Buffett protege Cool turns to job cuts to revive Berkshire units

Washington

TRACY Britt Cool earned Warren Buffett's trust overseeing a constellation of smaller units at his conglomerate, Berkshire Hathaway.

The billionaire's annual report gives a glimpse into one thing she's been doing: cutting jobs. All four of the subsidiaries under Ms Cool's supervision - either as chairman or chief executive officer - reduced staffing in 2015. The biggest decline on a percentage basis was at Pampered Chef, a kitchenware retailer that she began running as CEO in late 2014.

Mr Buffett, 85, has long stressed the importance of efficiency, and he devoted a passage in his annual report last Saturday to the subject. Gains in productivity, he wrote, are the "all-powerful trend" driving America's growth in prosperity…