WEBVTT - Bloomberg Businessweek Weekend-December 25, 2020 0:00:00.880 --> 0:00:06.200 This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser from Bloomberg Radio. Hi, 0:00:06.280 --> 0:00:08.920 I'm Carol Masser. Welcome to the weekend edition of Bloomberg 0:00:08.920 --> 0:00:12.200 Business Week. Happy holidays everyone. It was week forty one, 0:00:12.240 --> 0:00:15.159 working from home still for many a holiday short and 0:00:15.240 --> 0:00:18.040 trading week, and one where we saw a new COVID 0:00:18.079 --> 0:00:21.120 nineteen strain and that much talked about long dark winter 0:00:21.480 --> 0:00:25.840 it was upon us COVID nineteen understandably dominating our conversations. 0:00:25.840 --> 0:00:27.920 With that in mind, we checked in with the president 0:00:27.960 --> 0:00:30.640 of Morehouse School of Medicine on the virus and boosting 0:00:30.640 --> 0:00:34.120 black physicians nationwide. Also the president of sam Sunite North 0:00:34.120 --> 0:00:38.280 America on surviving when no one was traveling and those 0:00:38.320 --> 0:00:41.240 animals spirits running wild across Wall Street in the form 0:00:41.280 --> 0:00:43.640 of I p O s and spacks. We catch up 0:00:43.640 --> 0:00:46.239 with someone who has taken several big companies public, Yes, 0:00:46.360 --> 0:00:49.960 Steve cake Bread. He weighs in on that frenzy. We begin, though, 0:00:50.000 --> 0:00:52.680 with this week's cover story. It is a story about 0:00:52.720 --> 0:00:55.480 how in a year of so many wrongs and wrongdoings, 0:00:55.720 --> 0:00:58.760 there is one thing that went really really right this year. 0:00:59.160 --> 0:01:02.960 That story by Bomberg News US Healthcare team leader Drew Armstrong, who, 0:01:03.040 --> 0:01:05.640 along with Bloomberg Business Week editor Joe Weber, talked with 0:01:05.640 --> 0:01:09.760 Bloomberg Quicktake anchor Tim Stanovic and me, congratulations to Drew 0:01:10.520 --> 0:01:12.640 on his first cover story. It turns out, which is 0:01:12.720 --> 0:01:17.280 which is which is great for him? Um. So so yeah, 0:01:17.400 --> 0:01:21.399 you know, so much has just gone terribly terribly wrong 0:01:21.480 --> 0:01:24.360 this year, and I think we all recognize that, and 0:01:24.640 --> 0:01:26.520 this is our good business issue. And it was a 0:01:26.600 --> 0:01:30.080 chance to actually reflect on on a few things that 0:01:30.120 --> 0:01:34.480 actually were remarkable. Um and not least which is what 0:01:34.520 --> 0:01:39.720 the vaccine represents, which is this herculean undertaking. Um that 0:01:39.840 --> 0:01:43.880 was you know, coordinated from multiple places. I mean, you 0:01:43.959 --> 0:01:48.480 had government doing something very right in this regard, but 0:01:48.680 --> 0:01:51.880 also you know scientists who were basically doing their job 0:01:51.920 --> 0:01:56.120 and doing it doing it really fast. Um. And and 0:01:56.160 --> 0:01:57.880 that was sort of what we turned to Drew about 0:01:57.920 --> 0:02:00.080 and said, by the way, let's just step back and 0:02:00.240 --> 0:02:03.720 like marvel at what was just achieved here. We had 0:02:03.760 --> 0:02:07.400 never seen a vaccine, uh come to fruition this fast? 0:02:07.440 --> 0:02:10.520 Can you help us kind of put a bowl around that? 0:02:10.600 --> 0:02:14.680 And um, ultimately that bow looked like dry ice, uh 0:02:15.040 --> 0:02:17.800 with a little vile of liquid, and you know, no 0:02:18.040 --> 0:02:22.680 it is not real uh real real vaccine juice, but 0:02:22.840 --> 0:02:25.840 miracle on ice was the cover line, and Drew, we 0:02:25.880 --> 0:02:28.120 did try, we did, we did try to get the 0:02:28.160 --> 0:02:31.359 real bottle it right, Drew. Yeah, I mean we were, 0:02:31.440 --> 0:02:34.080 i know, calling around the evening before the photo shoot 0:02:34.120 --> 0:02:36.480 seeing if anybody would give us a empty to be 0:02:36.560 --> 0:02:41.680 clear um bottle of Fiser's vaccine, which is which was 0:02:42.000 --> 0:02:46.519 being used most most heavily um to time. But unfortunately, 0:02:47.080 --> 0:02:49.600 no luck on that. Kind of glad they didn't, because 0:02:49.639 --> 0:02:51.720 I'm hoping they're using the vial for the vaccine. Just 0:02:51.760 --> 0:02:55.960 gonna put it out there, guys, So so tell us 0:02:56.000 --> 0:02:59.120 about that. This story is remarkable because one of the 0:02:59.200 --> 0:03:01.480 big things that you point out true is that the 0:03:01.639 --> 0:03:05.160 science was there. We were very lucky that the M 0:03:05.240 --> 0:03:08.560 and R messenger RNA science was already in the works 0:03:08.760 --> 0:03:13.000 for several years. Yeah. This is a technology that has 0:03:13.040 --> 0:03:16.280 been kind of kicking around in the biopharmaceutical world for 0:03:16.400 --> 0:03:18.560 a number of years, and people have always thought it 0:03:18.680 --> 0:03:22.760 held a tremendous amount of promise. You know, essentially turns 0:03:22.800 --> 0:03:26.840 the ideas that it turns cells into little protein factories 0:03:26.880 --> 0:03:28.000 and so you can kind of turn them into a 0:03:28.000 --> 0:03:32.400 little mini drug manufacturers themselves, which is great theoretically, but 0:03:32.840 --> 0:03:37.520 it hadn't really delivered in a big, big, big way 0:03:37.840 --> 0:03:41.600 UM yet. Maderna is probably the the most out in 0:03:41.680 --> 0:03:44.800 front company with this. But there has long been this 0:03:44.880 --> 0:03:48.360 idea that you know, you could use it to rapidly 0:03:48.840 --> 0:03:52.680 make um vaccines in the pandemic because of the speed 0:03:52.760 --> 0:03:56.200 with which you can design and begin producing these things. 0:03:56.200 --> 0:03:58.880 A lot of flu vaccines that people don't notice they're 0:03:58.920 --> 0:04:02.480 such a grown inside eggs um it is, and it 0:04:02.520 --> 0:04:05.480 can take quite a long time to actually develop and 0:04:05.520 --> 0:04:08.960 test the things. But you know, the MR and A vaccines, 0:04:09.320 --> 0:04:12.040 they were designed in just a couple of days after 0:04:12.640 --> 0:04:15.760 Maderna and the ni H got a copy of the 0:04:15.840 --> 0:04:20.000 virus is genetics um from downloaded from from China. So 0:04:20.320 --> 0:04:24.080 it's remarkable how fast um this can happen in this technology, 0:04:24.600 --> 0:04:27.760 getting things out front as quickly as did. I was 0:04:27.839 --> 0:04:30.320 shocked to read that Drew that it took only a 0:04:30.360 --> 0:04:33.240 couple of days. So where is the when it comes 0:04:33.240 --> 0:04:36.440 to vaccine development? Where where does the time hiccup? Is 0:04:36.440 --> 0:04:38.599 it the clinical testing? Is it the is it the 0:04:39.080 --> 0:04:43.040 is it the actual manufacturing of it? Where's the bottleneck? Yeah? 0:04:43.080 --> 0:04:44.960 That's a great question. And this is something I actually 0:04:44.960 --> 0:04:48.160 had a wonderful conversation with Health and Human Services Secretary 0:04:48.200 --> 0:04:51.440 alex As Are about. He's a former Eli Lowy executive 0:04:52.000 --> 0:04:54.080 who worked there in the in the drug industry for 0:04:54.120 --> 0:04:57.200 a long time. And one of the things that we 0:04:57.240 --> 0:04:59.200 talked about in our discussion, and this is comments throughout 0:04:59.240 --> 0:05:02.039 the pharmaceutical ins reason when you're looking at laying out 0:05:02.160 --> 0:05:05.320 hundreds of millions of top dollars or eventually billions of 0:05:05.360 --> 0:05:09.120 dollars potentially to bring a drug or a vaccine through trials, 0:05:09.480 --> 0:05:11.760 you know, you don't do everything at once. You do 0:05:11.839 --> 0:05:14.640 the initial pre clinical work, and then you pause and 0:05:14.640 --> 0:05:16.360 you look at the results, and you say, okay, let's 0:05:16.360 --> 0:05:18.000 go ahead to the phase one. And then you do 0:05:18.080 --> 0:05:19.800 that work, and then you pause and you go ahead 0:05:20.000 --> 0:05:21.600 and you say okay, let's go ahead of phase two. 0:05:21.839 --> 0:05:23.360 And you know, so on and so forth up through 0:05:23.360 --> 0:05:25.880 clinical trials, and then you need to start thinking about, okay, 0:05:26.040 --> 0:05:28.040 we need to build manufacturing. How much do we need 0:05:28.080 --> 0:05:30.640 to build? This is a long process with a lot 0:05:30.680 --> 0:05:34.640 of consecutive steps. What happened with ward Speed was essentially 0:05:34.640 --> 0:05:37.400 it took all of those and compressed them all down 0:05:37.480 --> 0:05:40.680 kind of into one big race from the word go, 0:05:41.400 --> 0:05:43.880 and it said, Okay, we're gonna build manufacturing at the 0:05:43.880 --> 0:05:45.880 same time, we're going to run the phase three you know, 0:05:45.880 --> 0:05:47.840 Phase two and phase through trials. We're gonna arrange for 0:05:48.000 --> 0:05:52.160 pre purchased deals for these things, basically compressing steps that 0:05:52.240 --> 0:05:54.560 typically would take years and years and years to be 0:05:54.680 --> 0:05:57.680 due partly because of the risk and high chance of 0:05:57.760 --> 0:06:01.119 failure involved with drug development, saying do it all at once, 0:06:01.360 --> 0:06:03.560 that will put a bunch on the line here. Um, 0:06:03.640 --> 0:06:06.000 you know, most of the drug companies involved were part 0:06:06.040 --> 0:06:08.599 of that program Operation war Speed to do that. Feiser 0:06:08.839 --> 0:06:12.239 was not technically but did very similar work in terms 0:06:12.240 --> 0:06:15.560 of compressing its timelines and was still first across the line. 0:06:15.600 --> 0:06:19.360 Here the Miracle on Ice, that is the COVID nineteen vaccines. 0:06:19.440 --> 0:06:22.400 That story from Bloomberg News US Healthcare team leader Drew Armstrong, 0:06:22.440 --> 0:06:25.480 who has kept us so informed during this health pandemic, 0:06:25.760 --> 0:06:28.680 and also Bloomberg Business Week editor Joe Weber. They joined 0:06:28.680 --> 0:06:31.440 Bloomberg Quick Take anchor Tim Stanovic and me. Check out 0:06:31.480 --> 0:06:34.840 that cover story and the cover image so cool literally 0:06:34.880 --> 0:06:38.240 and figuratively. It's on newsstands, online and on the Bloomberg 0:06:38.320 --> 0:06:41.880 terminal coming up. When your turn comes up, we want 0:06:41.960 --> 0:06:46.440 people to actually be ready to accept the vaccine. Success 0:06:46.440 --> 0:06:49.240 in getting a vaccine check, success in getting everyone to 0:06:49.279 --> 0:06:52.200 take it not so easy. The president of Morehouse School 0:06:52.200 --> 0:06:55.760 of Medicine weighs in, that's next on Bloomberg Business Week. 0:06:55.920 --> 0:07:03.520 This is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg Business Week with Garrol 0:07:03.560 --> 0:07:06.680 Mazer from Bloomberg Radio. This was a week that we 0:07:06.720 --> 0:07:09.039 talked about a new COVID nineteen strain. We had some 0:07:09.160 --> 0:07:11.240 U S States reporting the highest number of deaths from 0:07:11.240 --> 0:07:14.480 COVID since the summer travel bands were back, and the U. S. 0:07:14.520 --> 0:07:18.600 Government's top infectious disease doctor Anthony Faucci, got the vaccine 0:07:18.600 --> 0:07:20.680 as part of an effort by health officials to build 0:07:20.760 --> 0:07:23.480 confidence in the shots. In keeping with all of that, 0:07:23.720 --> 0:07:26.840 Bloomberg Quicktake anchor Tim Stenovick and I talked with Dr 0:07:26.960 --> 0:07:29.960 Valerie Montgomery Rice. She's president and dean of Morehouse School 0:07:29.960 --> 0:07:33.040 of Medicine, the first woman to lead the Atlanta based 0:07:33.040 --> 0:07:36.440 medical institution, who is also leading a new multimillion dollar 0:07:36.520 --> 0:07:40.080 initiative to increase the number of black physicians nationwide. It's 0:07:40.080 --> 0:07:42.560 a move important to getting care out to the underserved 0:07:42.560 --> 0:07:45.000 black communities. She kicked it all off though with an 0:07:45.000 --> 0:07:47.760 important reminder, Well, first of all I want to say, 0:07:47.880 --> 0:07:50.880 I'm glad you're having this conversation is that, first of all, 0:07:50.880 --> 0:07:53.600 the vaccine is not gonna it's not going to take 0:07:53.640 --> 0:07:55.640 care of everything for us, that we still have to 0:07:55.680 --> 0:07:59.600 continue these public health initiatives of washing our hands, wearing 0:07:59.600 --> 0:08:02.960 our man ask and watching our distance. With that being said, 0:08:03.080 --> 0:08:06.040 I am trying to move the conversation from one of 0:08:06.200 --> 0:08:12.000 vaccine hesitancy of vaccine acceptance. What we've seen is um 0:08:12.240 --> 0:08:15.360 science at great work here. We know that we now 0:08:15.480 --> 0:08:18.880 have something that has been shown to be ninety four 0:08:20.200 --> 0:08:24.160 effective in preventing the disease. That doesn't mean you don't 0:08:24.160 --> 0:08:26.520 get infected. What it means that when you have the 0:08:26.600 --> 0:08:29.600 vaccine in place, it is going to come. It's gonna 0:08:29.680 --> 0:08:32.400 produce antibodies that are going to gobble up that virus 0:08:32.600 --> 0:08:35.440 so that you will not get ill. And so we 0:08:35.559 --> 0:08:38.040 still have more to know, but what we really do 0:08:38.120 --> 0:08:40.400 know is that it's safe and it's been shown to 0:08:40.400 --> 0:08:43.439 be very effective at at so when your turn comes up, 0:08:43.960 --> 0:08:48.360 we want people to actually be ready to accept the vaccine, 0:08:49.080 --> 0:08:51.800 because that is one of the ways that we can 0:08:51.840 --> 0:08:56.200 mitigate the ravishes of this disease, of this illness, of 0:08:56.280 --> 0:09:00.240 this sickness that has really taken over our country right now. Well, 0:09:00.360 --> 0:09:02.480 Dr Rice, you are one of the very few people 0:09:02.520 --> 0:09:04.640 who actually has been able to get the first dose 0:09:04.880 --> 0:09:08.000 of this vaccine. You got it last week on CNN 0:09:08.040 --> 0:09:10.880 with Dr Sanjay Gupta. Um, I imagine you get the 0:09:10.880 --> 0:09:14.400 fiser BioNTech one. Yes, I got the fiser one. And 0:09:14.600 --> 0:09:16.920 I'm a person who, even though I'm a surgeon, I 0:09:16.960 --> 0:09:19.960 don't like needles. It was joined the club. I'm not 0:09:20.000 --> 0:09:23.320 a surgeon, but I don't like needles. It wasn't painful 0:09:23.360 --> 0:09:26.120 at all. It's you all. It was less painful than 0:09:26.160 --> 0:09:29.000 the flu back. Okay, what about How did it feel afterwards? 0:09:29.400 --> 0:09:32.480 Totally fine? And so you know, you go on to 0:09:32.520 --> 0:09:35.920 sign up for this app and called v tech of 0:09:36.600 --> 0:09:38.760 v safe, be Safe, that's what it is. And every 0:09:38.840 --> 0:09:42.160 day I've been answering questions. I had a little bit 0:09:42.200 --> 0:09:45.240 of arm sotleness. I haven't had any headaches and a nausea, 0:09:45.520 --> 0:09:48.959 any fatigue or anything, and so I felt really good. 0:09:49.320 --> 0:09:51.160 That's good to hear because even after the flu shot, 0:09:51.200 --> 0:09:54.440 I get a sore arm. Was it cold going in 0:09:54.720 --> 0:09:57.280 a bit of a sore arm? But it wasn't. It's 0:09:57.280 --> 0:09:59.400 not a sore to me as as it is when 0:09:59.400 --> 0:10:01.240 I have the flu acting I get the blue vaccine 0:10:01.400 --> 0:10:03.839 every year. Of course, I felt nothing. I mean I 0:10:03.880 --> 0:10:05.720 was like when you saw it on there, I was like, okay, 0:10:05.760 --> 0:10:08.560 that's it. I was expecting a lot more. I think 0:10:08.559 --> 0:10:11.640 the needle is bigger than the solution. Yeah, the needle 0:10:11.760 --> 0:10:13.880 is kind of I'm gonna look away. I'm gonna look away, 0:10:13.880 --> 0:10:16.719 to be honest, No, don't look okay. And and it's 0:10:17.160 --> 0:10:19.640 doctor's orders, okay, Caro. I mean, you know, go with 0:10:19.720 --> 0:10:21.760 someone who knows how to give a shot, right, so 0:10:22.080 --> 0:10:24.280 people like, okay, have you given a shot before? You don't? 0:10:24.280 --> 0:10:26.240 We want to make sure of that. But no serious 0:10:26.280 --> 0:10:29.440 and all seriousness. Here is an opportunity to you all. 0:10:29.480 --> 0:10:32.640 And I know people get concerned about warp speed. You know, 0:10:32.840 --> 0:10:36.439 warp speed does not mean that there were any steps skipped. 0:10:36.679 --> 0:10:39.040 And I've had the privilege you all of looking at 0:10:39.080 --> 0:10:42.400 the data pay zero, phase one, Phase two, phase three 0:10:42.480 --> 0:10:44.240 data because I was on one of the I'm on 0:10:44.240 --> 0:10:47.320 one of the NIH panels and we've seen that data. 0:10:47.760 --> 0:10:50.959 And now that Madonna and Buyser have both released their 0:10:50.960 --> 0:10:54.400 Phase three data. I've looked very intentionally at that, and 0:10:54.440 --> 0:10:56.960 so I can tell you to safety profile, it really 0:10:56.960 --> 0:11:00.480 did show that it was equally effective regardless of your race, 0:11:00.600 --> 0:11:04.319 regardless of your gender, regardless of your age, and regardless 0:11:04.320 --> 0:11:06.800 of whether or not you were obedient. And that made 0:11:06.800 --> 0:11:09.080 a big difference to me to saying, Okay, they really 0:11:09.120 --> 0:11:12.560 did have great enrollment of people in the diversity in 0:11:12.600 --> 0:11:15.680 these trials. I am curious, what are some of the 0:11:15.720 --> 0:11:19.240 dominant conversations you're having at more House. You know about 0:11:19.600 --> 0:11:23.719 COVID nineteen right now. Yeah, so the main dominant conversation were, 0:11:23.880 --> 0:11:26.679 you know, we did have originally of our doctors or 0:11:26.760 --> 0:11:30.680 healthcare providers who were healthtant. That has decreased. We probably 0:11:30.720 --> 0:11:34.560 haven't vaccinated over two hundred people now two hundred of 0:11:34.559 --> 0:11:38.800 our healthcare professionals. So that's been the biggest conversation. Okay, yes, 0:11:38.920 --> 0:11:42.240 we have the historical context of what has happened with 0:11:42.360 --> 0:11:45.240 blacks and clinical trials, et cetera, but that's not where 0:11:45.280 --> 0:11:47.640 we are now. You are we had a different phase 0:11:47.679 --> 0:11:50.720 in this country. Dr Rice, you shared with us and 0:11:50.760 --> 0:11:53.680 your team shared us. Uh, some research and some information 0:11:53.720 --> 0:11:56.680 about how studies showed that black patients have better outcomes 0:11:56.679 --> 0:12:00.040 when treated by black doctors. Um, I get that. I 0:12:00.080 --> 0:12:02.520 have a lot of women doctors because I just feel 0:12:02.559 --> 0:12:06.600 more comfortable addressing things and talking about things. So you 0:12:06.640 --> 0:12:10.160 guys at Morehouse have instituted a program to address that, 0:12:10.320 --> 0:12:13.400 and that is a multimillion dollar initiative to increase the 0:12:13.480 --> 0:12:16.680 number of black physicians nationwide. Talk to us about that 0:12:16.760 --> 0:12:18.680 program and why you're doing a little bit more about 0:12:18.720 --> 0:12:21.360 why you're doing that. Thank you, Thank you, Carol. So 0:12:21.520 --> 0:12:25.480 you know, the dual pandemics of COVID nineteen and racial 0:12:25.520 --> 0:12:28.920 injustice really magnified for us sort of the health disparities 0:12:28.960 --> 0:12:31.800 that were impact in the black community. And what we 0:12:31.920 --> 0:12:35.360 recognized a long time ago when we were founded that 0:12:35.440 --> 0:12:38.520 in order to ensure that you have the highest level 0:12:38.559 --> 0:12:41.679 of compliance and cultural competence, there needs to be a 0:12:41.800 --> 0:12:45.520 share of governance between the patient and the provider, right 0:12:45.920 --> 0:12:48.679 and so we have been working to ensure that there's 0:12:48.760 --> 0:12:54.439 representation of underrepresented minorities who care for patients from different communities. 0:12:54.880 --> 0:12:58.200 Right now, black clinicians only comprised about five percent of 0:12:58.240 --> 0:13:02.040 the physician workforce and seven percent of all medical students. 0:13:02.480 --> 0:13:06.080 As we have been continuing to grow and have impact, 0:13:06.080 --> 0:13:09.319 more Health School of Medicine is partnering with Common Spirit. 0:13:09.480 --> 0:13:12.680 We recognize we have to share commitment to the creation 0:13:12.720 --> 0:13:16.920 and advancement of health equity, particularly in that of underserved communities. 0:13:16.920 --> 0:13:19.760 As you may know, Common Spirit is the largest not 0:13:19.840 --> 0:13:22.880 for profit health system in the country. They're found in 0:13:22.920 --> 0:13:26.000 twenty one states. They have over a hundred and forty hospitals. 0:13:26.280 --> 0:13:29.480 And because of this shared commitment, we have decided to 0:13:29.559 --> 0:13:32.920 partner together over the next ten years through a hundred 0:13:32.920 --> 0:13:38.319 million dollar initiatives when we're gonna address the underlying health disparities, 0:13:38.600 --> 0:13:41.800 but that is going to primarily focus initially on the 0:13:41.920 --> 0:13:45.960 underrepresentation of black conditions. So when you look five to 0:13:46.000 --> 0:13:49.000 seven years from now, you're gonna see five new regional 0:13:49.040 --> 0:13:52.200 medical schools with More Health School of Medicine and Common 0:13:52.240 --> 0:13:55.600 Spirit name on them, allowing More Health School of Medicine 0:13:55.600 --> 0:13:59.040 to double its class sides from a hundred to two hundreds. 0:13:59.400 --> 0:14:03.200 And then you going to see ten new residency training 0:14:03.280 --> 0:14:07.280 programs across the country. So we believe we're gonna triple 0:14:07.520 --> 0:14:11.160 the number of Black residents who graduate from a residency 0:14:11.200 --> 0:14:14.360 training program and go out and practice in the community. 0:14:14.520 --> 0:14:16.920 So the other great thing that Morehouse School Investiment has 0:14:16.960 --> 0:14:20.280 a lot of experience with this pipeline programs, right, So 0:14:20.360 --> 0:14:24.080 we adopted an elementary school here in Atlanta called a 0:14:24.160 --> 0:14:27.400 Sega Airmand Global Academy a Kate through five. Now, all 0:14:27.480 --> 0:14:30.160 we're trying to do there with those six D students 0:14:30.560 --> 0:14:32.840 is engaged them so they get to see us in 0:14:32.880 --> 0:14:35.000 a white coats they did to come to the school, 0:14:35.080 --> 0:14:38.920 et cetera. We're planting the seeds strong people. Pipelines so 0:14:38.920 --> 0:14:42.800 important in creating more diversity and equality throughout institutions, companies, 0:14:42.840 --> 0:14:46.320 and really our world overall. That's Dr Valerie Montgomery Rice, 0:14:46.320 --> 0:14:49.200 President Dean of Morehouse School of Medicine, talking with Bloomberg 0:14:49.280 --> 0:14:51.360 Quick Take anchor Tim stant of k n ME that 0:14:51.440 --> 0:14:55.040 full conversation on our podcast feed. You're listening to Bloomberg 0:14:55.040 --> 0:14:57.400 Business Week coming up. What do you do when your 0:14:57.440 --> 0:15:00.320 business is all about travel in a health pen emic, 0:15:00.560 --> 0:15:03.240 you get packing on some new ideas to reach consumers. 0:15:03.400 --> 0:15:06.440 The president of Samsonite North America fills us in This 0:15:06.560 --> 0:15:11.280 is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer 0:15:11.560 --> 0:15:15.640 from Bloomberg radio, the hospitality industry and just about all 0:15:15.640 --> 0:15:18.480 of the companies associated with it have witnessed and are 0:15:18.520 --> 0:15:21.560 still living through a shutdown like they've never seen before. 0:15:22.040 --> 0:15:24.640 And any company associated with travel, well, they felt the 0:15:24.680 --> 0:15:28.680 downturn equally, like luggage maker Samsonite, who, as many other 0:15:28.720 --> 0:15:31.520 companies did during the pandemic, had to first cope with 0:15:31.560 --> 0:15:35.160 the unprecedented. More on that from Lynn Berard, president at 0:15:35.160 --> 0:15:38.160 Samsonite North America. As it has been for everyone, it 0:15:38.240 --> 0:15:42.680 has certainly been a unexpected and quite busy, challenging year 0:15:42.800 --> 0:15:46.640 since March, one year that has been in the industry 0:15:46.720 --> 0:15:50.720 for twenty seven years and certainly has not experienced anything 0:15:50.760 --> 0:15:55.640 like it. But we immediately upon the pandemic hitting in March, 0:15:56.040 --> 0:15:58.480 we had started to hear some sense of that from 0:15:58.480 --> 0:16:01.320 our team in China, so we got a little bit 0:16:01.320 --> 0:16:04.480 of a headstart from our colleagues about what was happening 0:16:04.480 --> 0:16:07.720 in China. So we did immediately have to pivot, and 0:16:07.960 --> 0:16:11.200 at the very started pandemic, we really focused on our 0:16:11.240 --> 0:16:14.440 people just to make sure that everyone was safe and 0:16:14.560 --> 0:16:18.640 certainly thankful that our employees are healthy and well um, 0:16:18.680 --> 0:16:20.880 but we did have to make some strategic shifts within 0:16:20.920 --> 0:16:24.720 the business. Uh. Certainly number one priority was to really 0:16:24.880 --> 0:16:28.760 relok at our structure, knowing that there was a slowdown 0:16:28.840 --> 0:16:32.480 and ultimately pretty much a virtual stop to travel UM 0:16:32.520 --> 0:16:35.120 as a global company, we are extremely fortunate to have 0:16:35.280 --> 0:16:38.680 our CEO, Kyle Jendro, who was previously our former global 0:16:38.720 --> 0:16:42.720 CFO for many years, leading us through, so him along 0:16:42.760 --> 0:16:45.720 with our current CFO, as a TELEGANI really worked hard 0:16:45.760 --> 0:16:49.520 to ensure that we secured the financial liquidity to whether 0:16:49.600 --> 0:16:52.760 the storm, and then regionally, it was really up to 0:16:52.840 --> 0:16:55.640 us to manage the regions and very fortunate to have 0:16:55.680 --> 0:16:57.600 a very strong leadership team, but we did have to 0:16:57.640 --> 0:17:00.120 make sure that we looked at our cost structure and 0:17:00.160 --> 0:17:03.760 reevaluate the business to set us up for a very 0:17:03.760 --> 0:17:07.560 strong and stable future. And I'm very glad to report 0:17:07.640 --> 0:17:10.000 that we are all extremely confident and that we have 0:17:10.080 --> 0:17:12.439 set ourselves up in a strong position to get us 0:17:12.480 --> 0:17:14.760 to the other side. At the same time we were 0:17:14.800 --> 0:17:17.240 doing that, we certainly didn't want to lose sight of 0:17:17.280 --> 0:17:21.280 our consumers and recognizing that they had shifted more to 0:17:21.359 --> 0:17:24.480 an at home environment and weren't traveling, we still wanted 0:17:24.520 --> 0:17:27.080 to be along the journey with them, so we found 0:17:27.080 --> 0:17:30.639 ways to communicate them with them digitally, um in more 0:17:30.720 --> 0:17:34.200 unexpected ways, showing them how to exercise with luggage products. 0:17:34.600 --> 0:17:37.240 We made some products. Can I just say that is 0:17:37.320 --> 0:17:40.480 just I can only imagine the virtual planning meeting lane 0:17:40.480 --> 0:17:44.640 where it's like, alright, guys, listen, nobody's traveling. That's our business, 0:17:44.720 --> 0:17:48.480 so what do we do? But how clever that someone's like, hey, 0:17:48.640 --> 0:17:50.280 like and it's a great idea. I mean, I think 0:17:50.320 --> 0:17:53.399 all of us who those who couldn't maybe afford to 0:17:53.400 --> 0:17:55.520 buy a peloton or something else, we're like, all right, 0:17:55.520 --> 0:17:57.440 I'm looking around home. What can I use at home 0:17:57.440 --> 0:17:59.720 to work out? Absolutely? And there was a shortage and 0:17:59.760 --> 0:18:02.080 buying some weights, so a lot of those paces and 0:18:02.119 --> 0:18:05.480 start lifting right, So we did find creative ways to 0:18:05.520 --> 0:18:09.800 pivot around there. And then after that transformed, we actually 0:18:09.800 --> 0:18:12.240 did start to see as we approached the summer months 0:18:12.240 --> 0:18:14.280 into the fall that there was a shift to some 0:18:14.359 --> 0:18:18.199 more smaller localized movement around. And we are fortunate to 0:18:18.240 --> 0:18:21.520 have a broad protfolio products. So are Gregory packs, um 0:18:21.600 --> 0:18:24.440 you know, the mountain hiking and people are buying into 0:18:24.440 --> 0:18:29.399 those packs, so that business was not as um tough 0:18:29.520 --> 0:18:33.320 as they travel suitcases happened to be UM and really 0:18:33.320 --> 0:18:36.520 began to focus on ways that we could help consumers, 0:18:36.600 --> 0:18:39.760 even bags and backpacks. We also owned spec and we 0:18:39.840 --> 0:18:44.160 saw an increase in tablet cases as consumers were shifting 0:18:44.200 --> 0:18:47.400 to working from home and saw a big spike in those. 0:18:47.520 --> 0:18:51.639 We really just shifted into providing consumers and marketing to 0:18:52.040 --> 0:18:55.359 our consumers with products that they would need in the 0:18:55.400 --> 0:18:58.160 new environment. How easy there wasn't to shift in terms 0:18:58.160 --> 0:19:01.080 of either marketing. I mean I've talked to a fair 0:19:01.119 --> 0:19:03.800 amount of cmos at some well known brands too, and 0:19:03.840 --> 0:19:05.760 they just were like, you know, all of a sudden, 0:19:05.800 --> 0:19:08.440 it was like, all right, this advertising campaign just doesn't 0:19:08.440 --> 0:19:11.000 work anymore, and we have to quickly shift and things 0:19:11.000 --> 0:19:14.480 that would normally take months. That's exactly a hundred percent correct. 0:19:14.480 --> 0:19:16.439 I think everybody had to adapt on a dime, and 0:19:16.480 --> 0:19:19.159 we all rotated quickly, and we were monitoring sales on 0:19:19.160 --> 0:19:22.199 a daily basis. One of the fortunate benefits of e 0:19:22.240 --> 0:19:25.199 commerce and digital as well as you can see by 0:19:25.280 --> 0:19:27.639 minute what you're selling, so we were able to pivot 0:19:27.720 --> 0:19:30.760 very quickly. We have a very versatile team UM throughout 0:19:30.760 --> 0:19:33.520 the region, and we were able to really leverage all 0:19:33.560 --> 0:19:35.639 of those insights that we had to make sure that 0:19:35.760 --> 0:19:38.399 we were capitalizing where we could help help consumers and 0:19:38.400 --> 0:19:41.360 travelers out there. So, Lynna, are there any consumer trends 0:19:41.400 --> 0:19:45.600 because we've talked to the CEO of Whirlpool and some others, uh, 0:19:45.640 --> 0:19:47.720 and I was talking to another one on the phone 0:19:48.160 --> 0:19:50.439 and just saying how some of the consumer trends that 0:19:50.480 --> 0:19:55.159 we're seeing this year, especially consumer patterns that stay with 0:19:55.200 --> 0:19:58.080 you for seven, eight, nine months, they don't go away 0:19:58.720 --> 0:20:01.439 quickly or may not at Are there consumer trends that 0:20:01.480 --> 0:20:05.520 you're seeing that you think might impact how you guys? 0:20:05.920 --> 0:20:08.040 I don't know your composition of your product line or 0:20:08.040 --> 0:20:09.639 how you sell. Is there anything that might have a 0:20:09.680 --> 0:20:12.920 longer term impact in terms of strategy? Yeah? Absolutely so. 0:20:13.000 --> 0:20:15.959 Sam sknite has historically been known for a suitcase travel 0:20:16.480 --> 0:20:20.119 UH provider, but we have over the years developed a 0:20:20.160 --> 0:20:23.280 strong assortment of bags and accessories and we have seen 0:20:23.359 --> 0:20:26.800 a significant uptick in those products during this downturn and 0:20:26.800 --> 0:20:30.560 it's just really accelerated the lifting sales and that will 0:20:30.760 --> 0:20:34.360 follow us for some time. And simultaneously, when travel does 0:20:34.400 --> 0:20:36.080 come back, we will start to see the lift of 0:20:36.119 --> 0:20:39.760 the travel suitcases coming back. Yeah, that's something we're all 0:20:39.800 --> 0:20:42.240 trying to focus on when lockdowns and and our world 0:20:42.320 --> 0:20:45.240 moves back to being normal. That's Lin Berard, president at 0:20:45.280 --> 0:20:48.359 sam Sunite North America. Still ahead. As many companies like 0:20:48.400 --> 0:20:51.639 Samsonite struggled and then learned to pivot during the pandemic, 0:20:51.800 --> 0:20:53.960 it was full steam ahead when it came to I 0:20:54.080 --> 0:20:56.159 p o s and spacks this year. I'm excited to 0:20:56.160 --> 0:20:59.600 see the market come back and hopefully we'll get others. 0:20:59.600 --> 0:21:02.400 And I know is line enough to be strong as well? 0:21:02.920 --> 0:21:06.480 Checking with someone who took yxt Pandora and Salesforce all public. 0:21:06.720 --> 0:21:12.119 You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week. This is Bloomberg. Is 0:21:12.160 --> 0:21:16.560 Bloomberg Business Week with Garrol Masser from Bloomberg Radio. Great 0:21:16.600 --> 0:21:18.919 story in the Bloomberg this week about how animal spirits 0:21:18.920 --> 0:21:22.080 are famously running wild across Wall Street, like how the 0:21:22.080 --> 0:21:25.080 first day returned for I p o s average this year, 0:21:25.440 --> 0:21:29.160 and how SPACs special purposed acquisition vehicles that raise money 0:21:29.160 --> 0:21:31.200 for a blank check company to buy whatever it wants 0:21:31.480 --> 0:21:34.760