Abstract

Gregory Edward Abel (Abel) took over as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (Berkshire) in 2026, succeeding Warren Buffett (Buffett), who had led the company for more than six decades. Abel had earlier served Berkshire Hathaway Energy as CEO and later as Vice Chairman of Berkshire’s non-insurance operations. He brought an operator’s hands-on leadership style that differed from Buffett’s investor-led, highly autonomous approach. In his first few months, Abel began reshaping the equity portfolio, resumed share repurchases after a two-year pause, and invested in AI-related opportunities through a US$10 billion investment in Alphabet. He also made key leadership appointments across the insurance and consumer businesses. However, the leadership succession raised a question for Abel: should he preserve Buffett’s established way of leading Berkshire, or introduce changes that reflected his own leadership style?

Learning Objectives

The case is structured to achieve the following Learning Objectives:

• Describe leadership succession and its process
• Illustrate Likert’s four styles of leadership
• Evaluate the challenges a new leader faces when succeeding a highly successful leader

Keywords

Leadership Transition; Leadership Succession; Decentralized Management; Capital Allocation; Berkshire Hathaway; Greg Abel; Warren Buffett; Howard Buffett; Operational Discipline; Financial Discipline; Long-Term Value Creation; share buybacks ,Berkshire Business Model; Berkshire Hathaway Energy; GEICO; Insurance Industry; Investment Portfolio; Cash Management; Taylor Morrison Home Corporation; Alphabet Inc.; Share Repurchases