Speaker 1: Welcome to the Bloomberg Markets Podcast. I'm Paul Sweeney, alongside
Speaker 1: my co host Matt Miller. Every business day, we bring
Speaker 1: you interviews from CEOs, market pros, and Bloomberg experts, along
Speaker 1: with essential market moving news on the Bloomberg Markets Podcast,
Speaker 1: on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts, and
Speaker 1: at Bloomberg dot com slash podcast. Ford is investing three
Speaker 1: point seven billion dollars in factories across three Midwestern states, including,
Speaker 1: as we said, the great state of Ohio. UM, they're
Speaker 1: gonna pump out more electric vehicles and traditional gas fueled autos,
Speaker 1: including I hope the seventh generation Mustang. I'm slightly obsessed
Speaker 1: with the current GT five hundred UM, but they're gonna
Speaker 1: create more than just horsepower jobs. And I think Ford
Speaker 1: is now the biggest employing the most auto workers of
Speaker 1: any car maker in America. Let's bring in Kumar Galholtro
Speaker 1: to talk about this. He is the president of Ford Blue,
Speaker 1: which is their internal combustion business. Kumar, thanks so much
Speaker 1: for joining us talk to me about the the size
Speaker 1: and scope of Ford's employee employees. Good morning, Matt, thanks
Speaker 1: for having me. Yeah, we are as you said, We're
Speaker 1: the largest our lootto worker employer in the country. And
Speaker 1: that's not an accident. You know, this is a choice
Speaker 1: we made as a company, and we're gonna add to it.
Speaker 1: We're gonna add sixty jobs to that. Uh and uh.
Speaker 1: Those are going to be in three states, in Michigan
Speaker 1: and the great State of Ohio and in Missouri. All right,
Speaker 1: what do we know about I'm gonna be needling you
Speaker 1: for details, Kumar on the new seventh generation Mustang. I
Speaker 1: um fell in love with Gen five and I have
Speaker 1: really been convinced. Actually, Alan mollally showed me my first
Speaker 1: pictures of the sixth generation Mustang UM which was which
Speaker 1: was wonderful. And now we're expecting a new one. Is
Speaker 1: it still going to use the coyote, the famous five
Speaker 1: lead V eight famous half I need you were gonna
Speaker 1: ask that, Matt. I can't. I can't give you those
Speaker 1: details yet, but I'd love to come back and talk
Speaker 1: detailed on the must Thang, just like you. One of
Speaker 1: my favorite vehicles ever, the most iconic vehicles we've ever made.
Speaker 1: All Right, so you're at your factory in Ohio. Do
Speaker 1: you have chips at your factory in Ohio? Give us
Speaker 1: the update on this whole chips situation, because cars now
Speaker 1: use a lot of chips, don't they. Yeah, like, uh,
Speaker 1: you know a vehicle like the F one fifty can
Speaker 1: has have as many as chips in it. Yes, we
Speaker 1: have chips in Ohio. The Ohio factories running. The first
Speaker 1: quarter was not great. As you know, it's been improving
Speaker 1: and uh, I expect second half of this year to
Speaker 1: be substantially better than the first half, but it's still
Speaker 1: very volatile. You know, the Shanghai shutdown through in a volatility.
Speaker 1: I'm really glad that Shanghai is coming out of lockdown
Speaker 1: and a lot of our suppliers they're regatting production. Uh
Speaker 1: So second half fully expect to be better than than
Speaker 1: the first half. How is we know that the supply
Speaker 1: chain and the chip shortages is coming along, is limping along,
Speaker 1: and we hope it comes to an end as soon
Speaker 1: as possible. But there's also a labor shortage. We saw
Speaker 1: I think yesterday there are eleven point four million job
Speaker 1: openings in America, which is crazy. How are you doing
Speaker 1: in terms of attracting talent? We're doing actually quite well.
Speaker 1: You know, we've made announcements in Kentucky, Tennessee. We're building
Speaker 1: those plants and starting that process there. Uh, and today
Speaker 1: we're announcing we're going at jobs and what else we're
Speaker 1: doing is to your point, it's not just about creating
Speaker 1: the jobs. It's about the employee experience. So at the moment,
Speaker 1: we have three thousand temporary employees in our workforce. We
Speaker 1: are converting all of them this June this month to
Speaker 1: permanent Ford employees. So what that does is while all
Speaker 1: of those three thousand employees will get a raise, Secondly,
Speaker 1: all the employees will start getting full health coverage on
Speaker 1: day one, so that's gonna be really important. And we're
Speaker 1: also committing to investing a billion dollars over the next
Speaker 1: five years in improving the employee experience at our factory.
Speaker 1: So this is not about you know, tooling and etcetera.
Speaker 1: That's the separate two point seven billion dollars. Were investing
Speaker 1: this billion dollars over the next five years throughout our
Speaker 1: entire industrial base, all the factories, just upgrading the employee experience.
Speaker 1: Better access to healthy food, better break rooms, more security
Speaker 1: and parking lots, better lighting in parking lots, more EV chargers.
Speaker 1: So I think a combination of all that, uh, and
Speaker 1: just the pure pride people have in working for Ford
Speaker 1: and building these awesome vehicles is what helps us attract
Speaker 1: of the workforce. So com I'm I'm guessing you know
Speaker 1: car nuts like Matt and you you cruise down the
Speaker 1: street in your Ford Mustang. Part of the thrill is
Speaker 1: the roar of the engine. What happens when you guys
Speaker 1: got huge part, huge part of this part. What happens
Speaker 1: when when you guys go electric? How are you? How's
Speaker 1: the industry thinking about that? Well, in an early indication
Speaker 1: I think is the Mustang macke where we created the
Speaker 1: sound inside the vehicle, so you can pick mode that
Speaker 1: you drive that vehicle and you know, let's say you
Speaker 1: pick unbridled, and it provides this sensation of the sound
Speaker 1: that becomes part of the experience. And you know, going in,
Speaker 1: everybody was wondering how that's going to play out. The
Speaker 1: customers love it, They absolutely love it. So that's just
Speaker 1: one idea, and we're playing around with other ideas how
Speaker 1: we would replicate that experience. I actually got to test
Speaker 1: drive the Macky and I loved it. Paul was just
Speaker 1: asked me before the show, how can I never get
Speaker 1: to test drive any of the cars. I'm gonna hook
Speaker 1: you up with my point person out here, Mary Beth
Speaker 1: Child's is great at at giving me cars. She got
Speaker 1: me in last week Afford f two fifty Tremor with
Speaker 1: Godzilla under the hood, a seven point three leader V
Speaker 1: eight unbelievable, Kumar, Um, are you ever gonna put a
Speaker 1: supercharger on that? Baby? I can't say, Matt, but these
Speaker 1: are fantastic ideas. Let me check that back to the
Speaker 1: power train team. You go back to Farley's office. I
Speaker 1: know he wants to do it too, and uh yeah,
Speaker 1: it's just an amazing engine. It's basically unkillable. This this motor. Um,
Speaker 1: It's just so stout and sturdy, and the towing capacity
Speaker 1: is amazing for a gas engine. Plus the two fifty
Speaker 1: with the Tremor package on it, it is just a monster.
Speaker 1: Um alright, Kumar, it's been great talking to you. Thanks
Speaker 1: so much for joining us. Always great to get forward
Speaker 1: executives coming from Ohio. You know, typically I talked to
Speaker 1: the him in Deer Dearborn or in ann Arbor is
Speaker 1: the worst. But um, when they come from Ohio, it
Speaker 1: just makes me very happy. Now we are fortunate enough
Speaker 1: to have Emily Chang here in the studio. Typically she's
Speaker 1: on the left coast Um, usually interviewing Cheryl Sandberg. Right.
Speaker 1: I feel like you've probably interviewed Cheryl Sanderberg more than
Speaker 1: any other journalist. Interviewed her a few times yesterday, including
Speaker 1: yesterday an exclusive interview. I will also point out, which
Speaker 1: is a big deal in the in the news biz.
Speaker 1: This is to me like a huge story. If if
Speaker 1: a man of this stature were to step down after
Speaker 1: creating a company like this, we would do wall to
Speaker 1: wall coverage. Right. Um, she is without a doubt the
Speaker 1: most powerful and most well known female executive in business.
Speaker 1: And you know, I would say she is not just
Speaker 1: one of the most powerful and influential business leader, business women,
Speaker 1: business leaders in the world. She is just one of
Speaker 1: the most powerful people in business totally. She took a
Speaker 1: company that was like friends to and made Uh. They
Speaker 1: had twenty seven billion dollars in AD sales in one
Speaker 1: three month period. That's just shocking. And Facebook has one
Speaker 1: of the fattest margins in the world of business. Like
Speaker 1: all of the money they bring in for sales they
Speaker 1: put in their pockets. Right, It's made Mark Zuckerberg one
Speaker 1: of the richest people in the world. Cheryl Sandberg probably
Speaker 1: also incredibly wealthy, Yes, definitely. Also, it has touched the
Speaker 1: lives of three billion people directly right that used the platform.
Speaker 1: I just think it's an amazing story. Why is she leaving, Well,
Speaker 1: I'll tell you what she says. She says it's time.
Speaker 1: She's been there for fourteen years. She thought it would
Speaker 1: be five. She wants to spend more time with her family.
Speaker 1: She's getting married this summer. She has five kids now.
Speaker 1: She wants to spend more time on philanthropy, she wants
Speaker 1: to spend more time on her women's advocacy. And I
Speaker 1: do think what's happening with Roe versus Wade right now.
Speaker 1: I think she potentially wants to get more active there
Speaker 1: and now as the time. However, um, I think if
Speaker 1: you think about the pivot to the metaverse, whether it's
Speaker 1: a good idea or not, whether Facebook can capitalize it
Speaker 1: or not on it or not, she would have had
Speaker 1: to come up with a whole different business model or
Speaker 1: a reconstitution of Facebook's business model for the metaverse. And
Speaker 1: maybe she just didn't want to write a whole new chapter. Um,
Speaker 1: maybe she was just done and wanted to do other things.
Speaker 1: I also think that she's probably been looking for an
Speaker 1: exit for several years. And because Facebook was facing controversy
Speaker 1: after controversy after controversy, and she was often the face
Speaker 1: of those controversies or felt responsibility to clean up the mess. Um,
Speaker 1: she couldn't believe and there was never a good time. Yes,
Speaker 1: let's talk about that for a moment. Because so she
Speaker 1: wants to now step down from Facebook and do more good.
Speaker 1: Can she redeem herself? Is she going to heaven? Because
Speaker 1: Facebook is potentially one of the worst things to happen
Speaker 1: to humanity, you know, I mean, it's just made the
Speaker 1: world a worst place. Yes. And I think if if
Speaker 1: Cheryl Sandberg has any failures, she did not admit to
Speaker 1: the negative consequences that you know, Facebook has has clearly
Speaker 1: clearly created and and and of course there there could
Speaker 1: have been you know, decisions that she wanted Mark to
Speaker 1: make make that he refused to make. Sure, let's allow
Speaker 1: her that possibility. Um. But also there's no question that
Speaker 1: she does bear responsibility for the negative consequences of Facebook,
Speaker 1: and also that she was not able to repair Facebook's
Speaker 1: relationship with Washington, repair Facebook's image, and of course that
Speaker 1: then comes down to her own reputation. But can we
Speaker 1: just say that she created one of the most incredible,
Speaker 1: whether we like it or not, business models in history,
Speaker 1: not just once but twice. She did it at Google,
Speaker 1: she did it at Facebook. She wrote a transformational book
Speaker 1: that I know not everyone agrees with that was very
Speaker 1: powerful for many women, and not just women but men
Speaker 1: and women and business. And so I don't know if
Speaker 1: she's going to heaven or any of us going to heaven,
Speaker 1: but I think we do have to celebrate what she
Speaker 1: has created. Do you think she has a future in politics.
Speaker 1: I think elected office would be tough. I think it
Speaker 1: would be tough for her to win an election, and
Speaker 1: you put it everything together, the good and the bad,
Speaker 1: it's a challenge. I think appointed office maybe, And you know,
Speaker 1: maybe the more distance she puts between herself and Facebook,
Speaker 1: people start to see the good things again. And you know,
Speaker 1: I don't know if she really wants to. I do
Speaker 1: think that Cheryl is she's very ambitious. She wrote not
Speaker 1: just one but two books while she was at Facebook.
Speaker 1: She's strategic, she's smart, like I'm sure she has a
Speaker 1: plan um and but you're right, she doesn't have to.
Speaker 1: She doesn't have to, but I think she she is
Speaker 1: someone who I just from my personal interactions with her,
Speaker 1: she wants to work right, she wants to be contributing
Speaker 1: um and I don't think she will be happy just
Speaker 1: you know, quote unquote doing philanthropy, though I think that
Speaker 1: that's very important work. I think that she will want
Speaker 1: to do more and see how she can use her
Speaker 1: voice as a force for good in the future. The
Speaker 1: Bloomberg rich Go Functions says she has two point three
Speaker 1: billion dollars. I'm gonna say that's lowballing you. Our data
Speaker 1: is the best, rich Go, It's the best. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: is the definitive data. Let's say she's rich. Okay, Like
Speaker 1: I think that's a lot of money. That's a lot
Speaker 1: of money, all right, Emily Chang, thank you so much
Speaker 1: for joining us in our studio here at folks. Uh.
Speaker 1: There's really not many journals I would say, maybe not
Speaker 1: any who are as in touch with the business of
Speaker 1: Silicon Valley than Emily Chang is from her perch on
Speaker 1: the West Coast. We appreciate getting a few minutes of
Speaker 1: your time. Matt and I often like to talk about
Speaker 1: supply channel ofttimes you talk about it on a global scale,
Speaker 1: getting two ships into ports and the railroads running in
Speaker 1: the trucks and all that kind of stuff. But Iday,
Speaker 1: I drove back and forth to South Jersey yesterday on
Speaker 1: the New Jersey Turnpike and there it is just lined
Speaker 1: with UH warehouses and fulfilment centers and Amazon Prime trucks
Speaker 1: all over the place, and early makes you think about
Speaker 1: that last mile of getting stuff to stores and then
Speaker 1: stores to consumers. It is just an incredible business. Brian
Speaker 1: Kinsella joins us. He's just senior VP of Product Management
Speaker 1: at Manhattan Associates. That's a NASTAC traded company. M A
Speaker 1: n H is the ticker on your Bloomberg terminal there.
Speaker 1: Brian talked to us about kind of what retailers have
Speaker 1: been doing over the past two two and a half
Speaker 1: years as it relates to getting products to consumers. It's
Speaker 1: not just people coming into stores. It's been e commerce,
Speaker 1: it's been omni channel. What are some of the big
Speaker 1: changes that you and your clients have been dealing with. Yeah,
Speaker 1: good morning, I'm glad to be with you. Um So, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's been Uh, it's been a fun last couple of years.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think a couple of things. One. Um,
Speaker 1: if you think about the experience you have as a consumer,
Speaker 1: your expectations have really changed. When you order something now,
Speaker 1: you know it's not okay for it to come in
Speaker 1: five to seven days. You expect it in two days.
Speaker 1: And you expect to be able to reserve something online
Speaker 1: and do a curbside pick up in a couple of hours.
Speaker 1: And those things may seem a little bit simple and basic,
Speaker 1: but from a logistics and supply chain point of view,
Speaker 1: there's a lot in the background that makes that happen.
Speaker 1: So Um, it's really about speed to customer. Predictability and
Speaker 1: visibility of that delivery experience is what the data will
Speaker 1: show you will drive up your net promoter score UM
Speaker 1: and drive loyalty amongst your customers. I got a curveball
Speaker 1: for you. I got one out of left field here
Speaker 1: kind of it's related. Are you going to heaven? No? Okay? Um, Brian, Uh.
Speaker 1: You know, a couple of years ago, we were talking
Speaker 1: about the idea of drones delivering stuff and I thought
Speaker 1: it sounded ridiculous. I've heard there our pilot programs. Is
Speaker 1: that kind of thing really going to happen? You know,
Speaker 1: I think that we're in experimentation mode on a lot
Speaker 1: of different things. That's everything from from drone delivery, which
Speaker 1: is you know, obviously nascent, to robotics in the warehouse,
Speaker 1: which is further along UM and is showing some real
Speaker 1: productivity improvements, especially in a tight labor environment. UM. But
Speaker 1: if you look at you know what's happening at a
Speaker 1: macro level, employment in the warehousing and the transportation sectors
Speaker 1: has never been higher. So this is still UM you know,
Speaker 1: primarily a people driven process, both on the last mile
Speaker 1: and delivery side as well as those big warehouses that
Speaker 1: you drive by. The vast majority of that activity is
Speaker 1: powered by people today. So the last mile is your
Speaker 1: area of specific expertise. What UM is the unique selling
Speaker 1: point of Manhattan Associates, What's what's your you know, elevator pitch. Well,
Speaker 1: you know what we really do is UM. You know,
Speaker 1: we think about the totality of the stomer experience when
Speaker 1: it comes to fulfilment. So when you go online to
Speaker 1: that website, you want to know what's in that local store?
Speaker 1: When can I pick it up? Can I get the
Speaker 1: same dat delivery? Can I get a next day delivery?
Speaker 1: If I'm going to have a shift to me, how
Speaker 1: long is it going to take if I add more
Speaker 1: three or three more items to that basket? How does
Speaker 1: that change my delivery experience in terms of timing and
Speaker 1: so forth. Um So, pulling all that together, as you
Speaker 1: might imagine, there's a lot of real time data that
Speaker 1: needs to be consolidated together. Um you've got to also
Speaker 1: avoid mistakes like not offering to send you a pair
Speaker 1: of socks across town, you know, for free during the
Speaker 1: you know, for the same day delivery. So really being
Speaker 1: smart about that assortment and figuring out how to do
Speaker 1: all of this profitably. So over the course of the
Speaker 1: last few years, it's really been focused about customer experience
Speaker 1: and delivering those types of fulfilment experiences. But we've also
Speaker 1: got to look at how do we generate bottom line
Speaker 1: results from more and more of the activity that's going
Speaker 1: through these complex fulfilment channels. Brian, you mentioned one of
Speaker 1: the key ingredients for that last mild delivery of packages,
Speaker 1: and we've all seen the trucks cruising around town, you know,
Speaker 1: dropping that pair of socks off the people that they
Speaker 1: just have to have Today talk to us about the
Speaker 1: labor situation because we know there's a labor shortage for
Speaker 1: most industries out there. And I'm I'm guessing that's also
Speaker 1: true kind of in your business as well as you
Speaker 1: work with your clients. Yeah. Absolutely, And you know, before
Speaker 1: the packages get on the back of those trucks, they
Speaker 1: go through in most cases large complex distribution centers and
Speaker 1: fulfillment centers. And you know, one of the things that
Speaker 1: has been driving UM, you know, more use of automation,
Speaker 1: be it next gen automation like robotics or your classic
Speaker 1: automation is frankly the labor shortage in the labor situation. UM.
Speaker 1: You know that said, One of the things that companies
Speaker 1: can do and that we work with them on is
Speaker 1: UM really creating a better experience for the associates in
Speaker 1: the warehouse. You know, we've built some gamification technology so
Speaker 1: that UM they're real time rewards that get built into
Speaker 1: the work day, both monetary and otherwise. UM that you know,
Speaker 1: really makes it more of a modern experience orients for
Speaker 1: the younger generation as they come into some of those
Speaker 1: jobs as well. In terms of UM normalization. I mean
Speaker 1: you you you said, I think half joking that it
Speaker 1: was been a fun couple of years. I'm sure it's
Speaker 1: probably you've been the hardest two years of your career. Um,
Speaker 1: when when do we get back to normal here? Well, Um,
Speaker 1: you know, I think that it's uh, it's a matter
Speaker 1: of the things are changing on both sides of the equation.
Speaker 1: So obviously there's the supply disruption and I know you
Speaker 1: guys have covered that extensively. Um, But that the consumer
Speaker 1: continues to change. You know, that they want different ways
Speaker 1: to take delivery of products, to pay for things, contactless payments, um,
Speaker 1: you know, paying with crypto in the store. All of
Speaker 1: that stuff continues to go along. So I don't think,
Speaker 1: and I guess it's a bit cliche, but that the
Speaker 1: reality is the you know what normal looks like is
Speaker 1: going to be ongoing change and evolution. And I think
Speaker 1: especially for a lot of you know companies that we
Speaker 1: deal with, you know, they're they're chasing in some cases,
Speaker 1: and we're trying to outcompete the legs of Amazon, and
Speaker 1: we know their philosophy about continued evolution and and grow
Speaker 1: to the customer experience. So I think it's going to
Speaker 1: be you know, this pace that we've experienced the last
Speaker 1: two to three years, I think is what we can
Speaker 1: expect going forward in terms of continued investment in supply chain,
Speaker 1: in technology UM, and improving the end customer delivery experience.
Speaker 1: You mentioned Amazon dot Com and You're and obviously they're
Speaker 1: the ones that have been driving this revolution in retail
Speaker 1: over the last decades. Plural are are are the traditional retailers.
Speaker 1: How does a MoMA keep up with that? Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: a great question. We see two things. One, for the
Speaker 1: non mom pops, you know, you're much larger companies UM,
Speaker 1: they're building I T organizations and development shops to rival Amazon,
Speaker 1: or to attempt to rival Amazon and really build out
Speaker 1: a fair amount of it themselves. Now we work with
Speaker 1: a lot of those guys behind the scenes too, but
Speaker 1: the end customer experience they're trying to control. For the
Speaker 1: smaller companies, it's really about cleverly stitching together you know,
Speaker 1: some SASS solutions and cloud based technology providers to be
Speaker 1: able to deliver those types of experiences. You're also seeing
Speaker 1: some third party logistics providers really focusing on UM serving
Speaker 1: that market the book that you're describing and essentially delivering
Speaker 1: an Amazon like experience as a service. It sounds like
Speaker 1: there's no going back. Brian cain sell, A, Senior VP
Speaker 1: of Product Management in Manhattan, associates again that companies publicly
Speaker 1: traded on the NASTAC M A and H is the
Speaker 1: ticker UH for your Bloomberg terminal. The world is going
Speaker 1: continues to go e commerce, omni channel. We're gonna online,
Speaker 1: pick it up the store, all that kind of good stuff.
Speaker 1: Retail is changing. June is Pride month, and a month
Speaker 1: when we're focusing on equality issues here at Bloomberg. Today
Speaker 1: we bringing Mary Ellen is Candarian CEO and president of
Speaker 1: Women's World Banking, also author of a new book, Nothing
Speaker 1: Mike Grow, about a billion women making finance work for women. Marianne,
Speaker 1: thanks so much for joining us. I love to start
Speaker 1: off just by getting your reaction to the news that
Speaker 1: Cheryl S. Sandberg is stepping down from her CEO post
Speaker 1: at Facebook. How did you what did you read into that? Well?
Speaker 1: I have to say I hadn't heard that the stock
Speaker 1: was up on the news until just listening to the
Speaker 1: program right before we started talking. So that was interesting,
Speaker 1: very very very interesting signal there. Um. You know, she
Speaker 1: was really such a face for this movement of lean
Speaker 1: in and and you know, negotiating for what right salaries
Speaker 1: and everything everything to deserve. I know, a lot of
Speaker 1: folks felt like, you know, there was a classic line
Speaker 1: I've heard many women say, you know, sort of if
Speaker 1: I lean in any further, I'm going to fall flat
Speaker 1: on my faith. And UM, I think that a lot
Speaker 1: of that sentiment really, um, you know, hit home during
Speaker 1: during COVID, when all of the you know, sort of
Speaker 1: the third shift, all of the additional responsibilities that that
Speaker 1: women often take at home in addition to working really
Speaker 1: um just ramped up to ridiculous levels as the kids
Speaker 1: were homeschooled and people were trying to work from home
Speaker 1: and there was just, you know, so much being being juggled.
Speaker 1: So I don't know, I feel like the messages maybe
Speaker 1: moved on a bit and that hasn't necessarily updated. Um
Speaker 1: for all that we've learned, and a lot happens that happens, right,
Speaker 1: I mean it was at the time, I think it
Speaker 1: was really important, and it certainly was fascinating, and um,
Speaker 1: she did an undeniably great job at creating a powerhouse business.
Speaker 1: I mean, if you look at Facebook, um stock, yes,
Speaker 1: it's up today three percent, and reaction were stepping down
Speaker 1: but you know, at one point she was responsible for
Speaker 1: boosting the stock like one thousand two. Um, she made
Speaker 1: twenty seven billion dollars in one quarter and advertising revenue.
Speaker 1: I mean she just she leaned way the heck in.
Speaker 1: And it's easier, Marian when you have two point three
Speaker 1: billion dollars, you know, to get childcare. Yes, what about
Speaker 1: what about a normal the normal women of America post
Speaker 1: COVID and you know even in less developed nations. How, um,
Speaker 1: how are we doing in terms of creating a solid
Speaker 1: financial foundation for for women. Well, you know, the work
Speaker 1: that we do at Women's World Banking is very focused
Speaker 1: on on the emerging markets and and we've seen some
Speaker 1: actually really exciting developments in that. Um, you know, the
Speaker 1: rush to digital moving so many government and private sector
Speaker 1: you know, in addition to financial services, online has just
Speaker 1: really you know, sort of driven change for women at
Speaker 1: a pace that, um, you know, we could only have
Speaker 1: imagined a few years ago. So we're actually pretty excited
Speaker 1: about all of the smartphones that have gotten into women's hands.
Speaker 1: You know, UM India made their first uh COVID relief
Speaker 1: payments payable only two women and only through digital accounts.
Speaker 1: UM India is also the country with the largest gender
Speaker 1: gap in smartphone ownership. And so you saw like within
Speaker 1: three weeks of that first um, that first lockdown, twenty
Speaker 1: five million new digital accounts opened, primarily by women. So
Speaker 1: you know, sometimes it does take a crisis to just
Speaker 1: go through social norms and restrictive um cultural issues that
Speaker 1: may all hold women back. But you know, in a crisis,
Speaker 1: no way where you're going to not take advantage of
Speaker 1: that government relief payment during such a scary time. So
Speaker 1: you now have all of these women with those mobile
Speaker 1: money accounts, the challenge will be let's keep them in
Speaker 1: the system. Let's make sure we continue to serve them,
Speaker 1: and as they start to come back into the into
Speaker 1: the workforce, you know, even more importantly thirty seconds Mary Allan,
Speaker 1: in the US, how are the banks doing in terms
Speaker 1: of serving women? You know, I still feel in the
Speaker 1: U S we we have a little bit of that
Speaker 1: sort of pink product um phenomenon where you take a
Speaker 1: product that maybe working for men, you know, put some
Speaker 1: nice marketing around it, but you don't really look into
Speaker 1: what's the need? What are women really missing, not understanding,
Speaker 1: not really wanting, not that you're not listening to them
Speaker 1: and and really taking a woman centered focus um on
Speaker 1: your product design. I think there's a there's a great
Speaker 1: stuff that's happening. You're seeing some really interesting fintech and
Speaker 1: tech enabled solutions that are focused on women, but I
Speaker 1: think the banks specifically still have a way to go.
Speaker 1: All right, Mary Ellen, great stuff. Thanks for coming on.
Speaker 1: We really appreciate getting your thoughts. Mary Ellen is can
Speaker 1: Day and CEO and president of Women's World Banking. New
Speaker 1: book out entitled Nothing Micro About a Billion Women Making
Speaker 1: finance work for Women. Thanks for listening to the Bloomberg
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