Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Jason
Speaker 1: Kelly on Bloomberg Radio. Let's add out to Wisconsin. Uh
Speaker 1: rejoining us is John Burke. He is the president of
Speaker 1: Trek Bikes. It's a family business. We got to know
Speaker 1: him a little bit, I believe late last year. Carol,
Speaker 1: My timeline is all uh messed up a little bit,
Speaker 1: but great to have John back with us. John, how
Speaker 1: are you. I'm great, Thank you very much for having me. Good. Well,
Speaker 1: it's good to hear your voice. And I trust everybody
Speaker 1: as well in your family and things are going okay
Speaker 1: out in Wisconsin. They're doing very well. Thank you. So
Speaker 1: you are in a unique position. I think are in
Speaker 1: an interesting position, to say the least, as a business
Speaker 1: owner an employer who has spent a lot of time.
Speaker 1: We've read multiples of your books, you know, both the
Speaker 1: one that you put together about the company, the one
Speaker 1: you wrote about your father. You are someone who has
Speaker 1: really been forward thinking and has made thinking about your
Speaker 1: employees and your customers really at the center of everything
Speaker 1: you're doing. How do you sort of synthes is everything
Speaker 1: that's going on in the world and look at it
Speaker 1: through that lens well, you know, I mean I've I've
Speaker 1: been at Trek for thirty six years now, and I've
Speaker 1: seen a lot of different things, and I've never seen
Speaker 1: anything with the impact of the virus. I mean, these
Speaker 1: are unprecedented times, and so as a as a company,
Speaker 1: one of the things we're really focused on our customers.
Speaker 1: We've got five thousand small businesses around the globe and
Speaker 1: we're trying to figure out everything we can do to
Speaker 1: help those customers survive and help them get through this crisis.
Speaker 1: These are your retailers, these are retailers. Well, tell us
Speaker 1: about some of the things that you've had to you know,
Speaker 1: some of the stories that you're hearing from them, some
Speaker 1: of the steps that you've had to do to help
Speaker 1: them get through this, you know. I mean it's a
Speaker 1: mixed bag. I mean some you know. One of the
Speaker 1: things that's good about being in the bike business right
Speaker 1: now is bikes are good for social distancing, they're good
Speaker 1: for the ironment, they're good for people's health. And you're
Speaker 1: seeing a lot of people riding bikes, not just in
Speaker 1: certain cities in the US, but all over the US
Speaker 1: and all over the world. So there's actually, believe it
Speaker 1: or not, a mini bike boom going on in certain markets.
Speaker 1: In other markets, they're just closed. So we're having to
Speaker 1: deal with the mixed bag. But one of the things
Speaker 1: we're doing is an example, is we're putting out a
Speaker 1: whole bunch of information as to how bicycles can run
Speaker 1: a safe play with both their employees and their customers.
Speaker 1: We're also helping people out with how can you help
Speaker 1: getting government assistance? Here. We set up a hotline within
Speaker 1: the business here. The other thing we're doing is, you know,
Speaker 1: we send out content on here's six ways that you
Speaker 1: can make it through the crisis. We're doing everything we
Speaker 1: can to help those retailers manage their businesses. And so
Speaker 1: John tell us about what this outbreak is like in
Speaker 1: how this virus is affecting your local community and what
Speaker 1: that means in terms of you taking action for your employees. Well,
Speaker 1: you know, as as soon as the virus broke, we
Speaker 1: we got the you know, the senior staff together here
Speaker 1: and we said what our priorities and we came up
Speaker 1: with six six priorities, and number one was the safety
Speaker 1: for our employees and our customers. And that's something we're
Speaker 1: super serious about. So we're having everybody worked from home.
Speaker 1: We have a small manufacturing group that works at the office. Um,
Speaker 1: I'm still working at the office just because I like
Speaker 1: being here. And when you come in, you get your
Speaker 1: temperature taken, you get asked a bunch of questions. But
Speaker 1: we're doing everything we can on a safety side here
Speaker 1: and we're doing everything we can to make sure employees
Speaker 1: are in a good space. I mean, I'm just curious
Speaker 1: what your perspective is too, as you look at what's
Speaker 1: going on on the coast, whether it's West coast you know,
Speaker 1: or the East coast. Certainly big markets for you guys, Um,
Speaker 1: you know, but the the magnitude of cases and shutdown
Speaker 1: are you anticipating you know, something along those levels or
Speaker 1: I'm just curious how you see it? Well, you know,
Speaker 1: we you know, you take a look Michigan for example,
Speaker 1: I mean, our business in Michigan is down. And if
Speaker 1: you take a look at the bike business, April is
Speaker 1: Christmas and the bike business and you're taking a look
Speaker 1: at big markets for a trek that are just shut down.
Speaker 1: And if you go to Europe you're looking at you know,
Speaker 1: a shutdown. But um, you know, thankfully there's you know
Speaker 1: a few other positive things going on just because of
Speaker 1: the popularity of the bike, and we believe. My whole
Speaker 1: message to the team here is we're going to use
Speaker 1: this as our finest hour. We are rethinking everything about
Speaker 1: the business. It's a whole new world and when we
Speaker 1: get on the other side of this, we're going to
Speaker 1: be stronger than we've ever been before. That's what we're
Speaker 1: focused on. That's so interesting. So tell us give us
Speaker 1: an example of something that that you're rethinking. Are we
Speaker 1: talking some light chain, are we talking sort of retail relationships,
Speaker 1: like maybe all of the above, Like, give us an
Speaker 1: example of something there. You know, we're talking everything, but
Speaker 1: I'll take you in one place, which is just digital. Um,
Speaker 1: most of our bikes are sold through retailers, and people
Speaker 1: walk into a store and they buy the store. Well,
Speaker 1: in this world, a lot of people home delivery. So
Speaker 1: our whole website has changed to you know, you can
Speaker 1: get on the website, you can buy the bike, you
Speaker 1: can get that bike delivered at your house. Um. That
Speaker 1: might sound like an easy thing, but to pull that off,
Speaker 1: I think we pulled that off in less than a week.
Speaker 1: We're pulling it off really well. And it's all those
Speaker 1: sorts of things that we're doing, whether it's working with
Speaker 1: the customer on the website, our supply chain, the way
Speaker 1: we're dealing with marketing where our sales people are focused. Um,
Speaker 1: this is a new world and uh, we're adapting to
Speaker 1: it still with us. John Burke, president of Track Bikes,
Speaker 1: on the phone from Wisconsin. So, John, tell us a
Speaker 1: little bit about this book that you wrote, Sixteen simple
Speaker 1: Solutions to save America. Um. Timely, uh and thoughtful considering
Speaker 1: it is an election year, and I do feel like
Speaker 1: right now we are seeing some leaders step up to
Speaker 1: the plate and some really disappoint You know, after the
Speaker 1: two thousand and sixteen election, I said to myself, I
Speaker 1: was really kind of disappointed with the whole political process,
Speaker 1: and I said, if no one runs for the presidency
Speaker 1: who is competent or who has a plan, that I'd
Speaker 1: do it myself. And so I spent the last two
Speaker 1: years of writing a book which would be my plan
Speaker 1: for the American people. And I got to the end
Speaker 1: and I decided not to run. But I decided, you
Speaker 1: know what, this is a really good plan and I'm
Speaker 1: going to share it with the American people. In the
Speaker 1: first chapter, and there's sixteen on sixteen Nonpartisan Solutions to
Speaker 1: Save America. The first chapter is demand a high performance
Speaker 1: government it and I think we um, I think we
Speaker 1: deserve better as a people, and I think COVID nineteen
Speaker 1: is a perfect example of good government matters. And I
Speaker 1: think we've forgotten that as a people. And right now
Speaker 1: we're paying the price for poor leadership, and we're paying
Speaker 1: the price for poor government. And what have you seen
Speaker 1: is this has has played out because we've been talking
Speaker 1: about this a ton, uh, John, as you can imagine,
Speaker 1: especially sort of sitting here where we are in the
Speaker 1: Tri state area and seeing mayors and governors, you know, candidly,
Speaker 1: regardless of your politics, sort of step to the step
Speaker 1: to the front. I mean this unprecedented. I think by
Speaker 1: all accounts, you know, even conference call that Weed saw earlier.
Speaker 1: It really you know, brings that to mind, Carol, and
Speaker 1: similar things going on on the West coast too. And
Speaker 1: I'm guessing around you as as well, John, Um, what
Speaker 1: have you what have you learned about leadership or what
Speaker 1: are some of the things that you've seen that dovetail
Speaker 1: with what you're writing about? You know, I think a
Speaker 1: key here is, you know, Jim Collins, Great Business author
Speaker 1: definds a level of five leader, and he says it's
Speaker 1: a it's a combination of will and humility. And humility
Speaker 1: is putting the team first and not putting yourself first.
Speaker 1: And humility is being a learn it all, not a
Speaker 1: know it all. And I think the problem we have
Speaker 1: with this administration is we have just worthy know it all.
Speaker 1: And if you take a look January, the first case
Speaker 1: of coronavirus happened in South Korea, and it happened in
Speaker 1: the United States on exactly the same day. If you
Speaker 1: take a look at where we are now, if you
Speaker 1: take a look at South Korea, they've had less than
Speaker 1: two deaths. In the United States, it's over ten thousand.
Speaker 1: Our country is shut down. There's is not and worth
Speaker 1: spending two trillion dollars in the first first group of
Speaker 1: funding to try and get our economy back. That's the
Speaker 1: price of poor government is we missed this thing at
Speaker 1: the start. Even though you had people like Bill Gates,
Speaker 1: you people like George W. Bush, you had Barack Obama,
Speaker 1: you had people talking about the potential of a pandemic,
Speaker 1: and for sure you had the CIA, you had other
Speaker 1: intelligence agencies telling the White House, this is what could
Speaker 1: happen in January, and it was ignored. Yeah, he said like,
Speaker 1: how do you you know, what do you do with that? Um,
Speaker 1: what do you do? What do you do with that?
Speaker 1: Because it's not you know, this is something Jason, you
Speaker 1: know we've talked about this that you know, past administrations
Speaker 1: in times of crisis will lean on past leaders to
Speaker 1: be like, how did you do or what did you
Speaker 1: know or what would you do? Like and we're not
Speaker 1: necessarily seeing that this time round. No, And you know
Speaker 1: you're seeing somebody who's a self proclaimed genius and that's
Speaker 1: not leadership. Leadership is a high degree of will combined
Speaker 1: with humility that you learn from other people, that you
Speaker 1: have the best experts, that you listen to people, and
Speaker 1: you go from there. And I think where we really
Speaker 1: missed it. A lot of talk is you know, where
Speaker 1: we allocate resources today when we open back up. But
Speaker 1: I think you got to go back to January. But John,
Speaker 1: don't you also to be fair? Is I feel like
Speaker 1: and this was this has certainly been a theme of
Speaker 1: our broadcast here today is about to some extent, you know,
Speaker 1: we're seeing it now. The governor's coordinating about how do
Speaker 1: we reopen they understand this right, We didn't really see
Speaker 1: a ton of global cooperation either. I feel like among
Speaker 1: leaders in terms of dealing with this well. And I think,
Speaker 1: you know, one of the there's sixteen chapters in my book,
Speaker 1: and one of them is on the you know, importance
Speaker 1: of a responsible foreign policy. We used to lead the world.
Speaker 1: We used to have a lot of friends. You know,
Speaker 1: if you take a look at, you know, some of
Speaker 1: the age old alliances that this country has with countries
Speaker 1: like Germany, um, those don't exist to the extent that
Speaker 1: they used to. And the United States used to be
Speaker 1: the global leader. And if you take a look at
Speaker 1: where we are with COVID nineteen, we're not there. We
Speaker 1: used to be there, and we can be there again,
Speaker 1: but it takes leadership in order to make that happen.
Speaker 1: And in this book, I lay out here sixteen chapters,
Speaker 1: and I think one of the key things is is
Speaker 1: going forward, what do we learn from this pandemic, Because
Speaker 1: there's other big issues that people have been warning about.
Speaker 1: They've been warning about a nuclear holocaust. If you take
Speaker 1: a look at climate change, people have been warning about
Speaker 1: climate change. If you take a look at the health
Speaker 1: of our people. The people in the United States today
Speaker 1: are obese, and by thirty it's projected to be big
Speaker 1: issues that need leadership. Well, and to your point, I mean,
Speaker 1: and we've been talking about this a lot, and we'll
Speaker 1: have to save this for our next conversation. But you know,
Speaker 1: the other one of the big, big things that this
Speaker 1: crisis has laid bare is the deep, deep inequality that
Speaker 1: we have, uh that is structural in many ways, and
Speaker 1: when you see the victims of this crisis, it is
Speaker 1: very very clear. Alright, great to catch up with you.
Speaker 1: John Burke, president of Truk Bikes, joining us on the
Speaker 1: phone from Wisconsin. His new book, Sixteen Simple Solutions to
Speaker 1: Save America. Check that out. Think about all. You know,
Speaker 1: we were saying that the virus doesn't discriminate. It does discriminate,
Speaker 1: I mean in terms of those that seem to be impacted, um,
Speaker 1: you know, much more dramatically. It's often a poorer population
Speaker 1: and minority population. It just we've got some problems out
Speaker 1: there that we really need to tackle.