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 Sloomberg
Speaker 1: Business Week with Carol Messier and Bloomberg Quick Takes. Tim
Speaker 1: Stinovic on Bloomberg Radio. Hi, everyone, Welcome to the weekend
Speaker 1: edition of Bloomberg Business Week. This week overshadowed by geopolitical
Speaker 1: concerns with the United States withdrawing from Afghanistan, and of
Speaker 1: course Tim the delta variants stoking more fears with COVID
Speaker 1: cases rising present by urging all unvaccinated Americans who are
Speaker 1: eligible to do it now. It's not just those who
Speaker 1: haven't been vaccinated, Carol. The White House also saying that
Speaker 1: booster shots for both people who have received MODERNA and
Speaker 1: VISOR vaccines, they should be taken about eight months after
Speaker 1: one got that second does so well. We are still
Speaker 1: waiting to hear guidance on recipients from the Johnson Johnson shot.
Speaker 1: Expect to start to see people who got those m
Speaker 1: R and A vaccines getting those boosters come September. I'm
Speaker 1: looking at my calendar, marking my calendar. When do I
Speaker 1: got a few more months. I still have a few
Speaker 1: more months, right, but we're all kind of just figuring out,
Speaker 1: all right, when do we get that booster shot. As
Speaker 1: for market's a bit of a mixed bag for retail
Speaker 1: earnings this week retail traders as well, with robin Hood
Speaker 1: disappointing after releasing its first result since going public. If
Speaker 1: you want to know more, just check out the Bloomberg
Speaker 1: terminal and Bloomberg dot Com. Yeah a little hint though,
Speaker 1: strong revenue coming from Crypto, but they be warning of
Speaker 1: seasonality when it comes to trading patterns, so yeah, check
Speaker 1: out the terminal for more on that. Meanwhile, a strong
Speaker 1: second quarter for pet store owner and operator pet Co.
Speaker 1: We're going to talk to the CEO, Ron Coglin, all
Speaker 1: about the numbers and his new colleague in the C suite.
Speaker 1: All right, yep, and just a little hint there, people
Speaker 1: are still buying lots of stuff for their pets. We're
Speaker 1: alsoting kitched up with renowned civil rights activist Laura Murphy
Speaker 1: and her transition from the a C l U to
Speaker 1: navigating the corporate world and how she is helping other
Speaker 1: companies tim track racism at their institutions. Yeah. What she's
Speaker 1: done is she's developed a new audit method to get
Speaker 1: companies to confront their own roles in perpetuating racial disparities.
Speaker 1: We're going to talk about the results at the likes
Speaker 1: of Facebook and Airbnb. Yeah, exactly. She spent a lot
Speaker 1: of time with both companies. All that to come, we
Speaker 1: begin with a look at this week's issue of Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Business Week magazine. The cover story you're gonna hear a
Speaker 1: little bit more later on about it. It's all about
Speaker 1: entry level wages on Wall Street. Big name investment banks
Speaker 1: are doling out unprecedented salaries to help attract new talent,
Speaker 1: but younger workers are demanding more of a work life
Speaker 1: balance and balking one work weeks. Can I tell you
Speaker 1: one of the things I love about this story is
Speaker 1: essentially how the older guys on Wall Street, the former CEOs,
Speaker 1: are like, Uh, this is what it's supposed to be about.
Speaker 1: You put in a lot of time upfront, and then
Speaker 1: you kind of reap the rewards in later years. That's
Speaker 1: just how it works. In fact, one person that Shri
Speaker 1: not Rajan spoke to for this story said, I would
Speaker 1: have paid to get the experience that I got. It
Speaker 1: when personally you're talking about Lloyd blankly. Yeah, I know,
Speaker 1: I am a very important person. I didn't want to
Speaker 1: give too much away, Carol, but it is interesting you
Speaker 1: think about different occupations. If you go to be a doctor, it's,
Speaker 1: you know, so difficult in those early years, right, You're
Speaker 1: you know, on shifts all the time, you're barely getting sleep,
Speaker 1: and then you reap the rewards later. I mean, I
Speaker 1: think that's true for a lot of occupations. I think
Speaker 1: it is too And I think the difference that we're
Speaker 1: seeing right now is the remote work element. And so
Speaker 1: many of these young employees were working remotely and isolated
Speaker 1: for such a long period of time when the deal
Speaker 1: started to come in, and I think that there is
Speaker 1: something to be said about the camaraderie that happens in
Speaker 1: a workplace when people are physically there. Another story that
Speaker 1: you should definitely check out in the magazine get Ready
Speaker 1: for the back attacks backs the companies they take public.
Speaker 1: We know that that has been one of the big trends.
Speaker 1: They're not new, but they really took off again in
Speaker 1: the last year year and a half or so. They're
Speaker 1: already becoming a feeding ground though for short sellers and
Speaker 1: activist shareholders apparently aren't far behind, so says our Scott Devot. Yeah.
Speaker 1: As of July sixteenth, Carol, total short interest in active
Speaker 1: SPACK securities hit more than two point three billion dollars.
Speaker 1: That's up more than threefold from the start of year.
Speaker 1: That's according to data compiled by S three Partners. One
Speaker 1: other element of this is that spacks traditionally and in general,
Speaker 1: have this twenty four month period where they have to
Speaker 1: go and find a company to buy. They have to
Speaker 1: put that money to use that they've raised from investors.
Speaker 1: So as we do get to the twelve eighty four
Speaker 1: month mark out from when these companies and these SPACs
Speaker 1: have raised money, what do the companies then look like
Speaker 1: that they end up going to buy? The clock is
Speaker 1: kind of ticking. So do we see this trend continue
Speaker 1: where investors say, wait a second, I don't think the
Speaker 1: company that you bought is up to snuff. We're going
Speaker 1: to short that position. So that's a good story to
Speaker 1: check out. The other thing is I always like you
Speaker 1: love I know what you're gonna say, Carol. I knew
Speaker 1: you were going to say you love pursuits. I do too,
Speaker 1: you know, it's just fun things that are going on
Speaker 1: our world. We all need, uh, you know, to kind
Speaker 1: of spread out some of our readings. We get kind
Speaker 1: of dragged down in a lot of We'll just say
Speaker 1: we all need to go on a journey on one
Speaker 1: of these ayahuasca trips. This vacation is a real trip.
Speaker 1: That's the cover of pursuits and it's talking about psychedelic
Speaker 1: experiences are beginning to play an integral role at luxury resorts.
Speaker 1: It's not just about massages and body scrums, but it
Speaker 1: is about wellness, yes, and that's I think a really
Speaker 1: important theme here. And they're not the people who do
Speaker 1: these don't necessarily like to call them quote unquote trips, right.
Speaker 1: They want to call them journeys. They want these to
Speaker 1: be guided experiences, and the idea is for it to
Speaker 1: be holistic. And I think we're seeing a lot of
Speaker 1: experimentation with these substances and to what extent they actually
Speaker 1: do make someone feel better. It's all about spiritual healing
Speaker 1: and metaphysical self discovery of guided plant based psychedelic experiences. Uh.
Speaker 1: And they are called we know, trips, but most practitioners
Speaker 1: prefer the term, as you said, journey. You read this
Speaker 1: story I read the story. Yeah, I liked it. Um,
Speaker 1: I liked it a lot. You took a trip, No,
Speaker 1: I did not. I did not, um. But it is
Speaker 1: interesting to see this and regulations change around this. Uh
Speaker 1: and where you can actually legally do this? Hey, and
Speaker 1: one other thing. In Pursuits by Hannah Elliott, she covers
Speaker 1: all things cars for us here at Pursuits, she profiles
Speaker 1: the individual who helps billionaires and manufacturers get their collectibles
Speaker 1: delivered on time. When they're buying some high end cars,
Speaker 1: whether they bought him at auction or what have you,
Speaker 1: she's the person who actually makes the delivery. Yeah, if
Speaker 1: you've got a million dollar Ferrari or perhaps a Boogatti
Speaker 1: and you want to get into it from California to Florida,
Speaker 1: this is the person to call. Yeah, exactly. So be
Speaker 1: sure to check out the new issue of Bloomberg Business
Speaker 1: Week magazine. It's online at Bloomberg dot com, on newsstands
Speaker 1: and on the Bloomberg Terminal. Coming up, a man who
Speaker 1: predicted the need for COVID booster shots months ago is
Speaker 1: now seeing his words come to fruition. We get the
Speaker 1: latest on vaccine durability in the next chapter of this
Speaker 1: pandemic from Access Health International Chair and President Dr William Hasselteam.
Speaker 1: You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week, and this is Bloomberg.
Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Quick Takes. Tim Stenovik from Bloomberg Radio. Back in May,
Speaker 1: our next guest said he expected the need for COVID
Speaker 1: vaccine booster shots despite their high rate of effectiveness against
Speaker 1: the virus. Well now his prediction it's coming true with
Speaker 1: the pandemic still raging. Tim, we know that and variants
Speaker 1: putting more lives at risk, even those who have been inoculated.
Speaker 1: This week, the Biden administration unbuild its plan for vaccine
Speaker 1: boosters starting in September for eligible recipients eight months clear
Speaker 1: of their second dose of the MODERNA or Fiser vaccines.
Speaker 1: My administration of planning for this possibility in this scenario
Speaker 1: for months. We purchased enough vaccine and vaccine supplies so
Speaker 1: that when you're eight month mark comes up, you'll be
Speaker 1: ready to get your vaccination free at booster shot free.
Speaker 1: We have it available now. Dr William has Altine is
Speaker 1: back with us to tell us what's next when it
Speaker 1: comes to fight against COVID nineteen. He also lays out
Speaker 1: a plan to deal with the trauma that we've experienced
Speaker 1: throughout the pandemic. He's got another book out, Carol, and
Speaker 1: it focuses on the effects of what he calls c
Speaker 1: v PTSD. I think it's very clear now, and that's
Speaker 1: why the government has moved to the way it is.
Speaker 1: It's very clear now that to protect against serious illness
Speaker 1: where most people are going to need a booster, they've
Speaker 1: paid that at about eight months. It's probably about right
Speaker 1: for most people. For people who are older, it's probably
Speaker 1: a little shorter than that. Six months will do. And
Speaker 1: so I would stand by my statement that six months
Speaker 1: from my last vaccine, I'm certainly planning to get another booster.
Speaker 1: And I think the government's official recommendation now is every
Speaker 1: adult uh get a booster beginning eight months from the
Speaker 1: last vaccination. This isn't magic. This is kind of like
Speaker 1: the flu. I mean, it isn't new to us. We
Speaker 1: said every year we have to get a new flu vaccine.
Speaker 1: I don't know what's so special about this why people
Speaker 1: are so surprised. And every few years we do have
Speaker 1: to get boosters for for other vaccines as well, I mean,
Speaker 1: you certainly have to do that. I think perhaps the
Speaker 1: question that people would have about this is is it
Speaker 1: specifically related to the Delta variant or is it the
Speaker 1: durability of the vaccine de clients regardless of whether or
Speaker 1: not we're being hit with new variants. You know, that's
Speaker 1: a good question. The answer is yes to both. Delta
Speaker 1: is better at evading the vaccines, but as time goes on,
Speaker 1: the vaccines will wane in effectiveness against all variants, even
Speaker 1: the original ones. So that's to be expected. You know,
Speaker 1: if you go back and look at what I was
Speaker 1: writing a year ago, I was predicting that any vaccine
Speaker 1: that would be developed would be of relatively short duration.
Speaker 1: That's because we have a lot of experience with viruses
Speaker 1: like this, particularly the flu. I think the more people
Speaker 1: start thinking about this is a very dangerous virus like
Speaker 1: the flu, much more like the flu than anything else.
Speaker 1: The better off will be something that has to be observed,
Speaker 1: will come back every year, maybe twice a year. The
Speaker 1: odd thing about this one is coming back in the
Speaker 1: United States in the summer and the winter, and so
Speaker 1: it's a little different in that respect. It's more lethal.
Speaker 1: So we've got to be more careful, but we've probably
Speaker 1: got to keep up with our vaccines every six months
Speaker 1: to every year. That's not terror well, but it's not.
Speaker 1: It's not the best news, but it's not the worst either.
Speaker 1: Vaccines are still only approved under emergencies authorization for people
Speaker 1: over the age of twelve. How do we get past
Speaker 1: this pandemic, especially as kids go back to school, when
Speaker 1: millions of children cannot be vaccinated? We start vaccinating our
Speaker 1: children as soon as possible. How soon can I think
Speaker 1: that's going to I think that once the results are in,
Speaker 1: I'm pretty confident that this vaccine will be safe for children.
Speaker 1: But until you've done the studies, you don't know. I
Speaker 1: know our government is working as fast as possible to
Speaker 1: get those studies done. I hope it's done. Let's say
Speaker 1: by Thanksgiving. I would certainly hope so. And I think
Speaker 1: by that time we'll have um actual approval for the
Speaker 1: MODERNA and the fives are vaccines will have a real approval,
Speaker 1: not just emergency use authorization. Do you think that will
Speaker 1: have approval for or emergency use authorization for twelve to
Speaker 1: ages zero to twelve or does it start with like
Speaker 1: zero but maybe three or two to to twelve. Yes,
Speaker 1: I think that's what we're heading for. I know that
Speaker 1: people are working as hard as they can to get
Speaker 1: that data so they can, if possible, if which proves
Speaker 1: to be safe, to go ahead and do it. And
Speaker 1: my guess is it looks like it will be safe. Well. Look,
Speaker 1: it has been a tough year for many many people,
Speaker 1: not just specifically because of COVID. If they got it,
Speaker 1: or even if they didn't get it, perhaps they've suffered
Speaker 1: from what you describe as uh cv PTSD. You write
Speaker 1: that it encompasses the full effects of all that we've
Speaker 1: endured over the past year and a half, manifested daily
Speaker 1: and rising rates of depression, anxiety, and drug addiction, and
Speaker 1: the ongoing loss of academic opportunities for the young. I
Speaker 1: wonder how we get past this. If you say that
Speaker 1: COVID is going to be endemic like the flu, how
Speaker 1: do we get past COVID PTSD. Well, the first thing
Speaker 1: we have to recognize that it exists both for individuals
Speaker 1: and actually for the whole society. Uh. In addition to
Speaker 1: the normal stresses that we undergo, this has been a
Speaker 1: tremendous economic stress. It's been a stress, the fear of
Speaker 1: getting the disease. There's been a lot of conflicting messages,
Speaker 1: both official conflicting messages and unofficial click conflicting messages. It's
Speaker 1: it's it's like the perfect storm for creating stress and anxiety.
Speaker 1: And if you look at the numbers of people who
Speaker 1: report anxiety, it's close to people who report UH depression,
Speaker 1: much much higher. A lot of young people are feeling
Speaker 1: especially stressed. Now, what can you do about it? As
Speaker 1: they say, the first thing is to recognize it. You know,
Speaker 1: we didn't recognize combat post traumatic stress disorder until we
Speaker 1: called it shell shock or malingering, get all sorts of
Speaker 1: names for it. Once we had a name for it
Speaker 1: and we recognized what it was, we began to develop treatments.
Speaker 1: And there's a very well developed treatment program UH in
Speaker 1: Paradigm for post traumatic stress disorder. The Veterans Administration uses
Speaker 1: it all the time, and it involves counseling, recognition of
Speaker 1: what's happened, and then UH there's sometimes some drugs that help.
Speaker 1: But I would say, for what's happening now, let's take
Speaker 1: to schools. For example, all the kids are going back
Speaker 1: to schools, the teachers are stressed, and they're going to
Speaker 1: be dealing with a lot of stressed children. I think
Speaker 1: we have to support our teachers and our children with
Speaker 1: additional social work and psychiatric social work in our schools
Speaker 1: because that's where we're going to see it first. As
Speaker 1: the children go back to school, they're going to be
Speaker 1: learning problems of the behavioral problems they can manifest themselves
Speaker 1: as people who are totally withdrawn or totally unruly. You
Speaker 1: get both extremes as a result of this, and we're
Speaker 1: gonna have to recognize it as more and more people
Speaker 1: get back to work. I think many big businesses are
Speaker 1: going to have to how up their employees with the
Speaker 1: special counselor, and it's it's going to be really important
Speaker 1: to do that to get over this, both as an
Speaker 1: individual and as a society. That was Dr William Hazl Teen,
Speaker 1: the chairman and President of Access Health International, coming up
Speaker 1: next to survivors of sexual assault, are helping to reverse
Speaker 1: an unpopular policy at Airbnb, why the platform is changing
Speaker 1: its ways, and how a recent business we cover story.
Speaker 1: Tim Definitely I gotta say later, all yeah, when we
Speaker 1: talking about impact journalism, and this was certainly an example
Speaker 1: of that. This is Bloomberg broadcasting from the financial capital
Speaker 1: of the world Bloomberg eleven Frio in New York to Washington,
Speaker 1: d C. Bloomberg to Boston, Bloomberg one O six one
Speaker 1: to San Francisco, Bloomberg nine sixty to the country Sirius
Speaker 1: XM Chado one nine team, and around the globe the
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Business app and Bloomberg Radio dot Com. This is
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Business Week, So several weeks ago, Bloomberg bus As
Speaker 1: Week cover story broke down how the popular rental home
Speaker 1: platform Airbnb makes nightmares go away. The company's ten thousand
Speaker 1: word terms of service agreement has for years included a
Speaker 1: mandatory arbitration clause that prevented victims of violent crimes that
Speaker 1: take place in Airbnb listings from holding the company responsible.
Speaker 1: But that's about to change. Blomber Technology report Olivia Carvel
Speaker 1: has been all over this from the start. Her cover
Speaker 1: story shed light on some of the rare but chilling
Speaker 1: incidents that have taken place on the company's watch, and
Speaker 1: her follow up spotlights a pair of sexual assault survivors
Speaker 1: that are spurring a key policy reversal. These two women
Speaker 1: are incredibly brave. One is Sherry Dooley, She's a fifty
Speaker 1: five year old woman from Portland, Oregon. She's a food
Speaker 1: truck worker and she traveled down to Kalima and Mexico,
Speaker 1: where she sees she was raped by an intruder who
Speaker 1: climbed through a window that wouldn't lock in the Airbnb
Speaker 1: apartment that she had rented. The second woman is Natalie White.
Speaker 1: She's twenty three. She's from Atlantic City in New Jersey,
Speaker 1: and she sees that during his stay and an Airbnb
Speaker 1: property and February of this year, as she was packing
Speaker 1: up her belongings to leave, the host arrived at the
Speaker 1: property and sexually assaulted her. He pinned her down, he
Speaker 1: tried to tear her clothes off as she tried to
Speaker 1: resist him. Both of these women filed lawsuits against Airbnb
Speaker 1: in recent months. And what was their experience though in
Speaker 1: terms of dealing with the company after those assaults. Well,
Speaker 1: the company has a an elite safety team that immediately
Speaker 1: activates to help survivors when things go wrong inside their listings.
Speaker 1: So the company did support both of these women. They
Speaker 1: helped pay for their flights home, they refunded the trips,
Speaker 1: they offered health counseling costs, sounds really great, Yeah it does.
Speaker 1: And then you know, months later after the attack, when
Speaker 1: they're dealing with the PTSD and thinking about what happened
Speaker 1: and questioning Airbnb's role in all this, both women decided
Speaker 1: that they did want to file claims against the company
Speaker 1: for damages. But what is the fine print when you
Speaker 1: agree to stay in an Airbnb about how Airbnb is
Speaker 1: held liable? And that's the crux of this whole story
Speaker 1: is that buried inside the ten thousand word terms of
Speaker 1: service agreement that every user who has ever signed up
Speaker 1: for the platform signed. Look, I've used Airbnb, I'd ever
Speaker 1: read it in click it, and you agree to it,
Speaker 1: so do I. Because you have to rate in order
Speaker 1: to use a service and service exactly. And this isn't
Speaker 1: just an Airbnb thing. It's when you sign up for
Speaker 1: apps online. There's terms of service agreements that you sign.
Speaker 1: The problem is that their forty pages long, and who
Speaker 1: has time to read through them when you just want
Speaker 1: to book a property for a holiday. So you know,
Speaker 1: both of these women signed the terms of service without
Speaker 1: realizing that it comes with a binding arbitration agreement. What
Speaker 1: that means is that if there's any dispute with the company.
Speaker 1: Any problem that arises during a stay, you cannot file
Speaker 1: damages in court. You are forced to arbitrate, and arbitration
Speaker 1: means it's handled behind closed doors. It's not in the courts,
Speaker 1: it is not in the public eye. And to be fair,
Speaker 1: Airbnb in terms of binding arbitration, not the only company,
Speaker 1: certainly in corporate America that does this. We've talked a
Speaker 1: lot about financial community right that that uses this. It's
Speaker 1: kind of a common practice, it seems at a lot
Speaker 1: of companies once you either are employed, there right in
Speaker 1: terms of your your rights going forward. In this case,
Speaker 1: though it sounds like Airbnb because of these women, because
Speaker 1: you're reporting, kind of had a change of thought. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's right. And mandatory arbitration has been a flash point
Speaker 1: in corporate America. Even since the me to movement. We've
Speaker 1: seen a lot of companies change the arbitration agreements, particularly
Speaker 1: when it comes to sexual assault cases, because advocates say
Speaker 1: that if you're going to push a survivor into arbitration
Speaker 1: and not allow her to access the public court system,
Speaker 1: you are in a way silencing her voice. Olivia. This reporting,
Speaker 1: it's read, it's seen, it's heard far and wide since
Speaker 1: you did that cover story for Bloomberg Business Week a
Speaker 1: few months ago about this elite safety team. I'm wondering
Speaker 1: what you've heard from survivors in the wake of this,
Speaker 1: what you've heard from sources, what you've heard from from
Speaker 1: companies as you continue to report this out. I think
Speaker 1: for companies it's been a wake up call. Um. A
Speaker 1: lot of other organizations and the short short term rental
Speaker 1: space have been following closely to the coverage, and some
Speaker 1: have actually changed their own internal policies. We saw Expedia
Speaker 1: and trip Advisor both update their policies around the key
Speaker 1: exchange process, which is how hosts and guests exchange keys,
Speaker 1: to say that cannot be done in a public place,
Speaker 1: because we reported about a young woman who was raped
Speaker 1: when a man obtained a spear set of keys to
Speaker 1: the airbnb she was staying in. So I think from
Speaker 1: the corporation since they have been, you know, listening and
Speaker 1: reading these stories and doing what they can to try
Speaker 1: and strengthen their safety policies. From the survivor standpoint, I
Speaker 1: think that for a lot of these then it's um
Speaker 1: the feeling like the being heard, and some of them
Speaker 1: felt like the way the company's policies was set up,
Speaker 1: particularly around full st arbitration that it did silence the voice,
Speaker 1: and that was Bloomberg News Technology reporter Olivia Karvill with
Speaker 1: more great reporting on Airbnb and a story that continues
Speaker 1: to evolve thanks in part to her coverage. You're listening
Speaker 1: to Bloomberg Business Week. Up next, we'll talk to the
Speaker 1: former director of the A c l U Legislative Office
Speaker 1: and a former advisor to Airbnb, Laura Murphy. She discusses
Speaker 1: her efforts to get companies to confront their role in
Speaker 1: perpetuating racial disparities. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week, and
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: Corporate America has been taking a hard look at itself
Speaker 1: over the last year and will progress in diversifying the
Speaker 1: ranks as been slow. There is a new tool for
Speaker 1: getting companies to confront their role in perpetuating racial disparities.
Speaker 1: Our next guest has spent her decades along career navigating
Speaker 1: politics and policy, but now she's using her talent to
Speaker 1: moderate conflicts between companies and advocates who criticize those companies
Speaker 1: impact on racial and social justice. She's emerged as a
Speaker 1: pioneer of what's been called the corporate civil rights audit.
Speaker 1: Laura Murphy is president of Laura Murphy and Associates, also
Speaker 1: the former director of the Legislative Office at the American
Speaker 1: Civil Liberties Union. Murphy was featured in a story by
Speaker 1: Naomi Nicks in the previous issue of Bloomberg business Week
Speaker 1: that detailed her two year audit of Facebook. And we
Speaker 1: began our conversation by discussing her time with Airbnb, which,
Speaker 1: as you know, we just had that conversation with Olivia carvil. Uh.
Speaker 1: The company just announced plans to allow victims of sexual
Speaker 1: assaults and harassment and its listings to suit the company
Speaker 1: by lifting that longstanding mandatory arbitration clause in its terms
Speaker 1: of service. Well, I think it goes, um. I go
Speaker 1: it goes a long way toward the California Statute UM
Speaker 1: that UM allows women to sue under various circumstances. UM.
Speaker 1: I think it's an outgrowth of a me too movement. UM.
Speaker 1: I know that in talking to civil rights leaders they
Speaker 1: would like UM the mandatory arbitration clauses to be listed
Speaker 1: for race discrimination and other types of claims as well.
Speaker 1: And so, um, it's a start for civil rights leaders,
Speaker 1: but I think, you know, it's a welcome start, but
Speaker 1: I don't think it's going to satisfy all of the critics.
Speaker 1: It's interesting that you say that there was a Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Business Week investigation cover story that talked a lot about
Speaker 1: some of the crimes, violent crimes that have gone on
Speaker 1: and how a lot of people have been prevented from
Speaker 1: talking about it. You know, I want to dig deeper
Speaker 1: and kind of your last thought there. I mean, how
Speaker 1: did we get here in the corporate world of having
Speaker 1: such bad policies on a lot of important issues, especially
Speaker 1: when it comes to civil rights. I just think, um,
Speaker 1: there's a tremendous lack of awareness, and it's not necessarily intentional,
Speaker 1: but I don't think we get um very good education
Speaker 1: generally in UM in civics in terms of rights and
Speaker 1: liberties and what they mean in this country. And I
Speaker 1: also think that, UM, so there's a lack of awareness,
Speaker 1: but I also think it's so commonplace that it doesn't
Speaker 1: stop you from becoming a billionaire. UM not having a
Speaker 1: background and understanding of how policies and practices may exclude
Speaker 1: certain people based on their race, or their religion, or
Speaker 1: their sexual orientation, et cetera. So it's it's just a
Speaker 1: fact of life. It's and and that's why I think
Speaker 1: corporate civil rights audits or knee that because they're just
Speaker 1: too many people in positions of power who aren't aware
Speaker 1: of the laws. And if you ask them, okay, what
Speaker 1: are what are my values? Value treating people equally and
Speaker 1: all of that, people will give the right answers. But
Speaker 1: where the where the rubber meets the road is is
Speaker 1: in the implementation of those values. So I think a
Speaker 1: lot of corporations embrace these values, but they don't test
Speaker 1: their products to make sure that they don't violate the values.
Speaker 1: For example, there's a lot of concern about facial recognition
Speaker 1: software and the fact that it was tested on white
Speaker 1: men and so it really doesn't work on people of
Speaker 1: different races and even there are some gender differences. So
Speaker 1: before these products are released to market, they should be
Speaker 1: tested across a range of characteristics so that people are
Speaker 1: not selling products that that harm people. I mean, such
Speaker 1: a recognition is used by policing, you know, entities, and
Speaker 1: so this, This has dire consequences if it's not right.
Speaker 1: What is a corporate civil rights audit? A corporate civil
Speaker 1: rights audit is an independent analysis of a company's business practices,
Speaker 1: um to identify and correct practices that may have a
Speaker 1: discriminatory effect. And that could be with their customers, with
Speaker 1: their employees, with everything, with everything. It could be the
Speaker 1: products that they sell. Uh, you know, is a is
Speaker 1: a mortgage product you know sold by bank going to
Speaker 1: have a different impact on one community than it has
Speaker 1: on another, an unfair and different impact. Um. So yes,
Speaker 1: it's products, it's personnel, company values, It's an assessment. The
Speaker 1: civil rights audit first assesses how these different um, how
Speaker 1: the different verticals within a company are affecting people, and
Speaker 1: whether or not they're having a discriminatory impact, and whether
Speaker 1: or not there's a remedy for them and what that
Speaker 1: remedy is. Laura, talk to me about your time at Facebook,
Speaker 1: because you spent several years with them. I'm always curious
Speaker 1: when you first go into a company, why do they
Speaker 1: bring you in? And you know, what's the initial conversations
Speaker 1: you have with management that maybe tell you that their
Speaker 1: way off the mark? Well, um, I was brought in
Speaker 1: because I was suggested by civil rights leaders as someone
Speaker 1: who could help Facebook um UH address a multitude of
Speaker 1: concerns that had been voiced over the years by different
Speaker 1: UM civil its organizations and um rout ranging from religious
Speaker 1: groups to lgbt Q groups, to African American groups, to
Speaker 1: people with disabilities, all of that and so UM you know,
Speaker 1: there was there was a growing frustration in the overarching
Speaker 1: civil rights community with Facebook, and UM you know, I
Speaker 1: think a lot of the staff wanted the company to
Speaker 1: address these issues in a much more substantive way. UM.
Speaker 1: I was greeted UM with enthusiasm by many of the
Speaker 1: middle managers who had been fielding these concerns for years,
Speaker 1: and it took some time to get the attention of
Speaker 1: the upper leadership. But once we did get their attention, UM,
Speaker 1: we really got down to business and I started meeting
Speaker 1: with leaders in different verticals and UM you know, people
Speaker 1: who created products, people who were responsible for advertising and marketing,
Speaker 1: people who were responsible for enforcing the community standards. UM.
Speaker 1: It was a multi year, multi pronged product where we
Speaker 1: looked at the impact of these products and policies and
Speaker 1: practices on different constituencies and users. Of Facebook, and we
Speaker 1: found that there were some discrepancies and how people were treated.
Speaker 1: And again, UM, this was a very um consultative process.
Speaker 1: This was not an antagonistic process. This was uh ME saying, Okay,
Speaker 1: you've got the following three allegations. Let's find out if
Speaker 1: they're true. If they're true, what do you want to
Speaker 1: do about them? Um? And because are my recommendations? What
Speaker 1: are your recommendations? And you know, a process of consultation
Speaker 1: to to fix problems. I like to see myself as
Speaker 1: a as a problem solver, not someone who just identifies problems, right,
Speaker 1: which is much more productive. Right Ultimately, and trying to
Speaker 1: figure out how do we get from maybe point A
Speaker 1: to point z. H if you will, hey, tell us
Speaker 1: a little bit about a meeting that you put that
Speaker 1: you helped. I guess the conversation between Facebook executives and
Speaker 1: civil rights groups, Carol. I'm going to answer that question. Um,
Speaker 1: but I want to say something about the process being productive.
Speaker 1: This is a far more productive process than having a
Speaker 1: regulation come down from a federal agency or litigation. Um,
Speaker 1: results happened sooner, You're not in you're not caught in antagonism.
Speaker 1: You know that keeps you warring with each other. Um,
Speaker 1: you're not caught up in the machinations of the legal system.
Speaker 1: So I think this is a preferable process to some
Speaker 1: of the other processes that have been used over the
Speaker 1: years to advance civil rights. Now, I think civil rights
Speaker 1: litigation is important, and lawsuits are important, and regulation are important.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying I'm anti any of that. Actually worked
Speaker 1: for a lot of those laws to come to fruition,
Speaker 1: but I am saying, in terms of really attacking the
Speaker 1: problems with the level of immediacy, this is I think
Speaker 1: this is a good way to go. That's Laura Murphy,
Speaker 1: the president of Laura Murphy and Associate. It's also a
Speaker 1: former director of the A c l U Legislative Office.
Speaker 1: She's also a senior advisor to Airbnb. And that wraps
Speaker 1: up the first hour of the weekend. Addition to Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Business Week from Bloomberg Radio, I'm Karl Masser and Tim
Speaker 1: Stanak coming up in our next hour. Our cover story,
Speaker 1: a wage war is broken out on Wall Street as
Speaker 1: top investment banks vy for the best young talent, but
Speaker 1: in some cases six figure salaries, well they're not enough
Speaker 1: for this next generation of junior bankers who are definitely
Speaker 1: in the driver's seat when it comes to jobs. Right now,
Speaker 1: when you are the best and everyone's falling over each
Speaker 1: other to get ahold of you, you have a bunch
Speaker 1: of options, and finance necessarily isn't the number one choice
Speaker 1: for you. And that is why the banks have to
Speaker 1: do everything in their ability to make sure that talent
Speaker 1: still comes towards the way and not just talent the
Speaker 1: top talent. Let's take a look at the continued acceleration
Speaker 1: the pet care category. We're all buying lots of stuff
Speaker 1: for Fido pet go. Ce Ron Coglin stopping by to
Speaker 1: talk about a strong second quarter for customer growth. We're
Speaker 1: also going to gear up for the return of one
Speaker 1: of the New York City's most star studded comedy events
Speaker 1: with Caroline Hirsch of Carolines on Broadway. Talk about somewhat
Speaker 1: of a return to normalcy. Carol exactly love that and
Speaker 1: preparing your business for everything, especially the unexpected we'll have
Speaker 1: that is well, this is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg Business
Speaker 1: Week inside from the reporters and editors who bring you
Speaker 1: America's most trusted business magazine, plus global business finance and
Speaker 1: Tech News as it happened, Sloomberg Business Week with Carol
Speaker 1: Messer and Bloomberg Quick Takes Tim Stinovic on Bloomberg Radio. Hi,
Speaker 1: I'm Carol Masser and plenty And in our second hour
Speaker 1: of the weekend edition of Bloomberg Business Week, including the
Speaker 1: CEO of Petco, he talks about his company's eleventh consecutive
Speaker 1: quarter of revenue growth. Also a taste for normalcy for
Speaker 1: those looking for last Carolines on Broadway is preparing for
Speaker 1: the return of the New York City Comedy Festival later
Speaker 1: this year. We're gonna hear from the club's founder and owner,
Speaker 1: Caroline Hirsh first up this hour. This week's cover story
Speaker 1: of Bloomberg Business Week magazine was also one of the
Speaker 1: most read stories on the Bloomberg terminal this week. It's
Speaker 1: about Wall Street breaking out the money cannon in the
Speaker 1: race to bring in junior bankers and apparently six figure
Speaker 1: salaries while they are not always enough for some of
Speaker 1: the newest entrants into the finance world when it means
Speaker 1: one work weeks and a goodbye to the old work
Speaker 1: life balance. Business Week editor Joe Weber and one of
Speaker 1: the stories co writers Bloomberg News finance reporters Tree not
Speaker 1: a Raja and stopping by to breakdown the investment banking
Speaker 1: wage war. Well, let's go back to the start of
Speaker 1: the year when this really became an issue. It was
Speaker 1: the leaked presentation out of Goldman SAX where thirteen first
Speaker 1: year analysts put together this report that detailed the rigors
Speaker 1: of their work life, the hundred hour weeks um endless
Speaker 1: uh day's just working on boring presentations and slide decks
Speaker 1: again and again and again, and always trying to respond
Speaker 1: to the demands of the clients irrespective of the time
Speaker 1: of the day. The outlined a bunch of changes including
Speaker 1: you know, protected weekends, lesser lesser hours in a day.
Speaker 1: Not once did they mention anything about pay. The main
Speaker 1: complaint at the start of the year wasn't less pay. However,
Speaker 1: that seems to be the solution that everyone's gravitated towards
Speaker 1: and crowded around, because that's the easiest thing to change.
Speaker 1: You're in an industry with the banks are always trying
Speaker 1: to please the client. The client comes up with an
Speaker 1: idea and want something at breakfast, you want to make
Speaker 1: show that they get a glittering slide deck by lunch.
Speaker 1: When it is a race to bottom like that, it
Speaker 1: is very hard to change the fundamentals of their work structure.
Speaker 1: So the best option that they have at their disposal,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of money laying around, throw it in
Speaker 1: their direction and hope that they don't complain anymore. And
Speaker 1: as you point out in your pstree, it's basically a
Speaker 1: rounding our for these companies as far as salaries go.
Speaker 1: I want to bring in Joel Webber, editor of Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Business Week. He joined us now on the remote from Massachusetts. Sure,
Speaker 1: as I was reading this piece and hearing from veterans
Speaker 1: in the industry, some big names who are quoted in here,
Speaker 1: I'm thinking to myself, Wait a second, isn't this just
Speaker 1: part of the life that people signed up for. This
Speaker 1: is how history majors indeed become billion dollar dealmakers. Well,
Speaker 1: and that's been one way that the you know, the
Speaker 1: the industry has has thrived. Right. It's sort of this
Speaker 1: gauntlet that junior bankers go through and and then you
Speaker 1: get on the other side, but you know, all the
Speaker 1: ropes and and this is kind of a write of passage,
Speaker 1: and um, yeah, there are some big names in the story.
Speaker 1: John mac lloyd Blank find that that three you know,
Speaker 1: like three does he just calls up whoever he wants
Speaker 1: and gets great quotes from them. Uh. And and you know,
Speaker 1: I think that one of the sentiments there was just
Speaker 1: like boy, times have changed, Like there was a moment
Speaker 1: in time and investment banking not so long ago, um
Speaker 1: where this was viewed as something that you just you know,
Speaker 1: you stomached and did and got to the other side
Speaker 1: and and you know you were thankful that you got
Speaker 1: paid at all. Um. And so I think it does
Speaker 1: speak to sort of uh, this generation. But you know
Speaker 1: it's bigger than that, because these are really smart kids
Speaker 1: and they could have you know, their choice of jobs.
Speaker 1: And I think what three points out in the story
Speaker 1: is that, you know, don't forget like you can go
Speaker 1: work and tech and get paid as much as this.
Speaker 1: So yeah, there's a lot of things these people could
Speaker 1: be doing that's not working on Wall Street and and
Speaker 1: Wall streets. You know, when when Wall Street's got a problem,
Speaker 1: it does what Wall Street does, which is, you know,
Speaker 1: throw money at it. I think that's extremely important what
Speaker 1: you mentioned right there, the big, big, big different trans Yes,
Speaker 1: you know, the perception has been you know what you're
Speaker 1: signing up for. You know this is what your life
Speaker 1: is going to be. But what is the difference between
Speaker 1: the Wall Street of one and the Wall Street of nine.
Speaker 1: There was no tech industry. There was no real internet
Speaker 1: to Facebook or Amazon looking for Facebook, Amazon, Google. So
Speaker 1: no established big name tech players looking for that talent.
Speaker 1: No no potential for great startups that were relying on
Speaker 1: the Internet to suddenly become these multiple in dollar companies.
Speaker 1: So if you are the most talented of your graduating class,
Speaker 1: you would waltz into a job into banking because you
Speaker 1: knew that after a few years of struggle, it was
Speaker 1: a lifestyle of corporate jet setting and lavish pay days,
Speaker 1: it's not the only game in town anymore. When you
Speaker 1: are the best and everyone's falling over each other to
Speaker 1: get ahold of you, you have a bunch of options,
Speaker 1: and finance necessarily isn't the number one choice for you.
Speaker 1: And that is why the banks have to do everything
Speaker 1: in their ability to make sure that talent still comes
Speaker 1: towards their way, and not just talent, the top talent. Okay,
Speaker 1: so so there's top talent, and you got to speak
Speaker 1: to obviously the max of the blank finds of the world.
Speaker 1: Can you tell us about the the other guy that
Speaker 1: you talked to? Yeah, I mean and again, if you
Speaker 1: read the story there is you get the view from
Speaker 1: the top, you get you get the two latest former
Speaker 1: CEOs of Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, arguably the two
Speaker 1: most important investment banking franchises out there. But we also
Speaker 1: spoke to a junior banker who worked at Goldman Sachs
Speaker 1: until the summer of last year and left. What did
Speaker 1: he do to cope with the strains? Put on his headset,
Speaker 1: blasted fake rain noise, went into a bathroom stall in
Speaker 1: the thirty second floor of two hundred West Strade, the
Speaker 1: global headquarters of Goldman Sachs, and took power naps in there.
Speaker 1: These were stories we read in the Michael Lewis book
Speaker 1: Liar Spoker, from years and years and years ago, and
Speaker 1: yet that is still very much the reality. And he
Speaker 1: pointed out, look, there's a lot of negative reperta Ushian Stewart.
Speaker 1: He wishes there were other changes that people would propose,
Speaker 1: but because those changes are not easy, you see the
Speaker 1: pay solution as the one that everyone feels comfortable with,
Speaker 1: even though they're making all the right noises about work
Speaker 1: life balance and being more understanding, reality doesn't necessarily reflect that.
Speaker 1: That was Bloomberg News Senior Finance reporter Srina Rajon he
Speaker 1: co wrote this week's cover story. She joining us with
Speaker 1: the editor of Bloomberg Business Week, Joel Weber. You're listening
Speaker 1: to Bloomberg Business Week. Coming up, some companies that have
Speaker 1: been forging ahead with return to office plans now thinking twice.
Speaker 1: And on the earnings front, it was a big quarter
Speaker 1: for one of North America's biggest pet store chains. We're
Speaker 1: talking about Petco. We'll check in with the company's CEO.
Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol
Speaker 1: Masser and Bloomberg Quick Takes Tim Stenovik from Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 1: So as we continue to navigate the pandemic, him one
Speaker 1: corner of the market that continues to thrive as pet care.
Speaker 1: I have to say, yep, we get bark boxes to
Speaker 1: our house delivered every month, and throughout the pandemic is
Speaker 1: I would walk the street walking my scout. There was
Speaker 1: tons of Chewy and petc and you name it boxes
Speaker 1: on the curve. There's a reason that people aren't really
Speaker 1: called pet owners anymore. Right, they're called pet parents because
Speaker 1: they treat their pets like kids, and that means spending
Speaker 1: more and more money on them. So a little pet
Speaker 1: and baby carriage this morning, I'm just going to put that.
Speaker 1: That's what I'm talking about. Well. Ron Coglin is the
Speaker 1: chief executive officer for Petco, a leading pet specialty retailer.
Speaker 1: He joined us to talk all about his company's pet
Speaker 1: health and wellness ecosystem, the company's most recent earnings report,
Speaker 1: and also what investors should be expecting going forward. If
Speaker 1: you look at our e commerce are e commerce was
Speaker 1: up double digit on top of being up prior quarter.
Speaker 1: Are two year stack honey commerce is up a hundred
Speaker 1: fifty percent, which is just incredible. But you know, the
Speaker 1: real thing was there was all these theories that people
Speaker 1: would shift online during the lockdown because they had to,
Speaker 1: and then they wouldn't come back to stores. And our
Speaker 1: stores were up sevent because people love coming to our
Speaker 1: pet care centers. Are people are great. They get groom,
Speaker 1: they get veterinary care, they get trained there, and it
Speaker 1: was the return to the stores that was the real
Speaker 1: real story. In addition, we also put down another fifteen
Speaker 1: veterinary hospitals, bringing our total to a hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: five hospitals. And wherever we do that, we're seeing a
Speaker 1: fortified point lift on our merchandise sales. So it's a
Speaker 1: good good for us. I was just gonna ask you
Speaker 1: how much of because you guys really have pivoted into
Speaker 1: health and wellness in a big way. And I know
Speaker 1: here at Bloomberg we've done a lot of stories about
Speaker 1: how that is really a growth area for the industry.
Speaker 1: How much of that ultimately is so key to top
Speaker 1: and bottom line metrics. Oh, it's the centerpiece. If you
Speaker 1: look at our portfolio, We've shifted our portfolio to healthier
Speaker 1: products and more premium products by ten points in the
Speaker 1: last three years. Margins better, margins much better in the
Speaker 1: in these and I'll come to frozen fresh because that
Speaker 1: to me is the embodiment from a food standpoint. But
Speaker 1: one of the first decisions I made was to get
Speaker 1: rid of artificial ingredients. Out of all officers, were still
Speaker 1: the only out of we sell no no food, no
Speaker 1: snacks with artificial ingredients. We're still the only retailer to
Speaker 1: do that, major retailer to do that. Then we got
Speaker 1: rid of shock collars last year. So we're dedicated to
Speaker 1: pet wellness, so that helps us. From a food standpoint,
Speaker 1: we're a market maker on fresh frozen, which you know,
Speaker 1: my guy eats yummy, has fish and sweet potatoes. I'd
Speaker 1: have a lot less cholesterolified. Wait, that's what I had
Speaker 1: for dinner last I know, I'm just kidding. That's the
Speaker 1: whole theory that human grade food. And we're the number
Speaker 1: one retailer for for that fresh and fresh frozen space,
Speaker 1: and we're being market makers on that growth in that
Speaker 1: particular part of the market. It's supposed to go from
Speaker 1: one billion to four billion between now and two thousand
Speaker 1: and twenty five. And then you get into vet care right,
Speaker 1: and we're driving affordable vet care because we want more
Speaker 1: pets to get the right care. This is for the
Speaker 1: quarter that ended at the end of July. What can
Speaker 1: you tell us right now about real time data with
Speaker 1: what you're seeing with customer behavior as the delta variant
Speaker 1: continues to spread. Sadly, that is true on a good side.
Speaker 1: From our business standpoint, there you see no impact. I
Speaker 1: have gone and looked for correlations between COVID and COVID penetrations.
Speaker 1: I'll give you a real microcosm of it. I asked
Speaker 1: the team to look at Florida. How is our business
Speaker 1: doing in Florida where the penetration is higher. Florida is
Speaker 1: out performing rest of chain right now, so we're not
Speaker 1: seeing that correlation. And I will tell you our business
Speaker 1: accelerated on a two year camp in the second at
Speaker 1: the end of Q two and it's continued through Q three,
Speaker 1: So it's very strong and we're not seeing The only
Speaker 1: time we got impacted, quite frankly, sadly as a New Yorker,
Speaker 1: was when New York shutdown. Then we got impacted because
Speaker 1: it was pretty much a complete shutdown. Nowhere else, nowhere else.
Speaker 1: Have we found a correlation between our business it's shifts
Speaker 1: to more online, back to the pet care centers, But
Speaker 1: we didn't see a business decline. So are you all
Speaker 1: nervous that if New York starts to kind of roll
Speaker 1: back there, that that would be an impact on your
Speaker 1: business if you had the degree of shutdown. But I
Speaker 1: think at a fifty vacks or whatever New York is
Speaker 1: now would be hard to imagine going back to where
Speaker 1: that was. Why why do you think this is? Why?
Speaker 1: Why do you think we're seeing fewer people travel, We're
Speaker 1: seeing we anticipate we'll see fewer people eat out in
Speaker 1: restaurants as they have to you know, show proof of vaccination.
Speaker 1: Why are they still shopping for their pets? Yeah, in
Speaker 1: person rather than just online. You know. As the reopening started,
Speaker 1: I called our unicorn when people, you know, stayed at
Speaker 1: home and the family. Um, the appreciation for family, which
Speaker 1: was one of the nice things about pandemic is being
Speaker 1: at home with your family, spending more time, and pets
Speaker 1: were central to that, and I think they helped us
Speaker 1: from an emotional stampoint. I really believe that. But then
Speaker 1: when we had reopening, all of a sudden, you're getting leashes,
Speaker 1: you're getting leads. But guess what, you're also going back
Speaker 1: into our pet care centers, and in our pet care centers,
Speaker 1: you're spending more and quite frankly, our margins higher because
Speaker 1: we're not shipping to you. So we're winners on both
Speaker 1: sides of this thing. UM. But I just think that UM,
Speaker 1: pets were so central to human beings making it through
Speaker 1: this pandemic. What about in terms of finding workers? Is
Speaker 1: that a problem? Yeah, it's it's a great question. Um
Speaker 1: So it's absolutely type market. But at the same time,
Speaker 1: we've done a lot of work on our employer value proposition,
Speaker 1: if you will, So we've done a lot of work
Speaker 1: on improving our compensation and benefits. We've done a lot
Speaker 1: of work on our mission. We're the only pet company
Speaker 1: in our space whose mission is improving lives. You think
Speaker 1: all the companies were the only one who has a
Speaker 1: mission improving lives for so for pet lovers who want
Speaker 1: a great work experience, we're unique. I can say that.
Speaker 1: But here's the proof of the putting. Our applications are
Speaker 1: up six since the beginning of the year. Our retention
Speaker 1: is up. We've never had more groomers working for Petco
Speaker 1: than we have today. So yes, it's tight, but we
Speaker 1: feel really good about our ability to navigate. It's been
Speaker 1: a crazy year, to say the least year and a half,
Speaker 1: and a lot of times when we have a leader
Speaker 1: on or CEO on, we ask about leadership lessons because
Speaker 1: we didn't have a playbook about any of this. No. Uh.
Speaker 1: This year has been unique on two fronts. The first
Speaker 1: one is as a leader having to say that the
Speaker 1: health and wellness of my employees is first and foremost,
Speaker 1: and you're making decisions real time that affect their health.
Speaker 1: Are they going to wear masks? Aren't they going to
Speaker 1: wear masks? Last week we put vaccination trucks in our
Speaker 1: distribution centers to get people vaccinated. Are they going to
Speaker 1: take them up or not? And you know, it was
Speaker 1: a real moment of truth for us as a leadership team.
Speaker 1: But I will tell you lots of people like to
Speaker 1: criticize the p firms. Every single decision I made to
Speaker 1: spend money to take care of our people, they supported. Uh.
Speaker 1: And when you make the right decisions for your people,
Speaker 1: guess what happens. Your people are loyal to you. And
Speaker 1: so we talked earlier about our our ability to hire,
Speaker 1: our retention is up and get a buzz in. Your
Speaker 1: type of comedy takes care of people. And it was
Speaker 1: a real lesson. That's Ron Coglin, chief executive officer at Petco.
Speaker 1: Have you yet, No, just stuffed animals for a little goldfish? Nothing?
Speaker 1: Right now? One child is enough? Alright, alright, alright maybe
Speaker 1: in the future, maybe, all right? Coming up. Caroline Hurst,
Speaker 1: founder and owner of the famed Carolines on Broadway, on
Speaker 1: the return of the New York Comedy Festival, Tim, It
Speaker 1: didn't happen last year because of COVID, like so much,
Speaker 1: it was shut down. But it is back little return
Speaker 1: to normalcy, at least in some sense here in the
Speaker 1: city and for the comedy community. This is Bloomberg Broadcasting
Speaker 1: from the financial capital of the world, Bloomberg eleven Frio
Speaker 1: in New York to Washington, d C. Bloomberg to Boston,
Speaker 1: Bloomberg one oh six one to San Francisco, Bloomberg nine
Speaker 1: six to the country Sirius XM Chado one nine team,
Speaker 1: and around the globe the Bloomberg Business app and Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Radio dot Com. This is Bloomberg Business. So Timm, if
Speaker 1: there's one thing we can all use these days, it's
Speaker 1: a good laugh. Yeah later is the best medicine, I think,
Speaker 1: is what they say, such a great cure all. And
Speaker 1: we've actually caught up with someone who knows a lot
Speaker 1: about that. She's the most successful businesswoman in comedy and
Speaker 1: she's ready to bring some good times back to the
Speaker 1: Big Apple. Caroline hersh is who we're talking about. She's
Speaker 1: the founder and owner of Carolines on Broadway. She spoke
Speaker 1: with you, Carol all about the long awaited return of
Speaker 1: the new York Comedy Festival following that pandemic hiatus. Yes,
Speaker 1: we're back, and we're happy to be back after we
Speaker 1: took a break last year and coming back stronger than
Speaker 1: than ever. We announced some of our lineup, which are
Speaker 1: seventeen headliner shows, which then will be followed with over
Speaker 1: you know, two hundred comedians performing in the festival with
Speaker 1: a hundred shows which will be announced later on in September.
Speaker 1: That's a lot really happy, and it's and it's gonna
Speaker 1: be happening in November, correct, a week long, November eighth
Speaker 1: through So it starts Monday night, November eight through Sunday
Speaker 1: night four. And we're really happy and excited and to
Speaker 1: get back into business and to have some more laughs
Speaker 1: in New York City. Oh my god, bring it on. Hey, Caroline,
Speaker 1: let me ask you. Let me just take a step back,
Speaker 1: if I may, the past year for comedians, I mean,
Speaker 1: what has it been like? What have you heard from
Speaker 1: that community about what it's been like. We know that
Speaker 1: the higher profile comics are hosts, you know, who are
Speaker 1: on broadcast, they were able to pivot, but that's not
Speaker 1: always the case for every comedian. No, lots of the
Speaker 1: emerging talent that we deal with. You know, they weren't working,
Speaker 1: but a lot of them, um are now so happy.
Speaker 1: They are related. They're all over the place. I mean
Speaker 1: that we're working in the streets, they work and wherever
Speaker 1: they could be heard. Um, they tried to get a
Speaker 1: job to do that. But now we're everybody's kind of
Speaker 1: back in business. Clubs were allowed to open beginning of April,
Speaker 1: so we're we've been Caroline has been open. Um we've
Speaker 1: had you know, like Michael Chaseman there every Tuesday night
Speaker 1: at the club doing a residency, and you know he
Speaker 1: was telling jokes about you know, during COVID he said,
Speaker 1: I had all of this material pent up to me.
Speaker 1: He said, I get on the subway and I'd just
Speaker 1: be talking to people and you know, telling them jokes
Speaker 1: on the subway, which maybe probably appreciate it. We all
Speaker 1: could use a good laugh, that's no doubt about it. UM,
Speaker 1: tell us to you about remind us what's going on
Speaker 1: in clubs. We've been doing a lot of stories here
Speaker 1: at Bloomberg, certainly as restaurants have opened, as venues have
Speaker 1: opened that yes you can come in, but you've got
Speaker 1: to be vaccinated. And people are checking, so that will
Speaker 1: go into effect. I believe in September that get goes.
Speaker 1: We're doing vaccinated shows, so we're we're protecting the public.
Speaker 1: We want to protect our staff um, and we are
Speaker 1: that we're starting now all vaccinated shows and that's just
Speaker 1: will be Look. Look, the clubs and the small venues
Speaker 1: around the United States really suffered, they were shut down,
Speaker 1: they were mandated to close. And this year during the festival,
Speaker 1: we really want to highlight a lot of the smaller
Speaker 1: clubs around the city. So we're going out of all
Speaker 1: way to make sure that everybody participates this year on
Speaker 1: the festival. So who's going to be there? Can you
Speaker 1: tell us about some of the headliners? Oh, some of
Speaker 1: the headliners well, Kim Dylan, Michelle Wolf, Nor McDonald, Ronny Chang,
Speaker 1: Mark Marin, Brian Reagan, Gary Goldman, Bill Marra will be back,
Speaker 1: Michelle Batteau, Andrew Santino is a new face for us.
Speaker 1: So we have lots and lots of great talent um
Speaker 1: appearing at you know everywhere from Town Hall to the
Speaker 1: theater at Madison Square Garden. And we're also this year
Speaker 1: we're doing something with City Bank City Presents Comedy included
Speaker 1: and we're doing this to bring attention to hear diverse
Speaker 1: voices in the industry, in the comedy industry. So we'll
Speaker 1: have a two day panels going on in Carolines all
Speaker 1: about what's going on in the business. Well, and I
Speaker 1: do think about we've had so many different conversations with
Speaker 1: leaders and heads of companies that it's hard not to
Speaker 1: you know, there's no going back to quote unquote normal. You.
Speaker 1: You know, we've been changed by the pandemic, We've been
Speaker 1: changed by George Floyd, We've been changed by so much. Um,
Speaker 1: comedy always feels that interesting spot that for a while
Speaker 1: we can't talk about things, and then we can. I
Speaker 1: think about after nine eleven it was really quiet and
Speaker 1: then we needed humor to come back to help us
Speaker 1: all find our way back. So how has the past
Speaker 1: year and a half on so many different levels, I
Speaker 1: mean and tough things like COVID, like George Floyd, like
Speaker 1: inequities like diversity and inclusions, so many different issues. How
Speaker 1: has that been incorporated into the festival that's coming up
Speaker 1: in November. Well, we like, like I I said to you,
Speaker 1: we're doing this two day event with City Presents, Comedy
Speaker 1: Included and We'll have panel discussions, special performances. We'll hear
Speaker 1: from industry leaders about, you know, bringing attention to to
Speaker 1: hearing everybody's voice in comedy, which you know, comedy is
Speaker 1: really pretty diverse, I have to say that, and Carolines
Speaker 1: has always been on top of that. Whether it be female,
Speaker 1: whether it be you know, um, gay comedy, whatever it was,
Speaker 1: it was urban comedy with women. I tried to I
Speaker 1: really tried to highlight all this early early on. So
Speaker 1: we're going to do our best to even make it better.
Speaker 1: That's Caroline Hurst, the founder and owner of Carolines on Broadway.
Speaker 1: You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week coming up. Wouldn't it
Speaker 1: be nice if your business was future proof? Did you see?
Speaker 1: I was channeling a little bit of the beach boy
Speaker 1: I did, and that's so well. I guess our next guest, though,
Speaker 1: has a plan for you to ensure you're ready to
Speaker 1: meet the challenges of an ever changing market. We're gonna
Speaker 1: wrap up our show with Jonathan Brill, the former global
Speaker 1: futurist at Hewlett Packard. He's gonna explain how to ride
Speaker 1: the next what he calls rogue wave to success. Looking
Speaker 1: forward to that, this is Bloomberg. You're listening to Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Business Week with Carol Messer and Bloomberg Quick Takes Tim
Speaker 1: Stinovik from Bloomberg Radio. So, over the last seventeen months, yeah,
Speaker 1: we've seen some businesses thrive, others have been unable to
Speaker 1: adapt to evolving market conditions, or at least not do
Speaker 1: it fast enough. And our next guest has a playbook
Speaker 1: to help you prepare your business for what he calls
Speaker 1: the undercurrents of radical systemic change. I feel like we
Speaker 1: need a dune dune done. I think we do too,
Speaker 1: But you just did it, so we're set. He's the
Speaker 1: former global futurist at Hewlett Packard. He's also the author
Speaker 1: of Rogue Waves future Proof Your Business to Survive and
Speaker 1: Profit from Radical Change. Jonathan Brill joined us on the
Speaker 1: day that his book came out to talk all about
Speaker 1: being ready to embrace emerging technologies, changing demographics, the data economy, automation,
Speaker 1: and more. So. You've probably heard of black swan event.
Speaker 1: These are completely unpredictable things that come out of nowhere,
Speaker 1: and often CEO has used this as an excuse, but
Speaker 1: the reality is that most radical disruptions are more knowable
Speaker 1: than you might imagine the what I call rogue waves.
Speaker 1: They're unmanageable, hundred foot waves of change that are caused
Speaker 1: by the collision of individually manageable instructions. I mean, when
Speaker 1: you think about something like COVID, of the fall of Couble,
Speaker 1: the floods in Germany or China over the last couple
Speaker 1: of months, they're important, but what really amplified them was
Speaker 1: waves of social, economic, and technological change. And that's actually
Speaker 1: what the disruption is. Right we opened up after after
Speaker 1: the last round of COVID, and we're now seeing a
Speaker 1: bit of a resurgence. There's a result of that. It's
Speaker 1: all of the things around the pandemic that are causing
Speaker 1: the impact, not just the pandemic itself. And the same
Speaker 1: is true of opportunities. Over the last couple of years.
Speaker 1: We've seen this explosion of m R and A vaccines,
Speaker 1: for instance. The fall of Cobble is going to create opportunities,
Speaker 1: maybe not for the United States, but for China, for UH,
Speaker 1: which is searching for rarer resources which are common in Afghanistan,
Speaker 1: and the flooding UH in Asia, and the miscalculation of
Speaker 1: the likelihood of these hundred year thousand year floods is
Speaker 1: going to create great rebuilding opportunities for some construction companies.
Speaker 1: And so for the lesson here is that a lot
Speaker 1: of times when you have volatility, when you have disruption, Uh,
Speaker 1: it's a threat for some people, but it's an opportunity
Speaker 1: for the ones that are prepared. So the question isn't
Speaker 1: how do I respawnse to how do I understand and
Speaker 1: predict every road wave? How do I respond when these
Speaker 1: things hit my business? When they when they hit my finances,
Speaker 1: my operations, they changed my external environment, or maybe they
Speaker 1: impact my strategy. If you don't know what that rogue
Speaker 1: wave will be, there's only so much you continue to
Speaker 1: prepare for it. Right, Let's take COVID for example. Let's
Speaker 1: say you're Jeff Bezos who was running Amazon until last month.
Speaker 1: He didn't know that he had to get so much
Speaker 1: ppe to provide to frontline workers, or know that there
Speaker 1: would be a very rapid expansion and growth of of
Speaker 1: Amazon grocery delivery, your whole Foods grocery delivery for example.
Speaker 1: Um or did he write well, what he knew? I've
Speaker 1: spent some time with leaders at Amazon. What they knew
Speaker 1: was they had a really good systems model of their organization,
Speaker 1: and they knew exactly how hard they could push or
Speaker 1: pull the levers. And so the issue wasn't that they
Speaker 1: were ready for a pandemic. They didn't pull out their
Speaker 1: COVID playbook. They were really ready for everything. Most companies
Speaker 1: really look internally at at the things they can control,
Speaker 1: whether it's their finances or their operations. But the reality
Speaker 1: is most of the things that caused sustained impact on
Speaker 1: business value are external and strategic. So the question is
Speaker 1: how would you respond when any of the major UH
Speaker 1: risk levers are are hit or when they're hit in
Speaker 1: different combinations. And one of the things that the Amazon
Speaker 1: is particularly good at and that I'm an advocate of,
Speaker 1: is gaming out what are those possibilities, pressure testing your
Speaker 1: organization asking what would happen to something unimaginable hit us.
Speaker 1: Because at the end of the day, Amazon had a
Speaker 1: really good here, and it was because they weren't ready.
Speaker 1: It wasn't because they were ready for COVID. It was
Speaker 1: because they were ready for anything. Jonathan, I want to
Speaker 1: talk about this the framework that you developed in this book,
Speaker 1: the Resilient Growth Strategy UM. You call it the A
Speaker 1: B c's of resilient growth take us through it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So when we think about companies that are consistently profitable
Speaker 1: through radical changes, like like Covid, what we see is
Speaker 1: that they have consistent characteristics way called the abc s
Speaker 1: and resilient growth awareness. If your people don't know why
Speaker 1: they need to change, obviously they're not getting do that.
Speaker 1: So you need to focus on improving awareness of the
Speaker 1: operating environment through the organization. You need to focus on behavior.
Speaker 1: It doesn't really matter if your people know that as
Speaker 1: tsunami is coming, if they don't have the skills to respond.
Speaker 1: And so the question really is do your managers at
Speaker 1: all levels have the ability to make sense of increased
Speaker 1: resilience to and exploit radical change? And then to see
Speaker 1: in the A B. C's is about creating a culture.
Speaker 1: Do you have the processes and an incentives to encourage
Speaker 1: employees to make decisions that balance both in your term
Speaker 1: performance and long term growth that they if they don't.
Speaker 1: If you don't, obviously they won't. So when you wrap
Speaker 1: that up, you get a recipe for a more resilient organization.
Speaker 1: We're talking earlier about a company like Amazon, and uh,
Speaker 1: you know this is true for them, but it's also
Speaker 1: true for a farmer that they work with in Ohio. Well,
Speaker 1: that's what I wanted to talk about, because not everybody
Speaker 1: is in charge of making decisions at a company like Amazon,
Speaker 1: or in charge of a team even and has to
Speaker 1: prepare a team for a rogue wave. What are some
Speaker 1: lessons that that people can take away from this? Who
Speaker 1: are managers, who are employees who are looking to become managers?
Speaker 1: What are their takeaways? Yeah? Absolutely, I think that first
Speaker 1: of all, you're you're right, not everybody can be in
Speaker 1: charge of everything, but you can have provide clarity, clarity
Speaker 1: around what it called risk bands. So this is a
Speaker 1: simple sing when you ask somebody to do something, tell
Speaker 1: them how much risk you want them to take, but
Speaker 1: also tell them how little that you'll accept. If you
Speaker 1: don't give that bump at the bottom, you know, inevitably
Speaker 1: people will take the least risky path forward as opposed
Speaker 1: to perhaps the best path forward, or that the one
Speaker 1: that you can accept. What about when it comes to
Speaker 1: people who are looking just for their own leadership lessons
Speaker 1: here and how to lead through turbulent times. That's a
Speaker 1: great question. So one of the things we talked about
Speaker 1: in the book, and there are hundreds of ideas like
Speaker 1: this is a communication method for leading under uncertainty when
Speaker 1: you're not the boss, how do you talk to people
Speaker 1: in a way that you'll be hurt? First you you
Speaker 1: it's what I call the lead method, And first you say,
Speaker 1: here's the logic of what I'm suggesting. The second is
Speaker 1: about empathy, saying, hey, you know, I understand you may
Speaker 1: have a different perspective, you might have different goals. I
Speaker 1: understand where you're coming from. Let me just double check
Speaker 1: on that. The third is authority, Right, even if I'm
Speaker 1: not the boss, why do I have some experience in
Speaker 1: this situation? And why might I be the person to
Speaker 1: listen to? The fourth, the d M lead is about
Speaker 1: the deadline. Right, how long do we have to make
Speaker 1: a decision. We can decide who's going to do what
Speaker 1: for however long, but at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: by Tuesday, we actually need to close out on this
Speaker 1: because if not, there will be an issue moving forward.
Speaker 1: So if you just take those four pieces of information, logic, empathy, authority,
Speaker 1: and deadline, you inoculate against most of the things, most
Speaker 1: of the political issues this more senior managers might use
Speaker 1: against you. Or that might cause you to not be
Speaker 1: heard some more junior employee when you see kind of
Speaker 1: that iceberg on the horizon. Well, speaking of the iceberg
Speaker 1: on the horizon, I think a lot of people are
Speaker 1: thinking about, Okay, well, the pandemic. Yes, that is something
Speaker 1: that we need to be prepared for the next pandemic.
Speaker 1: Perhaps or they can tenue evolution of this current pandemic. Um,
Speaker 1: how do we get what are the other types of
Speaker 1: shocks that companies need to be prepared for? What are
Speaker 1: those what are those unknowns? That's a great question, and
Speaker 1: I think one of the in the book we talk
Speaker 1: about in major disruptions that are happening over the next decade.
Speaker 1: When it was at HP, we spent several million dollars
Speaker 1: researching the range of possible issues. Every year was one
Speaker 1: of those a pandemic from down One of them was
Speaker 1: was actually a pandemic. It's some of the sec risk violins.
Speaker 1: So we've announced some some businesses that are coming out
Speaker 1: of that research in their micro fluid I business. UH
Speaker 1: and and we've been really looking at work from home
Speaker 1: technologies and how we could uh shift the nature of
Speaker 1: the business. UH not necessarily for COVID but if something
Speaker 1: like this happens relatively quickly. The result of that is
Speaker 1: if you take a look at Xerox over the last
Speaker 1: year and their EPs versus HP, each piece has been
Speaker 1: relatively stable versus Xerox as being down I think last
Speaker 1: year something like six nine the gap. So the result is,
Speaker 1: you know, if you take a look at those two
Speaker 1: companies that should be pure companies have radically different results
Speaker 1: because one of them took a resilient growth strategy, thought
Speaker 1: really hard about rogue waves, and one of them I
Speaker 1: believe at least optimized for the near term. What was
Speaker 1: the moment over the last eighteen months when you realize
Speaker 1: you needed to write a book about this. That's a
Speaker 1: great question. I'm passionate about what's possible, uh, kind of
Speaker 1: breakthrough questions. And I had a moment, uh, you know
Speaker 1: last year. Uh, I guess eighteen months ago about this
Speaker 1: time where I realized I knew these things. They had
Speaker 1: had unique knowledge, and we had to we had to
Speaker 1: get ahead of the future as a society, as his
Speaker 1: companies and leaders. That was former global futurist at HP
Speaker 1: Jonathan Brill. His new book, Rogue Waves Future Proof Your
Speaker 1: Business to Survive and profit from Radical Change is out now,
Speaker 1: and that wraps up the weekend edition of Bloomberg Business
Speaker 1: Week from Bloomberg Radio. Thanks so much for joining us.
Speaker 1: I'm Carol Masser and I'm Tim Stead. Be sure to
Speaker 1: tune into our Bloomberg Business Week daily show Monday through Friday.
Speaker 1: It starts at two pm Wall Street Time on Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 1: You can also watch our daily broadcast on YouTube. Just
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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Terminal. You can also see me at Bloomberg Quick
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Speaker 1: platforms like Roku, Apple TV, Samsung TV, and more. Have
Speaker 1: a great weekend everyone. This is Bloomberg