"Father Time always wins"

Everybody wrote the tribute. Me: The more I read, the more I learn.

Greg Abel runs Berkshire now. Howard Buffett is chairman and runs nothing — no operations, no capital allocation, none of it. Howard's father, Warren, put it this way: "Greg runs the company; Howard will guard its culture and values."

So they split the job in two. One guy runs it. One guy guards what it is.

Which made me ask — who had Howard's job before Howard?

Nobody. Not separately.

Warren was chairman AND CEO from 1970 until January of this year. Fifty-five years, both jobs, one guy. So the culture work was never a role. It wasn't in the bylaws, it wasn't a job description, nobody was assigned to it, it just got done, because Warren was behind the wheel.

They only found out it was a separate job the day someone had to hand it off to someone else.

And I think that's true almost everywhere.

There is something your company does that nobody owns. It's not on the org chart. It's not in anyone's comp plan. Somebody does it by accident, because of who they are, and it carries more weight than you think.

Most founders plan succession by asking, "Who replaces me?" and assume the rest comes along with the title.

Not good enough for Warren. He asked a better question — what part of me is actually load-bearing? He decided it wasn't capital allocation. Abel got that. The other thing got its own chair, and he handed it to a man who gets paid nothing and can't profit from it. He told shareholders to think of Howard as an insurance policy they hope never to claim against.

So what's the job at your company that nobody has?

You'll find out eventually. The only question is whether you find out on your schedule or on theirs.

One more thing… if you had to ask Warren Buffett one question, what would it be?

I'll get it started. "Mr. Buffett, when in life did you feel you really hit your stride — if ever?"