Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Quick Takes Tim Stinovich on Bloomberg Radio. Well, our next
Speaker 1: guest in her team are on a mission to centralize
Speaker 1: the role of women as economic, environmental and social change
Speaker 1: makers who are creating a high growth future. I'm thinking
Speaker 1: she has some thoughts on how and what is I
Speaker 1: think safe to say, Mike Regan, still largely a man's world,
Speaker 1: how women can do it all better? Not my house.
Speaker 1: I've got three teenage girls, a wife five. It's being
Speaker 1: the dog. Are the only emails in the in the household,
Speaker 1: so you know, everything's local. I'm I'm I'm in a
Speaker 1: drowning in a women's world myself, and I wouldn't have
Speaker 1: it any other way. By the way, it sounds like
Speaker 1: my husband um patients. Merrimaid Ball is founder and CEO
Speaker 1: of Women of the World Endowment. It's a global endowment
Speaker 1: focused on gender lens investing. She currently leads the fixed
Speaker 1: income business with a current portfolio more than three billion dollars.
Speaker 1: She's got a new book out too, called The XX Edge,
Speaker 1: Unlocking Higher Returns and Lower Risk. The XX resembling really
Speaker 1: representing the two chromosomes, noting the female gender. So we
Speaker 1: do want to bring her and she joins us via
Speaker 1: zoom from Martha's Vineyard. UM patients, So great to have
Speaker 1: you here with Mike Reagan and myself. And I feel like,
Speaker 1: first of all, welcome, welcome. Uh. And in a world
Speaker 1: where we are talking about strains and resources, why or
Speaker 1: why do we continue to untap what is a great
Speaker 1: resource that I'm talking about women specifically? Fantastic Caroline, Mike,
Speaker 1: thank you very much for having me. This is an
Speaker 1: exciting time. Um. You know, the answer to that question
Speaker 1: is one that we work really hard to not in
Speaker 1: this book. The exexcit and locking higher in terms and
Speaker 1: law risk UM. Women approximate to challenges, and so there
Speaker 1: should approximate solutions driving those solutions that are going to
Speaker 1: get us out of a bunch of challenges that we're
Speaker 1: experiencing today, whether it's climate related challenges in UM, economic crisis, conflict, etcetera. Right, Um,
Speaker 1: And so it's a great question. I don't know that
Speaker 1: we have answers to that quite yet. Well, and I
Speaker 1: want to follow because you know, everyone knows who's listening
Speaker 1: and watching Bloomberg Business Week. Mike knows that there have
Speaker 1: been numerous studies, whether it's McKinsey and others that just
Speaker 1: talk about the importance of diversity overall, but women specifically,
Speaker 1: whether it's on boards and senior positions, financial performances from funds,
Speaker 1: so you know, in terms of companies. So why is it,
Speaker 1: you know, you know, why do we not when we
Speaker 1: know that things can be even just financially performance better,
Speaker 1: do we not embrace UM having more women involved? Yeah,
Speaker 1: and and Carol, the issue is actually more profound than
Speaker 1: than you've just stated. It's it's UM. So we know
Speaker 1: that nine eight percent of capital is that is under
Speaker 1: management today is managed by men. UM. Yet we also
Speaker 1: know that when you have gender diverse teams allocating capital
Speaker 1: or making any decision more likely to actually get out
Speaker 1: performance in profitability. You're likely to mitigate downside this better,
Speaker 1: You're likely to have UM your dollar doing more than
Speaker 1: one thing at any given time because women prioritize, yes,
Speaker 1: making financial returns that are really important, but also the
Speaker 1: opportunity to drive for other types of changes. And so
Speaker 1: to your point, um, why do we not see change? UM?
Speaker 1: I think that you know to be UM to get
Speaker 1: to a point where we're talking about current what has
Speaker 1: been happening in legislation currently, for instance, the Inflation Reduction
Speaker 1: Act UM, it's looking to solve inflationary problems that are
Speaker 1: leading to potential for recession, etcetera. But it's also looking
Speaker 1: to solve climate climate issues, climate related issues. And here
Speaker 1: we know that when women are in these decision making
Speaker 1: rooms UM, whether it's ceased with positions or on boards,
Speaker 1: we actually get better upcomes all around. Companies have better
Speaker 1: policies and standards to adea to UM, we have at
Speaker 1: our disclosures with better tracking UM, and we also have
Speaker 1: better performance. So it's it is interesting that with the
Speaker 1: numbers telling us that it is you are going to
Speaker 1: make more money and your reference to my Kinson report
Speaker 1: they did they did a study in which show that
Speaker 1: if we just if we had every every country in
Speaker 1: the study that they had of ninety countries just doing
Speaker 1: better to improve gender gender diversity in in decision making,
Speaker 1: the world could actually have a twenty five trillion dollar
Speaker 1: gained to global GDP and even their conservative studies pointed
Speaker 1: to twelve trillion dollar game. Yeah, I'll take that, but
Speaker 1: it's true though, I think you know, if you want
Speaker 1: to affect change in the world through the capital markets. Um,
Speaker 1: you have to go hand in hand with you know,
Speaker 1: positive change and uh something on the P and L
Speaker 1: state you know, good return turns uh to back it up.
Speaker 1: And so the focus a lot of times patients obviously
Speaker 1: goes to E s G. We're investing through a sort
Speaker 1: of environmental, social and governance lens. I think what's kind
Speaker 1: of alarming this year's we've seen a big backlash to
Speaker 1: that from a lot of politicians, you know, the quote
Speaker 1: unquote anti woke type of politicians. Do you think it's
Speaker 1: leaving a mark on the industry? Is Is there any
Speaker 1: damage being done to the notion of E s G
Speaker 1: from all this backlash we've seen so unfortunately not um, Well, unfortunately, yes,
Speaker 1: Uh there is a backlash and it is um resulting
Speaker 1: in some in some you know headwinds. But here's what
Speaker 1: I have to say, Uh, Nature, Mother nature is doing
Speaker 1: what it needs to do. We have fires in California,
Speaker 1: you know, floods in Australia, fires in Europe, etcetera. Nature
Speaker 1: is telling us that we need to do something. And
Speaker 1: E s G investing has a place and it is
Speaker 1: a place that can be both financial and impact related.
Speaker 1: All right, let's get back to our guest and continue
Speaker 1: our conversation. Still with us is Patience Marl Ball, founder
Speaker 1: and chief executive officer of the Women of the World Endowment.
Speaker 1: She's still with us via zoom from Martha's Vineyards. So, um, patients,
Speaker 1: one of the things I wonder is, you know, the
Speaker 1: role of women, Like, what do we lose by not
Speaker 1: doing so incorporating more women into our world in terms
Speaker 1: of growth, opportunity, political progress, climate change. I mean, some
Speaker 1: of the it's amazing. These are the things we talked
Speaker 1: to on a daily basis with so many of our guests.
Speaker 1: So what are we losing by not bringing more women
Speaker 1: into the fold? Um? So this is a really good question, Carol.
Speaker 1: And you know in the book that we just wrote,
Speaker 1: we looked at what it is that makes men and
Speaker 1: women different. They're not an equal unit of productivity and
Speaker 1: what are those things that are different? And it is
Speaker 1: one the long view. Women tend to prioritize the long
Speaker 1: view over short term gains. The tend to have collaborative
Speaker 1: leadership styles and tend to be more risk aware, and
Speaker 1: when it comes to the challenges that we're facing, they
Speaker 1: also tend to be more approximate to those challenges, and
Speaker 1: so that's an opportunity set that we're losing when we
Speaker 1: don't have them in decision making rooms, because that ability
Speaker 1: to see around the corners is just as needed as
Speaker 1: the ability to you know, to six short term gains,
Speaker 1: and what it leads to is really a loss in
Speaker 1: you know, our performance over time in terms of profitability,
Speaker 1: but also the ability to mitigate risk in a much
Speaker 1: more structured and thoughtful way. You know, patience. I was
Speaker 1: joking with Carol earlier. You know, when the notion of
Speaker 1: women leading in the future comes up. I have three daughters,
Speaker 1: so I say I'm on board completely. You know. My
Speaker 1: joke with them is always, I'll pay for your college
Speaker 1: as long as I get a room in your beach house.
Speaker 1: One day and I'm looking at you here on zoom,
Speaker 1: and i gotta say, you have a beauty full beach
Speaker 1: house up there in Bartha's vineyards. So if if, if
Speaker 1: you had a few minutes to talk to my daughters, uh,
Speaker 1: based on your twenty plus years, I believe of experience
Speaker 1: in capital markets UM in a very competitive male dominated field.
Speaker 1: I know my one daughter is thinking about majoring in
Speaker 1: finance and maybe getting into the industry. What's the secret
Speaker 1: to success for a woman, you know, especially one coming
Speaker 1: of age in this sort of crazy world we live
Speaker 1: in right now? How do you get there? How do
Speaker 1: you maintain and succeed and do it in the right
Speaker 1: way with a clear conscience. Yeah, so so, Mike, The
Speaker 1: first thing that I would actually say is is a
Speaker 1: conversation with you, and then I would have a conversation
Speaker 1: with your Daughter's conversation with you would go like this,
Speaker 1: that you know, the way that you believe your daughters
Speaker 1: are rock stars in at home, whether it's your wife, um,
Speaker 1: and the fact that you're very comfortable with the decisions
Speaker 1: being made by them and you following you. You know,
Speaker 1: we need to have men taking that into the workplace.
Speaker 1: It is incredibly interesting how men are very comfortable with
Speaker 1: women taking over all kinds of things in one realm
Speaker 1: of their lives, but not as comfortable in another realm
Speaker 1: and in the workplace. That is, and and that's part
Speaker 1: of the opportunity that the world loses. You know that
Speaker 1: your your daughter has all the traits that I just
Speaker 1: um elaborated on long view collaborative way of working, she's
Speaker 1: more risk away, etcetera. Why would you know a business
Speaker 1: not want that in the room. And to your daughter,
Speaker 1: I would say that if she wants to come into
Speaker 1: financial markets, you know I've been in it for more
Speaker 1: more than twenty five years, and you know I'm now
Speaker 1: in my fifties. The world is so much better today,
Speaker 1: and where we need to be in capital markets is
Speaker 1: to create spaces where we're not just sticking boxes. So
Speaker 1: we have this many women come in and and we
Speaker 1: take that box, but really be very intentional about what
Speaker 1: seats we're putting them in and what we The key
Speaker 1: to make, you know our book, the ex extedge is
Speaker 1: that when you put them in acid allocation seats, when
Speaker 1: you put them in those decisions making seats, you actually
Speaker 1: are going to have our performance and over time greater
Speaker 1: economic pie for every for everybody. That's what you That's
Speaker 1: the magic that your daughter will bring to whatever company
Speaker 1: she ends up joining. Patients gotta be quick twenty five seconds.
Speaker 1: Investment dollars always find their way to opportunity and pay off.
Speaker 1: If women are such great bets, why aren't more women
Speaker 1: in positions of power, managing money, running companies, etcetera. And
Speaker 1: forgive me because we do only have about twenty seconds.
Speaker 1: So Carol, when they do, we see our performance period, right,
Speaker 1: the likely wood for better profitability that I talked about
Speaker 1: in the beginning. So the question is why they're not.
Speaker 1: I think it's because nine percent of capital is being
Speaker 1: managed by men who have a specific world view, the
Speaker 1: specific live journey. And I'm not blaming them, it's it's
Speaker 1: their lives, it's their live journey, and so they will
Speaker 1: allocate capital to the things that you know, speak to
Speaker 1: them based on their lead journeys. That's why we need
Speaker 1: to to to equalize or diversify those seats. Come back
Speaker 1: soon and we'll talk more and continue patients. Marama Ball,
Speaker 1: founder and CEO of Women of the World Endowment. Check
Speaker 1: out her new book as well.