"Mendelson also said that one of Markel’s guiding principles is to find businesses with capable management. He said Markel will provide oversight but doesn’t want to have to run a new company, especially outside its main area of insurance."

Well, that's one main characteristic of the Berkshire culture. They don't do any backseat driving on the operations of their subsidiaries. That's uncommon, but when you think about it, it makes sense a lot. When you have able, energic and honest managers to do the job, one of the worst thing to do is to stand out of their way.

Even if Rich Santulli is not one of the "Berkshire Hathaway CEO's" anymore, he made one of the best statement I've red in that book. He said something like this (not exactly that, but you'll understand anyway): "If I would be the next Berkshire CEO, what I would do first is to call every CEO of Berkshire's subsidiaries and ask them what they were doing before I got here. And then, I would answer: please just keep doing it."

Cheers!

Cheers!