Ajit Jain Quotes

100 Ajit Jain Quotes

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I probably don’t do as good a job as I should in terms of maximizing the upside, because I spend more time trying to minimize the downside.
Ajit Jain

Ideally, you want somebody – and I think Warren [Buffett] is a lot better at it than anyone else I know – who is truly risk-neutral and rational about that. You make a decision looking at the upside and the downside, and you balance the two. But I probably assign more value to minimizing the downside. Of course, that isn’t all that bad if you have somebody who is risking capital on your behalf.
Ajit Jain

[On whether he was more conservative than Warren Buffett] It’s difficult to say, because we talk so much that ultimately we converge one way or the other.
Ajit Jain

We’re taking huge bets, and you want to make sure that you’re not missing something that’s fundamental.
Ajit Jain

The insurance business lends itself to what we call adverse selection. The reason that occurs is that, more often than not, the person who is buying the product from us knows more about the cost of goods sold than we ourselves, the sellers, know about it. And that’s a very scary position to be in. But you can’t let that keep you up at night.
Ajit Jain

Once we’ve made a deal, we’ve made our bed and we have to lie in it.
Ajit Jain

Unlike any other company, we have an organization that takes risks, and we go into it with our eyes wide open, knowing that someday there will be a loss.
Ajit Jain

[Taking risks knowing that someday there will be a loss] It’s a unique situation, a unique opportunity. And because of that, we get to see a number of interesting deals. Unlike any other reinsurance operation, this little operation is not a factory. We don’ have clients who need products that we keep supplying years after year. If there’s someone who has that kind of problem, they’ll find a traditional solution that will be a lot cheaper than what we have to offer, and we won’t even get a phone call. What we’re looking at are unique, one-of-a-kind deals that few people have the risk appetite for. It’s only when large sophisticated clients have that kind of problem, want it solved fairly quickly, and capital is a key element of the solution, that we get the phone calls. So we get to see a lot of interesting, unique, one-of-a-kind situations.
Ajit Jain

Somebody can call us, and say, ‘Here’s the situation. We need a billion-dollar deal and we need an answer I the next 48 hours,’ and depending on whether we can put our arms around what the risk is, we’ll put a number on it. And because we’re so small here, even if I don’t get the phone call directly, I heart about it real-time. I pick up the phone and talk to Warren. We do our work, and we do our analysis, and we give them an answer. We don’t need to syndicate and bring other people into the deal. If we understand it and price it, we can do the whole deal ourselves.
Ajit Jain

It’s not just rolling the dice and hoping we get lucky every year. We do whatever we can to make sure that we’re aware of all the possible risks when we sign onto a deal.
Ajit Jain



[On his biggest challenge] Avoiding dumb mistakes. It’s so easy to make dumb mistakes in this business. And even though you can do a lot of good deals, if you do one lousy deal you give it all back. It’s that one rotten apple, that’s what you’ve got to guard against.
Ajit Jain

[On a ‘dumb mistake’] It’s something that you hadn’t thought through when you underwrote the deal, and later [it] comes back to haunt you. Those… mistakes will paralyze you; they’ll make you feel like jumping out the window.
Ajit Jain

[On how he measures his success] How well we have avoided doing dumb things.
Ajit Jain

I used to think that IQ was the answer to a lot of questions in the world of business; that knowing what to do was the biggest challenge. But now there’s a part of me that says there’s a lot more to business decision making than just sheer raw IQ; that actually getting it done is an equally important part of the equation, and one that a lot of people – including myself – overlook. It’s the ability to make a decision in spite of the uncertainly, to act and move on, that you really need to be a good operating manager.
Ajit Jain

[On the easiest decisions for him] Saying ‘no’ to deals I don’t like.
Ajit Jain

[On the hardest decisions for him] Saying ‘yes’ to deals that I’m on the fence about.
Ajit Jain

My starting hypothesis is that if you’re on the fence about it, you should just say ‘no.’ Why screw around? But every now and then, you get sucked into it, and find some rationale why you need to do it. These are very subjective trade-offs, and you may end up on a slippery slope without realizing it. Reminding yourself about that slippery slope is what makes these decisions difficult.
Ajit Jain

I enjoy what I do. Being in on the different deals we do is a lot of fun. Working for Warren [Buffett] is a lot of fun. We also have a small group of people here that has been fairly stable for a long period of time, and I enjoy working with them.
Ajit Jain

I try not to use 9:00 to 6:00 during the week on internal affairs, because that’s prime time that I want to reserve for customers and making deals.
Ajit Jain

I’m probably a very boring dinner companion. I feel sorry for a lot of people I go out to dinner with because I don’t drink, I don’t eat meat, and I’m not very good at small talk. I’ll order something like a diet soda and talk about business, and then want to get the hell out of there and go home.
Ajit Jain



I very positive about what we’ve done, and I’m very positive about what I think we’ll end up doing in the next several years.
Ajit Jain

I don’t think I’ve done a lot of stepping back and doing what the business schools and the consultants teach you: asking yourself where you want to be five years from now, and how you’re going to get there. That really hasn’t been the focus, because we tend to be very transaction-oriented, and, fortunately, the phone rings. Once the phone rings, the focus is on that transaction.
Ajit Jain

When it comes to those unique, large, one-of-a-kinds deals, we get the first phone call. That’s our biggest challenge. What happens after that, whether we can translate it into a transaction or not, is important, but not that important.
Ajit Jain

A lot will depend on whether or not there are any major physical or financial catastrophes. If the earth shakes in California tomorrow, we’ll take a big loss. But I do think that the next 10 years will be better than the last 10 years.
Ajit Jain

There are investment banks, that are trying to see if they can put together alternative pools of capital that can be mechanisms for risk transfer. If that were to take off, that will make the world of reinsurance come under a lot of pressure. Even without it, though, it’s not going to be a great growth business. We’ll just grow along with the economy.
Ajit Jain

[On the future of Berkshire Hathaway] With the kind of capital it has, [it] will end up making a few other big acquisitions. We have a first-class reputation, and I think that will continue to build. I also think we will get to see deals just because of who we are. Not just because of the size of the capital, but because of the quality of the company.
Ajit Jain

[On how the business could be different if Warren Buffett disappeared] I think it will be a conglomerate, but I also think we might not end up getting the ‘first phone calls’ if there’s some business that’s up for sale. Given how we’re set up, I think we’ll still get some, but not as many as we might if Warren [Buffett] was around.
Ajit Jain

[On a possible successor to Warren Buffett on the operational side] I have no idea.
Ajit Jain

It’s very different to distinguish between the hand one is dealt and the person playing the hand. I think this is a unique opportunity, and I just happened to fall into it. Of course there are some people who are dummies and who would have screwed things up, but I think that most people who had this opportunity would have done a great job at it.
Ajit Jain

I enjoy what I do. I have no interest in trying to take on something that I know nothing about.
Ajit Jain



[On Warren Buffett in 2011] Unlike a lot of executives he’s very rational about his expectations. And more than rational I think he is one of the few executives and bosses that I can think of who does a very good job in terms of distinguishing between outcome and decision making before the event happened.
Ajit Jain

[On most executives] The world the way it works they look at outcome and you may have made a good decision which ends up with a bad outcome and everyone comes down on you like a ton of bricks. By the same token on the flipside you might make a bad decision and end up with a good outcome and you get all the glory under the sun.
Ajit Jain

[On being able to distinguish between outcome and decision making before the event happened] Warren does an incredible job in terms of decoupling the two and measuring and evaluating people and people who work for him in terms of the quality of the decision that was made before you know the outcome.
Ajit Jain

[On working for Warren Buffett] In a sense that makes it very easy to work for a human being who’s rational and very clear about what is it that’s important and he sets very clear guidelines in terms of expectations, in terms of ethics and how business should be conducted. And pretty much within those pretty broad boundaries he leaves you to manage the business.
Ajit Jain

[On Berkshire Hathaways culture] I think Berkshire Hathway has it’s own unique culture which is very different than some of the other entities. Different people have different ways and they are consistent about their strategy. GE has a very successful culture but it is very different to the culture we have.
Ajit Jain

[On Berkshire Hathaways operating culture] I think the key aspects of our culture is the independent operating unit and to be separate stand alone units without any kind of search for synergies across the operating units, and the absence of bureaucracy. And the ability of the individual executives who are running their respective businesses to feel like a true owner without getting sucked into the big company culture. And to run the business in terms of what is in the best long-term interest of that particular business.
Ajit Jain

[On working for Berkshire Hathaway] I cannot work with any other company in my life. Which is fine. I’ve enjoyed what I’ve done and I certainly don’t want to take a step backwards.
Ajit Jain

[On Warren Buffett] He advises me a lot. I still think it’s not enough, but. We have conversations typically every evening. And almost all what I do I have a chance to run it by him and get the benefit of his advice and wisdom. And quite honestly that is the biggest perk of my job.
Ajit Jain

[On Warren Buffett] He is very disciplined. There is no question about it.
Ajit Jain

[On Warren Buffett] He is the most rational, disciplined human being that you could ever come across. Without letting the emotions come in the way…
Ajit Jain



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