Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week from Bloomberg Radio. Hi, I'm
Speaker 1: Jason Kelly and I'm Carol Masser. Welcome to the weekend
Speaker 1: edition of Bloomberg Business Week. Over the next couple of hours,
Speaker 1: we're going to bring you some of the most important
Speaker 1: and informative conversations that we had this week. It is
Speaker 1: week nine. Reality check is what we've called it, Jason.
Speaker 1: It's really become a realization among everyone, investors included that
Speaker 1: perhaps they and their expectations about reopening in economic recovery,
Speaker 1: well maybe getting a little too ahead of themselves. Well,
Speaker 1: and that certainly was where the market was, right. I mean,
Speaker 1: we looked at a stock market that was very enthusiastic
Speaker 1: and certainly very optimistic. But over the course of this week,
Speaker 1: You're exactly right. It was reality check week. It was
Speaker 1: Anthony Fauci, the leading doctor, the leading voice from a
Speaker 1: healthcare perspective. It was j Powell, the Chairman of the Fed.
Speaker 1: And I have to say it was a number of
Speaker 1: our guests, CEOs and investors that we spoke with throughout
Speaker 1: the week. Well, and I have to say, and we
Speaker 1: kind of dwelled on this a little bit, but foul
Speaker 1: sheet and Powell. We called it the one to punch
Speaker 1: in terms of reminding us you can't do this too
Speaker 1: fast um too soon in terms of reopenings and talking
Speaker 1: about the protracted economic impact. And I think it really,
Speaker 1: as we said, reality check because of these two. It
Speaker 1: was also another week with a staggering labor report. Number
Speaker 1: of Americans seeking unemployment benefits remained in the millions for
Speaker 1: an eighth straight week, as the economy really just continuing
Speaker 1: to reel from the virus pandemic. So what are the
Speaker 1: biggest names in the world, in the world of business
Speaker 1: specifically think about this. We're going to hear from them.
Speaker 1: A fantastic interview it's in the magazine this week that
Speaker 1: you did with Unilever CEO Alan Joke and old school
Speaker 1: former American Airlines Gairman and CEO Bob crandall right, who
Speaker 1: reminded us the airline industry they've seen a lot of
Speaker 1: up and down cycles, but he said this one is
Speaker 1: not the same. Also, we caught up with Christopher Gavigan.
Speaker 1: He's the co founder of The Honest Company. He's now
Speaker 1: on another mission to bring products that relief stress, which
Speaker 1: we could all certainly use right now, absolutely all that
Speaker 1: and much much more. First up, though, the big story
Speaker 1: this week, one that impacted the equity market, top US
Speaker 1: health officials testifying before the Senate. We talked about him
Speaker 1: just a minute ago, Dr Anthony Fauci, the nation's top
Speaker 1: infectious disease official. He warned against reopening the economy too
Speaker 1: soon and that community is doing so risk new coronavirus outbreaks.
Speaker 1: Safe to say, Jason, that was the testimony that really
Speaker 1: rocked the markets and gave everyone, as we said earlier,
Speaker 1: a reality check. Now, someone who has been one of
Speaker 1: our guiding voices when it comes to the virus is
Speaker 1: Andy PECash. She's a professor of molecular microbiology and immunology
Speaker 1: at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. He
Speaker 1: joined us once again, of course, the Bloomberg School of
Speaker 1: Public Health, supported by Michael R. Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg
Speaker 1: LP and Bloomberg Philanthropies. He stressed, like so many others,
Speaker 1: that testing and contact tracing they're going to make all
Speaker 1: the difference. You know, these are the things that everybody
Speaker 1: should be really aware of. Um, when we pull back
Speaker 1: public health interventions, we expect to see some ca caces
Speaker 1: come up. If we pull them back too soon, the
Speaker 1: magnitude of the cases, the number of cases will be higher. Um.
Speaker 1: If we're not prepared to do testing and really good
Speaker 1: contact tracing to identify the people who have become in
Speaker 1: contact with infected people, we run the risk of having
Speaker 1: a rather large second bounce back wave. UM. So it's
Speaker 1: really going to be important for us to time it
Speaker 1: right and be prepared to pull back these public health
Speaker 1: entrance so we can control a virus at a different level. Right. So,
Speaker 1: I don't want to get political, that is certainly not
Speaker 1: my aim here, but I do wonder coming off a
Speaker 1: press conference yesterday that was predominantly from the President and
Speaker 1: his team about testing and saying we have enough tests
Speaker 1: out there and everything that we need tell me about
Speaker 1: that specific event and if we do indeed are doing
Speaker 1: the right kind of testing, and that we are doing
Speaker 1: enough testing, especially I think twenty four hours or was
Speaker 1: it this morning where Wuhan is talking about testing everybody
Speaker 1: in your city? Yeah, exactly, And and it really becomes
Speaker 1: a question of capacity. Um. You know, we're we're able
Speaker 1: to test in most parts of the country, and again
Speaker 1: this can be different in different localities, right. Um, here
Speaker 1: in Maryland. We're doing a good job of testing the
Speaker 1: symptomatic individuals. UM to turnaround time on tests are fairly good, UM,
Speaker 1: but what we'd like to be is a level above that.
Speaker 1: We want to be able to turnaround tests really fast
Speaker 1: within a day. You want to be able to test
Speaker 1: almost immediately people who have come in contact with the
Speaker 1: pre people who are sick, so that you can catch
Speaker 1: them before they really start showing symptoms and tell them
Speaker 1: to quarantine a little bit earlier. So we need more testing,
Speaker 1: We need more coordination, We need more contact tracing to
Speaker 1: be able to deal with UM the situation when we
Speaker 1: believe our public health interventions. You know, Dr pekash I
Speaker 1: saw a poll this morning that was talking about contact
Speaker 1: tracing specifically, and people's willingness to participate was largely based
Speaker 1: on their enthusiasm for it was largely based on who's
Speaker 1: doing the administering. What's the right method to go about
Speaker 1: doing that in your estimation, so you know the best
Speaker 1: method is to have train individuals who can UM capture
Speaker 1: this information, contact you and give you the correct information
Speaker 1: in terms of what needs to be done. UM. There
Speaker 1: are people at State Public Health and County public Health
Speaker 1: departments who are doing this. UM. We hear at Johns
Speaker 1: Hopkins Bloomer School of Public Health has had a number
Speaker 1: of professors who have started horses to try to educate
Speaker 1: people in terms of how to do that to increase
Speaker 1: the number of people that are capable of doing good
Speaker 1: social contact tracing. So there are some things that you
Speaker 1: need to know, be able to train to be do
Speaker 1: this all quite possible, UM, but you need to invest
Speaker 1: right now to increase those numbers of individuals again, so
Speaker 1: you're ready when you pull back public health interventions. That's
Speaker 1: Andy Pekash, professor of molecular Microbiology and Immunology at Johns
Speaker 1: Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. As you can
Speaker 1: tell by the name of the Bloomberg School of Public Health,
Speaker 1: it's supported by Mike Bloomberg, the founder of Bloomberg Philanthropy's
Speaker 1: Bloomberg LP, parent of this radio station. Certainly one of
Speaker 1: my favorite voices to talk to Jason, you're listening to
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Business Week coming up. We hear from UNI Lever
Speaker 1: CEO Alan Jope. You know their products, you use them
Speaker 1: every day. This CEO is thinking about everyone affected by
Speaker 1: the crisis. It's in the magazine and it's your big interview,
Speaker 1: Carol Masser, This is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg Business Week
Speaker 1: with Carol Masser and Jason Kelly from Bloomberg Radio. Well,
Speaker 1: today we're bringing you some of the most important and
Speaker 1: informative conversations we had on our daily Bloomberg Business Week
Speaker 1: radio show, all about the virus and what happens next. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and we're taking you inside the magazine this week featuring
Speaker 1: a debrief with Alan Jope. He's the CEO of Unilever,
Speaker 1: massive consumer products company everything Jason from Dove soap to
Speaker 1: Ben and Jerry's ice cream and so much more. The
Speaker 1: four brands used by about two and a half billion
Speaker 1: people daily. So we talked about a lot of things,
Speaker 1: you know, what they're seeing in terms of what people
Speaker 1: are buying as a result of this shutdown in pandemic.
Speaker 1: But he also talked a lot about balancing profits with
Speaker 1: doing the right thing. We've been operating a multi stakeholder
Speaker 1: model now for quite some time. For about ten years now,
Speaker 1: we've been explicit that we believe that if we look
Speaker 1: after our employees and our customers, if we worry about
Speaker 1: society and the planet, if we take care of our supply,
Speaker 1: our partners that then ultimately our shareholders will be well rewarded.
Speaker 1: And although we didn't honestly think it through that way,
Speaker 1: that was kind of how it played out for us.
Speaker 1: Our reflex was first of all to take care our employees.
Speaker 1: I remember on March the twelfth, which was a Thursday,
Speaker 1: our crisis team saying we should go into an immediate
Speaker 1: global mandatory in death find up lockdown for all office employees.
Speaker 1: At the time it felt a little overwhelming, but it
Speaker 1: was in the interest of protecting our employees. By the Friday,
Speaker 1: when we announced it on the thirteenth, it felt just right.
Speaker 1: By the Saturday, the fourteenth, I wasn't sure if we
Speaker 1: were moving fast enough, and this was ahead of any
Speaker 1: government suggestions of lockdown other than in China. And then
Speaker 1: quickly we turned to our community and you mentioned some
Speaker 1: of the things we tried to do there. Then we
Speaker 1: realize how important the ability to continue to supply, keeping
Speaker 1: our factories running and our supply networks running would be.
Speaker 1: Then we started to worry about cash and cost and
Speaker 1: now at the moment we're trying to anticipate and work
Speaker 1: too short and longer term changes in demand patterns. So
Speaker 1: I think that multi stakeholder thinking, which we've been getting
Speaker 1: used to for a decade UM served as well in
Speaker 1: the initial days of this crisis. How surprised were you though,
Speaker 1: by the scale and pace of the virus? I think
Speaker 1: one of the benefits of being a truly global company,
Speaker 1: and remember sixty of our turnover comes from outside of
Speaker 1: Western Europe and North America. Are are the biggest businesses
Speaker 1: in Unilever beyond the US are India, Brazil, China, Indonesia,
Speaker 1: and so I've been in daily contact with our leader
Speaker 1: in China and our leader in Italy. UM, we had
Speaker 1: had employees impacted by coronavirus, and we had already stood
Speaker 1: up an international crisis management team. Actually, I think before
Speaker 1: the beginning of March, we had sort of anticipated this
Speaker 1: to come as it has. I must say, though, UM,
Speaker 1: I'm very worried about the global South. We've seen this
Speaker 1: play out where you know, the health care systems of
Speaker 1: of Wuhan, of Italy, of the United Kingdom and the
Speaker 1: United States have at best been taxed and in some
Speaker 1: ways been overwhelmed. I'm very worried what's going to happen
Speaker 1: when this really takes hold in the favelas of Brazil,
Speaker 1: the townships of Africa, the slums of India, and the
Speaker 1: refugee camps around the Middle East. I really don't think
Speaker 1: we've seen the worst human suffering yet. As difficult as
Speaker 1: it is to say that, Well, you know, it's interesting
Speaker 1: that you say that, because I think we talked about
Speaker 1: that too. We we look at these developing markets, Um,
Speaker 1: what's your responsibility in helping those markets? And I'm just
Speaker 1: curious the conversations you might be having with leaders in
Speaker 1: those markets. Yeah, I think it's multi factorial, of course.
Speaker 1: I mean our basic responsibility as people do need soap
Speaker 1: and bleach and surface cleaners and basic food stuffs. These
Speaker 1: so is at the moment still the first line of
Speaker 1: defense against this virus. So our first responsibility is to
Speaker 1: keep manufacturing and producing in products. We've noticed most governments
Speaker 1: going through a predictable pattern, which is to underreact and
Speaker 1: then perhaps to overreact to the point where the supply
Speaker 1: chain in the country shuts down. And at that point,
Speaker 1: we've been quite proactive with governments to see you really
Speaker 1: don't want to shut down supplies of essential goods and
Speaker 1: where in the middle of those discussions, right, now in
Speaker 1: the emerging market. You know, I was going to do
Speaker 1: this later, but let me bring in the polling question
Speaker 1: for our breakaway members and I'll read it out for you.
Speaker 1: Um Alan, which group of stakeholders should corporations be prioritizing
Speaker 1: right now? And the choices are employees, communities, shareholders, customers.
Speaker 1: So as everybody weighs in on that, how do you
Speaker 1: see it? I think I know your answer is that
Speaker 1: one answer only question, because in which case it's a
Speaker 1: tough it's a tough call because ultimately, after look after
Speaker 1: all these stakeholders. But it for sure begins with your employees.
Speaker 1: You know, without without showing authentic care for your employees,
Speaker 1: you can't you can't respond to me. I don't do
Speaker 1: anything as the chief executive company. It's our frontline people
Speaker 1: who are making the goods, who are serving our customers.
Speaker 1: So that for me, that's where it starts. Paul seems
Speaker 1: to be kind of I know you almost need you
Speaker 1: need in all of the all of the above. We'll
Speaker 1: talk to you about your work workers because as we
Speaker 1: said at the top, you're taking care of your workers
Speaker 1: right now. UM so you haven't laid anybody off. Does
Speaker 1: it get harder the longer this goes on. Yes, it does.
Speaker 1: We've got about a hundred and fifty thousand employees on
Speaker 1: the payroll, although we think every day there's about three
Speaker 1: million people who work directly and only for Unilever. But
Speaker 1: all those hundred and fifty thousand, there's about seventy thousand
Speaker 1: all of us who are office based. There's about fifty
Speaker 1: thousand of us who are in factories, and there's another
Speaker 1: twenty or thirty thousands who operate in some kind of
Speaker 1: field sales operation, um. And we've had to take very
Speaker 1: different approaches for those different communities and also in different
Speaker 1: geographies at different points in time. So, as I mentioned,
Speaker 1: all office workers are working from home, with the exception
Speaker 1: of China, where we're learning from China how to reopen offices.
Speaker 1: Some dudes and some dawns. That's you know, leave our
Speaker 1: CEO Alan Joe P's the debrief this week in the
Speaker 1: magazine and really talked about the pandemic. Ultimately, Jason kind
Speaker 1: of strengthening his resolve about being a purpose led company
Speaker 1: and being accountable to all stakeholders. Right, we talk about this,
Speaker 1: whether it's your consumers, your shareholders, your community at large,
Speaker 1: your employees. I mean you really, especially in a crisis
Speaker 1: like this, you realize how everybody's impacted and how you
Speaker 1: really need to take care of all of them. Well,
Speaker 1: and it's interesting too, you know, these are words that
Speaker 1: we throw around all the time in sort of quote
Speaker 1: unquote normal times around strategy and especially leadership. And I
Speaker 1: do feel like leadership and leaders are being tested in
Speaker 1: unbelievable ways right now. So really great interview. Glad you
Speaker 1: got some time with Alan job. You're listening to Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Business Week, come up. We talked New England luxury resorts,
Speaker 1: turning the page with president of the Ocean House Management Collection.
Speaker 1: What we're finding the hospitality industry. It may be changed forever.
Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol
Speaker 1: Masser and Jason Kelly from Bloomberg Radio. We're bringing you
Speaker 1: some of the most important and informative conversations we had
Speaker 1: throughout the week on our daily radio show. And of
Speaker 1: course Jason all about the virus. Kind of where we
Speaker 1: are today, what it looks like post COVID nineteen and
Speaker 1: I have to say we have to remind everybody all
Speaker 1: of this happening in real time as news continued to
Speaker 1: cross the Bloomberg terminal absolutely and one of our favorite
Speaker 1: conversations was with Daniel Hostetler. He's the president and managing
Speaker 1: director of the Ocean House Management Collection, the owner and
Speaker 1: operator of some absolutely beautiful properties. I felt like in
Speaker 1: talking to him in research in a little bit, I
Speaker 1: got a little bit of a window into what it's
Speaker 1: like to be Carol Massers. It's definitely going to be
Speaker 1: a challenge this summer. Like all New England seaside destinations,
Speaker 1: you know, the majority of these properties up here make
Speaker 1: a good sixty to seventy percent of their business during
Speaker 1: during the height of the summer season. UM. We've we
Speaker 1: were working hard communicating with the staff on a weekly basis.
Speaker 1: Zoom I think is the new go to meeting application,
Speaker 1: and so we get the entire company together every week
Speaker 1: um for an hour to talk about what the plans
Speaker 1: are going forward and keeping them informed. It's a challenging
Speaker 1: process because there aren't a lot of guidelines laid out yet.
Speaker 1: You know, first of all, it's individual state to state,
Speaker 1: and then in our state, like in most states, that
Speaker 1: there are not yet concrete guidelines that say how many
Speaker 1: people can you have in the restaurant, how much capacity
Speaker 1: can you have on the beach or in the hotel.
Speaker 1: So we are sort of crisis planning with with with
Speaker 1: within in a lot of gray area. Mainly we're you know,
Speaker 1: we're spending our time looking to reconcept I think the
Speaker 1: food and beverage operations most of all, because that is
Speaker 1: clearly the area of concentration for the public, right and
Speaker 1: so let's talk about that. So, so what are you
Speaker 1: doing and how do you sort of work through something
Speaker 1: like this? As you say, you know you're taking guidance
Speaker 1: from state officials and local officials, but as a team,
Speaker 1: how do you do this sort of step by step? Well,
Speaker 1: for us, it started with mapping the guest process from
Speaker 1: point of arrival on the driveway at the bellman to
Speaker 1: point of departure again with the bellman, and every step
Speaker 1: in between, and asking ourselves, how are we going to
Speaker 1: conform to the best practices the social distancing and yet
Speaker 1: give a level of luxury service that the guests are
Speaker 1: used to, uh, and how do we make it a
Speaker 1: fun experience? So something as simple as housekeeping, will the
Speaker 1: guests want us in the room twice a day as
Speaker 1: traditionally So we've we've approached that and said, you know,
Speaker 1: we're going to whenever possible, we're going to deliver the
Speaker 1: service that we've always delivered, and we're going to let
Speaker 1: the guests guide us. So we are going to say
Speaker 1: housekeeping services are twice daily, but if you would prefer
Speaker 1: once daily, we can do that. If you would prefer
Speaker 1: just clean towels brought to you every day, we can
Speaker 1: certainly accommodate that as well. It's it's sort of taking
Speaker 1: every touch point and trying to find out how we
Speaker 1: keep the guests safe, how we keep our staff safe
Speaker 1: and still deliver a unique experience. Well, Daniel, I do
Speaker 1: wonder in terms of as you mentioned, you know, for
Speaker 1: food and beverage, you're looking to reconcept it. Does that
Speaker 1: include maybe more folks eating in their rooms or perhaps
Speaker 1: you set up space outside. I mean, do you think
Speaker 1: about that? Yes, we absolutely are doing that. We're looking
Speaker 1: at a unique dining menus, taking restaurants that were traditionals
Speaker 1: sit down and making them fast casual where you walk
Speaker 1: away and pick your own seat. Uh, coming up with
Speaker 1: a picnic platter menu that where you can say, I
Speaker 1: would like to eat on the beach. I would like
Speaker 1: to eat on the croquet lawn and your food will
Speaker 1: be there set on a table for you when you
Speaker 1: when you arrive for dinner that evening, those sorts of
Speaker 1: unique dining experiences that wouldn't be traditional. I do wonder
Speaker 1: about the staff, and you said, you know you're briefing
Speaker 1: them every week and presently hearing their concerns as well.
Speaker 1: How do you make that side of it work as
Speaker 1: an employer, Well, we want to make sure that when
Speaker 1: we bring them back that it's safe for them as well.
Speaker 1: So in the same way we are asking them to
Speaker 1: sign a health pledge that um that our guests know
Speaker 1: that they are taking their temperature before they come to
Speaker 1: work every day and washing their hands every thirty minutes, etcetera.
Speaker 1: We will have signage throughout the hotels asking the guests
Speaker 1: to do similar things to practice social distancing. And you know,
Speaker 1: and we're providing all of the masks and the gloves
Speaker 1: and equipment that the staff needs to feel safe. And
Speaker 1: that's Daniel Hostetler, the president of the Ocean House Management Collection. Carol,
Speaker 1: you had sort of turned me on too, at least remotely. Uh,
Speaker 1: these properties, you've been there, you've sailed there. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's pretty remarkable what they have, but also what they
Speaker 1: are trying to do to get back. Yeah, and they
Speaker 1: definitely tap into the New York tri state area in
Speaker 1: terms of the folks that come to stay at their
Speaker 1: properties over the summer season. I mean that is when
Speaker 1: they get the bulk of their business. Something like they
Speaker 1: expect business to be down, and yet they're mapping out,
Speaker 1: process by process, you know, their way back. And I
Speaker 1: love the way he said it, from arrival with the
Speaker 1: Bellman to departure with the Bellman. They've got to figure
Speaker 1: out every step of the way to make sure that everybody,
Speaker 1: their workers as well as those that come to stay
Speaker 1: at their properties, stay safe. You're listening to Bloomberg bus Wee.
Speaker 1: Coming up, we stay with the travel and hospitality business.
Speaker 1: We catch up with airline industry. Read legend. Bob Crandell,
Speaker 1: the former chairman and CEO of American Airlines, knows that
Speaker 1: industry so well. This is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg Business
Speaker 1: Week with Carol Masser and Jason Kelly from Bloomberg Radio. Well,
Speaker 1: today we'll bring you some of the most important and
Speaker 1: we hope informative conversations. Carol and I had on our
Speaker 1: daily Bloomberg Business Week radio show all about where we
Speaker 1: are fighting the virus, but also economically and from a
Speaker 1: business perspective, where we go next. That's right, Jason, and
Speaker 1: we had the opportunity. I have to say, this is
Speaker 1: one of those interviews you and I were looking very
Speaker 1: forward to, and it was with Bob Crandall. He's the
Speaker 1: former chairman presidency of American Airlines, ran the airline in
Speaker 1: the eighties and nineties. And what's interesting is someone who
Speaker 1: has seen so many different cycles, so many different regulatory
Speaker 1: environments when it comes to the airline industry. And you know,
Speaker 1: it really struck me when he said, listen, we all
Speaker 1: know up and down cycles. This is like no other
Speaker 1: Listen up. I think you've got to recognize, Caroline. I'm
Speaker 1: sure you do, and I'm sure most people do. This
Speaker 1: is this isn't the usual kind of up and down
Speaker 1: cycle in the airline business. This is this is a
Speaker 1: matter of the general public feeling unsafe and closely packed
Speaker 1: or closely spaced public spaces. So you've seen restaurants take
Speaker 1: a tremendous hit. You've seen cruise ships take a tremendous hit,
Speaker 1: and and airlines, of course, so the penultimate example of
Speaker 1: packing people together to get from point A to point
Speaker 1: B for as little money as possible, nonetheless in a
Speaker 1: reasonably convenient way, as compared to covered wagons for example.
Speaker 1: So so so once you've gotten, now you've got, you
Speaker 1: have to ask yourself how long will it be before
Speaker 1: people feel truly safe? And I think the answer is
Speaker 1: that they're not going to feel truly safe. Most people
Speaker 1: aren't going to feel frus have until hey, we have
Speaker 1: a vaccine, the we have a cure. And see we
Speaker 1: have much much much more systematic testing and tracking than
Speaker 1: we have today. We are we're amateurs in terms of
Speaker 1: testing and tracking. It just hasn't been set up. There
Speaker 1: is no plan. It isn't happening. So until until we
Speaker 1: can solve those three problems and there thereby alleviate the
Speaker 1: public's concern, I think most people are going to stay home. Man.
Speaker 1: Of course, that's very bad for the airline business. And
Speaker 1: so if you were running an airline right now, what
Speaker 1: do you do well, I think I think I would
Speaker 1: be doing I think I think the people that are
Speaker 1: running airlines these days are doing pretty much all they can.
Speaker 1: In the first instance, they are doing all they are
Speaker 1: in collaboration with the with the programs that have been
Speaker 1: passed by the Congress. They're keeping their people paid. They
Speaker 1: are doing all that they can to minimize as their expenses.
Speaker 1: They are parking airplanes, they are retiring some of the
Speaker 1: older airplanes. They're they're they're stopping some of the flights
Speaker 1: in some careful way so that they meet the terms
Speaker 1: of the legislation and they provide at least minimum service.
Speaker 1: But sectors they're flying as little as they possibly can.
Speaker 1: They are doing what they can to clean the airline terminals.
Speaker 1: They are doing what they can to clean the airplanes.
Speaker 1: They are they're teaching their employees how to deal with
Speaker 1: masks and in some cases temperature testing. So I think
Speaker 1: they've got I think they've They've had quite a quite
Speaker 1: a generous or creative a set of things to do,
Speaker 1: all of them addressing two issues. One, how do we
Speaker 1: make the public feel safe? And second, how do we
Speaker 1: minimize our costs so as to preserve our ability to
Speaker 1: return to act too active flying once it's possible to
Speaker 1: do so. Well, let's continue our conversation with Bob Crandells.
Speaker 1: So excited to catch up with him, especially at this
Speaker 1: time of unbelievable turmoil and a lot of ankst to
Speaker 1: say the least, about the future of the airline industry. So, Bob,
Speaker 1: I'm guessing you saw the comments that Dave Calhoun, the
Speaker 1: Bowing CEO, made about not only capacity, but taking that
Speaker 1: to its logical conclusion and saying we may see a
Speaker 1: major airline go out of business before the end of
Speaker 1: the year or early into one. What do you make
Speaker 1: of that? Yeah, I don't know why Calvin wants to
Speaker 1: get himself involved in that. He's uh, I really don't
Speaker 1: see why make a comment like that. It might be true,
Speaker 1: it might not be true. Dave has much better, much
Speaker 1: closer access the different carriers than I do. I've been
Speaker 1: out of the industry a long time, sure, And he
Speaker 1: looks at him, He looks at him very closely, because
Speaker 1: of course they were all customers. So some of those
Speaker 1: numbers are looking pretty full voting to him, and I
Speaker 1: wouldn't be surprised that they are looking for voting. And
Speaker 1: the question of whether anybody will go out of business
Speaker 1: I'll leave to others. But the fact of the matter
Speaker 1: is everybody is each every airline is a herd in
Speaker 1: cowboy these days. Yeah, well, well what's interesting too. And
Speaker 1: you know, we talked a little bit, Bob, but initially
Speaker 1: about what's going on in the debt markets, and you know,
Speaker 1: American airlines not alone, but their debt falling further into
Speaker 1: distress territory. Um, you know, we've, as you said, and
Speaker 1: rightfully so, this is unlike any other cycle that that
Speaker 1: we've seen before. We've already seen a lot of consolidation.
Speaker 1: Do you anticipate that there's going to be more as
Speaker 1: a result of the pandemic and the shutdown? Carol, I,
Speaker 1: I honestly don't know. I think look just as a
Speaker 1: as a as a practical matter, if you take six
Speaker 1: enterprises and they all fall into a state of difficulty,
Speaker 1: and if you could, if you could do the work
Speaker 1: of those six enterprises with only a portion of the
Speaker 1: people and certainly a portion of the overheads, then you
Speaker 1: would say to yourself, gee, you, why don't we do
Speaker 1: some consolidation here and see if we can become more efficient. So, yes,
Speaker 1: I'm sure there are people thinking about that now. I
Speaker 1: think we I think in the United States we need
Speaker 1: to approach consolidation of business is very carefully. We have
Speaker 1: been very lax in terms of enforcing the antitrust rules.
Speaker 1: We have a dramatic shrinkage of the number of public
Speaker 1: companies traded in the United States, and they substantial diminishment
Speaker 1: of the level of real competition. So what the what
Speaker 1: the proper public policy may be with respect to the
Speaker 1: airlines is a broader question than we have time to
Speaker 1: discuss today. But I think that's the right question, not
Speaker 1: not the question of what may be the most efficient
Speaker 1: way for the airlines to organize themselves, but whether in
Speaker 1: the in a broader social context, we want to see
Speaker 1: any further diminishment of competition within the industry. So from
Speaker 1: a public policy perspective, in your right, we could spend
Speaker 1: hours talking about it in detail, Bob. But one question
Speaker 1: I have for you is, in terms of the federal
Speaker 1: government's response to this specific pandemic, has the government done
Speaker 1: the right thing? And have they done enough for the
Speaker 1: airline industry? I think I think they've done the right thing.
Speaker 1: You know, the underlying issue is this, if you go
Speaker 1: back to the public had to bail out the airline industry,
Speaker 1: and now once again the public has to bail out
Speaker 1: the airline industry. That's not an adverse comments on the
Speaker 1: airline industry. In a way it's run. It's just the
Speaker 1: way it is. The airline business is, you know, a
Speaker 1: very important business in the United States. In order to
Speaker 1: be efficient, it has to have a lot of capacity
Speaker 1: and particularly to accommodate the growing public desire for travel. Uh,
Speaker 1: and it is subject to these very severe ups and
Speaker 1: downs when when we have these kind of black swan events.
Speaker 1: So I think one of the realities of life is
Speaker 1: that the public generally and the government as its as
Speaker 1: its instrument, has to recognize that it is always going
Speaker 1: to have to be the insurer or of the airline business.
Speaker 1: And as the insurer, it may want to impose, uh
Speaker 1: certain some kind of regulation. Not the kind of regulation
Speaker 1: we used to have where you know, you couldn't fly
Speaker 1: here and you couldn't charge that, but but a level
Speaker 1: of regulation that would say, wait a minute, during the
Speaker 1: good times, maybe it would be a good thing if
Speaker 1: all the airlines, instead of buying back this stock, simply
Speaker 1: set aside all of the excess cash that they can
Speaker 1: set aside, so that to a greater extent than has
Speaker 1: been true in the past, they are able to self insure.
Speaker 1: And I think as a matter of public polo. See,
Speaker 1: that's something we really do have to focus on. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's fascinating. So wait, okay, forgive my sarcasm. Good luck
Speaker 1: with that. How do you get something like that done
Speaker 1: in this environment? Well, cal look what you're talking about.
Speaker 1: What you are talking about in this environment is the
Speaker 1: tremendously bitter political warfare that's going on in the United States.
Speaker 1: It wasn't always like this. Between essentially between the end
Speaker 1: of the World War Two and the mid nineteen eighties. Uh,
Speaker 1: there was political disagreement, but there wasn't the level of
Speaker 1: the rank or that we have today. If we want
Speaker 1: to reclaim the country and if we want to make
Speaker 1: sensible decisions, people are going to have to back off
Speaker 1: their extreme ideologies, both the left and the right, and
Speaker 1: we're gonna have to find some better solutions than we
Speaker 1: have found so far. So the answer to your question is,
Speaker 1: how do we get it done? Mr? And Mrs. America
Speaker 1: has to make up their mind. They're gonna they're gonna
Speaker 1: that was the political nonsense. They're going to stop rewarding
Speaker 1: ideological extremity, and they're going to return to a sense
Speaker 1: of the common good, what is best for all of US.
Speaker 1: That's former American Airlines Chairman, president and CEO Bob Crandall.
Speaker 1: And you know, bottom line, Jason, you know this industry
Speaker 1: is going to be changed, the airline industry for a
Speaker 1: long time. We know that. We see the numbers, we
Speaker 1: see the stories on the Bloomberg every day. And what's
Speaker 1: interesting he said, you know, travelers, it's just about them
Speaker 1: feeling safe. They don't feel safe right now, so they're
Speaker 1: not going to travel. And he says, we probably don't
Speaker 1: feel safe until we have a vaccine. Bottom line. Yeah, absolutely,
Speaker 1: And as you said, this is a guy who's seen
Speaker 1: some things. And when you have someone with that sort
Speaker 1: of historical perspective, essentially say, in your parlance, woa tend
Speaker 1: to listen up. All right. That wraps up the first
Speaker 1: hour of the weekend edition of Bloomberg Business Week from
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Radio. I'm Jason Kelly and I'm Carol Mass. Are
Speaker 1: plenty coming up in our next hour, including an interesting
Speaker 1: conversation with Christopher Gavigan. He's the co founder of the
Speaker 1: Honest Company, you know it, right, founded with Jessica Alba,
Speaker 1: the actress. So we're gonna talk about what he's seeing
Speaker 1: along those lines, and also he's got a new startup.
Speaker 1: It really is about working with CBD and providing products
Speaker 1: that relieve stress to consumers. Plus how Gilead's rim Desivie
Speaker 1: is a rare example of foresight in this pandemic. It's
Speaker 1: this week's cover story in the magazine. This is Bloomberg.
Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week from Bloomberg Radio. Hello, I'm
Speaker 1: Carol Masser and I'm Jason Kelly. Today we'll bring you
Speaker 1: some of the most important, we hope informative conversations Carol
Speaker 1: and I had on our daily Bloomberg Business Week radio show.
Speaker 1: That's right, all happening in real time as the news
Speaker 1: around us was constantly changing, and we really tried to
Speaker 1: reach out to different industries really get a global perspective
Speaker 1: and a macro perspective of this pandemic. One of the
Speaker 1: voices we turned to was Christopher Gavigan. He's the co
Speaker 1: founder of The Honest Come Benny, and he is now
Speaker 1: Jason bringing products to consumers to help them deal with stress.
Speaker 1: We also caught up with restaurant tour Rick Walstead. He's
Speaker 1: got restaurants in Atlanta right around the corner from our
Speaker 1: New York headquarters as well as in Connecticut and Houston,
Speaker 1: what it's like to reopen. He gave us the playbook,
Speaker 1: and I said, you know, Chris Gavigan bringing products to
Speaker 1: relieve stress talk Space, CEO or in Frank. He's the
Speaker 1: subject of a story also in the magazine this week.
Speaker 1: He too, is finding a way to bring therapy to
Speaker 1: people who are dealing with stress and anxiety during this shutdown,
Speaker 1: in a virtual way, of course. First up, let's go
Speaker 1: inside the magazine. The cover story. It's all about how
Speaker 1: Gilead's rim Desiviere is an example of foresight in this pandemic.
Speaker 1: We caught up with magazine editor Joel Weber and the
Speaker 1: writer of the piece, Robert Langrath. From the beginning of
Speaker 1: this who he's kind of fairly clear that there weren't
Speaker 1: that many drugs that could do that had like lab
Speaker 1: data against coronaviruses that could go right into trials, right
Speaker 1: into human trials, and this was one of the kind
Speaker 1: of handful of them. So from very early on, you know,
Speaker 1: if there's gonna was gonna be an early drug for coronavirus,
Speaker 1: this is likely to be it. So I was paying
Speaker 1: attention early on. I was talking to gill Yead, you know,
Speaker 1: early on trying to get interviews with some of their executives,
Speaker 1: which was very hard to do. But one thing we
Speaker 1: were able to get, you know, before things completely closed up.
Speaker 1: But we're able to get a freelance photographer, you know,
Speaker 1: into one of their plants where they're filling the vials
Speaker 1: out in California. This is right as everything we're shutting
Speaker 1: down in mid March, and you know, probably one of
Speaker 1: the last days we could have done it. We've got
Speaker 1: a photographer there and got some of these great pictures
Speaker 1: and great videos which just you know, really helped make
Speaker 1: the story. And then I just kept talking to them
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, getting some more detail about the
Speaker 1: early history of this compound. And then you know, finally
Speaker 1: I was able to get an interview with one of
Speaker 1: the top you know, manufacturing experts who told me, you know,
Speaker 1: all the seven different chemicals went into this and then
Speaker 1: you know, twenty five different steps and he kind of
Speaker 1: compared it to making a very fancy, very specific you know,
Speaker 1: well for a type of brad at the baker. You know,
Speaker 1: if you don't if you don't or a huge amount
Speaker 1: of your especially flower advance, you have to wait for
Speaker 1: the new crop, a white to grow. That's going to
Speaker 1: be a big delays. That's January. All the specialty ingredients
Speaker 1: you know, they order from the suppliers in China and
Speaker 1: Europe way advanced. That was like the biggest smartest thing
Speaker 1: that they did. Yeah, it's that's really such a key detail.
Speaker 1: I want to bring in Joel Webber, the editor of
Speaker 1: Bloomberg business Week. He joins us from Brooklyn, and Joel,
Speaker 1: you put this on the cover. It makes a huge
Speaker 1: amount of sense because it's such a good read. Give
Speaker 1: us the context from your perspective, because you're looking across
Speaker 1: all of these stories, not just as it relates to
Speaker 1: the coronavirus, but across the world of business. So you know,
Speaker 1: I think this story is significant, is huge, um. And
Speaker 1: it's also the way that I think it's the best
Speaker 1: way to think about this. It's almost like the most
Speaker 1: hopeful news, the only hopeful news you basically had to
Speaker 1: date in this coronavirus saga. You know, it's like it
Speaker 1: just feels like it's one bit of bad news after internext,
Speaker 1: and it's almost like this cacophany of incompetence sometimes and
Speaker 1: so what I think Bob was able to do in
Speaker 1: this Gill lead story was actually show like here's an
Speaker 1: example of like one of the only ones really of
Speaker 1: a company that had incredible foresight and preparedness, and you know,
Speaker 1: had they not actually ordered the raw materials that they
Speaker 1: needed to to actually make this treatment back in January,
Speaker 1: even before it was you know, before we knew how
Speaker 1: bad this was gonna did be, had they not done
Speaker 1: that back then, we would not have the treatment that
Speaker 1: we suddenly have, you know, and like to be sure,
Speaker 1: this is not a cure, it's a treatment. It takes
Speaker 1: coronavirus from being a fifteen day hospitalization down to maybe
Speaker 1: like an eleven covid uh down to like an eleven,
Speaker 1: So you know, it's it's a modest improvement over nothing,
Speaker 1: but at least it's something. And you know, Bob, as
Speaker 1: you sort of you know reported around this, you know,
Speaker 1: it's actually even more incredible than that, because this was
Speaker 1: a drug that actually you know, it's been around for
Speaker 1: like eleven years now and it never could find a
Speaker 1: purpose even right, what's the backstory. Yeah, they first invented
Speaker 1: it for you know, looking for hepatitis C drugs, but
Speaker 1: it was hard to administer and they had better ones
Speaker 1: were pills. It was kind of shelf for that. And
Speaker 1: then you know, they tried it for you know, a
Speaker 1: ballah and they spent years on that, you know, because
Speaker 1: they first they tested it from one of all the outbreak,
Speaker 1: but then the outbreak faded before they could get it
Speaker 1: into human trials, and they tested in the recent aball
Speaker 1: the outbreak and then it didn't work that well. So
Speaker 1: they but in the and so they were trying to
Speaker 1: figure out what to do next, you know, and when
Speaker 1: the COVID came along and they did. The thing that
Speaker 1: they did differently was they did not in January. They
Speaker 1: didn't assume the best case scenario. They didn't say, hey,
Speaker 1: that's the wait a few weeks and see if this
Speaker 1: goes away. They because said, hey, in case this is
Speaker 1: a pandemic, we're going to order a whole bunch of
Speaker 1: stuff right now. And that's just very different from what
Speaker 1: a lot of other folks did. I have to say,
Speaker 1: what's really cool in the story, and if if people
Speaker 1: don't totally understand how significant this is, you're writing the
Speaker 1: story how Anthony Fauci has pointed out that he is
Speaker 1: like in the Trial of m desevere to the first
Speaker 1: big trial of a z T the first drug for HIV, right,
Speaker 1: and so then you understand because that too was something
Speaker 1: we just couldn't figure out a treatment, And so you understand, Bob,
Speaker 1: how m de severe is really a first, very important step. Yeah. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: I mean the way to think of this is, you know,
Speaker 1: is as like a first step. The first thing there's
Speaker 1: as a going of himself says they wouldna need a
Speaker 1: lot more drugs. They're working on better drugs, better ways
Speaker 1: to administer it. Right now it's an effusion and we're
Speaker 1: definitely gonna need vaccine. So this doesn't, you know, solve
Speaker 1: the problems. This is, you know, as you said, the
Speaker 1: first step from the sickest you know, hospitalized patients, and
Speaker 1: that's reporter Robert Langrith and of course Joe Webber, the
Speaker 1: editor of Bloomberg business Week, and Carol. What I really
Speaker 1: liked about this story from the pretty arresting cover image
Speaker 1: all the way through the pieces, we talked so much
Speaker 1: about sort of botched response and unpreparedness. This was a
Speaker 1: case where a company anticipated some of this. A lot
Speaker 1: still to be seen about whether this will be the
Speaker 1: drug that we need but a company in the right place. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and a drug that's been around for a while. Jason,
Speaker 1: and as you say, perhaps the first hopeful news of
Speaker 1: the pandemic. Check it out. You're listening to Bloomberg b
Speaker 1: this week. Coming up the co founder of The Honest Company.
Speaker 1: He's got a new startup all around CBD called Prima.
Speaker 1: You just want to ask him about Jessica Albert, don't you? Maybe? Alright,
Speaker 1: this is bloombergs is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser
Speaker 1: and Jason Kelly from Bloomberg Radio. So, Jason, we're bringing
Speaker 1: everybody some of the most important and informative conversations we
Speaker 1: had on our daily radio show throughout the week. Again,
Speaker 1: we'd like to remind everybody a lot of news was
Speaker 1: going on, uh and things changing constantly, but it was
Speaker 1: really wonderful to kind of check in with people from
Speaker 1: different industries and thinking about companies, thinking about society, thinking
Speaker 1: about people. Absolutely, because business is going on, people responding
Speaker 1: in different ways to the current crisis, but also looking
Speaker 1: ahead to what is around the corner. And for that,
Speaker 1: we caught up with Christopher Gavigan. He's the co founder
Speaker 1: the Honest Company. Heard of it co founder Jessica Alba.
Speaker 1: He's got a new startup in addition, it's called Prima
Speaker 1: Look I. I spend most of my career really helping
Speaker 1: people in the health and wellness sector and category, trying
Speaker 1: to help them understand some of these intricacies and dependencies
Speaker 1: that we get to create and define and um control
Speaker 1: our health. And so what you put in on in
Speaker 1: your around your body matters, and we have an opportunity
Speaker 1: to realize, especially in science and medicine academia is really
Speaker 1: unpacking the horrific power and challenge that stress brings to
Speaker 1: the body. Stress causes us to go the doctor. All
Speaker 1: doctor's visits is somehow and there's an underlying stress condition
Speaker 1: that it's causing the body to go into pain, illness,
Speaker 1: or disease. And so if you're confronting stress, you have
Speaker 1: to understand what the system is that manager stress. And
Speaker 1: we've got this newly discovered in the last twenty five
Speaker 1: years body system called the endocannabinoid system, and there are
Speaker 1: molecules and compounds found in hemp i'm also found in
Speaker 1: cannabis that can help manage, modulate, and help bring that
Speaker 1: system back into homeostasis. Because stress balance and just feel
Speaker 1: against stealing. Connected and centering and getting our bodies to
Speaker 1: heal from within is very much within our control and power.
Speaker 1: So these these molecules are incredibly therapeutic, and um, how
Speaker 1: do you bring them in the body, Where do you
Speaker 1: apply them? How do you get the molecules to the
Speaker 1: receptor sites? Really matters. And so Prima is a really
Speaker 1: assigence driven brand to advance that that sense of of
Speaker 1: of balance and betterment, and we're doing it through a
Speaker 1: host of consumer products that people com buy. We'll tell
Speaker 1: us about that, Chris, because you know, we've talked to
Speaker 1: a lot of folks in the CBD product area, UM,
Speaker 1: and we're learning, you know, and I've tried some and
Speaker 1: some I love. They're not all created the same. And
Speaker 1: part of the problem too is, you know, there's no
Speaker 1: real rules UM governing kind of these products, like a
Speaker 1: lot of cosmetic or consumer products UM that are out there.
Speaker 1: So give us a little bit of insight into kind
Speaker 1: of what are some of the compositions or rules that
Speaker 1: you guys are setting for yourself when you create these products.
Speaker 1: It's a great question because you're absolutely right right now
Speaker 1: that the space is incredibly sophomoric and that was one
Speaker 1: of the reasons why I decided to jump in coming
Speaker 1: off the Alando's company, is to really bring the level
Speaker 1: of sophistication and quality and integrity and transparency that we
Speaker 1: know consumers outsourced their trust to the brand. Right there's
Speaker 1: no guardian at the gate. The retailers are doing their
Speaker 1: best job, but they're they're really not doing the deep betting,
Speaker 1: testing and validation necessary and so it's really dependent on
Speaker 1: what the brand is doing and how are they testing,
Speaker 1: what third party certifications do they have. So we're we've
Speaker 1: been doing so much work on number one, the underlying
Speaker 1: science of getting the bio availability as we call it,
Speaker 1: and getting the molecules inside the body at a safe way.
Speaker 1: We have organic farming practices for a hemp, so you're
Speaker 1: assuring purity. We're testing the the extract, the hemp extract
Speaker 1: five times to assure potency of the ingredient. We're working
Speaker 1: with some third party credible experts to ensure that purity impotency,
Speaker 1: and and and then number one and then number two
Speaker 1: giving the consumer full transparency. And so every bottle of
Speaker 1: of of Fremi product has a QR code that you
Speaker 1: can literally bring up test results there and and then
Speaker 1: it's also helping the consumer navigate the space. So at
Speaker 1: the end, at the end of the day, you have
Speaker 1: to be an education content forward company, especially in this
Speaker 1: space because as you said, it is confusing, it is nuanced,
Speaker 1: and who's doing the work and who's got the pedigree
Speaker 1: in experience and so we've done a lot of educational work.
Speaker 1: We've over a hundred pieces of original content to help
Speaker 1: give people the right demystification, the right understanding, the credible
Speaker 1: expertise necessary to navigate it, and then giving them um
Speaker 1: as I said, the products. But it is it's about connection,
Speaker 1: It's about understanding. There's a level of emotion that every
Speaker 1: person has with a consumer brand, and that emotion is trust.
Speaker 1: And so how are you building and showcasing that trust
Speaker 1: over time? Well, and and talk a little bit about that,
Speaker 1: because I do feel like with Honest Company, that is
Speaker 1: something you guys really have nailed as that sort of
Speaker 1: emotional connection, both through the design of the products, the
Speaker 1: composition of them, and the and the positioning. How do
Speaker 1: you take that vibe as it as it were and
Speaker 1: translated here? What did you learn from that experience that
Speaker 1: you're applying here. It's it's as you said, the trustworthiness
Speaker 1: of the brand is in how you position and how
Speaker 1: you speak to So the tone and manner with which
Speaker 1: the brand um has it comes forth. So it's in
Speaker 1: your design systems and your creative systems, it's in your
Speaker 1: words you choose, and ultimately you're building relationship of not disruption.
Speaker 1: Like this whole idea, I'm creating a disruptive brand in
Speaker 1: this category, especially in the health of well being category,
Speaker 1: you're creating a peace of mind brand because again you're
Speaker 1: putting these things in your body and you're helping people
Speaker 1: move through very challenging phases of their life, most physically
Speaker 1: and emotionally. So if if CBD is known for its
Speaker 1: anti inflammatory, it's pain relieving, it's you know, modulating properties, right,
Speaker 1: so anti anti stress that are sleep um, help me
Speaker 1: with my muscles and joyce. You need to create a deep,
Speaker 1: deep relationship, and so it is about into, it's about
Speaker 1: transparency and conversation. It's about industry stewardship and creating best
Speaker 1: in class products that actually work. Right, you can I
Speaker 1: can get anyone to buy anything once right as a
Speaker 1: great marketer or a great copywriter, like, oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: create a sexty label and and a beautiful product and
Speaker 1: people will buy. But they're only gonna buy um. They're
Speaker 1: they're only going to come back and works. And so
Speaker 1: efficacy and performance and this idea that I actually what
Speaker 1: you told me is true and consistent over time, that's
Speaker 1: what builds a beautiful relationship. I I the idea of
Speaker 1: brand thing we're authentic. Authentic is it's just another way
Speaker 1: to say I'm doing the same thing time and time
Speaker 1: again with a level of dependency and consistency. And that's
Speaker 1: premus CEO Christopher Gavigan, also a co founder of The
Speaker 1: Honest Company, good to get his perspective, because I do
Speaker 1: think Carol, it's safe to say we you and I
Speaker 1: and many people we know, and many people out there
Speaker 1: focusing more on health and wellness and trying to understand
Speaker 1: how to cope in many ways both physically and mentally.
Speaker 1: Thank God for CBD, red Wine and a Peloton. Just
Speaker 1: gonna say, you're listening to Bloomberg Business Week coming up
Speaker 1: restaurant tour. Rick Walstead on reopening in the time of
Speaker 1: COVID nineteen, He actually was a little bit optimistic, maybe
Speaker 1: a lot optimistic about getting the restaurant world back to
Speaker 1: so called normal. That's coming up next. This is Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Vice is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Jason
Speaker 1: Kelly from Bloomberg Radio. Well, today we're bringing you some
Speaker 1: of our favorites and we think some of the most
Speaker 1: important and informative conversations we had on our daily Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Business Week radio show. And Jason one of those conversations
Speaker 1: this guy um Man. This was a great chat because
Speaker 1: he's a restaurant tour Rick Wallstead. He's been in the
Speaker 1: industry for about thirty years and counting. And what's interesting
Speaker 1: is he's got properties in Atlanta, Connecticut, uh in the
Speaker 1: New York metro area. He's brought back about seventy of
Speaker 1: his employees. And you know, it was our first dose,
Speaker 1: I feel like of optimism in the back be beaten
Speaker 1: down restaurant industry, right everybody we we see the closings.
Speaker 1: We've seen some really prominent chefs and owners of restaurants
Speaker 1: saying we're not going to bring back all of our properties.
Speaker 1: And yet from him we got some optimism. I mean,
Speaker 1: all our restaurants who are basically closed, you know, forty
Speaker 1: our notice, so UM, and then we started to do UM,
Speaker 1: started to do curb sudden delivery take out. So we
Speaker 1: ramped up that. We ramped that up, and now we
Speaker 1: are getting ready to bring back our staff and opening.
Speaker 1: You know, we already open in two markets and Houston
Speaker 1: and Atlanta, and they getting ready to open in Connecticut.
Speaker 1: Three restaurants here next week. So it's been a very
Speaker 1: busy time trying to navigate you know, this whole, this
Speaker 1: whole serious events, right, So let's talk about Atlanta. It's
Speaker 1: my hometown. I know exactly where your restaurant is. It's
Speaker 1: actually my old neighborhood of Buckhead down. They're very familiar
Speaker 1: with that whole. Uh, that whole area. It is bustling normally.
Speaker 1: It is, you know, one of the prime locations you
Speaker 1: have there for the Colonial there in Buckhead. What does
Speaker 1: it take to reopen at this point, Well, we have
Speaker 1: I have two restaurants in Bucket, the loc Colonial and
Speaker 1: a little bit of bou K and um. You know, uh,
Speaker 1: it was a little tricky, um what we did here
Speaker 1: when we were told that we were allowed to open, UM,
Speaker 1: we actually waited for one week. We did not open
Speaker 1: right away even though we could. UM, you felt that
Speaker 1: the public sentiment was a little bit questionable about the
Speaker 1: decision to open at the time, and we only opened
Speaker 1: for open air dining. We decided not to open up inside.
Speaker 1: UH and so of face faith UM in the opening. UM.
Speaker 1: And but after the first week, I have to say that,
Speaker 1: you know, considering the restraints that we have in place
Speaker 1: with the with the occupancy, the social distancing UM and
Speaker 1: so forth, greatly reducing our capability of doing a normal business, UM,
Speaker 1: the first week is quite promising and being very happy
Speaker 1: with it actually, UM, and the customers and the clients
Speaker 1: you know, seem to really appreciate us opening and UH.
Speaker 1: And so I'm happy of considering everything no matter, no,
Speaker 1: no matter what, even you know, in the best case scenario,
Speaker 1: in the best case scenario, I think we do, but
Speaker 1: as good as we can in the in the both
Speaker 1: markets that we have opened. In the best case scenario,
Speaker 1: we are you know, going to be down anywhere from
Speaker 1: twenty five to thirty FA present UH pre pandemic, before
Speaker 1: the pandemic. That's basically that's the best case scenario with
Speaker 1: the restrictions and so working place. Wow, So what's it been?
Speaker 1: I mean, so what are the restrictions, because it's interesting.
Speaker 1: We've been having a lot of conversations UM live on air,
Speaker 1: also in social media, and there are folks who say,
Speaker 1: you know, it's going to be a weird experience. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm not going to enjoy it, but give us you're
Speaker 1: doing it, tell us what it's like and the social
Speaker 1: distancing involved and what the experience is like. You know,
Speaker 1: there's no no real playbook on this. I mean, you know, uh,
Speaker 1: what we do is that we take sort of a
Speaker 1: cautious approach, but then also you know, being optimistic. So
Speaker 1: the first thing, it's all about sanitation and safety. So
Speaker 1: what we start with is that we have to make
Speaker 1: sure that our staff and employees are happy to report
Speaker 1: to work, feel safe with work, and feel good about
Speaker 1: what we do. UM. So obviously you have to follow
Speaker 1: the government mandates of the restrictions, whether it used to
Speaker 1: all kept and see over twenty or it depends what
Speaker 1: state you're in. But if the staff feels good about
Speaker 1: what we do, then they are proud of what we do,
Speaker 1: and that transforms over to the customer because then they
Speaker 1: feel safe also. So it's sort of a Shane reaction
Speaker 1: and that's restaurant tour Rick Walstead. Um, I gotta say, Jason,
Speaker 1: I think I learned a lot about what they're doing,
Speaker 1: the steps that they're taking to reopen restaurants. And you know,
Speaker 1: he's a reminder, having properties in different locations around the country,
Speaker 1: that not every reopening is going to be the same
Speaker 1: or happen at the same time. Well, and I loved
Speaker 1: how specific he got with us, because I think we're
Speaker 1: all sitting here wondering. You and I talked about in
Speaker 1: our show almost every day, what's it going to be
Speaker 1: like when we walk into a restaurant again. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's mind blowing given all the ways that you know,
Speaker 1: you and I tend to move around that I haven't
Speaker 1: been I haven't sat down in a restaurant in almost
Speaker 1: three months now. It's kind of remarkable. It is remarkable.
Speaker 1: And what's interesting too is he was thinking also like
Speaker 1: a businessman, thinking, you know what, there might be some
Speaker 1: new revenue lines like curbside pick up, you know, at
Speaker 1: high end restaurants that never would have happened before but
Speaker 1: had to happen because of the shutdown, And maybe that
Speaker 1: continues and provides, like I said, a new revenue stream
Speaker 1: for restaurants going forward. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week.
Speaker 1: Coming up, we talt with the CEO of online therapy
Speaker 1: company talk Space, Gotta get Your Head Right, and it's
Speaker 1: the subject of a story in the magazine this week.
Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol
Speaker 1: Masser and Jason Kelly from Bloomberg Radio. So Jason are
Speaker 1: bringing everybody some of our favorite conversations from our daily
Speaker 1: radio show throughout the week, and then included one that's
Speaker 1: actually tied to a story in the magazine this week.
Speaker 1: That's right, it's a piece by Cynthia Coon. She's one
Speaker 1: of our favorite reporters across the Empire, and it's all
Speaker 1: about how, in the midst of the pandemic, more people
Speaker 1: are turning to online therapy to deal with anxiety, depression,
Speaker 1: and strife within their relationships. All of that being locked
Speaker 1: in place, sheltered in place has some unintended and maybe
Speaker 1: unexpected consequences, And Jason, one of those online therapy sites
Speaker 1: has actually seen their web traffic double in just three months.
Speaker 1: The owner of that site and the co founder of
Speaker 1: that site is orn Frank at the online therapy company
Speaker 1: talk Space. Here's what he had to say. So I
Speaker 1: was understand what talk spaces and how you came to
Speaker 1: create it because you had a long career or a
Speaker 1: very successful career in the ad game, I believe, and
Speaker 1: you happened upon this through some personal experience. Tell us
Speaker 1: the story. So, hey, that's true. I was in marketing
Speaker 1: and advertising for many years, and I'm not repending and
Speaker 1: paying for my scence. I get. And we started talks
Speaker 1: because we just thought that psychotherapy was such a wonderful
Speaker 1: professional had so much edited value, and it was just
Speaker 1: a shame that so few people actually have access to it.
Speaker 1: So our mission from day one was can we actually
Speaker 1: open up access for everyone who wants to at least
Speaker 1: try talking to a therapist. It has helped both me
Speaker 1: and my co founder is also my wife my partner,
Speaker 1: tremendously in our lives, and we thought, you know, the
Speaker 1: world has to be a better place if we could
Speaker 1: open this up for everyone. So that was a yeah.
Speaker 1: I would see the initial at the beginning around twenty twelve,
Speaker 1: and so tell us about the technology, because you know,
Speaker 1: this is beyond what you have created, is beyond just
Speaker 1: a situation where people can can do this remotely. There's
Speaker 1: some artificial intelligence built in I believe help us understand
Speaker 1: how that works. So you know, behavior health and psychotherapy
Speaker 1: and psychiatry are as I said before, wonderful professions, the
Speaker 1: very rich in theories that are kind of pouring data.
Speaker 1: Where you introduce an online modern technology platform, the things
Speaker 1: that you begin to do is you begin to aggregate
Speaker 1: and accumulate vast troves of data that can be used
Speaker 1: to learn and see patterns and then effectively and when
Speaker 1: someone uses our our technology or platform, they can do video,
Speaker 1: they can do audio, they can write to each other,
Speaker 1: it's their choice. But we can analyze this and actually
Speaker 1: learn how the best treatment courses look like, what are
Speaker 1: the best lines of interventions that will apply to certain
Speaker 1: kinds of conditions or accurities. When you have a large
Speaker 1: enough data set, you can do what's called very large
Speaker 1: scale regressions and begin to get you know, a faint
Speaker 1: idea of what works better than other approaches. Because, in
Speaker 1: all honesty, if you went to a therapist in Manhattan,
Speaker 1: you don't know how good they are, You don't know
Speaker 1: how many people they helped in the past, and more
Speaker 1: than anything else, you don't know if they're he or
Speaker 1: she is a good fit for you for your particular needs.
Speaker 1: You know, therapy is a little bit like data. Well,
Speaker 1: and I want to talk more about the use of
Speaker 1: machine learning and AI and all of this in a moment,
Speaker 1: but I do wonder about the therapist that you use.
Speaker 1: What's the screening involved? Tell us a little bit about
Speaker 1: that process. So we have close to five thousand therapists
Speaker 1: on the network in all fifty states, and because we
Speaker 1: have this this level of data, we can actually know
Speaker 1: who is a good fit and a great therapist that
Speaker 1: will deliver good clinical outcomes on this platform. UM. So
Speaker 1: I can tell you one thing that probably won't surprise you,
Speaker 1: but we found only two strong correlations, one stronger than
Speaker 1: the other towards what makes a really good therapist. So
Speaker 1: the first one, interestingly in US, is having around seven
Speaker 1: or eight minimal years of experience post supervision UM that
Speaker 1: delivers significantly better clinical outcomes. So if you look at
Speaker 1: our network, they all qualify to this or every one
Speaker 1: average they have a tenure froum nine to ten years.
Speaker 1: And the second one, Carol, won't surprise you at all,
Speaker 1: and it actually applies to most of our women are
Speaker 1: better m Yeah, I have a segment later in the
Speaker 1: week about how leaders you know during crisis better women.
Speaker 1: I'm the only person who can see Carol during this
Speaker 1: show right now, Uren, and I can tell you that
Speaker 1: she is giving her not surprised face UH and her
Speaker 1: slightly careful I want to say smug. I don't want
Speaker 1: to say smug, but certain face. And we should join
Speaker 1: their forces to our next thought up, which is handling over,
Speaker 1: handing over the world to women. Tell us or how
Speaker 1: much of your site UM has gone up your app
Speaker 1: in terms of UH since we've been kind of since
Speaker 1: we've been in lockdown for the last two months, so
Speaker 1: it's changing every day, but we see at least a
Speaker 1: doubling of our traffic of people are coming in and
Speaker 1: are looking for help. And we can see it coming
Speaker 1: from two sources. One is, you know, beyond the emych
Speaker 1: that we talked about all day, there is a second
Speaker 1: I would say epidemic, which is one of mental health,
Speaker 1: which is rigored by by COVID nineteen. So you see
Speaker 1: people that are the amounts of pain and suffering and
Speaker 1: and and really sad and heartbreaking stories that are ou
Speaker 1: there has grown dramatically, and on top of that, you
Speaker 1: see I would say a second source of people that
Speaker 1: it's used to go to face to face therapy, but
Speaker 1: it's unfortunately don't not available right now, so they're looking
Speaker 1: for help elsewhere. But overall we see more than a
Speaker 1: double lot of the people that other people help with us.
Speaker 1: Or do you feel like this notion of going to
Speaker 1: therapy or or talking to someone is becoming more widely
Speaker 1: accepted and acceptable? Are we getting more comfortable talking about
Speaker 1: mental health? It's a great question, Jason, and and I
Speaker 1: don't want to be you know, give you a wish
Speaker 1: for thinking answer. I think I think stigma is improving,
Speaker 1: but it's not equally distributed. I think, you know, when
Speaker 1: we have a conversation with people that live in Manhattan,
Speaker 1: it's part of their early lives. It's not anything that's threatening.
Speaker 1: I think one of the interesting things that we learned
Speaker 1: over the last eight years is that actually remote care
Speaker 1: sometimes helps alleviate stigma, because part of stigma is that
Speaker 1: very awkward I would say feeling or experience once you
Speaker 1: meet the therapist face to face for the first time.
Speaker 1: At that point that in time here share a complete stranger,
Speaker 1: and sometimes it's very painful for you to talk about well,
Speaker 1: whatever is troubling you. So there's a sense of awkwardness
Speaker 1: of being judged. That is part of steam myself. So
Speaker 1: some of the younger people, the millenniums a k a.
Speaker 1: Millenniums still much safer in writing about it from as
Speaker 1: far and we we see an interesting phenomena in which
Speaker 1: people be give to write to the therapy, not for
Speaker 1: a couple of months, they will once they trust him
Speaker 1: or her, they will do a live video session because
Speaker 1: now they're willing to expose themselves. Wow, that's really that's
Speaker 1: really interesting sort of mixing, the mixing the media. In
Speaker 1: some ways, what I find fascinating for such a developed society,
Speaker 1: smart society, developed country, is that we don't really respect health,
Speaker 1: whether it's physical health or mental health. It's really kind
Speaker 1: of mind boggling for the amount of money that we
Speaker 1: spend out a lot of stuff. And I mean we
Speaker 1: might individually, but I think even the medical world doesn't
Speaker 1: necessarily appreciate or certain aspects of it um or in
Speaker 1: the importance of mental health, Like why isn't it why
Speaker 1: isn't it that we all go in every year for
Speaker 1: kind of a I don't know, you know that that's
Speaker 1: got to be part of our mental health check out. Yeah,
Speaker 1: of course, you know, he was so right, and I've
Speaker 1: made the same, you know, argument to accomplish people in
Speaker 1: my past. But I really think that in here we
Speaker 1: have some wholepen some positive change. I think, you know,
Speaker 1: much of healthcare is delivered by large employers in the
Speaker 1: United States, and I think it's a certain section of
Speaker 1: them we understand that and will prioritize mental health, animals, wellness, uh,
Speaker 1: just as much as they do any other form of healthcare.
Speaker 1: I think systematically, you know, the healthcare system or someone
Speaker 1: very wise once told me that the United States have
Speaker 1: the best medicine in the world and probably the world's
Speaker 1: healthcare system. I think the healthcare system is catching up
Speaker 1: to death as well. And I can tell you that
Speaker 1: we also operate enterprise, so business to business, and we
Speaker 1: had the We've had a huge growth of large payers
Speaker 1: that understands that they need to provide this kind of
Speaker 1: access and then started working with us in the last
Speaker 1: couple of months or as of a COVID nineteens. So
Speaker 1: I think we're actually making progress there, and I don't
Speaker 1: know how long it will take, but I'm with that.
Speaker 1: I'm pretty confident that that it will be that provided
Speaker 1: to it to America. He just has to just make
Speaker 1: and that's talk Space CEO or In. Frank really enjoyed
Speaker 1: catching up with him. A very thoughtful guy, had a
Speaker 1: whole career in the ad and marketing game before he
Speaker 1: created talk Space with his wife. It was based on
Speaker 1: their experience in therapy. And what I loved is this
Speaker 1: is really taking it to a much wider audience. Carol, Yeah,
Speaker 1: be sure to check out the full interview certainly on
Speaker 1: our podcast, and also check out Cynthia Coon's story in
Speaker 1: the magazine That wraps up the weekend edition of Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Business Week from Bloomberg Radio. Thanks so much for joining us.
Speaker 1: I'm Carol Masser and I'm Jason Kelly. Be sure to
Speaker 1: tune into Bloomberg Business Week Radio. We're live Monday through
Speaker 1: Friday starting at two pm Wall Street Time, and you
Speaker 1: can also watch the show live on YouTube. Just search
Speaker 1: for Bloomberg Global News and be sure to check out
Speaker 1: our Bloomberg Business Week Extra podcast. This week, it's with Markin.
Speaker 1: He's the chairman of Castle Systems, owner of the City
Speaker 1: Tennis Tournament down in d C. A guy who has
Speaker 1: seen a lot when it comes to cities and sports.
Speaker 1: He also has a lot of thoughts in the future
Speaker 1: of the workplace. All right, stay safe everyone, we'll be
Speaker 1: back next week. At the same time. This is Bloomberg.
Speaker 1: Mhm mhm.