Opinion US Companies: Apple, Berkshire and the virtue of patience
Waiting for outstanding opportunities has paid off but it is getting increasingly difficult.
Greg Abel, the new CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, used his first letter to shareholders to say this about his predecessor Warren Buffett: "Discipline, patience, and judgment define Warren's investing." Last week, John Ternus used his first investor call as CEO-elect of Apple to praise his predecessor's "thoughtfulness, deliberateness and discipline when it comes to the financial decision-making". This near-perfect echo is non-coincidental. Berkshire and Apple are the two greatest proponents of patience as a corporate strategy.
The implications of this patience for the future at the two companies are very different, however, and the two new bosses face correspondingly different challenges.