number one: Warren Buffett casually strolling up to the Dairy Queen booth on Friday to chat up employees. Sure, the guy owns Dairy Queen and its 7,300 global restaurants (that store count number also surprised me) — but he is 92 years old. Shouldn't he have been resting up for Saturday's all-day question marathon instead of angling for a Dilly Bar?
I guess not.
Surprise number two: how deeply Warren Buffett is etched into the souls of his investors.
I got the sense from talking to one Berkshire shareholder he would jump in front of a speeding car to save Buffett.
Another brought his young son to Omaha and asked him to write down potential "cheap" investments from his environment (love to see it...I told him to use Yahoo Finance). Why? It's because the value-focused Warren Buffett would approve.
Hard to argue with that type of father/son field trip.
Surprise number three: how simple this event is, yet so complicated.
Buffett and Munger sat once more at their long buffet table cloaked in a black tablecloth eating See's Candies. Simple. Buffett gave a meandering answer to why Geico is lagging the operating performance of key rivals. Complicated.
It's just different being here at Buffettpalooza in person than covering the action at home, like I have done the past 15 years or so.
But out of all the surprises, it was what I learned talking to the CEOs of household name Berkshire owned subsidiaries Dairy Queen, Brooks Running and See's Candies: All three of them now report to Buffett's handpicked successor Greg Abel amid the transition in power.
I didn't realize that had happened so quickly after Abel was called out as the successor in 2021. NetJets CEO Adam Johnson also reports to Abel, I found out.
And the CEOs had great things to say about Abel as a human and a manager.
Brooks Running
Yahoo Finance: From the outsider looking in is it fair to say that Greg is a true disciple of Warren? Can you see the similarities between the two?
Brooks Running CEO Jim Weber: Oh, my. I think the business savvy and the business mindset? Absolutely. Absolutely. We have great conversations. And he likes Brooks for the same reasons that Warren liked Brooks. And that's important to us, right?
See's Candies
Yahoo Finance: Fair to say that Greg is a true disciple of Warren Buffett? Do you see similarities?
See's Candies CEO Pat Egan: Absolutely. I mean, that level of intellect and and the sincerity, that level of just being a genuine person and being a decent person which is actually at this level of business a little bit unique. And so that's part of what I love about it, is just being able to say we just operate to the the right principles. Integrity, respect, making sure you take care of your customers and your employees, and the results follow.
Dairy Queen
Yahoo Finance: How is it different dealing with Greg than Warren?
Dairy Queen CEO Troy Bader: I will tell you Greg is fantastic. Greg is such a quick learner, he didn't know our business and it took him very little time to figure out, here are the details of the business, here are the drivers, and here's what we need to do to make sure that it's right for our customer.
"Neither one of us are worried," Buffett said on the topic of succession when asked a question at the event. Succession was a central focus throughout the Saturday gathering — well, that and products from Berkshire's top stock holding, Apple.
But the bottom line is that Buffett and Munger are legends of the investing and business world. I didn't get the same star-struck vibe from those Berkshire managers when discussing Abel. That's nothing against Greg, it just underscores it's likely to be a different life for Berkshire post-Buffett and Munger.
I also found it interesting to see NetJets pilots picketing outside the CHI Health Center on Saturday. A spokesperson told me the pilots aren't happy with their "unfair" contract. Thus far, the spokesperson said, Abel has has been unresponsive.
In the end, will Abel get the first phone call on a whale deal? Will Abel be allowed to have quarterly shortfalls simply because he once sat next to Buffett and Munger on stage? Will there even be a Berkshire annual meeting in its current form - 40,000 people lined up to hear Abel discuss Burlington Northern profit margins? Will employees in the lower rungs of Berkshire trust Abel like they trust Warren?
I don't have the answer to any of those questions. Soon, we will begin to find out.
For one more weekend, however, investors got to celebrate the very best in the investing game. And this New Yorker got to finally try See's Candies. Take the wins where you can get them.
Brian Sozzi is Yahoo Finance's Executive Editor. Follow Sozzi on Twitter @BrianSozzi and on LinkedIn. Tips on deals, mergers, activist situations or anything else? Email [email protected]
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