Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Mazer from Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 1: Hi on, Carol Masser, Welcome to the weekend edition of
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Business Week, Week thirty nine. Working from home still
Speaker 1: for many I was at Bloomberg headquarters in New York
Speaker 1: City along with some of my colleagues in a week
Speaker 1: where deaths in the United States from COVID nineteen surpassed
Speaker 1: three thousand a day for the first time, and we
Speaker 1: saw progress and stumbling blocks this week for coronavirus vaccines markets.
Speaker 1: They moved on that virus news, also unexpected stimulus headlines.
Speaker 1: That was our backdrop for the week. So coming up
Speaker 1: this hour, we're going to hear from the head of
Speaker 1: the largest healthcare provider in New York State, Michael Dowling,
Speaker 1: President CEO at Northwell Health. He reminds us that a
Speaker 1: vaccine rollout it's going to take time. Also, Warner Brothers
Speaker 1: recently shaking up the movie making world well known Alice
Speaker 1: Craig Moffatt at Moffatt Nathanson weighs in on that. And
Speaker 1: then we get real unreal estate with the chairman of
Speaker 1: commercial real estate firm Thestian. All of that to come
Speaker 1: We start this hour with this week's US her story.
Speaker 1: It's remarks about untangling childcare in America. It's written by
Speaker 1: Cynthia Coon's Bloomberg News US healthcare reporter Share reports on
Speaker 1: how the U s childcare crisis is torturing parents and
Speaker 1: the economy. We got more from Cynthia and Bloomberg Business
Speaker 1: wee getitor Joe Weber. They joined Bloomberg Quick Take anchor
Speaker 1: Tim Stanovic and me. You know, it's been one of
Speaker 1: the stories of the pandemic, really and um, you know,
Speaker 1: when Cynthia and the team started talking about it, you know,
Speaker 1: we started with this idea of like, really, it's been
Speaker 1: a story about moms in the pandemic. You know that
Speaker 1: this has been that's been the group that's been just
Speaker 1: crushed in In September, we saw the workforce numbers, and
Speaker 1: we just saw women leave the workforce right as schools
Speaker 1: were reopening and kids were staying remote and basically families
Speaker 1: were forced with this decision does mom keep the job
Speaker 1: or does mom watch the kids? And that has incredible
Speaker 1: economic implications for the country. And and I think, as
Speaker 1: Cynthia is gonna gonna talk about, you know, in any ways,
Speaker 1: this is just a reflection of this longstanding thing that
Speaker 1: we've known of how broken childcare is in the US
Speaker 1: compared to other countries. So Cynthia dig into this with
Speaker 1: me as as you started reporting this story, you know, what,
Speaker 1: what did you what did you learn? Well, you know,
Speaker 1: it's interesting. I thought we were in a childcare crisis
Speaker 1: before COVID, so um, what happened during COVID just really
Speaker 1: underscored all the weakness in our system. And I think
Speaker 1: the thing is also about what we described as childcare, right.
Speaker 1: I think most people think of that as zero to
Speaker 1: five years old, and then after that you're you're in
Speaker 1: the system, but you're really not a lot of places
Speaker 1: that are working on universal childcare are also looking at
Speaker 1: summer care, after care for care, because even our school system,
Speaker 1: when it's fully functioning, doesn't match a work day. But
Speaker 1: like Joel said, there were eight hundred sixty five thousand
Speaker 1: women who left the workforce in September, so it was
Speaker 1: very clear at that moment in time, when schools didn't reopen,
Speaker 1: that this situation was just not tenable anymore. The spring,
Speaker 1: a lot of people left their jobs, partly because their
Speaker 1: jobs disappeared, but I think by the Tall people who
Speaker 1: are reassessing what they could peasibly do with children at
Speaker 1: home and a lot for a lot of women that
Speaker 1: meant not working. And there was also a lean In
Speaker 1: and McKenzie study over the summer and then their study
Speaker 1: over a quarter I think was a quarter of women
Speaker 1: children underage ten we're considering either taking a leave or quitting.
Speaker 1: So this has been a really big problem for women,
Speaker 1: and I think what's most interesting is that when you
Speaker 1: look around the world at wealthy countries, even countries that
Speaker 1: aren't necessarily as wealthy as our own, there's a lot
Speaker 1: more money spent on childcare and early education. And so
Speaker 1: we took this moment to explore what's feasible from a
Speaker 1: policy perspective, what could the US be doing to maybe
Speaker 1: come like come back with a stronger, you know, foundation
Speaker 1: for working mothers after this crisis. Aside well, what could
Speaker 1: we be doing because as you write in your story,
Speaker 1: uh SMP Global had to report out and they said
Speaker 1: that the U s could add one point six trillion
Speaker 1: dollars to g d P if women entered in state
Speaker 1: in the workforce that are rate, similar to how it
Speaker 1: is in Norway, a country that has government subsidized daycare,
Speaker 1: So what could the US learn from Norway? So the
Speaker 1: really interesting thing is I think there's a perception here
Speaker 1: that investing in early education in childcare is really expensive,
Speaker 1: and sure it is, but as a proportion of GDP
Speaker 1: countries like Norway when you look at the data, so
Speaker 1: we're investing about one percent of GDP. We do spend
Speaker 1: money on early education for children of low income families,
Speaker 1: But in countries like Norway and Sweden, where they're subsidizing
Speaker 1: everyone's child care, they're only spending about two percent of GDP,
Speaker 1: so it's not as though they're expending some extraordinary proportion
Speaker 1: of their GDP on this. And one of the interesting
Speaker 1: things and kind of best practices is making this available
Speaker 1: to everybody, but also making people pay so that it's
Speaker 1: not necessarily free for everybody. So if you're at a
Speaker 1: higher end of the income spectrum, you are paying into
Speaker 1: the system, but you're still getting something that's equivalent to
Speaker 1: someone who can't afford to pay for that. That's a
Speaker 1: leveling factor in some of the research that's come out
Speaker 1: so far about what universal preschools do and a lot
Speaker 1: of the programs going on in the US we've seen
Speaker 1: to the like Portland's just passed the universal pre care
Speaker 1: for threason four. It wasn't easy, Cynthia, and there it
Speaker 1: is kind of like, you know, liberal bastion of America,
Speaker 1: I feel like. And yet they had a hard time. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: there are multiple groups pushing to get this done. They
Speaker 1: had different ideas, and they imagine they came together in
Speaker 1: the end, but there was sort of this you know,
Speaker 1: split decision about what they wanted to do, and they
Speaker 1: had different perspectives on it. And there were also attitudes
Speaker 1: among voters that I just spoke to one volunteer who
Speaker 1: encountered volunteers who I mean voters who were saying, you know,
Speaker 1: children should be at home with their parents, but to
Speaker 1: be fair in the end to vote with sixty percent
Speaker 1: in shavor. So it was pretty substantial, and I think
Speaker 1: it speaks to something that people said to me was
Speaker 1: we should do valid initiatives. Bring this to the people
Speaker 1: because the people want this and legislators aren't. Legislators may
Speaker 1: not be getting this done, but here's this thing. Those
Speaker 1: are threes and forest programs. It's very critical for early education,
Speaker 1: very critical component of childcare. But there's still zero to three,
Speaker 1: that's the most expensive, and then you still have aftercare,
Speaker 1: you still have summer. So states like Massachusetts they're working
Speaker 1: on something potentially, they're, you know, in early stages, trying
Speaker 1: to get something proposed for this coming legislative session. But
Speaker 1: what I talked to someone who's working on at her
Speaker 1: aim is, let's get far to thirteen. Let's stop saying
Speaker 1: it's fine for parents to spend all summer cobbling together care.
Speaker 1: And like most parents know, you're lucky if you find
Speaker 1: a campus open from nine to four and you're basically
Speaker 1: scrambling to figure out before a care in africare or
Speaker 1: your kids school and at fifteen and obviously no one's
Speaker 1: drop accommodated that. Bloomberg News US healthcare reporter Cynthia Coon's
Speaker 1: and Bloomberg Business Week editor Joel Weber, joining Bloomberg Quick
Speaker 1: Take anchor Tim Stanovic and me check out the entire
Speaker 1: remarks in the magazine. It's on newsstands online and on
Speaker 1: the Bloomberg terminal. Online and on the terminal is also
Speaker 1: where you'll find the international cover story about how South
Speaker 1: Korea's successful approach of regiment and masking aggressive testing and
Speaker 1: high tech contact tracing is a blueprint for the US
Speaker 1: and other democracies coming up from the childcare crisis to
Speaker 1: the healthcare crisis. Get ready for the COVID long haul.
Speaker 1: More from the President CEO at Northwell Health. That's next
Speaker 1: on Bloomberg Business Week. This is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Business Week with Cairol Mazer from Bloomberg Radio. Big week
Speaker 1: for COVID nineteen vaccine news, progress and some starts and
Speaker 1: stops as well. Which has really been a part of
Speaker 1: this entire pandemic and race for a vaccine really from
Speaker 1: day one. Well, someone who has seen it all from
Speaker 1: day one as well, and overseas the largest healthcare provider
Speaker 1: in New York State, they have treated over a hundred
Speaker 1: thousand COVID nineteen patients since the start of the pandemic.
Speaker 1: We're talking about Michael Dowling and his team. Michael is
Speaker 1: President CEO at Northwell Health. Mikea is also author of
Speaker 1: a new book, Leading through a Pandemic, The Inside Story
Speaker 1: of Humanity, Innovation and lessons Learned during the COVID nineteen crisis.
Speaker 1: He's optimistic and realistic about a COVID nineteen vaccine. What's
Speaker 1: important and we should be celebrating, and that is that
Speaker 1: we finally have a vaccine that we can actually stop
Speaker 1: to distribute. But I think everybody should be well aware
Speaker 1: that this is going to be many, many months before
Speaker 1: we were able to vaccinate the bulk of the population,
Speaker 1: and then we obviously have to deal with the issue
Speaker 1: that many many people in the public are very hesitant
Speaker 1: about taking a vaccine. So while while it's a great
Speaker 1: news that we have it, and it's a great news
Speaker 1: that it's beginning, which we should celebrate, as I said,
Speaker 1: but this is a long haul. This is not a
Speaker 1: quick fix answer at the moment, and it should in
Speaker 1: no way, uh give the opportunity for people to say
Speaker 1: that they don't need to be a mask wearing and
Speaker 1: social distancing and doing all of the prevention issues that
Speaker 1: we have been talking about for a long time. So
Speaker 1: it's it's a it's a great it's it's great news,
Speaker 1: but you know, the implementation of this is not easy.
Speaker 1: It's going to be complicated. We will deal with it,
Speaker 1: we will fucceed on it and with it, but it's
Speaker 1: it's going to be months and months and months. Well, Michael,
Speaker 1: to to that end, I mean, you have seventy four
Speaker 1: thousand employees at north Well Health. When are they getting
Speaker 1: the vaccine? Well, the first batch of vaccines we are
Speaker 1: supposed to get at the beginning of next week. Then
Speaker 1: the number of doses that we're going to get, I
Speaker 1: think we don't know exactly. I put there relatively small
Speaker 1: numbers compared to the numbers of people we have gone. Obviously,
Speaker 1: we prioritize, we prioritize using The first people to get
Speaker 1: the vaccine will be intensive care workers and emergency department workers.
Speaker 1: The latest news that I hear is that I'll get
Speaker 1: somewhere between seven and a thousand doses and the vaccine.
Speaker 1: That's good news, but it's a small number and it
Speaker 1: will come out incrementally over the next month to two months, etcetera.
Speaker 1: So they do all employees. It's gone, probably going to
Speaker 1: take the next month or so. That's a suming we
Speaker 1: get the doses that on the incremental basis that we
Speaker 1: assume we will. So we probably will be starting at
Speaker 1: the beginning of next week Tuesday Wednesday, is my guest.
Speaker 1: And do you anticipate that you will? I'm assuming do
Speaker 1: the two doses that's necessary. I mean, that's that that's
Speaker 1: what you guys are gonna assue that you will have
Speaker 1: enough to do. Yes, Um, the penalty will give you
Speaker 1: the doses for the first for the first round, and
Speaker 1: then they come back and they give you the number
Speaker 1: for the second round. So you have to get the
Speaker 1: two doses because because the vaccine begins to really take
Speaker 1: affect after you get the second dose, which is about
Speaker 1: three weeks after you get the first one, and the
Speaker 1: management the bad and the data systems you need on
Speaker 1: that to be complicated. Um. But yes, we will be
Speaker 1: doing board obviously you have to um and and then
Speaker 1: you know we got you know, the nursing homes are
Speaker 1: going to get done, and the high the staff and
Speaker 1: just mentor will get done. And then you go to
Speaker 1: the next tiers of staff over the next month, Apool,
Speaker 1: are you at all nervous that you won't get everything
Speaker 1: you need? And I just think about all the promises
Speaker 1: for PPE, you know, during the height of the virus
Speaker 1: in the springtime here and they're just the supply chain
Speaker 1: was terrible. Are you nervous at all though, Mike that
Speaker 1: there's gonna be some problems with hiccups along the way. Oh,
Speaker 1: there will be hiccups along the way. There will be
Speaker 1: confusion along the way. That's the reality of all of
Speaker 1: these things. We are very well prepared here and not well.
Speaker 1: We have unbelievably detailed plans. We know exactly what we
Speaker 1: need to do. But it would be foolish to think
Speaker 1: that this is going to go so smoothly that nothing
Speaker 1: will will will happen. There will create a hiccup. I mean,
Speaker 1: it will happen. We just have to respond to it.
Speaker 1: As I all staff when I met with them, is
Speaker 1: that we have to manage the confusion intelligently. That's what
Speaker 1: we have to do. But that's what operations does all
Speaker 1: the time anyway, No, no, nothing that has to be
Speaker 1: operationalized always go smootly. As the fact of life. It
Speaker 1: is what it is, and we will just have to
Speaker 1: deal with it. We have all the processes in place.
Speaker 1: If we get enough doses to do everybody and and
Speaker 1: on the in the sequence that they suggest, and we
Speaker 1: will be fine. Um. And if we have to change
Speaker 1: along the way, we change along the way. That's the
Speaker 1: nature of the operations. Well, Michael, I want to get
Speaker 1: an update about COVID capacity and hospital capallacy capacity in
Speaker 1: your health system right now, Um, you treated nearly all
Speaker 1: of New York State over COVID nineteen patients. What are
Speaker 1: the hospitals like right now? Right now, we have today
Speaker 1: about seven hundred and sixty cases in our hospital um,
Speaker 1: and that has gone up from about eighty patients. This
Speaker 1: is on a daily basis about three weeks ago, so
Speaker 1: the increase has been lauged. But we've got to put
Speaker 1: it in context. Back in April at the height, when
Speaker 1: we were at the epicenter of the height of the issue,
Speaker 1: we had three thousand, five comment patients in our hospitals.
Speaker 1: So what the seven hundred It looks like it's a
Speaker 1: huge number, It is very small religive to what we
Speaker 1: had before. So we are prepared if the number keeps
Speaker 1: going up, which I shume it will given the holiday season,
Speaker 1: and I do believe that probably the worst period of
Speaker 1: time would be right after Christmas for a couple of
Speaker 1: weeks in January. Uh. And we are ready. We had
Speaker 1: the capacity, we have the supplies, the staff morale is good.
Speaker 1: We have the staff um. You know, if we need
Speaker 1: more as your capacity, we've got it. So we're pretty
Speaker 1: well propelled. And I'm working with all of the other
Speaker 1: health systems in New York, especially in downstates here in
Speaker 1: New York, and we talk on a continuous basis, and
Speaker 1: I think we're all, well, we're ready. We handled it before,
Speaker 1: we will handle it again. I don't think we will
Speaker 1: get back to anything close to what we had back
Speaker 1: in April. Um, that's our hope, of course, but if
Speaker 1: it does happen, we will be able to take care.
Speaker 1: We better position today than we were six months ago.
Speaker 1: We have better treatment methodologies. You know, not as many
Speaker 1: people are going into I see us today, and not
Speaker 1: as many people are being intubated today. The treatments are
Speaker 1: better and the processes are better. But we are We
Speaker 1: got the capacity, supplies, were in a good position. So
Speaker 1: I just want make sure I heard the numbers right.
Speaker 1: So you said seven six cases COVID cases in your
Speaker 1: hospital today from eight from eighty a few weeks ago.
Speaker 1: We were both three weeks ago, we had let's say
Speaker 1: three to four weeks ago, we had about eighty on
Speaker 1: a daily basis, Okay, so exponentially creep up, you know,
Speaker 1: we got to hundred fifty and in the last week
Speaker 1: it has jumped, you know, you know, post Thanksgiving. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and then we have obviously of the election process. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, doing the election, there's a lot of people
Speaker 1: out and about, and then we have pockets in the
Speaker 1: community that decide or whatever stupid reason, do not want
Speaker 1: to wear masks and do not want the social distance
Speaker 1: and I'm not complying with public health safety standards and
Speaker 1: indoors communities, you do have a higher incidence of infections. Well,
Speaker 1: we have definitely heard that from so many, including the
Speaker 1: nation's top doctors and virus experts. Wearing masks and social
Speaker 1: distancing makes a big difference. That's Michael Dowling, President CEO
Speaker 1: at Northwell Health. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week coming
Speaker 1: up the news that rocked the movie industry, brought on
Speaker 1: by the virus. Once our Alice weighs in, that's an
Speaker 1: next This is Bloomberg is Bloomberg Business Week with Garrol
Speaker 1: Masser from Bloomberg Radio. Just about a week ago, Warner
Speaker 1: Brothers said it will make all of their one films,
Speaker 1: including Dune and Matrix four, available on HBO Max at
Speaker 1: the same time as they open up movie theaters, ending
Speaker 1: theater chain's exclusivity. It's what we like to call up
Speaker 1: Wait what moment, which is exactly how actors, directors, you
Speaker 1: name it, took it, which is why it also caught
Speaker 1: the attention of star Alice Craig Moffatt founding partner and
Speaker 1: senior Alice at Moffatt Nathanson, who has covered the telecom,
Speaker 1: cable and satellite space for years. He's been named the
Speaker 1: number one Alice by Institutional Investor magazine year after year.
Speaker 1: Craig was also the founder and CEO of the e
Speaker 1: commerce business at Southeby's. Well. Craig filled us in on
Speaker 1: why investors in A. T and T, which owns Warner Brothers,
Speaker 1: needs to pay attention to this news. The big news
Speaker 1: really is the big announcement from A. T and T,
Speaker 1: which about bringing movies in so called day and day
Speaker 1: or the same day that they bring in the movie theaters,
Speaker 1: bring them the bringing them to HBO Max. And that
Speaker 1: is really an extraordinary development. Um. It has implications for
Speaker 1: the exhibitors, that is, the movie theaters, It has implications
Speaker 1: for A. T and T itself, and I think, as
Speaker 1: you saw with a lot of the blowback today, it
Speaker 1: has a big, big implications for the actors and artists
Speaker 1: and directors. Boy oh boy, did they hear an earful
Speaker 1: from how angry some of their stakeholders are. Kind a
Speaker 1: million questions. So do you think this is one thing
Speaker 1: or just a short term thing, or do you think
Speaker 1: this is something that becomes part of how it happens
Speaker 1: longer term and maybe forever. Well, you know, it's it's it's.
Speaker 1: It puts them in a in a difficult position because
Speaker 1: Jason clar who formerly of Hulu and the person who
Speaker 1: put himself out front in this decision um uh Inten
Speaker 1: now running Warner Media, made it very clear that this
Speaker 1: is a decision about customers and that the customers want
Speaker 1: movies day and date. It's what they've always wanted. Um.
Speaker 1: And I don't think anybody would argue with that. It's
Speaker 1: customers would love to have movies day and date. The
Speaker 1: problem is, once you say that, it's a little hard
Speaker 1: to put the genie back in the bottle and then
Speaker 1: say what we've in two we know want to put
Speaker 1: customers first. Um And so uh it feels like not
Speaker 1: just to me, but I think to most people as
Speaker 1: if this is um going to become an expectation and uh,
Speaker 1: the implications of that again are just enormous. Well, I
Speaker 1: love listen you just get into the weeds with all
Speaker 1: of this, and you really break it down at you know,
Speaker 1: when somebody creates a piece of content, you know, a
Speaker 1: major film or something, you know, the theaters is just
Speaker 1: one level, right, but there's so many other levels, and
Speaker 1: you go through the pay windows, right, And you say
Speaker 1: that often when it does its theatrical release, it doesn't
Speaker 1: necessarily make money there, But it's the later windows, Like
Speaker 1: you talk about the pay one window, like an HBO,
Speaker 1: that's where it starts to maybe you know, at least
Speaker 1: be in the green on some kind of movie. And
Speaker 1: and remember it's we're not just talking about a T
Speaker 1: and T and Warner Media themselves. We're also talking about
Speaker 1: directors and actors who have participation deals. So Christopher Nolan
Speaker 1: a critically important director to Warner Warner Media, um Is,
Speaker 1: our Rate and um As are lots of these directors.
Speaker 1: So you know, in Legendary Entertainment, which was offered hundreds
Speaker 1: of millions of dollars for King Kong versus Godzilla to
Speaker 1: go direct to Netflix, took it, took the deal to
Speaker 1: Warner Brothers instead, and then got blindsided and wasn't told
Speaker 1: in advance. From what we read today, that Oh, by
Speaker 1: the way, we're taking your movie out of movie theaters
Speaker 1: or at least, um, we're going to be making it
Speaker 1: available at no extra charge on HBO same day. Um.
Speaker 1: If you're a director and you're and or an investor
Speaker 1: in one of those films, and you've got hundreds of
Speaker 1: millions of dollars writing on the performance at the box
Speaker 1: office based on your contract, your head is kind of explode.
Speaker 1: And from what we understand, um, they were not not
Speaker 1: told in advance in order to keep secrecy. So when
Speaker 1: when they did this with Wonder Woman, which was you
Speaker 1: may recall Wonder Woman was the first movie and that
Speaker 1: was very done purely as a one off. It was
Speaker 1: single film with no expectations of any others to follow.
Speaker 1: But you're talking about what happened with Wonder Woman and
Speaker 1: what people are now calling the Wonder Woman money. You know,
Speaker 1: this comes down to, you know, how people are paid, right,
Speaker 1: whether it's directors, actors, all of the people involved in
Speaker 1: getting a movie to the the it are. It kind
Speaker 1: of comes down to that, right, the upfront money versus
Speaker 1: maybe the money that comes later after ticket sales. That's right.
Speaker 1: And the reason this is also important is look at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, A T and T is
Speaker 1: a phone company, and culturally, um, you always have to
Speaker 1: wonder how well is it is a phone company going
Speaker 1: to adapt to what is essentially a creative business. Well,
Speaker 1: time will certainly tell about how well the synergies between
Speaker 1: A T and T and Warner Brothers work out. That's
Speaker 1: Craig Moffatt, founding partner and senior analyst at Mofatt Nathanson.
Speaker 1: Find that full conversation on our Bloomberg Business Week podcast
Speaker 1: feed at Bloomberg dot com or Apple Podcasts. You're listening
Speaker 1: to Bloomberg Business Week. Our next guest doesn't mince words
Speaker 1: when it comes to the commercial real estate market. He
Speaker 1: says it's the worst since, well, in a long long time.
Speaker 1: More from Vestition's chairman. That's coming up. This is Bloomberg.
Speaker 1: Is Bloomberg Business Week with Garrol Mazer from Bloomberg Radio
Speaker 1: made a flurry of real estate headlines on the Bloomberg
Speaker 1: this week, including Manhattan apartment rant sinking to the lowest
Speaker 1: level in a decade, San Francisco apartment rants plunging the
Speaker 1: most in the US, and Airbnb holding its i PO
Speaker 1: as its pandemic recovery has outpaced major hotel chains. The
Speaker 1: virus continuing to make its mark on real estate. So
Speaker 1: we got real on commercial real estate with Michael Silver.
Speaker 1: He's chairman Investition. It's a commercial real estate from that
Speaker 1: serves only occupantsive buildings, never landlords. We caught up with
Speaker 1: him in Chicago. Probably the worst commercial real estate market
Speaker 1: since the dot com bust, probably surpassing the dot com bust,
Speaker 1: and it's probably the worst commercial real estate market. Certainly.
Speaker 1: It's there's more vacancy than there was as a percentage
Speaker 1: of the overall supply. Then there wasn't two thousand nine
Speaker 1: in the recession. So it's um and it's going to
Speaker 1: get worse. And it's so for example, in the US
Speaker 1: has a four billion square foot supply of office space.
Speaker 1: We're starting to exceed overall sixteen percent vacancy overall that's
Speaker 1: never occurred. Occupancy dropped in the US so far this
Speaker 1: year at around thirty million square feet and it's predicted
Speaker 1: to draft around fifty million square feet. And in terms
Speaker 1: of sublet availability, there's a hundred and fifty million six
Speaker 1: or a hundred and sixty million square feet of sublet
Speaker 1: available throughout the United States. Headed towards two hundred million
Speaker 1: square feet of availability of sublet. It's never occurred before,
Speaker 1: So how do we digest that? Or you don't? You
Speaker 1: just don't. And I think, I think, I really there's
Speaker 1: enough supply in the marketplace in order here to mop
Speaker 1: up off all the vacancy that's predicted. There's about a
Speaker 1: seven year supply, so I just don't think it's going
Speaker 1: to get back to any kind of state of equilibrium
Speaker 1: for at least seven maybe eight years. So what does
Speaker 1: that mean? Because I feel like I'm looking for a
Speaker 1: story and I'm going to find it as I as
Speaker 1: I talk with you. But I do feel like it
Speaker 1: hasn't necessarily played out yet in the financial markets. Is
Speaker 1: that fair? Yes? It is fair, And that's because in
Speaker 1: the in the multi market buildings UM, most of the
Speaker 1: buildings are distributed with seven and ten year leases, so
Speaker 1: most of the owners can make their payments. So that's
Speaker 1: played out. But it's not gonna last. UM, It's just
Speaker 1: not gonna be the situation forever because at some point
Speaker 1: is going to be a recognition of how much supply
Speaker 1: there is and there isn't any leasing activity right now,
Speaker 1: and in order to attract the leasing activity. Owners are
Speaker 1: going to have to drop their race right, no other trust. Well,
Speaker 1: here's the story I was looking for. On the Bloomberg
Speaker 1: by Adam Tempken, the more than billion dollar market for
Speaker 1: bonds backed by US commercial um mortgages may face glosses
Speaker 1: even after promising COVID vaccines become widespread. Uh as key
Speaker 1: parts of the real estate market may not return to
Speaker 1: full strength anytime soon. We're talking about the c NBS
Speaker 1: market because I've been kind of you know, we've all
Speaker 1: been watching it really closely, and it feels like, you know,
Speaker 1: knock on for Micah, which is what I'm knocking on.
Speaker 1: It's held up. But like you say, so, when do
Speaker 1: we start to see the problems? Um, I think you're
Speaker 1: going to start to see the problems next year because
Speaker 1: I don't even think they have the amount of sublet
Speaker 1: space that's on the market today. I think potentially it
Speaker 1: could double the next year. I mean people are recognizing.
Speaker 1: I think building owners are, I think businesses are recognizing
Speaker 1: that they probably have more space than they need. And
Speaker 1: many of the standard office space users are just sitting
Speaker 1: in a state of limbo trying to figure out how
Speaker 1: much do I need? How much don't I need how
Speaker 1: many people are working remotely, And whereas technology companies, which
Speaker 1: represents the overall market, they're putting space on the market.
Speaker 1: They're very quick to respond to this, and they're putting
Speaker 1: a lot of space on the market. And I think
Speaker 1: the standard UH office space users, you know, the lawyers
Speaker 1: and the financial markets will soon start to follow. So
Speaker 1: this becomes really story where it becomes problematic, where the
Speaker 1: bank's story, it's going to be a story. It's just
Speaker 1: going to be absorbed. Not great for landlords right now,
Speaker 1: potentially some financial exposure to for investors UH, And we'll
Speaker 1: have to see how it trickles down maybe into the
Speaker 1: financial community meeting banks and so on. But for tenants,
Speaker 1: they're in the driver's seat right now in an incredible way,
Speaker 1: and what they need to do is react quickly and
Speaker 1: find their voice in new negotiations. So, Michael, tell us
Speaker 1: about what you have scenes. Since you work with tenants,
Speaker 1: tell us about some of the tenants that you're working with,
Speaker 1: and maybe what are some of the opportunities that they're
Speaker 1: finding in this environment, especially when you talk about so
Speaker 1: much excess supply when it comes to commercial real estate.
Speaker 1: If a tenant is lucky enough to not be encumbered
Speaker 1: by a lease. So I'll get back to that. They
Speaker 1: should expect to have a discount in overall costs instead
Speaker 1: of a ten year lease. They should be a negotiating
Speaker 1: flexibly because a lot of their workforce is working remotely
Speaker 1: for a three to five year lease. And um, they
Speaker 1: should be very focused on flexible lease arrangements, UM, free rent,
Speaker 1: construction and a drop in the face rent. Now if
Speaker 1: a tenant, if a tenant has a lease, they should
Speaker 1: expeditiously attempt to get rid of the space. Not even
Speaker 1: we recommend attempting a buyout from the landlord. It's a
Speaker 1: lot cleaner, and there are a number of landlords who
Speaker 1: are open to those kinds of arrangements. And it's an
Speaker 1: opportunity for a tenant to recover more than they would
Speaker 1: on a sublet. And the owner is benefiting by not
Speaker 1: having competeing space offered at half price in their building. Um.
Speaker 1: But the opportunities are incredible right now for tenants. We
Speaker 1: have formed a division within our company to expeditiously and
Speaker 1: with dispatch work on ridding tenants of space. So this
Speaker 1: is this is maybe a once in a lifetime opportunity well,
Speaker 1: the conditions for owners are as bad as I've seen
Speaker 1: since when the entire commercial market imploded just through overbuilding. Um,
Speaker 1: it's more than a one time lifetime because we're not
Speaker 1: dealing with just office housing. We're dealing with remote working
Speaker 1: as well. Remote working necessitates needing less space. And as
Speaker 1: I get back to my base case, if there's four
Speaker 1: billion square feet of office property in the United States
Speaker 1: and you need less space, that that means that one
Speaker 1: point two billion square feet of space needs to get absorbed,
Speaker 1: and we absorbed two square feet a year. So you know,
Speaker 1: that's why it's basic math here right. This won't be
Speaker 1: worked out for quite a while. The working from home, UM, Michael,
Speaker 1: We've had a lot of discussions here with CEOs and
Speaker 1: you get depending on who you talk to, you get
Speaker 1: a different um response. Some say, Yep, it's here to stay.
Speaker 1: You see the big tech company saying you want to
Speaker 1: work from home, that's fine, you can do it forever.
Speaker 1: I don't know, it's hard to say how much of
Speaker 1: it sticks. What are your expectations here? My expectations that
Speaker 1: it will stick. You know, our clients say that they're
Speaker 1: just not going back to working full time out of
Speaker 1: an office space. I actually think we're on the dawn.
Speaker 1: I mean, for all the problems that I think commercial
Speaker 1: owners will have, businesses are on the dawn of some
Speaker 1: of the greatest productivity advancements that I've ever seen, because
Speaker 1: they're able to work remotely, and they're able to work
Speaker 1: in the office, and they're able to work virtually with
Speaker 1: technology tools that just keep getting better and better, so
Speaker 1: they're able to function as one unit as opposed to
Speaker 1: borders that sometimes get created through office space. So you
Speaker 1: have a combination sometimes of office space and remote working,
Speaker 1: and it's fantastic. The productivity gains are amazing. So I'm
Speaker 1: thinking about our audience smart audience, um you know, tuned
Speaker 1: in audience, and thinking about the investment play here based
Speaker 1: on what you're saying. And I'm wondering, you know, especially
Speaker 1: in a you know, a year, year and a half
Speaker 1: or so, where we been so much time our last
Speaker 1: couple of years talking about we work and coworking companies,
Speaker 1: what's what's the investment play. We've talked a lot about
Speaker 1: logistics companies and warehouses. That's been a play and that's
Speaker 1: going to be even more of a play going forward.
Speaker 1: What do you see as the play going forward, and
Speaker 1: just got about a minute left here. Well, online services,
Speaker 1: anything connected with online services. So you're talking about warehouse space,
Speaker 1: just bike space, you're talking about three PL space, you know, reworking,
Speaker 1: supply chains. What's three pl forgive me three pls at
Speaker 1: supply chain pl is third party providers for warehouse got
Speaker 1: it okay? With supply chains? Uh? With with supply chain
Speaker 1: delivery systems like fed X, d h L, they need
Speaker 1: large amounts of space distribution center's logistics. Yeah, that is
Speaker 1: definitely one of the pandemic winners in the commercial real
Speaker 1: estate space. That was Michael Silver, Chairman Investian. That wraps
Speaker 1: up the first hour of the weekend edition of Bomberg
Speaker 1: Business Week from Bloomberg Radio. I'm Carol Masser. More ahead
Speaker 1: in our next hour, including why the investing app robin
Speaker 1: hood is losing thousands of traders to a China owned rival,
Speaker 1: Plus Gotham Green's co founder and CEO on raising money
Speaker 1: and growing the business that's coming up on Bloomberg Business Week.
Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol
Speaker 1: Masser from Bloomberg Radio. Hi on Carol mass Or. Coming
Speaker 1: up in the second Hour of the weekend edition of
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Business Week, Gotham Green's co founder and CEO on
Speaker 1: his company's whirlwind year and explosive growth. Plus Kenya Hunt,
Speaker 1: she's fashion director of Grazia UK. She's got a book
Speaker 1: at about being a black girl, a black woman in
Speaker 1: today's ever changing world. At j w P founder Josh Wood.
Speaker 1: While he's used to putting on fundraisers for Madonna and others,
Speaker 1: how he's getting it done in a virtual world. He
Speaker 1: even brought Brad and gen back together again. Well, at
Speaker 1: least virtually. We'll hear his story. But let's get things
Speaker 1: going this hour with what was one of our most
Speaker 1: read stories on the Bloomberg this week. It's about the
Speaker 1: app that has been one of the big stories in
Speaker 1: our markets universe this year. We're talking about robin Hood
Speaker 1: and how it's losing thousands of traders to arrival out
Speaker 1: of China. Bloomberg Quicktake anchor Tim Stenovic and I got
Speaker 1: more on this story reported for Bloomberg Business Week by
Speaker 1: Annie massa Bloomberg News investing reporter who joined us along
Speaker 1: with Bloomberg Business Week editor Joe Weber. You know it's
Speaker 1: one of these um um sort of stories that I
Speaker 1: kind of love, where you know, robin Hood has been
Speaker 1: uh you know, basically just a phenomenon during the pandemic,
Speaker 1: and along comes uh, you know, like an upstart that's
Speaker 1: kind of got its own, uh, its own kind of
Speaker 1: way of doing things that's been you know, different than
Speaker 1: robin Hood, which also had its own way of doing things.
Speaker 1: So it's almost like they're getting schooled a little bit
Speaker 1: in their own game. And as Any is about to
Speaker 1: tell us, they've done it by actually going the opposite
Speaker 1: way of robin Hood. Where robin Hood made every very
Speaker 1: streamlined and almost uh stripped down and bare bones, they've
Speaker 1: actually flooded it with more information rather than less. Anie.
Speaker 1: Why why does that seem to be working so far? Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's exactly right. You have this kind of difference between
Speaker 1: on on one end of the spectrum, you have robin Hood,
Speaker 1: which is just for a complete entry level trader, very simple,
Speaker 1: very clean graphics, and you know, if you think the
Speaker 1: way other end of the spectrum might be like an
Speaker 1: interactive brokers with more sophisticated analysis in real time data.
Speaker 1: We both sit a little bit in between those two,
Speaker 1: and it's trying to reach out the same kinds of
Speaker 1: users that robin Hood is after, the younger kinds of demographic,
Speaker 1: the more social oriented types of traders, but it's doing
Speaker 1: it in a way where the format is slightly more sophisticated,
Speaker 1: slightly more information than you're getting when you log into
Speaker 1: a robin Hood account. Yeah. Any I'm curious too about this,
Speaker 1: this idea of this being a Chinese company because think
Speaker 1: about TikTok and the problems that TikTok has had with
Speaker 1: the US government. I mean, financial services are regulated so
Speaker 1: much more it's going to work, yeah, than a social
Speaker 1: media company, So so how are they going to pull
Speaker 1: this off with sciphius. You're exactly right, and I think
Speaker 1: TikTok is a very high profile example. But we've really
Speaker 1: seen how the tensions between the U S and China
Speaker 1: and the trade war and just this rising geopolitical tension
Speaker 1: between the two countries has been affecting the business world
Speaker 1: and really creeping into finances as well. So we mentioned
Speaker 1: in the story how we've already seen, you know, the
Speaker 1: Trump administration kind of thinking about possibly placing restrictions on
Speaker 1: Chinese payment platforms or threatening to kick companies from China
Speaker 1: off of the US exchanges. So for now, we Bill
Speaker 1: have not been caught up in that fray, but it
Speaker 1: certainly could be an issue for a company like this
Speaker 1: down the line. So any what what more do we
Speaker 1: know about uh we bill in terms of like how
Speaker 1: many how many users are on the platform, what kind
Speaker 1: of growth are we seeing here? We mentioned that you know,
Speaker 1: it's it's peeling triggers away from robin Hood, but like
Speaker 1: how big of an opportunity does does we both think
Speaker 1: it sees here? That's right, So we both still smaller
Speaker 1: than robin Hood, but they've been growing staff. They've grown
Speaker 1: their client based by about tenfolds this year, so they
Speaker 1: have about two million customers now. Now that compares to
Speaker 1: robin Hood that has more than thirteen million customers. And
Speaker 1: they've been going completely getting busters in terms of news
Speaker 1: sign ups this year. But still for a newer company
Speaker 1: without as much name brand recognition broadly speaking as robin Hood,
Speaker 1: that is a significant user base. And and talk to
Speaker 1: more about talk to us more about the stealth mode,
Speaker 1: because I thought that was a really curious thing, like
Speaker 1: they've really just cloaked their operation. They do have an
Speaker 1: office in downtown New York in right off Wall Street.
Speaker 1: But but why run so quietly? A lot of people
Speaker 1: who are listening this might be hearing about it for
Speaker 1: the first time. That's right. So they haven't done any
Speaker 1: big kind of ad campaign or or advertised really aggressively.
Speaker 1: And we were talking to the us CEO who said,
Speaker 1: we're trying to stay under the radar a little bit
Speaker 1: for now and grow without making a huge splash. It's
Speaker 1: a it's still a very competitive space, and we Bill
Speaker 1: has been fortunate enough to pick up some of the
Speaker 1: customers that have been frustrated by robin Hood who seek
Speaker 1: out other options and then they kind of come across
Speaker 1: wee Ball and say, hey, I might like to try
Speaker 1: and open a brokerage account there um instead about robin Hood,
Speaker 1: either because they're frustrated with the service at robin Hood
Speaker 1: or because they want to like level up their account
Speaker 1: a little bit. So I just think just because they
Speaker 1: have a customer service line, they're going to be like,
Speaker 1: you know, way ahead of robin Hood. Um, Andy, so
Speaker 1: tell us about I mean, is money coming in investor
Speaker 1: any what's their plan here? That's right, So that you're
Speaker 1: on the brink of raising another fundraising round, um, they
Speaker 1: expect to raise about a hundred million dollars for evaluation
Speaker 1: of possibly over a billion dollars, So that would put
Speaker 1: them in unicorn status territory. Uh So they are trying
Speaker 1: to attract investors at this moment. They've grown so much
Speaker 1: in the public imagination, but they've also had some really
Speaker 1: high profile lapses. So they had an outage that lasted
Speaker 1: more than a day in March. They've had an issue
Speaker 1: with hacking of some accounts that we reported on earlier
Speaker 1: this fall. And each time you've seen users go online
Speaker 1: vent their frustration, and some of them have even threatened
Speaker 1: to leave and seek out other kinds of brokerage. Of
Speaker 1: the financial and investing world continues to be disrupted. And
Speaker 1: that in a week where JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie
Speaker 1: Diamond said that Google's move into banking made it a
Speaker 1: real competitor. Again. That was Annie mossa Bloomberg News investing
Speaker 1: reporter and Bloomberg Business Week editor Joe Weber joining Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Quick Take anchor Tim Stenovik. M me coming up how
Speaker 1: we invest changing, so too is how we farm? More
Speaker 1: on that when we catch up with the Gotham Green's
Speaker 1: co founder and CEO, You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week.
Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg Business Week with Gerrol
Speaker 1: Masser from Bloomberg Radio. This week, the indoor agriculture and
Speaker 1: tech company Gotham Green's announced a new equity and debt
Speaker 1: capital raise of eighty seven million dollars. That money to
Speaker 1: be used to decentralized food production and bring more fresh
Speaker 1: foods to people across the United States. Well. One of
Speaker 1: the highlights this week was an interview we did with
Speaker 1: Farage Pury, his co founder and CEO of Gotham Green's.
Speaker 1: We began though on what a year it has been
Speaker 1: for them, an essential business that has stayed open. It's
Speaker 1: been a whirlwind year, no doubt, as it has been
Speaker 1: for many many people, if not everybody, but doing well.
Speaker 1: Keeping healthy, keeping keeping our staff, our team members around
Speaker 1: the country, almost four hundred of them healthy and space
Speaker 1: has been really our top priority, and we've been able
Speaker 1: to keep our business fully operational, and for that I
Speaker 1: am extremely grateful. We are fortunate to be in the
Speaker 1: food system. We are fortunate to be UM considered essential employees,
Speaker 1: and we work hard to keep our supermarket customers fresh
Speaker 1: with stock, healthy, fresh produce. What was the toughest part
Speaker 1: of staying fully operational during the pandemic. So look, we
Speaker 1: we saw the writing on the wall. Our team put
Speaker 1: a crisis management plan into place in early February, so
Speaker 1: we worked really hard to secure our supply chain, work
Speaker 1: on shifting our shift schedules around so we could enforce
Speaker 1: more social distancing, and and even sort of got on
Speaker 1: the temperature checks and things a little bit early on.
Speaker 1: So I feel incredibly fortunate that we were able to
Speaker 1: do that, and we've certainly had to modify how we
Speaker 1: run our facilities. But very early on god confirmation from
Speaker 1: the federal government um that that we would in fact
Speaker 1: be considered an essential industry, So we informed our employees
Speaker 1: that we could stay operational. And literally the day that
Speaker 1: the pandemic was declared, we received a surge in in
Speaker 1: request from our supermarket customers to run extra trucks on
Speaker 1: the road and deliver more product, uh, you know, since
Speaker 1: there was such a run on grocery store. So it
Speaker 1: really provided us with an opportunity to really improve our
Speaker 1: value proposition and the supply chain. You know, the supply
Speaker 1: chain is so reliant on California, the centralized production there,
Speaker 1: and we were able to really serve our customers. Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's pretty remarkable because you know it's all been about
Speaker 1: supply chains. What what about what you learned during the pandemic,
Speaker 1: especially with this new you know, debt and cap, you
Speaker 1: know equity rays. I do wonder about are there strategies
Speaker 1: that you were thinking about implementing And I've seen you know,
Speaker 1: your greenhouses out there in Brooklyn. I mean, it's pretty remarkable.
Speaker 1: It's very high tech, But there were strategies verage that
Speaker 1: you were thinking about putting in place, but taking your time,
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden you're like, Okay, we're all
Speaker 1: in on this because speaking big growth strategy and plan
Speaker 1: and was already well in the works even prior to COVID.
Speaker 1: So in we almost doubled our capacity with new greenhouse
Speaker 1: facilities in Illinois, Maryland, Rhode Island, and Colorado. So we
Speaker 1: were able to really ramp up those facilities this year
Speaker 1: and double our growth year on year. And we already
Speaker 1: had a plan into place um to expand further further
Speaker 1: geographic market expansion within the US two. So this funding
Speaker 1: is going to enable us to do that while continuing
Speaker 1: to build operational capacity and just build our brand and
Speaker 1: continue to be a leader in this in this segment,
Speaker 1: in this category. To be fair, did you have to
Speaker 1: put some plans on hold because you were just making
Speaker 1: sure that your employees were, say, if your teams were safe,
Speaker 1: and that you were meeting all of that increased demand
Speaker 1: by your supermarket customers. Certainly, we for for for a
Speaker 1: couple of months there in the spring, we were just
Speaker 1: focused on exactly that and didn't focus as much on
Speaker 1: on sort of the new site development and and acquisition.
Speaker 1: So we certainly held our breath for a little bit.
Speaker 1: But then as as things stabilized a little bit in
Speaker 1: the summer, we um we we double down on those efforts.
Speaker 1: It really sounds like you guys have really been kind
Speaker 1: of in warp speed, if you will, so, tell me
Speaker 1: about the visibility you feel like you have in and
Speaker 1: how you see the year playing out as a as
Speaker 1: a CEO of someone who's running a company. How confident
Speaker 1: do you feel about the outlook given this sector that
Speaker 1: we're in, which is fresh food production. I think the
Speaker 1: outlook looks bright. I think the future is right for
Speaker 1: our company, but also for our sector as a whole.
Speaker 1: I think the pandemic has really revealed a lot of
Speaker 1: should I say, sort of risks in the supply chain, right,
Speaker 1: and our entire model is built upon decentralizing the supply
Speaker 1: chain of highly perishable fresh produce and growing it in
Speaker 1: closer proximity to large supermarket retailers and institutional food service operators.
Speaker 1: So I think from the B two B side, the
Speaker 1: outlook is strong. You know, there's a lot of headwinds
Speaker 1: in the incumbent supply chain, whether it's water related issues
Speaker 1: out west, whether it's climate related issues, the wildfires, farm
Speaker 1: labor issues. So I really do think that more and
Speaker 1: more fresh produce is going to be grown indoors. And
Speaker 1: then I think from the consumer standpoint, consumers are cooking
Speaker 1: at home a lot more. Although are obviously all of
Speaker 1: us are anxious to get back into restaurants and being
Speaker 1: out again, people are looking more at home and they
Speaker 1: want better quality ingredients, and they care more about where
Speaker 1: their produce is grown and is it hygienic, is it clean?
Speaker 1: Is it um sustainably grown? So I do think on balance,
Speaker 1: the prospects are certainly very promising. Listen, I think that's
Speaker 1: a really important aspect of its sustainability. I mean, talking
Speaker 1: with a lot of senior executives people running companies. I mean,
Speaker 1: this is what consumers want, this is what brands need
Speaker 1: to stand for. And I do think AGG is one
Speaker 1: of those areas when we talk about the climate and
Speaker 1: water usage, that's a big deal and I'm curious you
Speaker 1: know what you're seeing in that area and and the
Speaker 1: role that Gotham Green's can play and all of that. Absolutely.
Speaker 1: I mean, agriculture, like you're alluding too, is a huge
Speaker 1: consumer of natural resources, right, So it's the largest consumer
Speaker 1: of land on the planet. It's the largest consumer of
Speaker 1: fresh water in the planet, so around seventy of fresh
Speaker 1: water withdrawals go toward agriculture and farming. Um It's the
Speaker 1: largest cause of global water pollution. It contributes of global
Speaker 1: carbon emissions. You know, the list goes on. So we're
Speaker 1: really serious about sustainability and climate change, we need to
Speaker 1: be looking at AGG. And we're seeing a lot of innovation.
Speaker 1: We're seeing a lot of investment in research and development
Speaker 1: all throughout the AGG supply chain, from the tech side
Speaker 1: to the distribution side, to actual farming techniques, the use
Speaker 1: of big data. So we play a role within that
Speaker 1: and our form of farming specifically, which is broadly known
Speaker 1: as controlled environment agriculture allows us to farm using land
Speaker 1: a lot more efficiently. So what we can grow in
Speaker 1: one acre would require thirty acres out in the field, right,
Speaker 1: So we're much more land efficient, we use less water
Speaker 1: than conventional farming, and by growing the product in much
Speaker 1: closer proximity to the marketplace, we don't have to shift
Speaker 1: the product you know, great distances, so there's less sort
Speaker 1: of fuel consumption and associated emissions as well as less
Speaker 1: waste um. Less fresh produce gets thrown away this way.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I mean, look, we're not sort of saving
Speaker 1: the entire agricultural system by any means, but I definitely
Speaker 1: think we're playing a role in in consumers are increasingly
Speaker 1: interested and want to spend their dollars with companies that
Speaker 1: that are rooted in those kinds of values. People wanted
Speaker 1: to spend their money with companies rooted in certain values.
Speaker 1: That is so much behind the rise in E s
Speaker 1: G investing, as investors align themselves with companies with similar values.
Speaker 1: That again was Varage Puri, co founder and CEO of
Speaker 1: Gotham Green's coming up Can You Hunt Fashion, Director of
Speaker 1: Grazia UK on her book Girl, Girl Girl on Womanhood
Speaker 1: and Belonging in the Age of Black Girl Match. You're
Speaker 1: listening to Bloomberg Business Week. This is Bloomberg. This is
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Business Week with Garrol Mazer from Bloomberg Radio. We're
Speaker 1: breaking some of our favorite interviews, some of this week's
Speaker 1: highlights on our daily radio show and podcast. That included
Speaker 1: Kenya Hunt, fashion director of Grazia UK. She's a fashion
Speaker 1: insider who has spent years working for some of the
Speaker 1: media world's most influential women's titles on both sides of
Speaker 1: the Atlantic. We're talking about l Jane and Moore. She's
Speaker 1: got a book at It's entitled Girl, Girl Girl, Different
Speaker 1: Spellings on Womanhood and Belonging the Age of Black Girl Magic.
Speaker 1: Like many of our conversations, we began with how her
Speaker 1: world has been impacted by the virus. The title um
Speaker 1: so girl. You know I used the phonetic spellings of girl,
Speaker 1: three of them in particular, and on the cover of
Speaker 1: the British version of the book, I believe I use
Speaker 1: four or five and it's a word that you know,
Speaker 1: you know. I write about how it's through of a
Speaker 1: love language between black women. You know, it has real
Speaker 1: meanings in my life. Personally, I use it a great
Speaker 1: deal when I'm when I'm speaking with my girlfriends, with
Speaker 1: my family members, um, sometimes with colleagues, like close colleagues
Speaker 1: who become dear friends. But you know, most importantly that
Speaker 1: it has a multitude of meetings. You know, it can
Speaker 1: be a greeting, It can be an admonishment. Um, it
Speaker 1: can it can meet a number of things depending on
Speaker 1: the context, how you use it, who you're who you're with,
Speaker 1: and um and so. And then the you know on
Speaker 1: womanhood and belonging in the age of Black girl magic
Speaker 1: really speaks to my my exploration of you know, black
Speaker 1: womanhood as I know it personally, you know, as an
Speaker 1: American expat living abroad in the UK, and um, as
Speaker 1: I've come to understand it, you know, as a result
Speaker 1: of you know, having lived away from home from the
Speaker 1: States for the past eleven years and being a part
Speaker 1: of a network of a you know incredible women really
Speaker 1: who are network. Die is quite beat and so you know,
Speaker 1: my understanding of my myself, you know, as a black
Speaker 1: woman who involved is a result of this experience. Well,
Speaker 1: and if I look over the essays, um, you know,
Speaker 1: they deal with the movie The Black Panther. They deal
Speaker 1: with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and their decision
Speaker 1: to step down, and the connection with the white supremacist
Speaker 1: rally in Virginia. What the connections were, you know? And
Speaker 1: then you talk about and I know you said and
Speaker 1: I really respect what you said that you don't always
Speaker 1: want to center on a narrative of pain. But I
Speaker 1: do think about the essay that is entitled the front Row,
Speaker 1: and you do talk about being, you know, a black
Speaker 1: woman in the world of fashion, uh and sitting in
Speaker 1: the front row during fashion shows, and how you were
Speaker 1: often you know, the only black woman there. Um and
Speaker 1: and I just, you know, I think we need to
Speaker 1: have a better understanding of kind of what that's like
Speaker 1: and how do we change the world signific frequently so
Speaker 1: it is more diverse than I am. Curious about your
Speaker 1: thoughts on that. Yes, well, you know I think that, um. Well,
Speaker 1: you know, this year has been quite uh an interesting
Speaker 1: one because we've seen people engaging with conversation around race
Speaker 1: and racism and privilege and in ways that we've never
Speaker 1: seen before really, and it's been happening on a global scale.
Speaker 1: And you know, that was happening, you know, as the
Speaker 1: Black Lives Matter movement was really gaining steam following you know,
Speaker 1: the tragic deaths George Flood and Brianna Taylor and the
Speaker 1: list goes on. I think those conversations are vital. You know,
Speaker 1: the work of engaging in them. He has very clearly
Speaker 1: been exhausting for for black people. I can mean, I
Speaker 1: speak for myself. I don't I don't like to speak
Speaker 1: for you know, entires speak for my personal experience that
Speaker 1: has been that's exhausting. But I think there's you know,
Speaker 1: the conversations that I've been taking place this year have
Speaker 1: been really vital because I do since that there's a
Speaker 1: real shift happening. Um And I think black women have
Speaker 1: been you know, a driving mechanism in that. Um you know,
Speaker 1: seeing how it was the work of black women that
Speaker 1: essentially put Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in an office
Speaker 1: for example, or the fact that you know, black women
Speaker 1: have really been driving this what is effectively the largest
Speaker 1: civil rights movement in history. UM And and so I think,
Speaker 1: you know, all of these conversations that are happening are
Speaker 1: you know, incredibly important in terms of driving change. But
Speaker 1: also it becomes about changing our behavior as well. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, I can speak to fashion because that's the
Speaker 1: industry that I've worked in. You know, diversity within fashion
Speaker 1: has been a talking point probably my entire time that
Speaker 1: I've been working, my entire adult working life. And for
Speaker 1: the longest, it was just that sort of thing, you know,
Speaker 1: and something would happen and we see a wave of
Speaker 1: discussions and panel discuss and articles about it, and then
Speaker 1: it would die down and nothing would really change. The
Speaker 1: needle wasn't really moving. But you know, I think this
Speaker 1: in the past, you know, five years or so, we
Speaker 1: gradually started seeing progress and then this year does feel
Speaker 1: like a bit of a watership moment. You know. There
Speaker 1: was so much discussion about the Black Squares, you know,
Speaker 1: and you know there's been so much discussion around you know,
Speaker 1: performative allyship and and all of those things. I think
Speaker 1: it really just comes down to really people changing their behavior,
Speaker 1: but also being held accountable to that, and the part
Speaker 1: of that is keeping these conversations out there, making sure
Speaker 1: you know, it's you know, the discussion doesn't die down.
Speaker 1: That's Kenyahan Fast and director of Grotto UK. She has
Speaker 1: spent so many years working for some of the media
Speaker 1: world's most influential women's titles. Her book out Girl Girl Girl,
Speaker 1: on womanhood and belonging in the age of black Girl Magic.
Speaker 1: Start ahead on Bloomberg Business Week. Remember when we used
Speaker 1: to go to things, events, fundraisers, you name it. Our
Speaker 1: next guest puts together those types of events. He pivoted though,
Speaker 1: even brought Brad and Gen act together virtually. And yes,
Speaker 1: I'm talking about that Brad and Jen that's coming up next.
Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg Business Week with Garrol
Speaker 1: Mazer from Bloomberg Radio. Do you recall when we all
Speaker 1: used to attend events live in person that included things
Speaker 1: like fundraisers that came to an end, like so much
Speaker 1: else because of the health pandemic, And that's where to
Speaker 1: like so much else, those putting on fundraising events had
Speaker 1: to get creative and pivot. The Global Fundraising Agency JWP
Speaker 1: knows about that. It has worked with amphar Madonna and
Speaker 1: many more, and this year it's been involved in COVID
Speaker 1: nineteen fundraisers. We caught up with Josh Wood, founder of
Speaker 1: the event production and fundraising organization jw P. He told
Speaker 1: us what his year has been like our businesses was
Speaker 1: you know, a hundred percent based on doing events and
Speaker 1: fundraisers for live in person people and for the like
Speaker 1: the biggest charities in the world, and so we really
Speaker 1: had to think on our feet and sort of change
Speaker 1: and pivot. But we're doing Okay, Well, take me back
Speaker 1: to and forgive me that I do this, but I
Speaker 1: think we were all in the same boat, Like, take
Speaker 1: me back to you know, March in April, where um,
Speaker 1: you know, just we just saw our world as we
Speaker 1: knew it. I was kidding with one of our last guests,
Speaker 1: but it was pretty serious that when we saw the
Speaker 1: sports world start to say we're canceling tournaments, We're shutting down,
Speaker 1: Like that's when we looked at each other and said, okay,
Speaker 1: this is on a whole other scale if we if
Speaker 1: we hadn't you know, realized that bit then, but like
Speaker 1: everything just shut down. So what was March April may
Speaker 1: like for you, Well, I think we first started seeing
Speaker 1: you know, a lot of our clients in February and March.
Speaker 1: We're still thinking that this was going to be a
Speaker 1: two to three week saying that we were going to
Speaker 1: shut things down. Everyone's going to stay home and by
Speaker 1: the end of May. Um, you know for us, it's
Speaker 1: the busiest season that people were going to be going
Speaker 1: to Chippriani at the end of May, going to you know,
Speaker 1: our Bossle and Switzerland. So we start did seeing things
Speaker 1: slowly start to taper off at the beginning of March.
Speaker 1: I think when we had a big event that was
Speaker 1: planned during the Tribeca Film Festival for our client Core,
Speaker 1: which is Sean Penn's disaster relief organization, and um, we
Speaker 1: heard that the Tribeca Film Festival was shutting down, which
Speaker 1: we were like, what, how is that possible? I mean,
Speaker 1: I think things slowly started and everything just um just
Speaker 1: started like tumbling from there. Yeah. That was another one
Speaker 1: because I usually do their their press junket uh and
Speaker 1: sit down with Jane Rosenthal and Bob de Niro and like,
Speaker 1: you're right. It was just it just stopped, like it
Speaker 1: just wasn't gonna happen. And I know there was a
Speaker 1: lot of where people were saying, well, maybe we'll do
Speaker 1: this in a couple of months, and then the reality
Speaker 1: hit that no, we're not going to be able to
Speaker 1: postpone this for just a couple of months. Um, really
Speaker 1: really different. So what you know, so what happens, Josh,
Speaker 1: because you know, organizations still need to fundraise, they still
Speaker 1: need to do philanthropic events. We've seen some things on
Speaker 1: broadcast television. So how do you pivot? How do you adjust? Well,
Speaker 1: what we've been doing is sort of working with each
Speaker 1: of our organizations that are you know, like you said,
Speaker 1: our clients all still need to fundraise. For example, City Harvest,
Speaker 1: which is one of our clients, is is you know
Speaker 1: in New York Favorite, which is out feeding at need
Speaker 1: families and people on the front line food. UM. We've
Speaker 1: worked on two sort of telethons with them, UM and
Speaker 1: and sort of the format around that is getting like
Speaker 1: the best chefs in the world to shoot videos of
Speaker 1: recipes that they're cooking at at home and then get
Speaker 1: celebrities to talk about their favorite cooking and it's sort
Speaker 1: of like we did one around based on New York
Speaker 1: and then we did another one that was national and
Speaker 1: both of them raised over a million dollars UM and
Speaker 1: Fox luckily donated the air time, so they were very supportive,
Speaker 1: and UM Jeffreys and Carrion sort of put it all together,
Speaker 1: so it was that was very successful. UM another one
Speaker 1: of our clients, where I mentioned before Core, which is
Speaker 1: Sean Penn's Disaster Leaf organization. They've really been on the
Speaker 1: front lines of the COVID epidemic and have been doing
Speaker 1: all the free testing first and started off in l
Speaker 1: A and all of California, then New York and then
Speaker 1: basically all over the United States. Um, but because they
Speaker 1: were opening at such a rate and there's so much
Speaker 1: free testing needed, they really needed money. Tell us about
Speaker 1: this event that you put together that ended up being
Speaker 1: kind of build really as that reunion between Brad Pitt
Speaker 1: and Jennifer aston Man. There was so much on it
Speaker 1: everywhere on social you name, and everybody was talking about it.
Speaker 1: Tell us about the event, how it came together, and
Speaker 1: then were you surprised by kind of the reaction Where
Speaker 1: first of all, we're surprised that both of them signed
Speaker 1: up to do it. Well, I think, um, we were surprised.
Speaker 1: You know, everyone likes Sean Penn and he was the
Speaker 1: centerpiece of it. So Sean got it was Shawn's idea
Speaker 1: with Dane Cook to do a reading of Fast Times
Speaker 1: at Ridgemont High and so Sean I think the first
Speaker 1: person Shawn asked, I think was Julia Roberts and so
Speaker 1: we kind of knew after we had Julia that like
Speaker 1: we're gonna bemebusterers. And then Julia asked Julian, Jennifer our friends.
Speaker 1: So then Julia asked Jennifer, and then um we had
Speaker 1: Then we got Brad Pitt involved, and um we got
Speaker 1: the rest of cast, which was Morgan Friedman and um
Speaker 1: people econoy and just like great people. But we it
Speaker 1: was the success of of it was beyond our wildest
Speaker 1: dreams because I think America loves Brad and jenn and
Speaker 1: it was the first time that people had seen them
Speaker 1: together and they were acting, you know, their friends, and
Speaker 1: they were acting very casually and talking to each other
Speaker 1: and they had a love scene together. So um, it
Speaker 1: was really great and it was it was a wonderful
Speaker 1: exposure for Cork because we had over over twenty million
Speaker 1: people have watched it, which is beyond our wildest imagination
Speaker 1: of what we thought. The black tie gal of dinners
Speaker 1: have a really nice rate of return because people like
Speaker 1: dressing up in black tie. They buy you know, a
Speaker 1: table and a unit of ten um much easier. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's very social, like instead of buying, you know, if
Speaker 1: you have the four percent event, you only have to
Speaker 1: sell forty tables versus tickets, and you know people raise
Speaker 1: money in the auction, so so there's a there's a
Speaker 1: high rate of return UM. But on the digital events,
Speaker 1: they're not as expensive, but they don't make as much money.
Speaker 1: But they have been you know, they have been financially
Speaker 1: very viable. Like you said, Sitting Harvest, both the telephile
Speaker 1: thons they did raised over a million dollars UM. The
Speaker 1: event that we did for Core for Fast Times, the
Speaker 1: Ridgemont High that raised six figures, you know, that raised
Speaker 1: a lot of money UM, way more than the budget.
Speaker 1: So yes, what we're seeing is that the expenses are
Speaker 1: are lower on the virtual events UM and by innovating
Speaker 1: and doing creative things with content that hopefully you're able
Speaker 1: to raise quite a bit of money. You know, most
Speaker 1: of ours have been raising UM over a million dollars,
Speaker 1: which has been great. That's really impressive. Well, what makes
Speaker 1: a virtual gala work? Because I think about this, like
Speaker 1: I was recently invited to something. It was an award ceremony,
Speaker 1: and I was like, do I really want to sit
Speaker 1: for two hours on a zoom? As much as I
Speaker 1: love the event, totally don't know exactly so what makes
Speaker 1: one work? Well, what what we learned very quickly at
Speaker 1: the beginning is that we were saying that people were like,
Speaker 1: at the very beginning, we were doing sort of long
Speaker 1: format um Galid Dinners, particularly with the Biding Campaign, who
Speaker 1: was one of our clients in terms of fundraising, and
Speaker 1: we were just and they were basically just applying the
Speaker 1: run of show that you would for Galid Dinner to
Speaker 1: a digital format and that just didn't work. You know,
Speaker 1: by minute twenty, everyone's eyes were glazing out of their head.
Speaker 1: So we really try to keep it short. Like we
Speaker 1: keep it you know, we advised not anything longer than
Speaker 1: threaty minutes, um have it be. Really we try to
Speaker 1: keep it very interesting, creating interesting content, um, you know.
Speaker 1: For Hunton River Park is one of our clients, and
Speaker 1: we did an on gala for them which is about
Speaker 1: thirty minutes long. And Martha Stewart had did cocktail recipes,
Speaker 1: had David Chang do a video, Owen did a video.
Speaker 1: So we try to make it like less about the
Speaker 1: format that you normally would see in a gala and
Speaker 1: more about creating compelling content and then having some sort
Speaker 1: of fundraising mechanism for donors to engage kind of like
Speaker 1: TikTok videos on steroids, right with with meeting and content,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, to keep people interested, right
Speaker 1: and to keep them certainly engaged. Um. Yeah, that's really fascinating.
Speaker 1: So so I have to ask you, because you have
Speaker 1: worked on some outrageous things. I mean, is there an
Speaker 1: event that you put together that you kind of pinched
Speaker 1: yourself instead? I can't believe I'm doing this and I'm
Speaker 1: with these people and we're making this impact. But luckily
Speaker 1: I've had a lot of those moments. I think the
Speaker 1: one for me that was the most um important was
Speaker 1: we did Nelson Mandela's hundred um birthday celebrations with his family.
Speaker 1: His his family, the House of Mandela hired us and
Speaker 1: so we did a full year of events for the
Speaker 1: Mandela family and that was incredible. And the last event
Speaker 1: that was on Nelson Mandela's birthday was at his private
Speaker 1: home in Johannesburg and his family were there and dignitaries
Speaker 1: and celebrities and people from all over the world. And
Speaker 1: for me, that was such a major moment to be
Speaker 1: in Nelson Mandela's home with his family and um, just
Speaker 1: getting the message of what he was all about, because
Speaker 1: you know, that's exactly what we need right now, is
Speaker 1: some peace and love. So that was great. I am
Speaker 1: hopeful for UM meeting and getting in person events going. Um,
Speaker 1: anybody booking anything yet? Yes, my proposals go out the
Speaker 1: door today. So yes, it's crazy. So UM. People are
Speaker 1: looking very bullish for May onward. Particularly in New York.
Speaker 1: We're seeing in person events. We did a site visit
Speaker 1: for an in person gallat a big space. Really have
Speaker 1: a concert this summer. We always have a contingency plan,
Speaker 1: upon a contingency plan, upon a contingency plan, having a
Speaker 1: backup plan and being able to pivot. That's in a nutshell. Well,
Speaker 1: we're all looking forward to being able to attend and
Speaker 1: be at fundraisers and events in person in fingers crossed.
Speaker 1: That was Josh Wood, founder of the Event production fundraising
Speaker 1: organization j w P. And that wraps up the weekend
Speaker 1: edition of Bloomberg Business Week from Bloomberg Radio. Thanks so
Speaker 1: much for joining us. I'm Carol Masser. Be sure to
Speaker 1: tune in daily to Bloomberg Business Week Monday through Friday,
Speaker 1: starting at two pm Wall Street Time on Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 1: You can also hear more of our Bloomberg Business Week
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Speaker 1: to check out our Bloomberg Business Week Extra podcast. Johnny
Speaker 1: Philly on CEO of b n P Party by USA.
Speaker 1: We talked about the impact of COVID structural changes as
Speaker 1: a result and what visibility he has for one when
Speaker 1: it comes to the market and investment environment. We also
Speaker 1: talked about a Biden administration. Bloomberg Business Week It's available
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Speaker 1: Have a safe weekend, everyone, This is Bloomberg