2024-05-13 18:32:28
New Delhi: Who does not know America’s famous investor Warren Buffett? Investors from all over the world consider him as their role model. The market cap of Buffett’s company Berkshire Hathaway is $ 889.52 billion, which is almost four times more than India’s most valuable company Reliance Industries ($ 228.03 billion). Buffett is at number nine in the list of the world’s richest people. His net worth is 136 billion dollars. Berkshire Hathaway’s insurance business is handled by a person of Indian origin. His name is Ajit Jain. Buffett trusts him the most. He considers Ajit Jain as a good luck hiring for the company. Jain joined Berkshire Hathaway in 1986 and today is the vice chairman of the company. A few years ago there was talk that Buffett could make him his successor. However, Buffett has made it clear that Greg Abel will be his successor. A look at Ajit Jain’s journey from a salesman to becoming the Vice Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway…
Born in Odisha, studied in IIT
Ajit was born in Sundargarh, a small town in Odisha. He studied at Stewart School, Cuttack and then obtained a B.Tech degree in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Kharagpur. Jain started his career as a salesman in the giant tech company IBM in 1973 but he had to lose his job after three years. After this he went to America in 1978. He earned an MBA from Harvard University and then worked at McKinsey & Company. Then he joined Buffett’s insurance business. In the year 2018, he was made the vice chairman of the company. According to a Forbes report, in 2021, Jain owned shares of Berkshire Hathaway worth $185 million.
Never had money even to buy slippers, today he is the owner of the world’s largest thyroid testing company
How did the magic work on the buffet?
Buffett says, ‘Ajit came to Berkshire in 1986. Very quickly I realized that we had hired an extraordinary talent. I wrote a letter to his parents in New Delhi asking if they had any other son like him. I already knew the answer. There is no one else like Ajit. 92-year-old Buffett said that his first meeting with Jain was on a Saturday morning. Buffett asked him how much experience he had in insurance. On this Ajit Jain said, ‘Nothing.’ Buffett’s answer to this was that no one is perfect. Buffett hired him. He recalls, “That was the lucky day of my life.” Ajith was indeed the perfect choice. Even after 35 years he is better.
Ajit should be saved
Buffett once said in a letter to shareholders that if I, Charlie Munger and Ajit Jain were on a sinking boat and you had the choice of saving only one person, then you should save Ajit. Ajit is one of the best minds in the world. His mind is a factory of ideas which is always working on new business ideas. Ajit takes such risks that no one can even imagine. His work is a mixture of capacity, speed and decisiveness. Above all, his mind works differently which is unique in business.