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 Messer and Bloomberg Quick Takes Tim
Speaker 1: Stenovic on Bloomberg Radio. Hi, Am Carol Masser. My co
Speaker 1: host Tim Stenovic is off this week. Well, it was
Speaker 1: another infrastructure week where something actually got done. It was
Speaker 1: also a week of mixed markets records for some equity
Speaker 1: indexes and a consistent flurry of stories on companies that
Speaker 1: are figuring out what work looks like in the fall
Speaker 1: and for a growing number got to say it means
Speaker 1: a delay in getting back to the office. We'll talk
Speaker 1: more about how work is shifting because of the pandemic.
Speaker 1: Will do that in our second hour. Coming up though
Speaker 1: this hour, we've got the CEO of Truly on more
Speaker 1: Americans than ever being able to access cannabis. Also an
Speaker 1: up close look at real estate with the co founder
Speaker 1: of rom Or Dubos. They're based in New York. They'll
Speaker 1: about why first time homebuyers are feeling the squeeze as
Speaker 1: they wait into a red hot housing market. Plus the
Speaker 1: CEO of Freight Farms on advancements in agricultural technology that
Speaker 1: are helping farmers deal with increasingly extreme climates. All of
Speaker 1: that to come, We begin with a story from Business
Speaker 1: Week about why Silicon Valleys many Asian Americans still feel
Speaker 1: like minority. I caught up with Bloomberg business Week editor
Speaker 1: Joe Weber and Bloomberg Venture Capital reporter pre An. So
Speaker 1: we've known for a while that Silicon Valley is not
Speaker 1: great with diversity. And you would assume these companies, you know,
Speaker 1: um companies crop up every day here. These a lot
Speaker 1: of these companies are are not that many decades old.
Speaker 1: You would assume that they weren't sattled with some of
Speaker 1: the historical issues that other institutions that have been around
Speaker 1: for maybe hundreds of years might be saddled with. But
Speaker 1: one one key thing that we realized was, you know,
Speaker 1: in the demographic reports that these companies put out Alphabet,
Speaker 1: Google's parent companies, Facebook, etcetera, one bright spot always appears
Speaker 1: to be that Asians account for almost as much of
Speaker 1: the company as white folks and sometimes more of the
Speaker 1: population at a company in the US, at least Facebook,
Speaker 1: for example, Asian people outnumber they're white peers. UM ever
Speaker 1: so slightly in the US, And so we looked at
Speaker 1: that a little deeper and we realized, you know, there
Speaker 1: is a gap as you move up the ranks at
Speaker 1: tech companies, and the data shows this, um, there are
Speaker 1: far fewer Asian folks in leadership compared to their overall
Speaker 1: representation at the company. UM. So we noticed that gap,
Speaker 1: and we thought, you know, what is behind that gap.
Speaker 1: Let's start asking the questions and talking to people. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and you know, Joel, I think it is a surprise.
Speaker 1: You know, we do often cover how tech companies are.
Speaker 1: We talk with tech company executives. They love to say
Speaker 1: we've got a lot of diversity and inclusion, and yes,
Speaker 1: sometimes that is the case, but it's not such a
Speaker 1: clear picture. It's a lot more complicated. Yeah, and I
Speaker 1: think that, you know, that was really the thrust of
Speaker 1: the story. And what Prea did um I think remarkably well,
Speaker 1: is like there's the data set of the story, ben't
Speaker 1: then there's the human one. And so I just wanted
Speaker 1: to actually like take a moment like these are people
Speaker 1: who haven't often spoken on the record about sort of
Speaker 1: the environment that the work environment that they're in and
Speaker 1: and there were several themes that UMU stuck out I
Speaker 1: think in the reporting, and and why don't you just
Speaker 1: talk to us about what some of those were and
Speaker 1: what people felt. So one of the things that is
Speaker 1: most frustrating for Asians in the tech industry is that
Speaker 1: the racism against them is barely acknowledged. There's this idea.
Speaker 1: I spoke with someone yesterday who said, thank you for
Speaker 1: writing this story, because there's been this idea that we
Speaker 1: shouldn't talk about this because at least we're well represented
Speaker 1: at these companies. But there are a lot of challenges
Speaker 1: that come along the ways you're progressing at a tech company.
Speaker 1: We spoke with folks who are fairly young in their twenties.
Speaker 1: As an intern um a woman who moved to San
Speaker 1: Francisco for an intern ship was told, you know, um,
Speaker 1: white men here will love to date you. And so
Speaker 1: for women in the tech industry, there's this double whammy,
Speaker 1: right of receiving the gendered feedback and also this sort
Speaker 1: of feedback that that fetishizes Asian women. The same woman
Speaker 1: has been told by a manager or by a colleague that, um,
Speaker 1: you know, you only have succeeded here because someone in
Speaker 1: leadership has an Asian fetish, and this is someone in
Speaker 1: their twenties. And this person, you know, has also been
Speaker 1: told that they lack executive presence, which for someone in
Speaker 1: their twenties, you know, is this vague kind of coded
Speaker 1: feedback on what does that even mean? You've never managed
Speaker 1: anyone in the first place, um, And when you combine
Speaker 1: all those things together, it's quite a discouraging outlook. And
Speaker 1: then when folks reach middle management stage, this vague feedback
Speaker 1: continues right related to executive presence. And also people are
Speaker 1: often told, you know, you don't fit the profile of
Speaker 1: what we're looking for in this role. And they look
Speaker 1: at their credential, they look at um, their successes that
Speaker 1: they've had in their career, they look at their peers
Speaker 1: and sometimes only differences. They're an Asian American compared to
Speaker 1: a lot of their white peers, and they're less wondering
Speaker 1: whether this big feedback had something to do with their
Speaker 1: performance or their credentials, or is it about their identity.
Speaker 1: There is one person that I think um is more
Speaker 1: dientful than others, which is Ellen Powe. And you know
Speaker 1: that she became famous for the case that she lost
Speaker 1: in but it also, um, you know, it speaks to
Speaker 1: sort of what she was able to accomplish in the
Speaker 1: legacy her legacy a little bit. So what did you
Speaker 1: learn from talking with Ellen Powe? Well, one thing I
Speaker 1: wanted to chat with Ellen Powe about in particular was
Speaker 1: when she was interim CEO of Reddit. Firstly, why was
Speaker 1: it interim? Right? Um? Did did the board coming in
Speaker 1: decide that she wouldn't be staying on forever? And why
Speaker 1: it was that? And she says she looks back and
Speaker 1: wonders the same thing. Why she had that taxed under
Speaker 1: a title and she let it go at the time. Um.
Speaker 1: But one of the things that struck me most was
Speaker 1: looking back on her career. While she was running Reddit,
Speaker 1: there were all these racist memes, but users would post
Speaker 1: calling her chairman now or chairman pal after you know
Speaker 1: now style memes, um. And and that just seemed really
Speaker 1: striking right to rebel against the changes she was making
Speaker 1: with not just any kind of meme, but these like
Speaker 1: frankly very racist memes um calling her chairman pal. So
Speaker 1: that that was something that I think if that happened now, um,
Speaker 1: perhaps we look at even more than it was covered
Speaker 1: in the past that was pre and non Bloomberg Venture
Speaker 1: Capital reporter and Bloomberg Business Week editor Joel Weber coming up,
Speaker 1: Truly CEO Kim Rivers is back stopping about to talk
Speaker 1: about earnings and an increasingly smoke in marijuana market in
Speaker 1: the United States. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week. This
Speaker 1: is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser
Speaker 1: and Bloomberg Quick Takes Tim Spinovik from Bloomberg Radio. One
Speaker 1: of the industries we gotta check on this week is
Speaker 1: the cannabis industry. Thanks to earnings from True Leaf Cannabis,
Speaker 1: second quarter revenue at the company beating estimates, up seventy
Speaker 1: eight percent year over year. Profits also a beat, and
Speaker 1: for more, we checked in with Kim Rivers. She's chairman,
Speaker 1: president CEO of Quincy, Florida based True Leave Cannabis. Things
Speaker 1: are going great. We continue to see, um, you know,
Speaker 1: the continuation of cannabis really this great American growth story. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, even in the face of right and or
Speaker 1: the lack thereof, I guess of of federal federal legalization movement, Um,
Speaker 1: it continues to be really a state by state story.
Speaker 1: And in this quarter was no different, with strong demand
Speaker 1: across all the markets that we operate in and and
Speaker 1: really a continued positive outlook in the industry. We'll talk
Speaker 1: to me about the cannabis regulatory environment. I mean, this
Speaker 1: is something we have had multiple conversations with many individuals
Speaker 1: in the industry, and I keep I think, we keep
Speaker 1: thinking we're gonna get closer and closer to some kind
Speaker 1: of federal rulings on it in federal oversight, and yet
Speaker 1: here we are what are the indications, what kind of
Speaker 1: guidance are you getting from policymakers in d C. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, I think that it's you know, it's fascinating,
Speaker 1: and that we came from an environment under a previous
Speaker 1: administration where we really couldn't get any traction in the
Speaker 1: Senate at all, right, and we we didn't get get
Speaker 1: anything to be to to to progress or make it
Speaker 1: at all to the floor. Now we're in kind of
Speaker 1: the opposite, the opposite environment where there's a lot of
Speaker 1: interest and a lot of a lot of willingness to
Speaker 1: get something done. And here we have this proposal that
Speaker 1: is so robust um that that perhaps it's um it
Speaker 1: may be and this remains to be seen, of course,
Speaker 1: and I'm talking about you know, Center Schumer's bill. It
Speaker 1: included thing that we could ever want to address, right
Speaker 1: with respect to cannabis reform. It you know, I think
Speaker 1: that the answer likely lies somewhere in the middle, and
Speaker 1: that this is a process at the federal level, like
Speaker 1: it is with any large policy policy matters. So I
Speaker 1: don't cannabis is no different. And we've swung the pendulum
Speaker 1: kind of from one end to the other. And and
Speaker 1: I hope that at the very least, I hope that
Speaker 1: we can get at least some piece of substance policy
Speaker 1: legislation passed out of this Congress. I think it would
Speaker 1: be an absolute shame if if we were to if
Speaker 1: they were to allow Congress to a join without something
Speaker 1: significant passing at at the federal level. You know, we
Speaker 1: know that the votes are there for state banking. Um,
Speaker 1: that's fundantly clear, right, And but you know, at this
Speaker 1: sentence position is that that's that's simply you know, at
Speaker 1: this point in time, not enough as a standalone piece
Speaker 1: of legislation. And so from our from our standpoint, and
Speaker 1: we would be ecstatic with say banking, we would be
Speaker 1: even more ecstatic. It was if it was safe banking
Speaker 1: plus some significant element of social justice um in or
Speaker 1: criminal justice is reformed, but that it needs to be
Speaker 1: something right because still on a federal level it's illegal. Well,
Speaker 1: what guidance do you have on that? And how much
Speaker 1: did covid derail the movement forward when it comes to
Speaker 1: either a safe banking act or you know, ending cannabis prohibition.
Speaker 1: You know, I don't know. I mean, certainly and rightly
Speaker 1: so COVID is is top of mind for all of us,
Speaker 1: um in our personal lives and our business lives, and
Speaker 1: of course for policymakers as well, and that's understandable and inappropriate. Um.
Speaker 1: That being said, you know, it was. I don't think
Speaker 1: ever the plaint the cannabis policymaking is on the schedule
Speaker 1: that I think that many of us thought that it
Speaker 1: would be on in that you know, a cent our
Speaker 1: streamer introduced his his proposal, Um, they went into recess.
Speaker 1: I believe that it will be revisited in in September.
Speaker 1: UM at that point, you know, towards the back half
Speaker 1: of the year. I think there's going to be additional
Speaker 1: discussion around it and will decide whether or not. You know,
Speaker 1: that's the path if there's enough, if there's enough momentum
Speaker 1: there in terms of a heavier lift, or if instead, um,
Speaker 1: it should be paired back into something and that may
Speaker 1: be more palatable for a bipartison, for a pipartisan um,
Speaker 1: you know, the ability to get passed them from on
Speaker 1: a bark on a bipartisan basis, which of course we
Speaker 1: would like to see as well, because the reality is
Speaker 1: is that when you look at the states and you
Speaker 1: look at what's happening at the state level, you know,
Speaker 1: we just want to license in Georgia for getting operational there.
Speaker 1: You look at what happened last November with states like
Speaker 1: Mississippi passing a medical a medical um initiative, you know,
Speaker 1: Arizona going recreational. I mean at the state level, things
Speaker 1: are not slowing down, as a matter of fact, they're accelerating. So,
Speaker 1: you know, I think it's important for folks to realize
Speaker 1: that the growth of the industry is not tied to
Speaker 1: what happens in dc UM really at all. UM. It
Speaker 1: makes it more difficult from a we just paid eighty
Speaker 1: million dollars in taxes, for example, under to eight UM.
Speaker 1: But you know, Indy cats these businesses, but it isn't
Speaker 1: slowing down demand. Hey, Kim, so talk to us about
Speaker 1: some of the strategies you guys have been working on.
Speaker 1: You have been making some acquisitions, you've been expanding where
Speaker 1: you are operational and that includes Massachusetts also West Virginia.
Speaker 1: So give us a little bit more insight into, uh,
Speaker 1: how growth has been going. Yeah, absolutely, so we you know,
Speaker 1: we started in Florida and we were in our the
Speaker 1: market leader, uh you know, significant market leader in Florida
Speaker 1: with about of the stores and have approximately over of
Speaker 1: the market here. And that was purposeful and that we
Speaker 1: really wanted to ensure a couple of things. One that
Speaker 1: we could actually scale a cannabis company in a market
Speaker 1: that allowed us to do so, and into we wanted
Speaker 1: to get our very solid financial footing prior to expanding
Speaker 1: into other markets. And so truly has UM certainly a
Speaker 1: reputation of being the most profitable cannabis business in the
Speaker 1: US UM and that has allowed us to fuel our
Speaker 1: growth um internally and really kind of insulated us from
Speaker 1: the volatility of the capital markets over time. And so however,
Speaker 1: UM that being said, we started five years ago and
Speaker 1: really about a team months ago, we made a strategic
Speaker 1: decision to begin expanding UM in a hub and spoke
Speaker 1: model across the US, and we did that first by
Speaker 1: expanding into the Northeast. As you mentioned, we have operations
Speaker 1: in Massachusetts. We also have operations in Pennsylvania recently made
Speaker 1: another acquisition there as well as UM as well as
Speaker 1: West Virginia in Connecticut. UH, and then UM we we
Speaker 1: decided that it was time for us to really take
Speaker 1: a card look at where we wanted to go from
Speaker 1: there and which other markets were our next moves, and
Speaker 1: whether or not we wanted to make a bigger a
Speaker 1: bigger move or continue this UM this sort of you know,
Speaker 1: state by state or company by company strategy. And at
Speaker 1: that point we decided to UH kind of go big,
Speaker 1: if you will, and UM entered into a deal with
Speaker 1: Harvest and Health and Recreation. Harvest is the largest player
Speaker 1: in Arizona. They also have significant presence in Pennsylvania and
Speaker 1: also operations in Florida. Combined, we will be by far
Speaker 1: the largest cannabis company in the US. UM. But any
Speaker 1: available metric UM this quarter on a combined basis, how
Speaker 1: do we closed the deal? So the Harvest shareholders voted
Speaker 1: on the transaction and we're looking to close here as
Speaker 1: soon and if we if we were combined today, we
Speaker 1: would have you know, top line seventeen point six million
Speaker 1: in revenue, hundred two point nine million in in Ebada
Speaker 1: would be in eleven states, have a hundred and forty
Speaker 1: stores and over three million score feet of grow. That
Speaker 1: grow footprint is about fifty larger than any competitor in
Speaker 1: the number of stores is north of thirty. So um,
Speaker 1: we will be the dominant player in the in the space.
Speaker 1: That was true leaves CEO Kim Rivers. Check out that
Speaker 1: full conversation. You can find it at Bloomberg dot com.
Speaker 1: Still ahead on Bloomberg Business Week, from growing and selling
Speaker 1: cannabis to farming and freight containers. That's coming up next.
Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Broadcasting from the financial capital of the
Speaker 1: world Bloomberg eleven Rio in New York to Washington, d C.
Speaker 1: Bloomberg to Boston, Bloomberg one oh six one does San Francisco,
Speaker 1: Bloomberg nine sixty to the country Sirius xm JEDDO one
Speaker 1: nine team and around the globe the Bloomberg Business app
Speaker 1: and Bloomberg Radio dot Com. This is Bloomberg Business Week.
Speaker 1: So when I got this pitch, I thought our audience,
Speaker 1: our Bloomberg audience, might be interested. It's a company that's
Speaker 1: on a mission to create a global infrastructure for local
Speaker 1: access to food. So far, they've spread across thirty four countries,
Speaker 1: foarding on US states and territories, and have created more
Speaker 1: than six d freight farmers all over the past eight years.
Speaker 1: Here with what they are doing and how climate change
Speaker 1: is definitely playing a role in all of this, as
Speaker 1: well as Rick Venzera, he's CEO of Freight Farms. Rick
Speaker 1: tell us a little bit about exactly what you guys
Speaker 1: have been doing over the past almost ten years here.
Speaker 1: I think it's actually might be even longer than ten years,
Speaker 1: right right, yeah? Are our co founders, John Friedman and
Speaker 1: Brad McNamara came together in to try and address um
Speaker 1: urban access to food and food deserts with roof top gardens.
Speaker 1: They realized pretty quickly that that wasn't a very economical
Speaker 1: or our practical approach to um to scaling, so in
Speaker 1: they they founded Freight Farms, and and John came up
Speaker 1: with this crazy idea too to grow produce inside a
Speaker 1: used shipping container because he saw that there were many
Speaker 1: of them around and that if you put led lights
Speaker 1: in the right environmentals in it and nutrients that you
Speaker 1: could grow produce. And and since then we've gone through
Speaker 1: ten generations of farms, and and uh UM realized that
Speaker 1: trying to use use shipping containers really wasn't optimized for growing,
Speaker 1: so developed a lot of patents around UM optimizing growth
Speaker 1: and customized shipping containers. So we launched the greenery in
Speaker 1: and we've gone through several of the evolutions of that
Speaker 1: to come to the greenery s and in a nutshell,
Speaker 1: it allows you to grow about two and a half
Speaker 1: acres of produce in UM an eight by forty ft
Speaker 1: shipping container, and you can do it with UM less
Speaker 1: water than traditional agriculture, no soil. It dramatically cuts transportation miles.
Speaker 1: Nine of the lettuce in the US comes from fields
Speaker 1: in Salinas, California, so here on the East Coast, that's
Speaker 1: having to spend several days and travel thousands of miles
Speaker 1: to get to uh shelves and grocery stores on the
Speaker 1: East Coast. Whereas you can grow in our shipping containers
Speaker 1: UM anywhere in virtually any climate, any time, So we
Speaker 1: can put those containers right where there's need and deliver
Speaker 1: you know, hyperlocal sustainable fresh produce UM anywhere where you
Speaker 1: have access to power and water. So that's it. And
Speaker 1: based on that, we're now in in forty nine states
Speaker 1: and in our thirty fourth country. So UM it's been.
Speaker 1: It's been, uh just a great turn and uh great
Speaker 1: to do some thing that's that's um scalable and good
Speaker 1: for folks around the world. Talk to me about the
Speaker 1: financial dynamics of what you are doing. UM, the cost
Speaker 1: equation of all of this and how that works. Our
Speaker 1: farms cost a hundred thirty nine thousand dollars, which pretty
Speaker 1: low cost of access for commercial farming, particularly given it
Speaker 1: it takes virtually no footprint, and on that investment you
Speaker 1: can get a payback in about two years. Again thanks
Speaker 1: to the advances in the technology, you can you can
Speaker 1: grow that two and a half acres worth of crops
Speaker 1: and UM. You know, I've I've been involved in evolving
Speaker 1: technology that months before in my life, where early stage
Speaker 1: it looks like how is this ever going to make sense?
Speaker 1: And then it gets to the point where it kind
Speaker 1: of makes sense, and then a few years later it
Speaker 1: leads leads the alternatives and the dullest, So I think
Speaker 1: not just for us, but for the industry in general,
Speaker 1: you're seeing that same sort of evolution. I mentioned climate
Speaker 1: chain in the lead up to this, and we certainly
Speaker 1: were talking. Everybody was about the latest report from the
Speaker 1: u N and talking about UM the impact that certainly
Speaker 1: humans are having on our climate. Food is one of
Speaker 1: those things we talk about it, but I don't think
Speaker 1: we realize how dangerous a situation we could be getting
Speaker 1: into because of climate change and making it much more
Speaker 1: difficult to grow the food that the world needs. How
Speaker 1: do you think about climate change and what you what
Speaker 1: you folks are doing absolutely critical issue with se of
Speaker 1: of the world's freshwater resources go towards agriculture. We've lost
Speaker 1: about a third of the arable land on Earth over
Speaker 1: the last forty years for a variety of reasons, including
Speaker 1: climate change, and and you know, we've all read about
Speaker 1: a lot of the devastating things that are happening with
Speaker 1: fresh water levels and just climate conditions generally to grow
Speaker 1: around the world. So you know, having a solution that
Speaker 1: doesn't rely on soil, that UM takes memory water and
Speaker 1: can grow in an extreme climate is really important. And
Speaker 1: you know we're going to have to preserve what we
Speaker 1: can you know, the latest reports. As you have said,
Speaker 1: we're now at the point where, um, you can't turn
Speaker 1: back the clock, but at least protect what we have
Speaker 1: and we need to do that. That's Rick van Zura.
Speaker 1: He's the CEO of Freight Farms. You're listening to Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Business Week straight ahead. What really is going on in
Speaker 1: residential and commercial real estate? One hint, not so great
Speaker 1: to be a first time home buyer. We'll get an
Speaker 1: update from the co founder of the boutique real estate
Speaker 1: law firm Rummer to bas. This is Bloomberg. You're listening
Speaker 1: to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Bloomberg Quick Takes.
Speaker 1: Tim Stinovik from Bloomberg Radio. All right, so real estate
Speaker 1: is something we'd like to talk about a lot, and
Speaker 1: we do it and covered a lot here at Bloomberg.
Speaker 1: And there are a few stories. Blackstone Real Estate Investment Trust,
Speaker 1: a caring WPT Industrial Real Estate Investment Trust that was
Speaker 1: a cash deal value at three point one billion, included debt.
Speaker 1: You've also had the Biden administration urging state and local
Speaker 1: governments to move quickly to distribute billions of dollars provided
Speaker 1: by Congress to help struggling renters and landlords. So there
Speaker 1: is a lot always going on when it comes to
Speaker 1: real estate. So someone who's got a front row seat
Speaker 1: to it all. Pierre du bas He is co founder
Speaker 1: managing partner of Rumor Dubas. It is the boutique real
Speaker 1: estate law firm. It's based in New York City, in
Speaker 1: Midtown Manhattan. Pierre, good to have you back. How are you, Carol.
Speaker 1: Great to hear from you. Thanks for having me back
Speaker 1: on the show. Well, it's great to have you here.
Speaker 1: How are things going? And I think the last time
Speaker 1: we talked was maybe I think back in November. UM,
Speaker 1: tell me how the world is right now from your perspective. Well,
Speaker 1: it's a loaded question, but you know, luckily it seems
Speaker 1: that you know, we we've been in an upper progression
Speaker 1: and I think that everybody in town, you know, is
Speaker 1: sitting here saying, you know, is it Alta Varian going
Speaker 1: to take us a step back? And you know, praying
Speaker 1: that we don't go back to the you know, shutdowns
Speaker 1: and you know, love of protocols that we're having you know,
Speaker 1: several probably last week spoke in November. Um, ironically enough,
Speaker 1: you know, even with saying that our real estate market, though,
Speaker 1: is at record highs. I mean, I'm looking, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm a real estate lawyer in Manhattan. I look at
Speaker 1: our Manhattan market and also the nation's housing market, and
Speaker 1: they're both the most active and business I've ever seen
Speaker 1: in my entire career, which is remarkable given you know,
Speaker 1: how we started off this conversation with worrying about what's
Speaker 1: going on in the world and taking a step back,
Speaker 1: is it still so much people running from cities? Like,
Speaker 1: how do you explain the activity right now? You know,
Speaker 1: it's funny because a while back, there was no secret
Speaker 1: that a lot of people there's somewhat of an exodus
Speaker 1: of people from New York City, mainly renters, who said,
Speaker 1: you know, if I can be remote and virtual, why
Speaker 1: not live in a lower cost living state, have a
Speaker 1: have a house, have more space, work from home, and
Speaker 1: I will find a job that's either fully virtual or
Speaker 1: you know, predominantly virtual. And that was exactly that was
Speaker 1: a catalyst for what started driving this robust housing market
Speaker 1: that we're in. But then, you know, when we're talking
Speaker 1: present day, that statements kind of counterintuitive to the fact
Speaker 1: that New York City real estate is doing exceptionally well.
Speaker 1: So what is you know, what is driving the housing
Speaker 1: market because it's not the exodus of people from cities. People.
Speaker 1: People are fling back to Manhattan right now, I mean
Speaker 1: our really you're seeing strong trends back. Oh yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1: I mean the residential the co op, condo, townhouse market
Speaker 1: New York City is the most active I've ever seen it,
Speaker 1: and and it's been that way since the beginning of
Speaker 1: this year. So you can't even attribute it to pent
Speaker 1: up demand from I mean, this is not pent up demand.
Speaker 1: This is a new market. Well that's interesting, Pierre, because
Speaker 1: is it? Is it because people have money to put
Speaker 1: to work? I mean, the pandemic was this really odd
Speaker 1: thing where some people, a lot of people, if you're
Speaker 1: in the markets and so on with you ultimately you know, benefited.
Speaker 1: I hate to use those words, but you know, there
Speaker 1: was a lot of wealth creation. We talked about it
Speaker 1: all the time here at Bloomberg, and there was there
Speaker 1: a lot of wealth creation that people are now putting
Speaker 1: to work in terms of real estate investments. Yeah. No,
Speaker 1: I mean, you're you're you're you're spot on. You know,
Speaker 1: when you look at the when you references stock market,
Speaker 1: I think at the depths of March, SMB had dipped
Speaker 1: down to as low as twenty dred So whoever is
Speaker 1: in the market made a substantial amount of money in
Speaker 1: the last year and a half. Um. I read a
Speaker 1: great stat a month or two ago that the percentage
Speaker 1: of billionaires in the world in I think, increases roughly
Speaker 1: somewhere in the twenties in one year, in the middle
Speaker 1: of a global pandemic. I mean, that's a that's a
Speaker 1: staggering statistic, and that is translating to a lot of
Speaker 1: our demand for New York City real estate because on
Speaker 1: the high end side, which is where we're seeing the
Speaker 1: most activity or record levels of activity, that's where the
Speaker 1: little steepest discounts are in the in the residential market
Speaker 1: in Manhattan, and people who had obviously made a lot
Speaker 1: of money in the last year or two are taking
Speaker 1: advantage of buying at this discount, knowing that it's the
Speaker 1: city will undoubtedly come back. It's just you know, they're
Speaker 1: okay riding out a couple of years. But even to that,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm seeing now in the last couple of months,
Speaker 1: the amount of renters coming back is skyrocketed as well,
Speaker 1: so you know, and that's not driven by you know,
Speaker 1: the high end you know, purchaser. That's really driven by
Speaker 1: people coming back anticipating living here and working here. Again. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I've seen a lot of fluid just among you know,
Speaker 1: our movement, I should say, among colleagues who and some buying,
Speaker 1: but some also renting. And I said to them, so
Speaker 1: did you get a deal? And they're like, yeah, maybe
Speaker 1: they took a like not really a deal anymore. It's
Speaker 1: not like it was six seven, eight months ago. No,
Speaker 1: the rental market is definitely rebounded significantly. Uh a year ago.
Speaker 1: I mean you could have named your price in whatever
Speaker 1: concession you want. But again, I mean, you know, being
Speaker 1: based here, you walk around New York City. For those
Speaker 1: people who haven't been here in a couple of years,
Speaker 1: it doesn't look like it did, you know, two thousand
Speaker 1: nineteen and before. But it looks night and day than
Speaker 1: what I did last summer at this time. So I
Speaker 1: have a couple of things I wanted to pick your
Speaker 1: brain about here. First of all, first time home buyers,
Speaker 1: are they being completely squeezed out of the market. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean that's a that's a great point to bring
Speaker 1: up UM, and the answers yes, Um. At the moment,
Speaker 1: you know, the last week or earlier in July, I
Speaker 1: should say, I'm sorry, the housing market hit another record
Speaker 1: level in terms of pricing, and what we're seeing in
Speaker 1: the marketplace is at roughly of all purchases that have
Speaker 1: taken place a summer have been cash purchases. So that
Speaker 1: is yeah, I mean it's I don't recall over seeing
Speaker 1: such a significant portion of all deals being on a
Speaker 1: cash basis. And you know, majority of first time home buyers,
Speaker 1: you know, I believe the average price was three or
Speaker 1: fifty three thousand dollars. They're they're not buying any cash,
Speaker 1: you know, they're putting down five ten percent maximum and
Speaker 1: getting a mortgage. And the problem they're encountering is that
Speaker 1: sellers and you know, markets that are very very hot
Speaker 1: right now, are not concerning consenting etage contingencies. And you know,
Speaker 1: banks are becoming have become more conservative in their lending,
Speaker 1: requiring higher sum higher down payment sums. So the net
Speaker 1: effect is at first time homebuyers and the millennial generation
Speaker 1: are being you know, pushed out of the market in
Speaker 1: most parts of the country. At the moment, you know,
Speaker 1: it's interesting to say that about banks too. I mean,
Speaker 1: because we know money is so cheap right now, right,
Speaker 1: and we've talked so much about mortgage raids and refinancing,
Speaker 1: but the banks are being pretty difficult, whether it's on
Speaker 1: a refinancing or even a first time mortgage, they continue
Speaker 1: to be So you're seeing evidence of that. Yeah, I know,
Speaker 1: I would agree, and you know, in a in a
Speaker 1: lot of ways, that's good for us because our last
Speaker 1: housing market boom of you know, two thousand five to
Speaker 1: two thousand eight was driven by reckless lending standards and
Speaker 1: sub prime lending. And when you know, many people speculate,
Speaker 1: are we sitting here in a housing bubble when you
Speaker 1: take into account the higher down payment sums that are
Speaker 1: taking place all over, the amount of cash deals and
Speaker 1: banks having more stringent, you know, underwriting regularly sations and standards.
Speaker 1: You know, that would lead you to believe that we're
Speaker 1: not in a housing bubble, because it's not. It's this
Speaker 1: market's not fabricated by something that wasn't real in a
Speaker 1: sense of subprime lending, where you know, the banks were
Speaker 1: just giving a mortgage to anybody, anybody in town with
Speaker 1: no income or verification or anything. So you don't see
Speaker 1: sloppy deals being done, I know from my perspective, I
Speaker 1: I really don't. Um. You know, we have a majority
Speaker 1: of our clients are in the New York City area,
Speaker 1: but you know, we've we've represented a number of people
Speaker 1: who have gone to other parts of the country and
Speaker 1: I'm not hearing of any you know, any sloppy lending
Speaker 1: or transactions at all when you look around the country
Speaker 1: or look around the world, but country specifically. We've talked
Speaker 1: about Austin being popular in some of these secondary and
Speaker 1: tertiary markets. Where do you see a lot of people
Speaker 1: going and wanting to buy, you know, a lot of
Speaker 1: forward has obviously been a huge beneficiary of everything that's
Speaker 1: going on, and that's our a number of reasons. Um.
Speaker 1: One given how you know, the weather down there, the
Speaker 1: COVID pandemic and not you know, going to political conversation
Speaker 1: what they're doing now there. But I don't think the
Speaker 1: risk was as high there as it was in densely
Speaker 1: populated cities that you know, it's known that the virus
Speaker 1: wasn't as contagious and warmer weather in outdoors. Um. And
Speaker 1: then also you're looking at it from the perspective of
Speaker 1: taxes and cost of living, you know, with no state
Speaker 1: or city income tax in Florida and the lower cost
Speaker 1: of living, I think that Florida has probably been the
Speaker 1: biggest beneficiary of this whole pandemic. UM, if I recall correctly,
Speaker 1: I think Florida had the highest highest number of new
Speaker 1: residents moved there in I think Texas was number two.
Speaker 1: I think yeah, because I know we've talked a lot
Speaker 1: about increasingly the financial community, you know, moving down there
Speaker 1: setting up shop. But there does seem to be um,
Speaker 1: a fairly big migration down there, as you as you
Speaker 1: point out, hey, listen, just got about seconds left here.
Speaker 1: There are so many things we talked about trends and
Speaker 1: things being changed because of the pandemic. Is there any
Speaker 1: trend because of the pandemic that you think definitely stays
Speaker 1: with us longer term? Just quickly? You know, I think
Speaker 1: that the hybrid structure of remote work in coming into
Speaker 1: office a few days a week is here to stay. Um.
Speaker 1: Some of the major investment banks are trying to, you know,
Speaker 1: force people to come back into the office, and you're
Speaker 1: seeing that's being pushed back by a majority of major
Speaker 1: corporations due to the delta variant. And I think it's
Speaker 1: inevitable that, you know, a hybrid model will be here
Speaker 1: to stay, and that's going to impact how our you know,
Speaker 1: we operate as a society tremendously over the next you know,
Speaker 1: several years. Hey quick follows. So does that mean in corporations,
Speaker 1: I mean they are going to cut back on their
Speaker 1: commercial real estate Need's just got about twenty seconds. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that, you know, what to what extent they're
Speaker 1: going to cut back is a question, because even if
Speaker 1: you're in a hybrid policy, you still need space. And
Speaker 1: you know, are you going to go on a rotation
Speaker 1: in terms of offices or you gonna look at it
Speaker 1: that people are just as productive and revenues, you know,
Speaker 1: just as good, if not better. I don't need to
Speaker 1: really downsize my real estate holdings that much. That's a
Speaker 1: million dollar question over the next couple of years. That's
Speaker 1: Pierre de bas he is, co founder and managing partner
Speaker 1: Rumored Us. And that wraps up the first hour of
Speaker 1: the weekend edition of Bloomberg Business Week from Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 1: I'm Carol Masser heading our next hour with the debate
Speaker 1: over vaccine mandates intensifying across the country. Restaurants are now
Speaker 1: back at the center of America's culture war. How hostesses,
Speaker 1: waiters and bartenders and owners will need to play bouncer
Speaker 1: to the unvaccinated. Plus, we go inside the c suite
Speaker 1: at a pair of publicly traded companies into very different sectors.
Speaker 1: We'll talk with the chief human resources officer at Carlisle Group,
Speaker 1: Bruce Lawson. He'll tell us how the firm is putting
Speaker 1: its money where its mouth is when it comes to
Speaker 1: employee wellness. Plus Jennifer Weber, she holds the same title
Speaker 1: over at Archer Daniels Midland. She'll talk about the future
Speaker 1: of work at a company that is heavily dependent on
Speaker 1: in person labor and how the company is trying to
Speaker 1: close the gap between blue and white collar workers. More.
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Business Week is coming up next. This is Bloomberg.
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 Messer and Bloomberg Quick Takes. Tim
Speaker 1: Stanovic on Bloomberg Radio. Hi'm Carol Masser My co host
Speaker 1: Tim Stanovic is off this week. Coming up in our
Speaker 1: second hour of the weekend edition of Bloomberg Business Week.
Speaker 1: It is definitely the dog days of summer, pretty hot
Speaker 1: week this week, and yet we are hearing a lot
Speaker 1: from companies that are weighing in on what work looks
Speaker 1: like as students get back to school and workers come
Speaker 1: back to the office. With that in mind, we took
Speaker 1: a deep dive into work in a post pandemic world
Speaker 1: and one that is still grappling with rising virus cases
Speaker 1: and hospitalizations again because of the delta variant, getting workers
Speaker 1: back to the office not so easy. With that in mind,
Speaker 1: how would you like to get an extra week off
Speaker 1: this week as well as a wellness stipend and even more,
Speaker 1: That's exactly what's going on at one of the private
Speaker 1: equity giants will fill you in. Plus, not every worker
Speaker 1: we know can work from home. That's something Archer Daniels
Speaker 1: Midland knows about big time, as about half of its
Speaker 1: forty four thousand global employees work in the company's manufacturing facilities.
Speaker 1: So how are they adapting in a post pandemic world?
Speaker 1: And on the menu at restaurants vaccine bouncers, and that
Speaker 1: is where we begin this hour with the business Week
Speaker 1: story featured online and on the Bloomberg terminal this week
Speaker 1: about how restaurants and restaurant owners continue to pivot in
Speaker 1: our pandemic and post pandemic world, and that has meant
Speaker 1: becoming creative, innovative, changing menus, and sometimes being cop We
Speaker 1: got that story from Bloomberg business Week editor Joe Weber
Speaker 1: and Bloomberg News investigative reporter Polly Moss ends, Well, one
Speaker 1: of the biggest things that we heard was just surprise.
Speaker 1: Restaurants feel not entirely prepared to deal with this, but
Speaker 1: they're also willing to roll with the punches. They were
Speaker 1: certainly not resistant to the idea. They just are going
Speaker 1: to need a little bit of time to acclimate because
Speaker 1: not only are they going to have to check all
Speaker 1: of their diners, they're also going to have to check
Speaker 1: all of their staff. Because the policy applies to their
Speaker 1: employees as well as to the diners. These owners are
Speaker 1: really having to police who's in there. I mean, it's
Speaker 1: it's it's like checking your ideas when you were seventeen
Speaker 1: or eighteen. This is what they're doing. Polly, Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1: This is like the ultimate I D check where you'll
Speaker 1: have to show your ID and then you'll have to
Speaker 1: show your vaccine card. And just like they do as
Speaker 1: the ideas, they're going to have to be on the
Speaker 1: lookout for fakes when it comes to the vaccine cards.
Speaker 1: Talk to us about the Excelsior paths and sort of
Speaker 1: like what the people you talk to, how do they
Speaker 1: how do they feel about it in practice? So, the
Speaker 1: good thing about the Excelsi Pass is that it is
Speaker 1: a pretty thorough app. However, in practice, it is possible
Speaker 1: to pass the phone in between two diners, you know,
Speaker 1: two folks that might be going out to dinner together.
Speaker 1: They in one case, they heard that the hostess and
Speaker 1: the owner of the restaurant she caught them passing the
Speaker 1: app between them. So while the app is certainly Sorrow's
Speaker 1: it seems to work well, you do run the risk
Speaker 1: of people just passing the phone between the two of
Speaker 1: them in order to circumvent that vaccination mandate you talk about.
Speaker 1: For someone it might be an Asian restaurant. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's not just you know, policing when it comes to vaccine,
Speaker 1: but there's also other factors at play that makes it
Speaker 1: even more difficult for restaurant owners. Absolutely, it is just
Speaker 1: one more hurdle that they were going to have to
Speaker 1: deal with, and they've had eighteen months of hurdles, and
Speaker 1: some restaurants they're going to be able to afford to
Speaker 1: offload this responsibility to security guards, but that's not something
Speaker 1: that's feasible for all restaurants. I love there's a quote
Speaker 1: from is it Scott Gerber that's in a story, and
Speaker 1: it says, we've dealt with intoxicated people, irrational people. Uh
Speaker 1: and uh. He says our people are skilled at de
Speaker 1: escalating problems. I mean, yes, that's so true. But it
Speaker 1: does feel like this takes it, you know, to a
Speaker 1: whole other level. I think that this definitely does ticket
Speaker 1: to a whole different level. And you know, we have seen,
Speaker 1: unfortunately in the past, people do get very violent and
Speaker 1: very upset with folks who are working the door. That's
Speaker 1: something that service workers at grocery stores and that retailers
Speaker 1: dealt with a lot in the early days of the pandemic.
Speaker 1: You know, in two instances of security guards were unfortunately
Speaker 1: even killed over masked mandates that they were attempting to enforce.
Speaker 1: I do think about how restaurants are doing additional training. Right,
Speaker 1: we did it after the Me Too movement and as
Speaker 1: you know, certainly after George Floyd, companies adapting in general
Speaker 1: to what's happening in our world. And that's the same
Speaker 1: thing for restaurant owners, right that you know, probably we
Speaker 1: have to see them maybe instituting new training for their
Speaker 1: workers so that they know how to handle these situations.
Speaker 1: They've got the tools to figure it out. Yeah. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: And I'm sure they will also be looking to law
Speaker 1: enforcement in the most extreme of situations, and law enforcement
Speaker 1: has had to do their own set of training as
Speaker 1: as they navigate just new an unusual world that we're
Speaker 1: living in. Our people thinking that in the restaurant groups
Speaker 1: in particular, are craving to be in restaurants right now
Speaker 1: still or are they Is it more of like, uh
Speaker 1: taking a backseat um to where we were kind of
Speaker 1: at the beginning of the pandemic. No, I think that
Speaker 1: people are still craving it. I definitely think that there
Speaker 1: will still be a market for it. Because it's impotant
Speaker 1: to understand that in New York City we actually have
Speaker 1: a phenomenally high vaccination rate. New York is doing really
Speaker 1: well in vaccination, and I think that the mayor's office
Speaker 1: and restaurateurs are hopeful that this will take it to
Speaker 1: the next level of vaccination rate. So I definitely think
Speaker 1: that there is still a big market and a big
Speaker 1: desire to be out and about, and you know, this
Speaker 1: policy may encourage some people who have been on the
Speaker 1: fence about vaccination to ultimately get that well. And you know,
Speaker 1: I also do wonder. We've talked about this a lot,
Speaker 1: probably about you know, private sector public sector working together,
Speaker 1: and it does feel like restaurants have to be a
Speaker 1: little bit on pins and needles as new mandates come
Speaker 1: down from officials about how to do things, and then
Speaker 1: they've got their left kind of figuring it all out. Uh.
Speaker 1: And I do wonder if there'll be more collaboration to
Speaker 1: kind of help restaurants through this, especially when it's stricter policy.
Speaker 1: I think that's the biggest thing that we heard, both
Speaker 1: from the security guard companies and from the restaurateurs is
Speaker 1: just we need more time. We need to figure out
Speaker 1: how this is going to work. You know, they do
Speaker 1: need to to get acclimated to this new policy. And
Speaker 1: I think that there's the shoes that they haven't even
Speaker 1: thought it yet. They will deal with when the time
Speaker 1: comes when people are ultimately showing up at their doors
Speaker 1: that have to prove that they're vacinating. That's Bloomberg News
Speaker 1: investigative reporter Polly moss Ends and Bloomberg Business Week editor
Speaker 1: Chill Weber. Find more at business week dot Com. Coming up.
Speaker 1: Wouldn't it be nice? Yeah, wouldn't it be nice? Really
Speaker 1: nice to be given an extra week off this summer
Speaker 1: just because perhaps even this coming week. Well, if you
Speaker 1: work at the private equity firm Carlisle Group, that's exactly
Speaker 1: what's happening. We'll explain this is Bloomberg is Bloomberg business
Speaker 1: Week with Carol Masser and Bloomberg Quick Takes Tim Stinovik
Speaker 1: from Bloomberg Radio. If you haven't to work at the
Speaker 1: private equity firm Carlisle Group, you are getting an extra
Speaker 1: week off next week. That's on top of a seven
Speaker 1: fifty well being stipended. So for more on that and
Speaker 1: how the company is thinking about the wellness of its employees,
Speaker 1: let's find out from Bruce Lawson. He is chief human
Speaker 1: resources officer over at Carlisle Group. He's on the phone.
Speaker 1: First of all, I want to get into what you
Speaker 1: guys are doing your world. Tell us how things have
Speaker 1: progressed over the past year and a half as you've
Speaker 1: dealt with the pandemic, you know, getting through it, starting
Speaker 1: to reopening kind of where where are you right now
Speaker 1: in terms of your individual firm? So we're, UM, we're
Speaker 1: doing a great job of managing through things. Our firm
Speaker 1: has been having record level performances. Are people are working
Speaker 1: incredibly hard and completely engaged. UM. But like everybody who's
Speaker 1: been going through this has been a journey. We UM
Speaker 1: challenges and things that have come up that we've tried
Speaker 1: to deal with, and some of those are around our
Speaker 1: new well being strategy that we've implemented a number of
Speaker 1: months ago. UM. But we're we're hanging in there. We'll
Speaker 1: talk to us about this well being strategy because it's
Speaker 1: really been very interesting, at least for me as a
Speaker 1: journalist and for many others to see how companies have
Speaker 1: opened up in terms of thinking about their employees different
Speaker 1: like how how is that relationship between Carlisle the employee
Speaker 1: or change with Carlyle and its employees. Sure, so, look,
Speaker 1: I think a lot of this started UM a little
Speaker 1: bit before the pandemic where UM, you know, with new
Speaker 1: leadership at Carlisle and our new CEO, Cuson Lee, trying
Speaker 1: to focus on how do we enhance UM an already
Speaker 1: very strong culture in the firm UM and really make
Speaker 1: our human capital strategies in line with all of our
Speaker 1: other strategies to deliver the right kind of commercial results.
Speaker 1: And so we were beginning to talk about a number
Speaker 1: of things, and then of course, in March of last year,
Speaker 1: the world began to change and we all went out
Speaker 1: on on a lockdown for what everybody thought would be
Speaker 1: two weeks in life could get back to normal UM,
Speaker 1: but of course that didn't happen UM, and so we
Speaker 1: began navigating our way through that and one of the
Speaker 1: key pillars of our human capital strategy that we wanted
Speaker 1: to put in place. But what this all happened was
Speaker 1: sort of a very clear and transparent communication from leadership
Speaker 1: about what was going on in the world, and the
Speaker 1: pandemic kind of gave us no choice but to really
Speaker 1: accelerate that, and so we spent a lot of time
Speaker 1: just very openly and candidly and honestly communicating with our
Speaker 1: people about what was going on, even at times when
Speaker 1: we didn't really know what was going on, so that
Speaker 1: the new management was watching things and being concerned about things,
Speaker 1: and as the pandemic progressed, UM, we all individually got
Speaker 1: a sense for the increased stress levels that we're going
Speaker 1: on UM because of your inability to separate from work
Speaker 1: and just no stop button, and it felt like people
Speaker 1: were living at work more than they were working from home.
Speaker 1: And so we started to focus on a bunch of
Speaker 1: things around UM, focusing on the well being of our people,
Speaker 1: because we have a strong belief that if our people
Speaker 1: are feeling better about themselves, both physically, mentally emotionally, they'll
Speaker 1: be able to perform better individuals and their teams will
Speaker 1: function better, and ultimately that will deliver better commercial results
Speaker 1: for the firm. And so we started to put together
Speaker 1: kind of a brief well being approach, which has evolved
Speaker 1: into a much more formal strategy UM where we're trying
Speaker 1: to cover essentially the five pillars of well being as
Speaker 1: as we see them, which are physical, emotional, social, environmental,
Speaker 1: and financial. And our initial thrust has really been on
Speaker 1: the physical and emotional well being of our people. And
Speaker 1: so we started kind of small by having UM you know,
Speaker 1: very early on in the pandemic, zoom yoga classes and
Speaker 1: meditation classes and some some things to just give people
Speaker 1: a break, and started to do some other things, and
Speaker 1: then we thought, we got to get more serious about this,
Speaker 1: because this is this is going to be part of
Speaker 1: our world going forward, and it's just smart business on
Speaker 1: our part. And so we established well Being Advisory Committee
Speaker 1: across the firm that consists of employees from all different levels,
Speaker 1: across all of our businesses and all geographies to help
Speaker 1: advise us on the kinds of things that we think
Speaker 1: would be most impactful for our people, and one of
Speaker 1: those was, you know, this inability to separate and have
Speaker 1: any kind of disconnection from work, and so we started.
Speaker 1: We started last year by giving people a day off
Speaker 1: before the fourth July and before Labor Day and before
Speaker 1: other holidays, just to extend the break a little bit
Speaker 1: where everybody was off at the same time, because it
Speaker 1: seemed to us like that was the only time you
Speaker 1: could really disconnected if everybody was was off. And we
Speaker 1: got such positive feedback from that that that evolved um
Speaker 1: into us discussing as a leadership team earlier this year,
Speaker 1: you know, we should just close the place down for
Speaker 1: a week globally and give everybody a week off where
Speaker 1: they can really disconnect. And we discussed amongst early leaders
Speaker 1: globally about the right time to do that and when
Speaker 1: made the most sense, and we ended up UM with
Speaker 1: next week in August being the right week to do that.
Speaker 1: Their workers are getting an extra week off next week.
Speaker 1: They've also provided a seven well being stipend for UH
Speaker 1: Carlisle workers and Bruce, you know, one of the things
Speaker 1: I was thinking about is, and I think I do
Speaker 1: wonder how much of this stays with us in terms
Speaker 1: of permanent, you know, planning for our workers at companies UM.
Speaker 1: And I do wonder if there's a you know, commercial
Speaker 1: aspect to why you're doing it, that it that it works,
Speaker 1: that it makes workers feel better, that it ultimately makes
Speaker 1: them feel more productive. What kind of researcher science did
Speaker 1: you guys maybe tap into before setting your sites on
Speaker 1: some of these programs. Sure, UM, look, we've we've looked
Speaker 1: at a bunch of different studies that indicate that if
Speaker 1: people are physically and emotionally healthier, UM and well that
Speaker 1: are off, they are engaged more in their life generally.
Speaker 1: That's not not just in work, but in their personal lives.
Speaker 1: And if your people are more energized and have the
Speaker 1: ability to focus, are feeling better about themselves, they're going
Speaker 1: to perform better. And when you've got a collection of
Speaker 1: better performing individuals, you're going to have better performing teams. UM.
Speaker 1: One of the measures that we look at to see
Speaker 1: how people are feeling about some of our efforts is
Speaker 1: in our recent employee engagement survey that closed in March
Speaker 1: of this year, and our people said that they were
Speaker 1: proud to work at Carlisle and would recommend it to
Speaker 1: a friend, And that to me, says a lot about
Speaker 1: how they feel about their job. And when they're feeling
Speaker 1: great about their job, you know, this is a competitive,
Speaker 1: intense business. They're gonna be moments where they've really got
Speaker 1: to push themselves and they're going to be more willing
Speaker 1: to do that if they're feeling good about UM, how
Speaker 1: the company is thinking about them as a person, not
Speaker 1: a cog in a wheel that's that's trying to crank
Speaker 1: out commerce. That's Bruce Lawson, chief human resources officer over
Speaker 1: at Carlisle Group. We'll taking off time during the pandemic
Speaker 1: was impossible for a d M at least for many
Speaker 1: of its workers because it's a company that we know
Speaker 1: is integral to the global food chain. Coming up next,
Speaker 1: how Archer Daniels Midland, like many other multinationals, are doing
Speaker 1: a major rethink of how we work. We'll here from
Speaker 1: one of the company's senior execs. That's coming up next.
Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Broadcasting from the financial capital of the world,
Speaker 1: Bloomberg eleven Frio in New York to Washington, d C.
Speaker 1: Bloomberg to Boston, Bloomberg one O six one to San Francisco,
Speaker 1: Bloomberg nine sixty to the country Sirius XM CHADO one
Speaker 1: nine and around the globe the Bloomberg Business app and
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Radio dot Com. This is Bloomberg Business Week. Well
Speaker 1: a little over a month ago I checked in with
Speaker 1: this incredible roundtable of senior executives from a broad swath
Speaker 1: of industries to talk about how work continues to ship
Speaker 1: because of the pandemic, and among them was Jennifer Weber.
Speaker 1: She's senior vice president and chief human Resources officer at
Speaker 1: Archer Daniels Midland, as you know, a d M and
Speaker 1: integral part of the global food chain, so they were
Speaker 1: crucial during the pandemic. One of the world's largest processors
Speaker 1: of agricultural commodities, founded over a hundred years ago, and
Speaker 1: like many companies, taking a hard look at how we
Speaker 1: work through the pandemic and making shifts to reflect that.
Speaker 1: So let's bring in Jennifer, who joins us on the
Speaker 1: phone from Chicago. Jennifer, it is so great to have
Speaker 1: you back with us. How are you. I am doing well. Carol,
Speaker 1: it's nice to be back. How are you doing doing well?
Speaker 1: Doing well? Your your contributions and your story during that
Speaker 1: panel really resonated with me. You know, you actually had
Speaker 1: started at the company during the pandemic, correct, I did.
Speaker 1: I started in September of right right in the thick
Speaker 1: of it and in the heat of the pandemic. So
Speaker 1: talk to us about you know, you came in and
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, you guys were dealing with so
Speaker 1: much and you know, issues that I think as employers
Speaker 1: we didn't necessarily think a lot about potentially um in
Speaker 1: terms of our employee base, but all of a sudden
Speaker 1: we had to, and we were talking about them at
Speaker 1: the open, whether it was mental wellness or juggling families
Speaker 1: and juggling work. Hybrid work. Tell us about the lessons
Speaker 1: that you guys have learned at a d M and
Speaker 1: things that are staying with you when it comes to
Speaker 1: how we work, sure, absolutely well. I think I think
Speaker 1: that UM a couple of things. One thing is just
Speaker 1: from a from a background or a context standpoint. At
Speaker 1: a d M, we have roughly forty employees, and half
Speaker 1: of them and they're we're very global, So are are
Speaker 1: in the United States, UM, and half of our workforce
Speaker 1: works in our manufacturing facilities. And so, given the nature
Speaker 1: of the role that we play in the global food
Speaker 1: supply chain, we had a high percentage of our colleagues
Speaker 1: around the globe. It UM needed to be in day
Speaker 1: in and day out, and so and then the balance
Speaker 1: of our employees are even either in office settings or
Speaker 1: lab settings. We have innovation centers around the world. Uh So,
Speaker 1: so throughout the pandemic, our our our colleagues kept that
Speaker 1: vital role we play in the global food supply chain
Speaker 1: moving along at quite a bit of string, right because
Speaker 1: as you might imagine, we had a number of people
Speaker 1: who had to go out and quarantine. We monitored and
Speaker 1: tracked those things very very closely, and and I think
Speaker 1: we learned a lot about ourselves. So, so to your
Speaker 1: first question, what are some of the things that we've
Speaker 1: learned through this um so, one thing is we I
Speaker 1: think we gained a lot of confidence as an organization
Speaker 1: on our ability to deliver on our commitments, deliver on
Speaker 1: our commitments to customers, to our producers, to our shareholders
Speaker 1: um and really make uh adjustments. We had to make
Speaker 1: significant adjustments to the way we conducted our work um uh,
Speaker 1: particularly across our office settings uh. And we had to
Speaker 1: do it in a way that we didn't miss a
Speaker 1: beat in terms of delivering. I think the other thing
Speaker 1: that we learned is there was a very healthy um
Speaker 1: individual by individual, person by person, family by family reassessment
Speaker 1: of values right. And I would say a discussion about
Speaker 1: these things more openly. Um. I think for some people
Speaker 1: there were deep personal impacts that were felt as a
Speaker 1: result of covid UM and it placed great strain on
Speaker 1: their mental health and well being um uh. And then
Speaker 1: you know, we had we had some colleagues who said, boy,
Speaker 1: has this been refreshing to reconnect with with family, hunker
Speaker 1: down with family, shelter in place and um and and
Speaker 1: do so together through a through an incredible period of uncertainty,
Speaker 1: and so you know, and then I and then I
Speaker 1: would say, we we, as an employer step back from
Speaker 1: this and said, boy, you look at this time, it's
Speaker 1: been extremely isolating. UM. We've had we've had parents of
Speaker 1: young children who have had to balance the demands of
Speaker 1: UM work commitments along with you know, young children in
Speaker 1: the home who sometimes their school has been interrupted. So
Speaker 1: you know, so we we we stepped back from all
Speaker 1: this and said, Okay, as we think about UM, the
Speaker 1: ecosystem of support we provide to our colleagues, how is
Speaker 1: this changing our thinking? Right? And and UM and it's
Speaker 1: I think it's changed us in indelible and profound ways,
Speaker 1: and and and and in many permanent ways. That's been
Speaker 1: a healthy reset for many, many many companies. That's Jennifer Weber.
Speaker 1: She's senior vice president and chief human resources officer Archer
Speaker 1: Daniels Midland and coming up right to continue the conversation
Speaker 1: with her, digging into working from home fairness. You're listening
Speaker 1: to Bloomberg Business Week, and this is Bloomberg. You're listening
Speaker 1: to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Bloomberg Quick Takes,
Speaker 1: Tim Stinovik from Bloomberg Radio. So about a month and
Speaker 1: a half ago, I hosted a panel here at Bloomberg
Speaker 1: and it was all about how work is shifting. Obviously,
Speaker 1: the pandemic has impacted so much, and companies in all
Speaker 1: walks of life, all industries are figuring out what work
Speaker 1: looks like as workers come back to the office. And
Speaker 1: on that panel was Jennifer Weber, senior vice president and
Speaker 1: chief Human Resources Officer at Archer Daniels Midland. Here's more
Speaker 1: from our conversation, specifically about working out policies for workers
Speaker 1: who can work from home and those who cannot. We
Speaker 1: have discussions about this quite a bit, and it's and
Speaker 1: it's important that we do so right because we uh, well,
Speaker 1: one thing, one thing I will say is we we
Speaker 1: call our employees colleagues for a reason, and that means
Speaker 1: that we are all colleagues. Whether you're in a manufacturing
Speaker 1: facility or an office setting, you're in an innovation lab,
Speaker 1: you're a you know, you're a you're a PhD and
Speaker 1: food science, or you are critical um in one of
Speaker 1: our milling operations. We are all called colleagues with each
Speaker 1: other and and in this together, I think what I think,
Speaker 1: what we what we stepped back and had to do
Speaker 1: is recognize that UM, this that covid um was creating
Speaker 1: a high degree of uncertainty for all of us UM
Speaker 1: and the needs varied and how we meet the needs
Speaker 1: of our different colleagues varies depending upon where you sit
Speaker 1: in the organization, and so, you know, so we there
Speaker 1: were there were many times when we would pause and say, Okay,
Speaker 1: given what we know, now, what do we need to
Speaker 1: adapt to more directly support our manufacturing colleagues more directly
Speaker 1: support some of our office colleagues. And so just to
Speaker 1: just to give you some some examples of that, you know,
Speaker 1: we you know, throughout the course of this our focus
Speaker 1: has been on keeping our colleagues safe and healthy. And
Speaker 1: that's both physically and mentally. And so one of the
Speaker 1: one of the challenges in our manufacturing environments is UM
Speaker 1: is communications and the ability. You know, it's not somebody
Speaker 1: sitting behind a computer where we can reach them with
Speaker 1: a lot of educational resources and hey, here are you
Speaker 1: know e a p services that you're eligible for. It's
Speaker 1: just that's not that's not their day to day life.
Speaker 1: And so we needed to come up with other ways
Speaker 1: to make sure that we were arming our our leadership
Speaker 1: teams within our operations, that we were reaching our our
Speaker 1: early colleagues to make sure that they had the information
Speaker 1: that they needed to know how to access various resources
Speaker 1: to help them manage through this very very uncertain time.
Speaker 1: So that would be one example, UM as it relates
Speaker 1: to UM other things that can be done, I would
Speaker 1: say with continued advances in UM manufacturing technologies, UM, but
Speaker 1: also UM just different ways of thinking about the scheduling
Speaker 1: of work. Uh uh So that uh that we're that
Speaker 1: that in our in our goal of of you know,
Speaker 1: delivering UM, you know, delivering on the commitments to our
Speaker 1: customers that we that we manage work in a way,
Speaker 1: we schedule work in a way and we structure it
Speaker 1: in a way that allows people to you know, to
Speaker 1: manage our work in life. And so you know, we
Speaker 1: have had to take a step back and some of
Speaker 1: our manufacturing facilities and say, you know, okay, how what
Speaker 1: do we do now and how do we help support
Speaker 1: these plant managers and maybe thinking about new and different
Speaker 1: ways of of scheduling and the way work can get done.
Speaker 1: So I think there's going to continue to be more
Speaker 1: and more pressure on on doing that UM to follow
Speaker 1: through on a commitment that we have again, and that's
Speaker 1: keeping everybody healthy and safe. UM says, it's in mental
Speaker 1: It sounds tricky, I gotta say. And I was thinking
Speaker 1: about your job. I think this came up to that.
Speaker 1: I had mentioned that we saw it after the crisis
Speaker 1: where the CFO position really changed because they had to
Speaker 1: figure out how to keep companies financially alive in you
Speaker 1: know markets that had just you know, seized up. And
Speaker 1: during the pandemic, you know, HR wasn't just about wait,
Speaker 1: I gotta change my filing or you know, became crucial
Speaker 1: to getting companies through it. How has that job changed forever?
Speaker 1: Oh gosh? Uh, well, UM, I would say that, Uh.
Speaker 1: One of the ways is uh in you know, the
Speaker 1: the investment in the development of our people leaders. Uh,
Speaker 1: that's always been That's always been a really important focus.
Speaker 1: But I think this pandemic has placed additional strain and
Speaker 1: pressure on the role of the people leader to UM
Speaker 1: to understand to know how to be empathetic and to
Speaker 1: meet colleagues where they are, given what they are going through,
Speaker 1: given the way in which they are internalizing this. And
Speaker 1: so I think that UM, the role of HR in
Speaker 1: advising and coaching leaders and making sure that there are
Speaker 1: approaches to development in place that UM that that that
Speaker 1: makes sure that leaders understand how important that is. UM.
Speaker 1: That's taken on I think a new significance and meaning.
Speaker 1: I would say, you know, the the from an HR standpoint,
Speaker 1: even the strategy around how do we make sure that
Speaker 1: this UM, I would say convergence of both physical and
Speaker 1: mental health is something that we pay UM far closer
Speaker 1: attention to. You know, in the past, UM, it may
Speaker 1: have been enough to say, are we offering the right benefits?
Speaker 1: Are people? You know, are people taking care of themselves? Um? Uh?
Speaker 1: Do they are benefits? Competitive now with with kind of
Speaker 1: emotional mental health and well being and the role that
Speaker 1: we know that plays in the in the way in
Speaker 1: which people are feeling about their walk in life. Important.
Speaker 1: That was Jennifer Webber, Senior vice president, chief Human Resources
Speaker 1: Officer at Archer Daniels Midland. Before we go, a Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Big take this week on the former wife of Jeff Bezos,
Speaker 1: Mackenzie Scott, and how her money bombs are single handedly
Speaker 1: reshaping America. Here's the story from Bloomberg News reporter Sophie Alexander.
Speaker 1: There were seven hundred eighties six gifts in total, and
Speaker 1: so that's a lot of people to get in touch with.
Speaker 1: And she's quite about it, right, yeah. She she basically
Speaker 1: just posts blog posts with a list of the organizations
Speaker 1: and says, look at all these organizations, pay attention to them,
Speaker 1: don't pay attention to me. Here's much how much I spent?
Speaker 1: But she does not break it down um for each gift.
Speaker 1: And so that's what we were trying to do to
Speaker 1: try to get a sense of what types of organizations
Speaker 1: she's giving the most money too, all right, And what's
Speaker 1: really interesting too is that some of these gifts right
Speaker 1: come to organizations and they actually maybe don't open up
Speaker 1: the email tell us about that. Well there, I mean,
Speaker 1: because she's so mysterious, because there's nothing really known about
Speaker 1: her team. She doesn't have a website, she doesn't have
Speaker 1: anything like that. It's really hard to find information about her.
Speaker 1: So there have been some real scammers, the New York
Speaker 1: Times reported, who are tricking some people into giving up
Speaker 1: banking information that they ought not be. But some real
Speaker 1: recipients are also a little spooked because there's no logo
Speaker 1: those address there's no nothing in these people that are
Speaker 1: working on her behalf. There's not much information on them
Speaker 1: on the internet either, and so they're turning to their
Speaker 1: lawyers and even one lawyer said that it's probably a scam.
Speaker 1: You shouldn't don't open it. Don't open up the email, right,
Speaker 1: and then it turns out to be real. Yes, all right,
Speaker 1: So tell us what are some of the trends that
Speaker 1: you found out in terms of size of gifts, where
Speaker 1: they're going, and the types of causes that she's going after.
Speaker 1: It looks like the biggest gifts are going to colleges
Speaker 1: and universities, and she's largely giving to HBCUs Hispanic serving institutions,
Speaker 1: UH two year colleges, technical colleges, and community colleges and
Speaker 1: they're getting you know, ten million, twenty million, thirty million.
Speaker 1: The biggest gift we saw was sixty million, and that
Speaker 1: was to give directly, which gives UM, which is in
Speaker 1: the Philanthropy and grant making infrastructure section UM. So education
Speaker 1: is the big one UM. That's where we found the
Speaker 1: most money going, and then philanthropy and grant making infrastructure
Speaker 1: is number two UM and those are places like United
Speaker 1: Way and really the backbone of the nonprofit industry, and
Speaker 1: last big chunk was to social assistance groups. So that's
Speaker 1: like Y M c A, Goodwill, etcetera. Remind me her fortune.
Speaker 1: How big is it? It's about sixty billion billion at
Speaker 1: last count. Okay, it's so far, based on your tracking
Speaker 1: and our team's tracking, UM, at least four point three
Speaker 1: billion given in three seventy five grants. That's that's what
Speaker 1: we think we know so far. Well, we know there's
Speaker 1: been eight point six total, but because she's not breaking
Speaker 1: it down, we were only able to find that gift
Speaker 1: amount for the four point three billions, so we've covered
Speaker 1: about half of it, which is the most of the
Speaker 1: accounting to date UM. But a lot of organizations aren't
Speaker 1: sharing the amounts because they point to her and say, hey,
Speaker 1: she's not sharing it, so we don't want to share it.
Speaker 1: We're gonna take her lead. And others are saying, we're
Speaker 1: afraid that people are going to see these huge amounts
Speaker 1: and not want to give it to us anymore. Alright, So,
Speaker 1: Mackenzie Scott, so, as you said, eight point six billion
Speaker 1: in total gifts announced in just twelve months. That puts
Speaker 1: her where in terms of ranking of philanthropy pretty much
Speaker 1: number one. I mean, you think of the biggest billionaire
Speaker 1: philanthropists who are living today, you think of the Gates
Speaker 1: and French Gates, UM and the Gates Foundation, and Mackenzie
Speaker 1: Scott has sort of blown them out of the water
Speaker 1: in the past twelve months. Um. You know, her giving
Speaker 1: and twelve months is larger than the Gates Foundations and
Speaker 1: the Ford Foundations annual grants combined. She's really shaking up
Speaker 1: the world. What's interesting to you guys found out that
Speaker 1: for many of these organizations, it's the largest that they've
Speaker 1: ever gotten. Oh yeah, for for the majority of people
Speaker 1: who responded to the survey, of the vast majority. The
Speaker 1: other thing that's kind of cool about it, Sophie is
Speaker 1: that she seems to follow the news, follow the trends,
Speaker 1: follow what's going on in the world, and then allocate
Speaker 1: a gift or money or some giving to kind of
Speaker 1: what's needed in the world at the time. That's right.
Speaker 1: There's not one thing that she's consistently been giving to
Speaker 1: except for philanthropy and grant making infrastructure aside from that.
Speaker 1: You know, with her July gifts, those were largely to
Speaker 1: racial equity groups and then to food banks later that year,
Speaker 1: and more recently to Asian, American, Pacific and Islander groups
Speaker 1: as hate crimes across the country spiked. That's Bloomberg News
Speaker 1: reporter Sophie Alexander, and that wraps up the weekend edition
Speaker 1: of Bloomberg Business Week from Bloomberg Radio. Thanks so much
Speaker 1: for joining us. I'm Carol Masser. Be sure to tune
Speaker 1: into our Bloomberg Business Week daily show Monday through Friday,
Speaker 1: starting at two pm Moll Street Time on Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 1: You can also watch our daily broadcast on YouTube. Just
Speaker 1: search Bloomberg Global News and check out our Bloomberg Business
Speaker 1: Week podcasts. Find that at Bloomberg dot com, Apple, or
Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcast. Bloomberg Business Week. The magazine
Speaker 1: is available on newsstands now, also at Bloomberg dot com
Speaker 1: and always on the Bloomberg terminal. And you can catch
Speaker 1: my co host Tim Stenovik on Bloomberg Quick Take AVAILB
Speaker 1: on Bloomberg dot com, slash Qt, and streaming platforms like Roku,
Speaker 1: Apple TV, Samsung TV, and Moore. Have a great weekend, everybody.
Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg