Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week inside from the reporters and
Speaker 1: editors who bring you America's most trusted business magazine, plus
Speaker 1: global business, finance and tech news as it happened. Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Business Week with Carol Messer and Bloomberg Quick Takes Tim
Speaker 1: Stinovic on Bloomberg Radio. Hi, everyone, welcome to the weekend
Speaker 1: edition of Bloomberg Business Week. It's week fifty five. Still
Speaker 1: working from home for many in our world. Tim, it
Speaker 1: was a short and trading week, but one with a
Speaker 1: blockbuster story about a block trade blowout. Yeah, an absolutely
Speaker 1: huge story. And Carol, I gotta say, each time I
Speaker 1: hear you take off that number fifty next week it'll
Speaker 1: be fifty six. I wonder just how many more weeks
Speaker 1: we are going to be working from home. I have
Speaker 1: no idea, but one thing I can tell you is
Speaker 1: that there are some worries about a fourth COVID wave
Speaker 1: in the US. This coming as we get conflicting data,
Speaker 1: vaccines rolling out big time at the same time we're
Speaker 1: seeing hospitalizations go up in some areas. We are, indeed,
Speaker 1: just like you say, we're losing count of how many weeks.
Speaker 1: I'm losing account of how many waves. We've got both
Speaker 1: of those stories covered. We're going to talk about the
Speaker 1: virus the impact on how we work. We're also going
Speaker 1: to talk about that block trade blow up, plus a
Speaker 1: tale of two fast food restaurants on an iconic brand
Speaker 1: that's been around for seventy years, Tim the other just
Speaker 1: around for a decade, but just long enough to catch
Speaker 1: the attention of Lebron James. We'll hear from both the
Speaker 1: CEO of Jack in the Box, Darren Harris, as well
Speaker 1: as Blaze Pizza president Mandy Shaw. But we begin with
Speaker 1: a story in the magazine this week, President Biden saying
Speaker 1: that US adults will be eligible to get a COVID
Speaker 1: nineteen shot by April nineteen, and nine of the nation
Speaker 1: will live within five miles of vaccination site. Weiser also
Speaker 1: saying that the COVID nineteen vaccine is effective in a
Speaker 1: study of children ages twelve to fifteen. But Carol, we
Speaker 1: know at the same time cases still rising again, definitely troubling.
Speaker 1: So with that in mind, one story in the magazine
Speaker 1: caught our attention. It's about Mark's COVID pill and how
Speaker 1: it would give doctors an important new treatment and a
Speaker 1: weapon against coronaviruses and future pandemics. The reporter on it
Speaker 1: Bloomberg News US healthcare reporter Ryle Griffin, who joined us
Speaker 1: along with Bloomberg Business Week editor Joe Webber. There's this
Speaker 1: little pill that Mark has been developing. It's one of
Speaker 1: several hundred different varieties of treatments that are basically underway
Speaker 1: right now. But based on on the reporting, we think
Speaker 1: Marks is maybe closest to some data which could be
Speaker 1: forthcoming within amount of days, and that will really give
Speaker 1: us a look at UM. What we all hope is
Speaker 1: another chapter in this fight against COVID which would start
Speaker 1: to look like treatment, something that you could give someone
Speaker 1: when they get sick. UM. That's different than the vaccine.
Speaker 1: Obviously we need the vaccines too, but what happens if
Speaker 1: someone has a vaccine, is vaccinated and get sick or
Speaker 1: for all of those people out there who might not
Speaker 1: have a vaccine, and that's where this Mark development comes in.
Speaker 1: So so Riley talk to us a little bit about
Speaker 1: what an anti viral. With the promise of an anti
Speaker 1: viral like this, hundreds of thousands of people continue to
Speaker 1: contract COVID each and every day, so we need those
Speaker 1: therapies UM to get to patients quickly at the beginning
Speaker 1: of their disease. Cynthia, my colleague and I like to
Speaker 1: bring this as TAMA fluper covid, something that could be
Speaker 1: deployed broadly to your sister, your grandparents, Those high risks,
Speaker 1: those low risks at the earliest course of their disease.
Speaker 1: As you said, there are hundreds of anti virals in
Speaker 1: development two D fifty about so to speak, UM, and
Speaker 1: viruses are really uniquely difficult to attack with drugs. I
Speaker 1: don't think we you know in the press speak enough
Speaker 1: about the complexity of developing therapeutics. These viruses hijack human
Speaker 1: cells and set up machinery to turn out copies of
Speaker 1: themselves within the body, which creates a real challenge. How
Speaker 1: do you destroy the virus without harming those cells? And
Speaker 1: success when it comes can be quite fleeting, because, as
Speaker 1: we've already seen, viruses mutape to survive. So Mark is
Speaker 1: the leader of the pack. We could see data before
Speaker 1: the end of the month. Um, should it prove safe
Speaker 1: and effective? Which is a real question. UM, it's likely
Speaker 1: to be that data is likely to be the backbone
Speaker 1: of an emergency use authorization. Here in the US. So
Speaker 1: if it happens for emergency use authorization here in the US,
Speaker 1: and we're at a point where we've been really gotten
Speaker 1: done a good job with becoming vaccinated, does then that
Speaker 1: Does that then mean that this moves into the global
Speaker 1: fight against COVID. Yeah, that's a fabulous question. For one,
Speaker 1: I think there will still be need here. We've got
Speaker 1: a great population that's vaccine hesitant, We've got UM a
Speaker 1: population under the age of sixteen that doesn't have access.
Speaker 1: But globally, this is definitely necessary and compared to some
Speaker 1: of the other tools out there, like the monoclonal an
Speaker 1: embody like gileads RUM does a viere, it's also poised
Speaker 1: to be much cheaper as an alternative. It's not in
Speaker 1: hours long infusion that is required to be given in
Speaker 1: specialized settings. UM. It's what we call a mall molecule,
Speaker 1: which means the manufacturing is much more simple. And Mark
Speaker 1: says it can churn out about ten million courses, which
Speaker 1: is a hundred million pills. You take it twice a
Speaker 1: day for five days UM within the span of this year.
Speaker 1: But in our interviews, Mark also said, and mind you,
Speaker 1: Mark is so global health oriented. They said that they
Speaker 1: want to create licenses that basically allow other manufacturers to
Speaker 1: make this pill to should it prove safe and effective,
Speaker 1: thereby creating greater access worldwide. Well, let's just stick with
Speaker 1: Mirk here, because Murk is very well known for its
Speaker 1: public health work, uh fell short on its vaccine efforts.
Speaker 1: What's that stake here for for Mark when this data
Speaker 1: comes out, Joel, that was a big disappointment earlier in
Speaker 1: the year when Mark two vaccine candidates both showed lackluster
Speaker 1: data in early clinical trials. I think they need a
Speaker 1: big win, not just because they want to put their
Speaker 1: stamp on the pandemic and sure that they can have
Speaker 1: an impact here too. Of course, they're helping manufacture Jane
Speaker 1: Jay's vaccine. But let's think longer term about Mark's business model.
Speaker 1: This is a company that has become highly reliant on
Speaker 1: one product alone key true to a cancer product UM
Speaker 1: that is making up a great chunk of their revenue,
Speaker 1: and investors keep asking what's next in the pipeline. So
Speaker 1: mulnipere of your could partially be that. And I think
Speaker 1: what Mark has said to us UM they're very eager
Speaker 1: to know is whether this has broad spectrum activity, no
Speaker 1: doubt about it. Data so important in all of this.
Speaker 1: That was Bloomberg News US healthcare reporter Riley Griffin, who
Speaker 1: joined us along with Bloomberg Business Week editor Joe weber
Speaker 1: Well coming up virus cases a top the most red
Speaker 1: que on the Bloomberg. So she was reporting about the
Speaker 1: unwinding of highly leveraged trades that led to the implosion
Speaker 1: of one little known family office. I thought it was
Speaker 1: supposed to be a quiet kind of holiday or leading
Speaker 1: up to a holiday weekend. You know how this works.
Speaker 1: I supposed to be a quiet week. It's all but quiet.
Speaker 1: That is so true. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week.
Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol
Speaker 1: Messer and Bloomberg Quick Takes. Tim Stinovik from Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 1: Remember how we were all obsessed about the Suez Canal
Speaker 1: backup last week? You remember that. Yeah, I'm actually a
Speaker 1: little sad that the ship got unstuck because it was
Speaker 1: such a great story. I mean, not really, but you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. No, but visually it was a
Speaker 1: great story and it just, you know how kind of
Speaker 1: one ship getting blocked just shut down kind of our
Speaker 1: supply chain, our global supply chain. It was such a
Speaker 1: good illustration of how much we rely on global trade
Speaker 1: and just really small areas of the world to get
Speaker 1: us our things well. This week we kind of had
Speaker 1: a replacement. We were similarly focused on a little known
Speaker 1: family office and it's head, Bill Wang, and our Cagos
Speaker 1: Capital Management and what may turn out tim to be
Speaker 1: one of the biggest margin calls of all time. We've
Speaker 1: got two stories on this. First up, what was going
Speaker 1: on the big banks like credit sweezes. This was unfolding
Speaker 1: about a week and a half ago. Here's Bloomberg Business
Speaker 1: Week editor Joe Webber and Bloomberg News Finance reporter Strinadarajan
Speaker 1: Shri among the Bloomberg team that broke this one and
Speaker 1: has kept us up to date on the ongoing story.
Speaker 1: For those who have been dealing with Bill Hung and
Speaker 1: his family office, they were starting to get worried and
Speaker 1: alarmed by the middle of the week as some of
Speaker 1: his big positions were moving in the other direction, and
Speaker 1: very soon by the middle of the week, the banks
Speaker 1: did realize they had a big problem on their hands.
Speaker 1: The risk departments that a number of Wall three banks
Speaker 1: European banks and even Japanese banks were starting to get worried,
Speaker 1: so they all decided to get together in a hastily
Speaker 1: arranged call that included some of the top lawyers from
Speaker 1: all of these firms, also included Bill Hong to find
Speaker 1: a solution, to figure out how to untie and unwind
Speaker 1: these positions in a tidy manner. From our reporting, we
Speaker 1: understand the Sweets in fact, was the one that was
Speaker 1: pushing for this idea to stand still agreement, asking everyone
Speaker 1: to cool down, back off for a little bit, let's
Speaker 1: see how the price action moved and look at it
Speaker 1: again on Monday, because they did not want to see
Speaker 1: an immediate force liquidation. Well, the clearly regional agreement they
Speaker 1: were all in it for themselves by Friday was clear
Speaker 1: because they're all broken rank. And now as we see
Speaker 1: the consequence of that action, we see the big US bank,
Speaker 1: Logostani Government, sax Well Fargo appear to have emerged from
Speaker 1: this largely unscathed. But that is not true for an
Speaker 1: m uf J, which overnight told us that their losses
Speaker 1: could be about three millions. Namura would says that has
Speaker 1: a two billion dollar claim without actually saying what its
Speaker 1: actual hit could be from this and credits, which has
Speaker 1: still not provided a bigger but estimates on that are
Speaker 1: heading into multibillion dollars, and that sort of starts to
Speaker 1: explain Swiss stands on that faithful called last they tree.
Speaker 1: What could have been a tidier way to unwind this?
Speaker 1: You you know, you said the banks were looking for
Speaker 1: a tidier way to do this. But but how could
Speaker 1: these losses have been prevented when the stock started moving lower? No,
Speaker 1: to me're absolutely right. So we're still trying to piece
Speaker 1: together that part of the puzzle. But one possibility very
Speaker 1: well could be instead of the banks moving to says
Speaker 1: collateral and force some sort of liquidation event, perhaps the
Speaker 1: strategy was wait and see if the stock rebounds. Perhaps
Speaker 1: the strategy was asking some of the banks who had
Speaker 1: the potential to demand much more margin to give some
Speaker 1: sort of margin holiday. It isn't clear what the solution
Speaker 1: could have been, but what is clear is for at
Speaker 1: least some of those participants on the call, the idea
Speaker 1: that banks would move into the market by Friday and
Speaker 1: do a rapid fire sale of a number of these
Speaker 1: positions was going to be the worst case outcome. And
Speaker 1: that's what the dealing with now. So Threet, what are
Speaker 1: the big unanswered questions that that remain? What in them? Now?
Speaker 1: The regulators, investors and everyone on the outside is trying
Speaker 1: to make sure is there more to come? Are we
Speaker 1: going to see more blost junkie doc trade happening? That
Speaker 1: was Bloomberg News Finance reporter Street not a Rajon and
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Business Week editor Joe Weber, No doubt about it.
Speaker 1: We need a lot more transparency on this, and I
Speaker 1: think it's something we're going to continue to see lawmakers
Speaker 1: in fact call on Yeah, exactly. All right, Let's get
Speaker 1: to our second story though on this subject. It's about
Speaker 1: the tiger king in his cub. We're talking about legendary
Speaker 1: hedge fund investor Julian Robertson. He's the king, and then
Speaker 1: the cub is the man behind the block trade blow up.
Speaker 1: Bill wang Are Bloomberg News Finance reporter Max Abelson actually
Speaker 1: caught up with Robertson and asked him about his tiger offspring.
Speaker 1: I called him and I said, you know, would you
Speaker 1: mind if I slipped on, you know, the tape of
Speaker 1: quarter and can we talk about this? I know it's unpleasant,
Speaker 1: I mean, and he said, yeah, take it away. I
Speaker 1: did not expect though, I did not expect a kind
Speaker 1: of full throated um defense of of Bill Lang, you know.
Speaker 1: And and when I say defense, what I really mean
Speaker 1: is that just time and again when I when I
Speaker 1: pressed Julian on you know that these monstrously vast losses,
Speaker 1: you know, just over and over again, he said, you know, look,
Speaker 1: we've we've all seen hard times, and you know, I
Speaker 1: don't know what went wrong, but there was a decent
Speaker 1: guy and I hope he bound us back. And you know, honestly,
Speaker 1: he even said that he would still invest with Bill
Speaker 1: um even now. So you know, it's just a I
Speaker 1: don't know if you call that loyalty um or you
Speaker 1: call it faith, but um, Julian Robertson, Um, this famed
Speaker 1: hedge fund billionaire really sort of um staying staying close
Speaker 1: to his to his protege. Yeah, Max, that really stuck
Speaker 1: out to me about your piece, And one other part
Speaker 1: did as well. He's saying repeatedly that this could probably
Speaker 1: happen to anyone. You know, Look, I I as a journalist,
Speaker 1: you know, you need to be open to whatever people
Speaker 1: are saying to you. And you have to let you know,
Speaker 1: a subject um as you both know as his interviewers,
Speaker 1: you know, you have to let people take the microphone
Speaker 1: once you offer to them. But you know also as
Speaker 1: a good objective journalist, you can't sort of, um, you
Speaker 1: can't just sort of let people talk without pressing them.
Speaker 1: So I was, I was really clear to him, you know,
Speaker 1: I said to him, you know, look, this isn't just
Speaker 1: something that happened to Bill Lang. He he he had
Speaker 1: a role in this. He leverage um to get himself
Speaker 1: into what we now know is is a remarkable, remarkable,
Speaker 1: a bount of trouble. And and his direct answer when
Speaker 1: I asked about that was like, you know, well look,
Speaker 1: you know he's he's actually a marvelous person. And he
Speaker 1: basically made it sound like a Greek tragedy. He said,
Speaker 1: he said, it's it's tragic that this that this thing happened. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, he was he was really he described it
Speaker 1: almost on a personal skill. Whereas you know, as financial reporters,
Speaker 1: I think we we ununderstand it as um, you know,
Speaker 1: as something much faster, as something that's shaking markets and
Speaker 1: something that's shaking banks, and something that that is still
Speaker 1: playing out even as the three of us speak. Matt, Max,
Speaker 1: as I was reading through the Q and A that
Speaker 1: you had back and forth with Julian Robertson, I wondered,
Speaker 1: and you talked to big names on Wall Street all
Speaker 1: the time about very difficult subjects. Was there any question
Speaker 1: that he felt a little uncomfortable asking or pushing on? Yes,
Speaker 1: I felt uncomfortable about the whole thing. I mean, that's
Speaker 1: that's how you know that it's potentially a good a
Speaker 1: good interview when you know, I felt really awkward. You know,
Speaker 1: I have a job as a Bloomberg News reporter to
Speaker 1: press him on you know, the facts um of what's
Speaker 1: happened here, and what we know is that you know,
Speaker 1: for example, when you know had to pay like three
Speaker 1: million dollars, that was Bloomberg News Finance reporter Max Abelson.
Speaker 1: Note this story continuing to unfold as we put our
Speaker 1: show to bed. Check out Bloomberg dot com for the
Speaker 1: latest on that still ahead. Managing the pandemic no easy task,
Speaker 1: especially within the restaurant industry. The CEO of Jack in
Speaker 1: the Box. Next, This is Bloomberg Business Week, broadcasting from
Speaker 1: the financial capital of the world. Bloomberg eleven Frio in
Speaker 1: New York to Washington, d C. Bloomberg to Boston Bloomberg
Speaker 1: one oh six one to San Francisco Bloomberg nine sixty
Speaker 1: to the country Sirius XM Chado one nine teen and
Speaker 1: around the globe the Bloomberg Business app and Bloomberg Radio
Speaker 1: dot com. This is Bloomberg Business Week, Jim. This is
Speaker 1: something near and dear to you. We've got a double
Speaker 1: dose of fast food restaurants, that's right, from an older
Speaker 1: established brand to a younger ups start backed by an
Speaker 1: NBA legend. First, the iconic well known brand started seventy
Speaker 1: years ago, Jack in the Box. We are talking about
Speaker 1: that shares that company. Man, They're up in the high
Speaker 1: teens percentage wise this year after a nine game last year.
Speaker 1: The fast food chain recently reported nings first quarter comp
Speaker 1: store sales coming in better than analyst estimates earnings B two.
Speaker 1: And to hear more about the past year and the
Speaker 1: outlook of the business, we caught up at the head
Speaker 1: of the company. That's right. That's Darren Harris, the CEO
Speaker 1: of the San Diego, California based Jack in the Box.
Speaker 1: And it began, like we often do, asking about this
Speaker 1: past pandemic filled year. Definitely an interesting time to join
Speaker 1: a company in the middle of a pandemic, try to
Speaker 1: try to get to know your staff and your team
Speaker 1: and and leave them when you you haven't even met
Speaker 1: the whole team in person for months into the pandemic.
Speaker 1: But you know, our focus was really how do we,
Speaker 1: you know, focus on making sure that our employees and
Speaker 1: our guests were safe. And by being able our ability
Speaker 1: to do that and focusing on that, you were able
Speaker 1: to really drive our off promiss business and enabled product innovation,
Speaker 1: and as you just mentioned, led to our our best
Speaker 1: year in twenty seven years, for our best quarter in
Speaker 1: twenty seven years. So how did you do it? How
Speaker 1: do you How did you ensure that customers are safe?
Speaker 1: How do you ensure that employees are safe? What are
Speaker 1: the changes that you're making to your restaurants. No, definitely,
Speaker 1: we're making a touchless environment. We're always looking for, you know,
Speaker 1: each day, making sure employees health safety checks are happening.
Speaker 1: Even during my training joining the company, I went to
Speaker 1: go to my first training restaurant to go through training
Speaker 1: as any employee would, and we shut the restaurant down
Speaker 1: because of we had one one employee who was quarantined,
Speaker 1: and so, you know, being that diligent about making sure
Speaker 1: that you know, we're taking care of our team members,
Speaker 1: then we can take care of our guests. Hey talked
Speaker 1: to us, if you could, Darren about the mix, because
Speaker 1: from my understanding is before the pandemic, I think drive
Speaker 1: through was about of your sales. Dining and take out
Speaker 1: delivery was about apiece. So giving an idea of how
Speaker 1: that change. What's the update during the pandemic? Yeah, during
Speaker 1: the pandemic about our businesses off permits, okay and um,
Speaker 1: and so substantial change. You know, we're already heavily off
Speaker 1: I must, but during this time it's which pretty dramatically,
Speaker 1: And I just want to make sure I'm understanding the
Speaker 1: verbiage here. When you say off premise, you mean drive through,
Speaker 1: but also is it walk up to? It's also delivery. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's walk up delivery and uh and drive through? How
Speaker 1: are you? How are you? How have you figured out delivery?
Speaker 1: What's the right way to do it? A lot of
Speaker 1: restaurants are struggling with this right now. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: for us, it's about making sure that we engage our guests.
Speaker 1: We give them opportunities to order in the way that
Speaker 1: they want to order versus online through our app or
Speaker 1: through the third party major delivery providers. So we give
Speaker 1: them access to do that in many different ways and
Speaker 1: try to make it as frictionless as possible. But you
Speaker 1: would rather have them order through your app if you
Speaker 1: had your druthers, right, uh, you know, obviously through our
Speaker 1: app it continues to enable us to build a database
Speaker 1: that we can constantly communicate to our guests and create
Speaker 1: a one on one relationship. So yes, we would. We
Speaker 1: would always enjoy you know, having people and age in
Speaker 1: our app and really focus on being a brand you know,
Speaker 1: brand loyalist. But it does it does it reduce the
Speaker 1: commission that you have to pay third parties in order
Speaker 1: to deliver the actual food. It's it's good for the
Speaker 1: you know, it's good for the guests, and it's good
Speaker 1: for us as well from a margin standpoint because it
Speaker 1: is a lower cost. You know, during during the pandemic
Speaker 1: and early on in my tenure, we did a lot
Speaker 1: of work around understanding our guests why they come to
Speaker 1: us while they leave, and so we've been very focused
Speaker 1: on making sure, you know, we were providing them the
Speaker 1: offers that they want. So as an example, we've we've
Speaker 1: had the benefit of more premium items during the pandemic
Speaker 1: that resonated with our higher income guests, and so it's
Speaker 1: driven incremental sales through really some snackable and crable bottoms
Speaker 1: like our tiny tacos are soft and moated fries, and
Speaker 1: then the innovation with our new Chicken line UM and
Speaker 1: all of those have raised our system wide sales and
Speaker 1: a u V S. Let's talk Chicken and then we'll
Speaker 1: talk to Chicken, and in a volume volume Sorry, can
Speaker 1: we talk Chicken now, because I'm hungry. You've seen a
Speaker 1: huge resurgence in Chicken, especially when it comes to chicken sandwiches.
Speaker 1: How are you guys partaking in the chicken sandwich worse? Yeah,
Speaker 1: So we're we're leaning all in and UM. For us,
Speaker 1: Chicken has been a strong performer, you know, in the
Speaker 1: middle of the pandemic. UM. We'll continue to innovate. We
Speaker 1: we rolled out our clock Chicken sandwich and will continue
Speaker 1: to look at ways to connect with guests to the Chicken.
Speaker 1: We've found that Chicken is less price sensitive, UM, and
Speaker 1: it also allows us to create different flavor profiles that
Speaker 1: really fit the jack in the box of DNA, which
Speaker 1: is one of innovation. Whoever thought the chicken would be
Speaker 1: innovation chicken right now it certainly is. That was Darren Harris,
Speaker 1: the EO of Jack in the Box. You're listening to
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Business Week. Up next, restaurants still on the menu,
Speaker 1: this time from a newer up starts. It's back by
Speaker 1: none other than Lebron James, who was also known as
Speaker 1: Ron in the company's commercial. I love it. We're gonna
Speaker 1: talk with the president of Blaze Pizza. This is bloom Burg.
Speaker 1: You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Quick Takes Tim Stinovik from Bloomberg Radio. So Tim
Speaker 1: and I both enjoy Friday pizza nights in our own home.
Speaker 1: Someone who knows a lot about all things pizza is
Speaker 1: the CEO Blaze Pizza, which has restaurants him around the country,
Speaker 1: also in Canada and the Middle East. It also lays
Speaker 1: claim to one a very well known investor and franchise owner,
Speaker 1: Lebron James, which we brought up along with many other
Speaker 1: things when we spoke to Blaze Pizza president and CEO
Speaker 1: Mandy Shaw. Carol, you began by talking about a year
Speaker 1: like no other, a year it feels like it, and
Speaker 1: then it feels like ten years. If you think back
Speaker 1: to that first week of shutdowns when everything is sort
Speaker 1: of solidified, no one knew if this was the apocalypse, right,
Speaker 1: So the first thing that we had to do was
Speaker 1: make sure our franchisees were finantially secured, were franchise organize
Speaker 1: ation uh So, we gave an industry leading release package
Speaker 1: for nine weeks, we coached them on p PP. We
Speaker 1: had individual coaching sessions with franchisees to make sure they
Speaker 1: could get those dollars that as they became available. We
Speaker 1: provided other forms of relief. We got tons of vendor
Speaker 1: donations for hand sanitizer, masked a lot of the things
Speaker 1: that had to go into the restaurant to make sure
Speaker 1: that safety was paramount for our team members as well
Speaker 1: as our guests coming into the restaurant. And then really
Speaker 1: where we deepened what is really important to me anyway
Speaker 1: from a franchise perspective is transparency and communication. We had
Speaker 1: daily calls with our franchise council. We had weekly franchise
Speaker 1: all hand franchise e calls where we said here's what
Speaker 1: we know here's what we don't know. Here's what we're
Speaker 1: gonna tell you next week. Right. And so, if you
Speaker 1: think about the business are dying in. Sales were still
Speaker 1: eighty percent of our top line pre pandemic, and then
Speaker 1: they all just shut off. So we had to what
Speaker 1: I called get gorilla and figure out how we raise
Speaker 1: awareness that we were still open. You could still come
Speaker 1: into a blaze, walk down the line, make your pizza
Speaker 1: and take it out. You just couldn't sit down in
Speaker 1: the restaurant. And you know, we already had delivery with
Speaker 1: two providers UH and other other um like purpose or
Speaker 1: excuse me, carry out and walk out service, but we
Speaker 1: introduced curbside carry out in three weeks time. I just said,
Speaker 1: we gotta get it up. We gotta figure out how
Speaker 1: to do this and move quickly and make it happen.
Speaker 1: We added Uber Eats as our third delivery provider, and
Speaker 1: those were incremental sales UH. And so we just put
Speaker 1: together a lot of programs to make sure that we
Speaker 1: were taking care of our franchises and getting those sales
Speaker 1: back in the door as fast as we possibly could.
Speaker 1: You know, it's interesting, there's a lot of conversations that
Speaker 1: we have had UM with restaurants that you know how
Speaker 1: to digital strategy, perhaps but all of a sudden because
Speaker 1: they had to ramp it up dramatically. Tell me about
Speaker 1: the digitization of your business and how that strategy has
Speaker 1: maybe changed because of the pen amc or or has
Speaker 1: been ramped up. Uh. Ramped up? You called it? What's
Speaker 1: the word you would? You? No? I mean it's we're
Speaker 1: up a hue. We started UM in the summer of nineteen.
Speaker 1: We launched two specialty crusts, the cauliflower crust, and we
Speaker 1: were the first national chain to launch a keto crust
Speaker 1: six grams net carbs and so right on the heels
Speaker 1: of that, we also launched a large pizza, a shareable
Speaker 1: family office space, you know, more like what a legacy
Speaker 1: pizzas looks like. And it delivers better because it's engineered
Speaker 1: to hold heat. And so we had a three sixty
Speaker 1: degree media campaign to build a digital business and it
Speaker 1: was growing. We had an eight point comp swing from
Speaker 1: call it all of figure prior to just before the
Speaker 1: print a pandemic uh, and then it dropped out. So
Speaker 1: from great pain comes great reward at times. What this
Speaker 1: has done for us is build that digital business we
Speaker 1: range week to week from fift due to sixty in
Speaker 1: terms of digital versus dining, and what that means for
Speaker 1: us is greater total top line coming out of the pandemic.
Speaker 1: Might be a slightly painful way to get there, going
Speaker 1: through all the things that we had to do, but
Speaker 1: the mass of people who came to off premise dining.
Speaker 1: You know, I've read some statistics at one point about
Speaker 1: there's a six increase of people over the age of
Speaker 1: fifty adopting app ordering, right delivery, third party delivery, in
Speaker 1: those sorts of things that we saw it in the
Speaker 1: numbers and what these players have been able to accomplish.
Speaker 1: So we got our piece of that, and now as
Speaker 1: we get dining rooms reopened again, we're retaining eight percent
Speaker 1: of that business or so, which means our volumes are
Speaker 1: much higher than they were previously, which again is it
Speaker 1: is a win for the brand. I mean, they kind
Speaker 1: of ask you, what's it like to have Lebron James
Speaker 1: as an investor, as a franchise e, a franchise e owner,
Speaker 1: someone who's actually been a lot of videos, viral videos
Speaker 1: um for Blaze Pizza. What is that like? Uh? One word? Fun?
Speaker 1: So exciting, you know, lebron Is is a great partner
Speaker 1: in that he actually cares and he makes selective choices
Speaker 1: about who he quote gets in bed with right and
Speaker 1: years ago he decided to come to Blaze because of
Speaker 1: our philospy of clean ingredients, better food, better for you,
Speaker 1: you know, a new way to pizza upgrades, and so
Speaker 1: it's it's a rather informal partnership that just really is fun.
Speaker 1: Anything that we offer up to him, like those viral videos,
Speaker 1: he just says, yeah, let's have a good time with
Speaker 1: this and see what we can do. And it's really
Speaker 1: just part of his portfolio and Blaze wins when he wins,
Speaker 1: and vice versa. So it's a it's a very nice
Speaker 1: additive part to with the Blaze persona is for sure. Well,
Speaker 1: it's interesting to you talk about kind of things that
Speaker 1: are important to him in terms of how you guys
Speaker 1: make your pizzas. It's real ingredients, not frozen, They're made
Speaker 1: in house every day, no chemicals, no additives, no nitrates
Speaker 1: in the meats. I mean, this is a huge trend
Speaker 1: in the food industry and we just see it continue
Speaker 1: to pick up momentum. How is that shaping kind of
Speaker 1: how you guys continue to move forward. How you uh,
Speaker 1: you know, supply out ingredients. Tell us a little bit
Speaker 1: about that. Yeah, our chef, chef Rad Kent, was one
Speaker 1: of the founders of Blaze, and honestly I rely on
Speaker 1: him quite a bit and the concept does because his
Speaker 1: background is really unique. He's got a business degree, he's
Speaker 1: a food scientist. He has worked as a personal chef
Speaker 1: and was a food designer for some large brands across
Speaker 1: the country. So he's a very unique chef in that
Speaker 1: he understands what corporate R and D is about, but
Speaker 1: he really makes amazing food. So he's one of the
Speaker 1: first people who worked directly with providers to do things
Speaker 1: that you would never think of, like take additives and
Speaker 1: preservatives out of banana peppers. All other banana peppers have
Speaker 1: some kind of preservative in them to keep that yellow, bright,
Speaker 1: vibrant color, and we have none of that. So the
Speaker 1: list is long of things where he is just decided
Speaker 1: it's important and he really wants to into the world.
Speaker 1: He wants to have an impact on food supply and
Speaker 1: the food system and showing that you don't have to,
Speaker 1: you know, compromise when you eat things. It's not we
Speaker 1: don't do it in a luxury way. We're not here
Speaker 1: to you know, tell people how they should eat. To us,
Speaker 1: just the cornerstone of how we want to present ourselves
Speaker 1: and what is important to the consumer. So anything we
Speaker 1: put in the restaurants, we put it through that lens
Speaker 1: of does it meet this criteria of really being a
Speaker 1: better product and tasting amazing? Right, We're not out just
Speaker 1: chasing trends just for the sake of chasing them. So
Speaker 1: it actually is thank you for mentioning it a really
Speaker 1: important part of of what we do. Well, it's a lot,
Speaker 1: and I gotta say it's a bigger and bigger conversation
Speaker 1: that we are having um when it comes to anything
Speaker 1: with food. I mean, I think back to conversations we've
Speaker 1: had with John mackew over at Whole Foods, conversations I
Speaker 1: had for years with Steve Els about what they were
Speaker 1: doing at Chipotle, Like this whole idea of how can
Speaker 1: we make kind of the whole food supply chain better
Speaker 1: and provide people with food that is better for them ultimately? UM,
Speaker 1: going forward, tell me about growth plans and has the
Speaker 1: pandemic sped them up, slowed them down? How has it
Speaker 1: changed maybe you know the expansion or any kind of
Speaker 1: cap expending going forward. Great question. Um, Really, the slowness
Speaker 1: that came from the pandemic was related to just COVID delays,
Speaker 1: not necessarily anyone having trepidation about opening a restaurant. So
Speaker 1: we opened twenty restaurants last year. We've got thirty in
Speaker 1: the pipeline this year, which means people might have been
Speaker 1: a little slower to pull the trigger on new opportunities.
Speaker 1: But real estate is opening up, so that means this
Speaker 1: is where the growth moment comes. And particularly after large
Speaker 1: economic disruptions or life changing economic situations, franchise these tend
Speaker 1: to win people who might be displaced from their jobs
Speaker 1: and have always had this dream of running a restaurant
Speaker 1: to have some involvement or have an operating partner who
Speaker 1: has some experience, actually will come seek out grants like us.
Speaker 1: We have over a hundred fifty people in our pipeline
Speaker 1: who are in interested in opening Blazers. We have territories
Speaker 1: available in some really hot markets because we need to
Speaker 1: build some density. There's still an awareness proposition for fast
Speaker 1: casual pizza across the country where a lot of people
Speaker 1: need to figure out what that is and to your point,
Speaker 1: a moment ago figure out what better pizza tastes like? Um,
Speaker 1: so are we have a rough sencil to e and
Speaker 1: that's based on sustainable growth. I think there's a lot
Speaker 1: of concerns with franchisees occasionally about oh, they're just opening
Speaker 1: a restaurants to open them. I'm I am more about
Speaker 1: franchise profitability. Right. The more I can get you to
Speaker 1: open a restaurant that has a great return, you will
Speaker 1: open more restaurants and then my pm L take care
Speaker 1: of itself. So yeah, we have a we have a
Speaker 1: great track record ahead of us of um getting to
Speaker 1: that eight hundred number, but in a really sustainable way. Yeah,
Speaker 1: really interesting. Um is it all going to stay US
Speaker 1: Canada or their thoughts overseas expand the overseas network or
Speaker 1: how do you see it? Oh definitely, yeah, definitely. We're
Speaker 1: actually already in Dubai baing Um. Yeah, no worries stories, um,
Speaker 1: And I think this brand has legs almost universal. Any
Speaker 1: pizzas just one of those piquitous food groups right right,
Speaker 1: but certainly India South Korea is a tremendous market. China, Um, yeah,
Speaker 1: sky's the limit. We have a little bit of work
Speaker 1: we're doing this year on some of the domestic footprint,
Speaker 1: really optimizing franchise the profitability again, because it's the better
Speaker 1: you can get that machine to work, the faster the
Speaker 1: proposition sells itself. So there's a lot of investment that
Speaker 1: we're making this year from a corporate perspective to make
Speaker 1: sure that happens. But we absolutely have our eye on
Speaker 1: other international markets. So they're already in a few international markets,
Speaker 1: but definitely looking to do more. That was Blaze President
Speaker 1: and CEO Mandy Shaw. That's up the first hour of
Speaker 1: the weekend edition of Bloomberg Business Week from Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 1: I'm Cal Masser and I'm Tim Stannaback. Much more ahead
Speaker 1: in our next hour, including an in depth look at
Speaker 1: the future of work and the great disruption of hybrid work.
Speaker 1: How it's all changed because of the pandemic. It's definitely
Speaker 1: being turned upside down. We'll do that with two senior execs,
Speaker 1: one at Microsoft three, the other at Prudential Financial. Are
Speaker 1: we happy working at home? Do we want a hybrid
Speaker 1: world forever? They help answer some of those questions. Plus
Speaker 1: the president and CEO of Siemens Us on how we
Speaker 1: return to schools and our offices safely. It's all about
Speaker 1: that and beating burnout at work with the CEO of
Speaker 1: the Stress and Resilience Institute, Right, Yeah, this is an
Speaker 1: important one. Well of that to come in the next
Speaker 1: hour Bloomberg Business Week. This is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Business Week inside from the reporters and editors who bring
Speaker 1: you America's most trusted business magazine, plus global business, finance
Speaker 1: and tech news As it happened Sloomberg Business Week with
Speaker 1: Carol Messer and Bloomberg Quick Takes Tim Stinovic on Bloomberg Radio. Hi,
Speaker 1: I'm Carol Masser and I'm Tim Stanov. Plenty ahead in
Speaker 1: our second hour of the weekend edition in a Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Business Week, including a deep, deep dive into how work
Speaker 1: is shifting working from home, Tim hybrid being connected all
Speaker 1: the time, and also all the elevated stress that comes
Speaker 1: as a result. With that in mind, a series of
Speaker 1: interviews to maybe easier mind, including one with a consultant
Speaker 1: two companies who has the secret of beating burnout at work. Carol,
Speaker 1: just because we're not you know, at work, doesn't mean
Speaker 1: we are not working, Yeah, exactly, but you know, what
Speaker 1: you and I are at work? We are we are working.
Speaker 1: Also Microsoft and Prudential Senior Exact weighing in on how
Speaker 1: work is changing hybrid Yes, yet workers also want more
Speaker 1: face to face time. And then the president and CEO
Speaker 1: of Siemens Us, Barbara Hompton, on getting back to school,
Speaker 1: back to work, and of course safely. It's all about
Speaker 1: doing it safely. First up, Tim and I talk a
Speaker 1: lot about how work is shifting and the stresses on
Speaker 1: employees and leaders. We do that on our daily radio
Speaker 1: show and podcast, but it was also part of a
Speaker 1: conversation in a Bloomberg Live virtual event that was held
Speaker 1: this past week With that in mind, one person on
Speaker 1: the subject to joined us this week is Paula Davis,
Speaker 1: founder and CEO of the Stress and Resilience Institute, also
Speaker 1: author of the book Beating Burnout at Work, Why Teams
Speaker 1: Hold the Secret to Well Being and Resilience. We started
Speaker 1: the conversation though, she talked about her own struggles during
Speaker 1: the pandemic. So I'm just, you know, trying to pivot
Speaker 1: my business on a dime and write a book during
Speaker 1: a pandemic. And um, I have an almost five year
Speaker 1: old and so I feel like I'm sort of in
Speaker 1: the sick of it with everybody so easy, right, Everything's
Speaker 1: been easy totally. Yeah. Can you give us very briefly, UM,
Speaker 1: talk a little bit about how you had to burn
Speaker 1: out earlier in your career and how it led you
Speaker 1: to think differently about what you wanted to be doing.
Speaker 1: So I practiced law for seven years and UM burned
Speaker 1: out during what became the last year of my law practice,
Speaker 1: and so I did not know what it was. I
Speaker 1: felt like it was something that sort of crept up
Speaker 1: on me once I was really in it. I knew
Speaker 1: something was wrong or off, and I didn't really know
Speaker 1: how to address it or get myself out of it.
Speaker 1: And there were some morning signs that I missed kind
Speaker 1: of going through that process that I didn't realize rewarding
Speaker 1: signs until after the fact. So UM, you know, it
Speaker 1: was a year long UM process that that ended in
Speaker 1: a not so great way. I was having panic attacks
Speaker 1: and I was in the emergency room a couple of
Speaker 1: times from the stress that I was experiencing, UM, and
Speaker 1: that really caused me to take a step back and
Speaker 1: rethink what I wanted to be doing with my career.
Speaker 1: And so that UM, I said why not make my
Speaker 1: mess my message and sort of turned and found the
Speaker 1: Applied Positive Psychology program at University of Pennsylvania. So I thought,
Speaker 1: why not why not study all the factors that lead
Speaker 1: up to this so that I can hear organizations and
Speaker 1: leaders and people away from that, people give us some
Speaker 1: of the warning signs that that you know now but
Speaker 1: didn't know at the time. So there were three big
Speaker 1: ones and as I as I realized these these are
Speaker 1: actually the three big dimensions of burnout. So this is
Speaker 1: also how you know if if what you're experiencing is
Speaker 1: starting to move away from stress and into something like burnout.
Speaker 1: So the first one was chronic physical and emotional exhaustion. So, um,
Speaker 1: we all have tired days and weeks and things like that,
Speaker 1: but this is over a pere read of time. Nothing
Speaker 1: that I did felt like I could, you know, kind
Speaker 1: of repeal my thing. Um, So there was that one.
Speaker 1: And the second big morning sign is chronic cynicism. So
Speaker 1: everyone just started to bug me and annoy me and
Speaker 1: especially my especially my clients, which is a bad thing
Speaker 1: to have happened. Outwardly, I was always very professional, but
Speaker 1: inwardly there was a lot of eye rolling going on.
Speaker 1: Is that stress or just being a New Yorker. I'm
Speaker 1: just going to say, from my own perspective, I'm kidding
Speaker 1: what's interesting about you know? And our producer Paul Brandon
Speaker 1: said to me, Eric, Carol, You're not gonna like this,
Speaker 1: But she said, one of the things is you can't
Speaker 1: yoga retreat your way out of stress. I'm a big
Speaker 1: yoga person and I've gone on retreats. I mean, the
Speaker 1: whole kind of messages try not to get to the
Speaker 1: point where you're stressed and burnt out right, That it's
Speaker 1: not about treating that, it's trying to get to prevent
Speaker 1: getting there. Yeah. It is also recognizing that we've been
Speaker 1: really kind of talking about burnout in the wrong way
Speaker 1: for a long period of time. We've been focused on
Speaker 1: talking about it is solely kind of an individual problem
Speaker 1: that requires individual strategies to fix it, when in reality,
Speaker 1: there's certainly things about our personalities and our resilience levels
Speaker 1: and things that influence whether we'll burn out. But the
Speaker 1: bigger picture is is looking at the rest of the
Speaker 1: organizational system. Right, It's also the teams that were part
Speaker 1: of and the leaders that we have, and the organizational
Speaker 1: culture and environment, And that's really the bigger piece of
Speaker 1: the puzzle. So we have to start kind of adding
Speaker 1: to the conversations that we're expanding from not just the
Speaker 1: individual approach, but really looking at the whole entire system
Speaker 1: and what we can do. But is this leaders? You know,
Speaker 1: I understand everybody has to look at it, but listen,
Speaker 1: I can certainly say as a worker be you know,
Speaker 1: here's our problem or here's my problem. But you know,
Speaker 1: isn't it up to the folks at the top to
Speaker 1: kind of set the tone? Yeah, it's it's a huge
Speaker 1: piece of the puzzle. And I talked about in the
Speaker 1: in the book that that organizations that have been successful
Speaker 1: at really kind of rolling out more of this systemic
Speaker 1: approach had leader buy in, but it was huge, right,
Speaker 1: And so so that's a lot of where I like
Speaker 1: to start my work is at the leader level. And
Speaker 1: it's not just leaders that that's have as really leaders
Speaker 1: at all levels, um, you know, who have a responsibility
Speaker 1: to to really understand the deeper causes of burnout and recognize, um,
Speaker 1: what's that play within their own teams and spears of influence.
Speaker 1: So what's the right way for us to be thinking
Speaker 1: about this well, so many of us are working from
Speaker 1: home and don't necessarily have that separation between work and life,
Speaker 1: like rolling out of bed and then your desk is
Speaker 1: right there and you just get on that zoom call
Speaker 1: and you're doing that until you realize that it's six pm. Yes,
Speaker 1: and then and then we continue to work after we
Speaker 1: gets been already and things like that. So, so that's
Speaker 1: been a really difficult talent in the kind of like
Speaker 1: a little formula that I've been giving people is that
Speaker 1: we know burnout is more likely to happen when our
Speaker 1: demands um outpace our resources. So when there's an imbalance
Speaker 1: between our demands and resources. And the hard part, I
Speaker 1: think about the environment we've been in so that we
Speaker 1: have We've already had lots of demands with our work,
Speaker 1: and now we have more because of the pandemic and
Speaker 1: other things. Right, so we and we have fewer resources.
Speaker 1: Paula Davis, founder and CEO of the Stress and Resilience Institute,
Speaker 1: also author of the book Beating Burnout at Work? Why
Speaker 1: teams hold the secret to well being and resilience? You me,
Speaker 1: we hold the secret. Tint we have, we have the power.
Speaker 1: You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week Coming up hybrid work
Speaker 1: model back at the office, are working from home? What
Speaker 1: do we all want? A Microsoft round up on the
Speaker 1: great disruption of hybrid work that's next. This is Bloomberg.
Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Quick Takes Tim Spinovik from Bloomberg Radio. We continue with
Speaker 1: looking at how work has been impacted by the pandemic.
Speaker 1: One company with a great window into all of that, Microsoft,
Speaker 1: which came out with another round of data points about
Speaker 1: how we have been working during the pandemic and where
Speaker 1: we are today. To get more on the recently released
Speaker 1: and updated Microsoft Work Trend Index. Jared Spitaro, Corporate ice
Speaker 1: President of Microsoft three six, joined us with an array
Speaker 1: of statistics and findings. When all this started to happen
Speaker 1: about a year ago, you know, one of the things
Speaker 1: I knew for certain, probably the only thing I knew
Speaker 1: for certain, is that we just needed to get some data,
Speaker 1: like we needed to become students of the moment. So
Speaker 1: over the course of this last twelve month period, we
Speaker 1: have periodically been taking samples as we go out and
Speaker 1: find out across the world how people are doing this
Speaker 1: last report that we published is a survey of over
Speaker 1: thirty thousand people in thirty one countries. It's all sorts
Speaker 1: of different mixes of roles and industries, so you see
Speaker 1: everyone from typical knowledge worker that you might see an
Speaker 1: in office to people who are working on the front lines.
Speaker 1: We're getting a good sense of how people are feeling
Speaker 1: and what they're valuing and what their challenges are. How
Speaker 1: are we doing? I mean, like I gotta tell you, uh,
Speaker 1: just talking to friends, reading about how people are feeling,
Speaker 1: I think a lot of people are at their wits end.
Speaker 1: You know, that is essentially what the data says. But
Speaker 1: let me let me kind of pull out a couple
Speaker 1: of points that really caught my attention. If you ask leaders,
Speaker 1: they actually say they're doing pretty well. Sixty one pc
Speaker 1: of leaders say that they are thriving. But that's twenty
Speaker 1: three percentage points higher than those without decision making authority.
Speaker 1: When we get down to the average worker and ask
Speaker 1: them how are we doing, then those numbers, I think,
Speaker 1: you know, really hit that feeling that we all feel
Speaker 1: around us. UM fifty of workers globally say that they
Speaker 1: feel overworked, say that they feel exhausted. So there is
Speaker 1: a sense of exasperation that it's been a very long
Speaker 1: year and the very challenging here. Well, the thing that
Speaker 1: that says to me, Jared, is that we've got to
Speaker 1: make sure that leaders are in sync with workers, right,
Speaker 1: because leaders ultimately said policy that's right. I mean, the
Speaker 1: way I look at this, if we take a step
Speaker 1: back for a moment, you know, I think this is
Speaker 1: one of those once in a lifetime shocks that comes
Speaker 1: to an economy, that comes to a business, that comes
Speaker 1: to organizations, and in fact, what the data seems to
Speaker 1: point out is that leaders are not in sync, that
Speaker 1: they need a little bit of a wake up call.
Speaker 1: I think so many leaders are just kind of thinking
Speaker 1: we're going to go back to the way it was
Speaker 1: in January, and that's just not the case. And so
Speaker 1: this wake up call, I think is a moment for
Speaker 1: all of us to look around and recognize things have changed.
Speaker 1: The labor markets changed, employee sentiment has changed, how we
Speaker 1: do things has changed. It really is a moment that
Speaker 1: demands vision and leadership. And that's what we're trying to
Speaker 1: point out in the data is that there's there's an
Speaker 1: opportunity for so much good there, but at the same time,
Speaker 1: if we just let it unfold on its own, under
Speaker 1: its own weight, there's an opportunity for some downside to
Speaker 1: look such a disconnect between the way that workers feel
Speaker 1: and the way that managers feel. How did the two meet?
Speaker 1: How do workers? How do you know? How do managers
Speaker 1: rise to the occasion here? Well, let's first talk a
Speaker 1: little a little bit about what we're hearing from both sides.
Speaker 1: So when we talk to workers, we hear that over
Speaker 1: seventy percent of them want flexible remote work to stay
Speaker 1: in some forms. In other words, they're saying, I like
Speaker 1: the flexibility. Just anecdotally, when I talk to people on
Speaker 1: my team out here on the West Coast, they say
Speaker 1: things like, you know what, I'm eating breakfast with my
Speaker 1: kids for the very first time. I've never done that before.
Speaker 1: I'd like that to stick around. So they like that.
Speaker 1: At the same time, those same people, sixty percent of
Speaker 1: them say that they want more in person time with
Speaker 1: their teams. So they're saying, please give me flexibility, but
Speaker 1: at the same time, give me the opportunity to get
Speaker 1: back in person. Now, when we look at managers and leaders,
Speaker 1: on the other hand, they are recognizing that that flexibility
Speaker 1: is valuable. Over eight percent of them plan to keep
Speaker 1: more flexible remote from work from home policies post pandemic.
Speaker 1: So I think the meeting the way I would term
Speaker 1: it is we want the best of all worlds. We
Speaker 1: want people to be able to work together, workers and
Speaker 1: managers to find kind of that best of all worlds
Speaker 1: set up so that everybody is getting things that that
Speaker 1: benefit them. And I believe that, you know, there's a
Speaker 1: bright future headic will grab onto them work together. They jared,
Speaker 1: what about demographic differences, age differences when it comes to
Speaker 1: all of this, You know, we definitely saw that if
Speaker 1: we go back to that idea that we're trying to
Speaker 1: understand who's living and who's not doing so well, If
Speaker 1: I just point to gen Z, that's a very interesting
Speaker 1: data point for a sixty percent of gen Z say
Speaker 1: that they're just surviving or even struggling right now during
Speaker 1: the aren't set up. And so essentially what we're seeing
Speaker 1: is that this generation is more likely to be single
Speaker 1: early in career. They are definitely feeling the effects of
Speaker 1: kind of the impact of isolation, struggle with motivation at work.
Speaker 1: They don't have the same financial means as those there
Speaker 1: are more established, and so gen Z in particular reads
Speaker 1: needs I think, you know, some energy and some attention,
Speaker 1: because after all, you know, from our perspective, they are
Speaker 1: the future of work. When we talk about it, it
Speaker 1: has to do with people, and that's the generation that's
Speaker 1: going to help us. What is the right way for
Speaker 1: us to approach this when it comes to balancing our
Speaker 1: working lives. You did mention that for the first time
Speaker 1: parents are able to be breakfast with their kids. But
Speaker 1: at the same time, it also means that there isn't
Speaker 1: that separation between work and home life. Yes, definitely, that's
Speaker 1: something that people are struggling with. Is this idea of
Speaker 1: how do I put boundaries on what I'm doing? So
Speaker 1: we you know, in many ways, I think that you
Speaker 1: should kind of internalize that we have become the first
Speaker 1: truly always on digital workforce, you know, and that was
Speaker 1: forced upon us the starting last year, and we just
Speaker 1: didn't have the norms or the boundaries or the kind
Speaker 1: of cultural things that we needed to deal with it.
Speaker 1: So our recommendation from the data is that companies take
Speaker 1: a step back and they think about a couple of
Speaker 1: key things. They think about new norms that they want
Speaker 1: to establish kind of new approaches that they think will
Speaker 1: be important and even new policies that will help them out.
Speaker 1: So Microsoft, as an example, we've we've already made the
Speaker 1: announcement that our workers can work from home of the time,
Speaker 1: and what we're trying to do there is signal we
Speaker 1: think in person time is important, that FaceTime will be important.
Speaker 1: At the same time, we want to give employees more
Speaker 1: flexibility than they had before the pandemic to do some
Speaker 1: of those things that really matter to them. Well, that's interesting.
Speaker 1: So where do you think you know, companies need to
Speaker 1: invest because it also sounds like on the other side,
Speaker 1: and I know you guys did some work with LinkedIn.
Speaker 1: You know specifically employees are looking for that flexibility when
Speaker 1: they go searching for a job. Absolutely, I mean, one
Speaker 1: of the data points that definitely caught my attention was
Speaker 1: the remote job postings on Lincoln increased more than five
Speaker 1: times during the pandemic, and we saw that it was women,
Speaker 1: gen z and those without graduate degrees who are more
Speaker 1: like to apply for those jobs. So we see a
Speaker 1: really interesting thing happening here with the label market, where
Speaker 1: again this could be a real upside coming out of
Speaker 1: this new world of work now in terms of investments
Speaker 1: and things that we think that people need to do.
Speaker 1: We think that there needs to be more investment in
Speaker 1: kind of first just the people, the soft side of
Speaker 1: how work gets done. We think the companies, as an example,
Speaker 1: really need to lean into well being and helping their
Speaker 1: employees understand you just aren't going to perform well if
Speaker 1: you're trying to work twenty four seven. But how do
Speaker 1: you make that argument to a company that's just focused
Speaker 1: on the bottom line? Like, how do you convince them
Speaker 1: that this is an investment that they need to make, Like,
Speaker 1: what are the numbers that you can show them that say, hey,
Speaker 1: this is something that is vital to the success of
Speaker 1: your company. You bet. I think what you do is
Speaker 1: you appeal to the bottom line. Our perspective has been
Speaker 1: what the numbers are starting to show us is that
Speaker 1: you can't treat people like machines and try and increase
Speaker 1: their productivity by just simply increasing their uptime. You really can't.
Speaker 1: You cannot treat people like machines. And I think with
Speaker 1: people outside of the office and all of us communicating
Speaker 1: over email and in these messaging systems, it probably is
Speaker 1: easier and easier to do that because we're not actually
Speaker 1: around one another. I am not a machine, just true.
Speaker 1: Jared's Pittaro, Corporate vice president of Microsoft three Carroll, I
Speaker 1: can attest to it. You are a living, breathing person. Alright,
Speaker 1: Everyone still to come on Bloomberg Business Week. Our conversation
Speaker 1: and our work is shifting because of change is caused
Speaker 1: by the pandemic. It's a conversation you and I have personally,
Speaker 1: but we have it with all of our guests, and
Speaker 1: we're gonna talk with the vice chair at Prudential Financial.
Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Broadcasting from the financial capital of the world,
Speaker 1: Bloomberg eleven Frio in New York to Washington, d C.
Speaker 1: Bloomberg to Boston, Bloomberg one O six one to San Francisco,
Speaker 1: Bloomberg nine sixty to the country Sirius XM Chado one
Speaker 1: nineteen and around the globe the Bloomberg Business app and
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Radio dot Com. This is Bloomberg Business Week, all right,
Speaker 1: another chat you this week and work shifting and what
Speaker 1: work looks like next thanks to a Bloomberg Live virtual
Speaker 1: event on the subject you and I participated in. Right
Speaker 1: at that event and he go to voice for us on.
Speaker 1: This is Rob Thousand, vice chair at Credential Financial and
Speaker 1: a member of Credentials Board of Directors, who shared the
Speaker 1: company's latest survey on how the pandemic has changed the
Speaker 1: way that work gets done. We started off though, talking
Speaker 1: about the release of the upcoming report. We've got another
Speaker 1: survey coming out and haven't released it yet, but it'll
Speaker 1: be out next week, but a preview on that. I
Speaker 1: think two really interesting things that came out of it.
Speaker 1: The first is really clear that hybrid is going to
Speaker 1: dominate the work environment in the future. UM. The numbers
Speaker 1: on this have been rising every survey that we've done,
Speaker 1: so a seven percent of the respondence to our survey
Speaker 1: to prefer a remote environment at least one day a week,
Speaker 1: so a hybrid environment. UM. That's up from like sixty
Speaker 1: eight percent when we began doing these surveys some time ago.
Speaker 1: The second really interesting thing that came through this that
Speaker 1: maybe shouldn't have been a surprise based on some of
Speaker 1: the data we've seen earlier, but one in four workers
Speaker 1: that indicated that they have very definite plans to change
Speaker 1: employers post to pandemic. Uh. And the interesting thing is, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's your most skilled talent that's actually thinking about making
Speaker 1: those moves. So some really interesting stuff coming out of
Speaker 1: this last survey. Why do you think that is? Well,
Speaker 1: you know, um, I think there's a a disassociation that's
Speaker 1: occurred with individuals over the course of the pandemic. You know,
Speaker 1: you you speak with the colleagues that you deal with
Speaker 1: on a day to day basis, but not with the
Speaker 1: rest of the organization, and so there's been some disassociation
Speaker 1: with a broader colleague group and with the culture of
Speaker 1: the company. And I think as a result of that,
Speaker 1: people are feeling a little less attached to their platforms,
Speaker 1: their their employer than they used to. And there's the
Speaker 1: big driver then beyond that is I think they're frustrated
Speaker 1: that they don't see career opportunities in this environment and
Speaker 1: they're out looking for that career opportunity because they're not
Speaker 1: finding it where they're sitting today. Rob One thing I
Speaker 1: like talking to you about is how employees are thinking
Speaker 1: about their own futures when it comes to switch jobs,
Speaker 1: and also how employers are dealing with that. Do they
Speaker 1: have the talent pool right now to choose from for
Speaker 1: the jobs that are going to be required five ten
Speaker 1: years from now. Yeah, this is a really interesting topic
Speaker 1: and the answer is yes and no. And the the
Speaker 1: reality is we're going to hit the skills gap and
Speaker 1: we're already seeing it. Uh that you know what's happened
Speaker 1: during the pandemic, as there's been an enormous sort of
Speaker 1: roll forward of adoption of digital and technology, and UH
Speaker 1: that's left individuals feeling as if they're not sure they're
Speaker 1: quite prepared for dealing with the workforce. Our numbers show that,
Speaker 1: you know, before the pandemic, about the third of the
Speaker 1: people we surveyed said that weren't sure they had the
Speaker 1: skills for the jobs they had today, and the number
Speaker 1: went up to when they rolled forward five to ten years. Well,
Speaker 1: our recent surveys have indicated that that numbers already up
Speaker 1: to people worried that they don't have the skills to
Speaker 1: compete in today's workforce, and employers are looking at that.
Speaker 1: Our needs have changed pretty dramatically post the pandemic for
Speaker 1: the types of skills that we need. The challenge we're
Speaker 1: going to say is there aren't a lot of people
Speaker 1: out there that are gonna be able to fill these jobs.
Speaker 1: And I think, you know, so the responsible both from
Speaker 1: a leadership standpoint and probably from a societal standpoint, is
Speaker 1: we're all going to have to invest in skilling, reskilling
Speaker 1: and upskilling individuals in order to give them what they
Speaker 1: need to do the jobs of the future that are
Speaker 1: going to be required. What are these skills that are
Speaker 1: required for the jobs of the future. I think so
Speaker 1: often we hear about the idea of people needing to learn,
Speaker 1: especially at a young age, right, coding and computer science
Speaker 1: skills and scam But what are you seeing in the
Speaker 1: results of your surveys. Well, you know, it's it's a
Speaker 1: it's a broad base. Um, I would not underestimate the
Speaker 1: soft skills and the need need to deal with customers.
Speaker 1: I mean, as a history major, that's what I like
Speaker 1: to he got a sun who's a history major. We'd
Speaker 1: like to hear that as well. Uh, it is. It
Speaker 1: is absolutely critical. You know what everyone's talking about digital,
Speaker 1: but you know they're talking about digital as enabling a
Speaker 1: better customer experience, and so there's a lot of investment
Speaker 1: being made at the interface with the customer and making
Speaker 1: that you know, enabled through digital, but also then having
Speaker 1: a higher quality experience, which means that you want people
Speaker 1: to put that higher touch on that and to be
Speaker 1: there for the needs that can't be answered sort of
Speaker 1: through the automated systems that we're setting up. UM, there
Speaker 1: is a need for analytics. I mean, the biggest area
Speaker 1: of hiring that we're probably be doing in the upcoming
Speaker 1: year is going to be around data science and data analytics.
Speaker 1: And that's sort of a higher the you know, the
Speaker 1: higher level of analytics that that the computers can't do.
Speaker 1: It's it's setting up the programming in and interpreting the
Speaker 1: results coming out of that. That gives us insights is
Speaker 1: to you know where where customers are going and what
Speaker 1: they need. So hybrid here to stay, absolutely here to stay. UM.
Speaker 1: Here's an interesting additional thing that came out of the survey,
Speaker 1: Carol um over four just over the people said they
Speaker 1: do not want to work for a company that is
Speaker 1: fully on premise. Another forty percent said they do not
Speaker 1: want to work for a company that is fully remote.
Speaker 1: So you have the book ends that no one wants
Speaker 1: to work in a place that either fully remote or
Speaker 1: fully fully at the office. Everyone wants the hybrid experience
Speaker 1: so you can have the best of both worlds. Rob Thousand,
Speaker 1: Vice chair at Prudential Financial any member of Credentials Board
Speaker 1: of Directors. The getting us back to work means also
Speaker 1: getting our kids safely back to school. Our workplaces need
Speaker 1: to be secure to thoughts on that with the Presidency
Speaker 1: of Siemens Us. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week. That's next.
Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with
Speaker 1: Carol Messer and Bloomberg Quick Takes Tim Stinovich from Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 1: We've got one more segment from our Virtual Work Shifting
Speaker 1: event this week. It's a conversation with the Presidency of
Speaker 1: Siemens Us Barbara Humpton, who is working with companies in
Speaker 1: schools to get people and kids back to work back
Speaker 1: to school safely. Before that, though, Carol, you begin with
Speaker 1: Barbara's reaction to President Biden's infrastructure plan to see the
Speaker 1: administration proposing such bold moves in things that really matter.
Speaker 1: You know, here we are thinking that we're at the
Speaker 1: end or should I say, the beginning of the end
Speaker 1: of a pandemic, and yet we're also at the beginning
Speaker 1: of something rand new when we think about the power
Speaker 1: of infrastructure, and particularly the power of infrastructure using today's
Speaker 1: connected technologies. We have the chance to drive a step
Speaker 1: change that's gonna basically create the foundation for a strong
Speaker 1: economy for decades to come. So we we at SEMENS
Speaker 1: are bullish on the next steps in America's infrastructure. Is
Speaker 1: it safe to say that companies have already been calling
Speaker 1: you an anticipation of the spending or focus on infrastructure.
Speaker 1: Semens has been focused on infrastructure for a long time,
Speaker 1: and I often get asked, you know it, does a
Speaker 1: change of administration make a big difference? And and this
Speaker 1: is truly a bipartisan topic. So I'm proud to say
Speaker 1: that SEMENS for over a hundred sixty years has been
Speaker 1: building America's infrastructure here in the US right, everything from
Speaker 1: originally getting involved in power, in healthcare, in transportation, now
Speaker 1: the future of buildings, future of manufacturing. These are things
Speaker 1: where we've got broad ecosystems partners all across the country
Speaker 1: ready to perform. And I think this is a chance
Speaker 1: to up our game. You talk about the future, barber,
Speaker 1: so talk to us about visibility that you feel like
Speaker 1: you have. Generally speaking, we're going to drill down into
Speaker 1: schools in particular. But when you look at the economy
Speaker 1: from your vantage point. You work with so many different industries,
Speaker 1: so many different companies, so many different suppliers. What's the
Speaker 1: economic and business environment, what does it look like? What
Speaker 1: visibility do you have right now? Yeah, we recognize that
Speaker 1: there's been such tremendous impact on the economy throughout the pandemic.
Speaker 1: This has been a really tough year, and yet if
Speaker 1: you look across verticals within this market, you see some
Speaker 1: exciting signals. As I say, there are segments of the
Speaker 1: market that have been stepping up, responding to the call,
Speaker 1: actually transforming themselves. We knew before coronavirus hit that we
Speaker 1: were at the brink of a digital transformation and this
Speaker 1: Internet of Things that is going to be so much
Speaker 1: bigger than the last decade of the Internet of People.
Speaker 1: So so we recognize the opportunity ahead. There are strong
Speaker 1: verticals beginning to make a move. And where we focused
Speaker 1: most deeply during the days of the pandemic was first
Speaker 1: hospitals making sure healthcare had access to the technologies they needed.
Speaker 1: Then schools obviously working with our partners to make sure
Speaker 1: we were supporting the education of our children, but also
Speaker 1: in industry stepping up, helping pharmaceuticals, medical devices, helping those
Speaker 1: who are producing ppe the items we need every day
Speaker 1: that are going to be vital to us. All of
Speaker 1: these we've been able to ramp up production, help people
Speaker 1: with the tools we can bring to the table. But
Speaker 1: far more important than the technology and the tools has
Speaker 1: been the people. It's been phenomenal to see relationships come
Speaker 1: to fruition and and get creative. So, in terms of
Speaker 1: the economic outlook, do you feel like you have a
Speaker 1: lot of visibility about the next six months or so? Like,
Speaker 1: can you does the economy feel a lot better? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I actually I'm bullish. We are all bullish on this.
Speaker 1: We know that there's pent up demand. We know that
Speaker 1: as things come back online, there's going to be a
Speaker 1: surge to respond to immediate needs, and we see the
Speaker 1: power of the transformation ahead. All right, So let's talk
Speaker 1: about schools. Because the conversation I have had so many
Speaker 1: times and I bet you have as well over the
Speaker 1: past year, is that it was hard for people to
Speaker 1: get back work. It is hard for parents to get
Speaker 1: back to work if they've got young children or and
Speaker 1: those kids aren't in school. What are you hearing? What
Speaker 1: are your expectations about when it comes to school districts,
Speaker 1: what's being done and what needs to be done. Yeah, Carol,
Speaker 1: it's that right. It's it's what what impact has this
Speaker 1: had on working people? But it's also what impact has
Speaker 1: this had on the work for us of the future.
Speaker 1: You know, a year of lost learning opportunities is something
Speaker 1: we all need to be concerned about. So we've been
Speaker 1: working with school districts all across the country. Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: with the American Rescue Plan the right, we have an
Speaker 1: amazing amount of funding available to us now, some two
Speaker 1: eight billions for both K through twelve and higher ed
Speaker 1: to help schools adapt their operations to what we're now
Speaker 1: dealing with as reality. Now, a lot of people can
Speaker 1: do a lot of things with those resources. We're really
Speaker 1: encouraging leaders to take a look at technologies that are
Speaker 1: available to us today to actually make those school buildings,
Speaker 1: those school facilities healthier. You know, years ago we all
Speaker 1: you know, put in place HVAC systems, etcetera. A lot
Speaker 1: of that infrastructure is over fifty years old. Now we
Speaker 1: have technologies today, including things like safe ozone, free ion
Speaker 1: is a things like UV treatment, ways to actually adapt
Speaker 1: HVAC systems so that we can provide healthier indoor environments.
Speaker 1: I mean, let's face it, the air quality is five
Speaker 1: times more contaminated inside than outside, and yet we're spending
Speaker 1: over nine of our time indoors. It's important that we
Speaker 1: get these indoor facilities to be as healthy as possible.
Speaker 1: I want to ask you, and I want to bring
Speaker 1: in a pole because we talked to our audience here
Speaker 1: at this Bloomberg Live event, UM, and we asked them
Speaker 1: specifically about do you trust your company operations to keep
Speaker 1: you safe? If and when you return to your office,
Speaker 1: and fully half are saying they don't trust their companies
Speaker 1: to keep them safe. And when you talk about safety,
Speaker 1: you just touched upon it. Barbara. It's all kinds of things,
Speaker 1: but it's air quality. Um. When you see that, are
Speaker 1: you surprised by those numbers? Yes? And no? Right, we
Speaker 1: are still in the early days where folks need in
Speaker 1: site into information and data. I mean, what forms the
Speaker 1: basis for trust? It really comes from two factors. One is,
Speaker 1: do I believe that this organization is competent? Do they
Speaker 1: understand and have knowledge of what needs to be done here?
Speaker 1: And then what about integrity? Are these people who will
Speaker 1: be trustworthy with me? And so I think all of
Speaker 1: us businesses, government, etcetera have to earn that trust. We
Speaker 1: at Siemens are relying on the science and we're doing
Speaker 1: all we can to educate people on the tools that
Speaker 1: are available to us today and knowledge is growing every day.
Speaker 1: You know, you took me to a place and I
Speaker 1: want to get back to more of the tools and
Speaker 1: the technology because you guys are front and center with that.
Speaker 1: But is there now a new or should there be
Speaker 1: a new informal contract between leaders, heads of companies and
Speaker 1: their employees when it comes to safety, it's not just
Speaker 1: about falling downstairs, but it's also about this pandemic has
Speaker 1: taught is so much more. It's it's much more deeper.
Speaker 1: So should there kind of be an informal formal contract
Speaker 1: when it is to safety at work? Well, I hope
Speaker 1: other companies are like us. We've made the environmental health
Speaker 1: and safety aspect of our of our business and the
Speaker 1: foundation of our business. And we have a motto. It's
Speaker 1: a simple one. We take care of each other. It's
Speaker 1: something that guides us each day and throughout this past year,
Speaker 1: our e h S professionals have really been heroes, you know,
Speaker 1: being on the front line providing our employees with more
Speaker 1: information informing upper management about the things we need to
Speaker 1: understand about the environment. At SEMENS, we do have the
Speaker 1: need to have people in work environments every single day,
Speaker 1: but for those who have the flexibility to work from
Speaker 1: everywhere are our new deal. Our agreement is hey from
Speaker 1: here on out, two to three days, wherever your most productive.
Speaker 1: So I do think A we have tools and techniques
Speaker 1: to make those fixed work environments like factories, like hospitals,
Speaker 1: like schools healthier, and we have the ability now to
Speaker 1: give people more flexibility to make their own choices through
Speaker 1: digital connections. You know, it's interesting a question just coming
Speaker 1: in from our audience about this barbera. It says, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, it has to do with mental health, which
Speaker 1: is something I've had, you know, go back a year.
Speaker 1: I don't think I would have expected to have these
Speaker 1: conversations with CEOs and leaders like yourself, but it has
Speaker 1: infiltrated every conversation, and that has to do with the
Speaker 1: mental well being as well as the physical well being
Speaker 1: of their employees. This question coming in, what system do
Speaker 1: you have in place for people juggling so many chaotic
Speaker 1: situations in their lives which are causing unimaginable mental stress
Speaker 1: for them. Yeah. The first actually is making us all
Speaker 1: aware that it's a reality, right, actually stepping up and
Speaker 1: saying this is a fact of today's work life, and
Speaker 1: we used to talk about work life balance. I've always
Speaker 1: been a proponent. Over this past year, we've all come
Speaker 1: to the reality of working in an environment. So we
Speaker 1: have absolutely added mental wellness tools to our tool kits
Speaker 1: so that managers and employees can have open dialogue, employees
Speaker 1: can have um conversations with people outside of the company
Speaker 1: if they're not comfortable speaking up inside the company. All
Speaker 1: of those are are there to assist us as we
Speaker 1: deal with this reality. That's President and CEO of siemens Us,
Speaker 1: Barbara Humpton. I've been thinking a lot about this because
Speaker 1: we are a year into this pandemic and the gap
Speaker 1: that we've seen between the millions of people who are
Speaker 1: unemployed and the millions of people who have been working
Speaker 1: from home over the last year, and how those experiences
Speaker 1: have differed so much. Yeah, and especially differences I think
Speaker 1: between how maybe leaders are seeing some of this either
Speaker 1: wanting workers to come back or thinking hybrid worked really well,
Speaker 1: and employees actually with a different perspective and listen check
Speaker 1: out all of these conversations because it really gives you
Speaker 1: some great insight, especially if you're a leader, about maybe
Speaker 1: some of the policies you need to be setting. And
Speaker 1: that wraps up the weekend edition of Bloomberg Business Week
Speaker 1: from Bloomberg Radio. Thanks so much for joining us from
Speaker 1: Carol Masser and Tim Stanovk. Be sure to tune into
Speaker 1: our Bloomberg Business Week Daily show Monday through Friday. It
Speaker 1: starts at two pm Wall Street Time on Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 1: You can also watch our daily podcast on YouTube. Just
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Speaker 1: Terminal'll have a great weekend everyone, This is Bloomberg