Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week from Bloomberg Radio. Hi, I'm
Speaker 1: Jason Kelly and I'm Carol Masser. Welcome to the weekend
Speaker 1: edition of Bloomberg Business Week. Jason, it is week working
Speaker 1: from home kind of we're seeing, you know, people slowly
Speaker 1: make their way back to offices, and I gotta say
Speaker 1: this week there was a lot more talk and action
Speaker 1: toward getting people back to work when it comes to
Speaker 1: New York City, especially among the Wall Street community. We're
Speaker 1: going to get into that a little bit later on. Yeah,
Speaker 1: excited to get into that. That is the story of
Speaker 1: the fall back to the office, back to school so
Speaker 1: certainly pervades almost every conversation we had this week. We're
Speaker 1: also going to bring you another edition of Business Week
Speaker 1: Talks your conversation with Brian Nicol, the CEO of Chipotle
Speaker 1: Mexican Girl. I'm gonna say I'm a fan. I've eaten
Speaker 1: such Chipotle over this pandemic. I have ordered our family
Speaker 1: definitely has ordered uh during our time at home, no
Speaker 1: doubt about it. And this is a company that understands crises.
Speaker 1: So we'll see what he has to say about kind
Speaker 1: of where we are in the pandemic, what the out
Speaker 1: look is for this company, and this is one that's
Speaker 1: been pivoting big time towards digital, so we'll dig deeper
Speaker 1: into that. We begin this hour though, with news also
Speaker 1: this week about Astra Zeneca. They were pausing tests of
Speaker 1: the company's experimental shot after a patient became ill. Now
Speaker 1: keep in mind, Jason, and this is something we tried
Speaker 1: to dig into with our conversations. This is delays which
Speaker 1: are often a routine event for the pharmaceutical industry. And
Speaker 1: it's a reminder though that developing a safe and successful
Speaker 1: vaccine it's gonna take some time. And yet we know
Speaker 1: that every tick and talk towards the vaccine, regardless of
Speaker 1: who's involved, it immediately becomes one of the most read
Speaker 1: stories when it crosses the Bloomberg No exception. Here we
Speaker 1: caught up with one of our in house go to
Speaker 1: voices on COVID nineteen Bloomberg News Health reporter Michelle Cortess.
Speaker 1: It's kind of astonishing how quickly and smoothly everything has
Speaker 1: gotten to this point. We have more than two dozen
Speaker 1: vaccines in clinical trials for a virus that we didn't
Speaker 1: even know existed, that probably didn't even exist a year ago.
Speaker 1: So that is astonishing, and as you point out, there
Speaker 1: are normally hurdles and problems that come up. The way
Speaker 1: this one has been coming out is a little bit
Speaker 1: um unsettling, to say the least. So we heard that
Speaker 1: after Zeneca had paused its trial. They're saying that it's
Speaker 1: a very normal thing that it happens when there's an
Speaker 1: unexplained illness. The condition that we're actually looking at, it's
Speaker 1: a spinal cord condition called transverse my lightest causes inflammation
Speaker 1: in the spinal cord can lead to paralysis, and it
Speaker 1: is something that's worrisome, and I guess it's also a reminder, Michelle,
Speaker 1: at just how heightened all of this is and how
Speaker 1: heightened all of us are. We are. We're both hopeful,
Speaker 1: but I dare say feeling almost a little bit desperate
Speaker 1: because our very way of life has has been changed.
Speaker 1: We've seen tens and tens and tens of thousands of
Speaker 1: people died just in the United States, and there's a
Speaker 1: sense of urgency that I don't know we've ever collectively felt.
Speaker 1: Certainly in my lifetime, I would agree with that. But
Speaker 1: also there is a concern here, of course, that that
Speaker 1: there's beliefs that a vaccine is going to bring us
Speaker 1: back to normal, that we do have an issue with
Speaker 1: um with vaccine hesitancy and skepticism in the US. So
Speaker 1: the idea that that some of this information is coming
Speaker 1: out not so smoothly it a little bit is a
Speaker 1: little bit concerning. Also, we did learn that there had
Speaker 1: been an earlier incident as well where they temporarily paused
Speaker 1: the trial. It didn't disclose that where they had similar
Speaker 1: symptoms of of you know, paralysis type issues, and it
Speaker 1: turned out that the patient had multiple sclerosis and they
Speaker 1: determined that it wasn't related to the vaccination although the
Speaker 1: person had gotten the vaccination. We're not exactly sure why
Speaker 1: MS develops. So with two with two potential ties to
Speaker 1: a neurological condition, you know, at some point people are
Speaker 1: going to be making a decision whether they're going to
Speaker 1: participate in a clinical trial, which clinical trial, and then
Speaker 1: when we get done, hopefully we'll have more than one option.
Speaker 1: Which one are you going to pick? Yeah, exactly, Well,
Speaker 1: there are different types of vaccines and I've been trying
Speaker 1: to kind of brush up on it. I'm not an expert,
Speaker 1: but in terms of the creation of vaccines. Right, there's
Speaker 1: different ways of doing it, and I do wonder are
Speaker 1: certain vaccines potentially going to be safer than others. There
Speaker 1: are different ways to go about doing this, and it's
Speaker 1: really again astonishing the breath of approaches that we have
Speaker 1: already that have emerged. When it comes to coronavirus. There
Speaker 1: is some companies, there are some companies who are building
Speaker 1: off standard models that we already have, like seasonal influenza,
Speaker 1: and they're just using a different ingredient basically in their vaccine.
Speaker 1: So they're hoping to provoke an immune system response to
Speaker 1: coronavirus instead of influenza. Does that make it safer Michelle
Speaker 1: or not necessarily? Well, I think that there's two ways
Speaker 1: to think about it. You have the platform, the way
Speaker 1: that you're going about doing it. And so for influenza,
Speaker 1: it's been given to you know, hundreds of millions, maybe
Speaker 1: billions of people over over decades and decades, right, so
Speaker 1: the platform is a known platform. Then you're putting in
Speaker 1: a different portion of the virus, you know, maybe the
Speaker 1: spike protein or something else, and so it's possible that
Speaker 1: the body would respond adversely to what you're putting into it.
Speaker 1: But the platform itself should be safe. Whether or not
Speaker 1: it's going to be effective is unknown, But then they're
Speaker 1: completely novel ways like what astra Zeneca is doing. It's
Speaker 1: it's not currently used in any approved vaccine, same as Maderna.
Speaker 1: They their approach is totally novel and different from astro Zenicas.
Speaker 1: J and J is working on a similar thing, but
Speaker 1: also some more conventional approaches. So there is a wide variety.
Speaker 1: There is a wide variety. So you are Google on
Speaker 1: the virus. We could go to Google and you know,
Speaker 1: look for things, or we could just bring you in, which, yeah, exactly,
Speaker 1: which is much I feel like, much more helpful and
Speaker 1: much more enjoyable for us, to be honest, lead the
Speaker 1: googling to the chart of the day. Alright, Michelle Cortez,
Speaker 1: thank you so much, Health Science, Medical Technology reporter for Bloomberg.
Speaker 1: So great to catch up with her and Jason. No
Speaker 1: data at it one of our go to voices when
Speaker 1: it comes to the virus. Really understanding, as you say,
Speaker 1: the tick and talk of the headlines that come across.
Speaker 1: And what I love about her is, you know, she
Speaker 1: said to us, it's kind of been a surprise at
Speaker 1: how quickly and smoothly everything has gone, and we need
Speaker 1: to keep that in perspective, especially as we rush to
Speaker 1: get a vaccine, and that there will be some delays,
Speaker 1: and they're going to have to be some delays to
Speaker 1: make sure that it's a really safe vaccine and effective vaccine.
Speaker 1: That's right. We're settling into a long haul of sorts
Speaker 1: with all of this. There has been this rush, but
Speaker 1: it's not a magic bullet, and it's not a panacea
Speaker 1: by any stretch of the imagination. It is part of
Speaker 1: the jigsaw puzzle that we're all putting together in real time,
Speaker 1: a three D puzzle in many ways. You're listening to
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Business Week coming up. Another edition of Business Week
Speaker 1: talks the conversation you had with the CEO of Chipotle. Yes, indeed,
Speaker 1: we're talking about Brian Nichol. This is Bloomberg. This is
Speaker 1: Blue Verb Business Week with Carol Masser and Jason Kelly
Speaker 1: from Bloomberg Radio. Jason, it's a company synonymous with the
Speaker 1: fast casual space. It's in fact credited for creating it
Speaker 1: to Potle Mexican grill. It's a company that took off
Speaker 1: like a rocket. It's stumbled for a couple of years
Speaker 1: as it dealt with its own crisis and e coal
Speaker 1: like crisis that was back in It led to a
Speaker 1: series of C suite exits, attention from activist investors, and
Speaker 1: a new CEO two and a half years ago. So
Speaker 1: I caught up with the CEO to Potles, Brian Nicol.
Speaker 1: He is going to be featured in upcoming Business Week talks,
Speaker 1: and in this segment of our in depth interview, we
Speaker 1: talked about the impact of the pandemic. I think where
Speaker 1: we are right now is in a state where I
Speaker 1: think everybody understands what they need to be doing. Uh,
Speaker 1: and so as a result, I think people are starting,
Speaker 1: you know, to demonstrate good behavior so that we all
Speaker 1: contributing really containing the pandemic. We've been very fortunate in
Speaker 1: our restaurants where our employees, I think we're doing a
Speaker 1: lot of the right things. We've put a lot the
Speaker 1: right food safety practices and wellness practices in place, So
Speaker 1: that's giving people confidence to you know, basically used to
Speaker 1: pole as a meal solution. And then obviously our digital
Speaker 1: business is giving people access for that off premise occasion
Speaker 1: that is becoming really critical. Yeah, and I want to
Speaker 1: talk about that because I feel like you are very
Speaker 1: precient in terms of the investments you made and when
Speaker 1: you came in about two and a half years ago.
Speaker 1: Focusing on that. Before we get to that, though, I
Speaker 1: do want to ask you, are you preparing your company
Speaker 1: your staff for a second round with the virus come
Speaker 1: the fall and winter months, And I do wonder if
Speaker 1: you're kind of taking precautions, are setting up, um, you know,
Speaker 1: just in case. Yeah. Look, I think we definitely have
Speaker 1: uncertainty in front of us, UM, and so really the
Speaker 1: approach we're taking is we're following the recommendations of the
Speaker 1: CDC and a lot of the local health departments around
Speaker 1: making sure our employees are wearing masks, we're practicing the
Speaker 1: social distancing. Uh. You know, no one works if they're
Speaker 1: not feeling healthy. UM. And you know, obviously we continue
Speaker 1: to be in a working remote environment, so we want
Speaker 1: to take all the precautions we can to hopefully contain
Speaker 1: the pandemic and get to the other side of this. UM.
Speaker 1: You know, it would be a real disappointment if we
Speaker 1: have a setback, and I'm really hopeful that if we
Speaker 1: do all the right things as a company, as a community,
Speaker 1: we can avoid that setback. Do you think we'll get one?
Speaker 1: You know, you know, honestly, I I really hope people
Speaker 1: do the right things going forward so that we don't
Speaker 1: you know, uh, I think the big recommendations out there,
Speaker 1: you go get flu shots where your masks, practice social distance,
Speaker 1: avoid big crowds, and that's our best bed to avoid
Speaker 1: a real you know, major flare up. But you know,
Speaker 1: cold and flu season, more people are probably not gonna
Speaker 1: feel great, and it's important people get tested. They understand
Speaker 1: whether they have COVID or just a common cold or flu,
Speaker 1: and then they need to do the right things to
Speaker 1: protect themselves, their family, their friends, and their communities. And
Speaker 1: I think if people just take that simple approach, um,
Speaker 1: I think, you know, we'll get past this a lot
Speaker 1: faster than uh not taking those safe safety precautions. So
Speaker 1: how do you keep you know, your employees safe motivated
Speaker 1: during these trying times? And we talk about you know,
Speaker 1: corporate culture. When you've got people at home and people
Speaker 1: all over the place, how do you keep though your
Speaker 1: workers who have to be at work in order to
Speaker 1: get the job done. How do you keep a motivated
Speaker 1: during these trying times? And I'm curious if you've made
Speaker 1: any employee policy changes during the pandemic. Yeah. Look, Carol,
Speaker 1: I think it's fortunately for us. We we've always been
Speaker 1: focused on our purpose, which is around this idea of
Speaker 1: cultivating a better world through food with integrity. And we've
Speaker 1: got some clear cultural values, um, you know around basically
Speaker 1: authenticity lives here, the movement is real um, you know,
Speaker 1: teach and taste Chipotle, and then the line is moment
Speaker 1: of truth. And the reason why these values are really
Speaker 1: important is we've used them to guide a lot of
Speaker 1: our decisions. We believe our per this and our values
Speaker 1: drive our culture. It's why people love to work at Chipotle.
Speaker 1: And we've been consistent, I think in all our decision
Speaker 1: making against our purpose and our values, and I think
Speaker 1: it's given a lot of our employees a sense of
Speaker 1: pride um. They love the fact that, you know, regardless
Speaker 1: of how hard um the decision is, we want to
Speaker 1: do the right thing for our communities, moving our purpose
Speaker 1: board and obviously our employees. So you know, we were
Speaker 1: fortunate we already had a lot of things in practice
Speaker 1: from a wellness standpoint, and you know, paid sick leave
Speaker 1: and uh, a lot of employee programs around healthcare, mental wellness. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm sorry mental health benefits that were available
Speaker 1: for not just the employee but their families. So we're
Speaker 1: trying to surround people with all the right things and
Speaker 1: those have been even more important in these challenging times.
Speaker 1: And you know, we've dialed up our communication. I'll tell
Speaker 1: you the other thing that has really been powerful is, UM,
Speaker 1: we have really worked our to communicate with every single
Speaker 1: employee at Chipotle, all ninety plus thousand of them. UM.
Speaker 1: You know, we're doing zooms and web calls and telephone calls.
Speaker 1: I just want to keep them up to date with
Speaker 1: the most um, you know, up to date information. And
Speaker 1: the more they know, the more they can feel confident
Speaker 1: that we're making the right decisions and they're working in
Speaker 1: a safe environment. UM. I've had the pleasure of making
Speaker 1: some day trips visiting restaurants, and I can tell you
Speaker 1: it really gets you pumped up because our employees are
Speaker 1: so grateful, UM, to be working and to be a
Speaker 1: part of Chipotle and making a difference in their communities
Speaker 1: and moving our company and culture forward. Well, and I'm
Speaker 1: guessing you're visiting a lot more workers because you guys
Speaker 1: have been on a significant hiring push back into Loe.
Speaker 1: You talked about hiring about ten thousand workers, So how
Speaker 1: has that push gone so far? Where are you in
Speaker 1: that process? Yeah, it's been you know, we're very fortunate.
Speaker 1: People have been really excited to uh join Chipotle, and
Speaker 1: the applications have been, uh, you know, frankly, really exciting
Speaker 1: to see did you get something like seven hundred? Didn't
Speaker 1: you get something like seven hundred applications or something? It
Speaker 1: was crazy. You know, I don't remember what the numbers,
Speaker 1: but I wouldn't be surprised if that's close to right. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, because we have had you know, I saw
Speaker 1: we just had a job for one of our digital
Speaker 1: opportunities open up, and for just this one position, we
Speaker 1: had well over you know, I think three or four
Speaker 1: hundred applications, which is really amazing. Um. And you know,
Speaker 1: now you've times that out across ten thousand opportunities, from
Speaker 1: you know, crew members all the way up to jobs
Speaker 1: that are support centers. And we've been very fortunate to
Speaker 1: attract really great people and we've been able to retain
Speaker 1: really great people. So we're we're feeling really fortunate with
Speaker 1: where we are, with the people we have and the
Speaker 1: people that are drawn to to work at Chipotle and
Speaker 1: apply and want to be a part of what we're doing.
Speaker 1: That's Brian Nichol, the c of Chipotle Mexican Grill. And
Speaker 1: catch more of that Business Week Talks interview next week
Speaker 1: in the magazine on the Bloomberg online at Bloomberg dot com.
Speaker 1: I mean, Jason, this is a company. They really have
Speaker 1: just kind of changed how we eat out in a
Speaker 1: casual way, and yet they understand crises like no other.
Speaker 1: They absolutely do. And so the playbook, while it's different
Speaker 1: for every crisis, that sort of attitude, that posture, it
Speaker 1: certainly has to prepare you for the unexpected. Great great
Speaker 1: interview more to come on that one. You're listening to
Speaker 1: Bloomberg bu Week. Coming up, we hear from the intermitting
Speaker 1: of the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the
Speaker 1: University of Maryland talking about the dual pandemics right, the
Speaker 1: health crisis as well as the problem with inequalities. This
Speaker 1: is Bloomberg. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol
Speaker 1: Masser and Jason Kelly from Bloomberg Radio. Carol, clearly we
Speaker 1: live in a world of dueling crises. Who've got at
Speaker 1: least two going on right now, and we never know
Speaker 1: what's around the corner, and that is making it all
Speaker 1: the more demanding for young business leaders and for those
Speaker 1: who trained them. One of the folks tackling this is
Speaker 1: Rito Agarwall. She is the interim Dean of the Robert H.
Speaker 1: Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland. She
Speaker 1: also understands that business school students they need to be
Speaker 1: around each other, and that came through loud and clear.
Speaker 1: Check out our conversation. This has been such a wild
Speaker 1: ride for the past six months, and there are so
Speaker 1: many different things that I can talk about, but I
Speaker 1: do want to sort of take you through the ACAPA experience.
Speaker 1: Let me start by what's it like inside the business
Speaker 1: school today? Density is slow, but students are masked and
Speaker 1: they have big smiles on their faces. From what I
Speaker 1: can tell from behind their market they are just so
Speaker 1: glad to be back. We'll talk to us a little bit,
Speaker 1: to dnagar Wall about the adjustments that you guys have
Speaker 1: had to make in order to you get students back
Speaker 1: on campus. So let me just talk about, you know,
Speaker 1: sort of two pandemics that we've dealt with in the
Speaker 1: last six months. Right the first one is of course
Speaker 1: the public health crisis that is front and center and
Speaker 1: everybody's mind. But there's also a second, more subtle one
Speaker 1: that reveals itself at the end of May, and that's
Speaker 1: you know, the national spotlight on the racial injustice and
Speaker 1: systemic bias. So we've had to make adjustments to address
Speaker 1: both of these pandemics. So I'll start by focusing on
Speaker 1: the first, which has you know, of course, captured everybody's attention,
Speaker 1: time and energy for six months. Now. Um, I want
Speaker 1: your listeners to remember two words, unprecedented and pivot, because
Speaker 1: that has really described our experience so far. So on
Speaker 1: March eleven, you know, we all received an email and
Speaker 1: a text on our cell phones telling us to go
Speaker 1: home because the governor had just imposed the stay at
Speaker 1: home model, and literally overnight, the campus emptied out. Both
Speaker 1: campus and the city of College Park became ghost towns.
Speaker 1: And luckily we were scheduled to go on screen break
Speaker 1: the following week, and we delayed the started classes by
Speaker 1: another week, and that allowed us to make the first
Speaker 1: crucial pivot, you know, on a dime. We took five
Speaker 1: courses and we moved them all to online delivery and
Speaker 1: let me just say, Carol, anybody who thought can appreciate
Speaker 1: the complexity of taking what was design is a face
Speaker 1: to face course and moving it online in a matter
Speaker 1: of a couple of weeks. You know, it's not just
Speaker 1: simply getting onto a Zoom meeting and giving a lecture.
Speaker 1: There are so many nuances related to teaching. There are
Speaker 1: so many different adjustments in pivots you have to make.
Speaker 1: So we did that. That was fall, and then the
Speaker 1: entire summer was spent in I want to say, hundreds,
Speaker 1: if not thousands of hours of meetings trying to figure
Speaker 1: out what should be our strategy in the face of
Speaker 1: a pandemic that nobody can predict, in the face of
Speaker 1: a virus that's totally unpredictable, that's moving in whatever direction
Speaker 1: it wants to, in the face of shifting public health
Speaker 1: guidance on how institutions should be moving. So that's what
Speaker 1: our summer look like. And when you think about Dnagar Wall,
Speaker 1: the students, the interaction among students, the whole notion of
Speaker 1: a business education is an extremely collaborative one. And granted,
Speaker 1: we're all adjusting to that, and we all are adjusting
Speaker 1: to to working on Zoom and Carol and I only
Speaker 1: see each other over video conference at this point. Literally, UM,
Speaker 1: but what's missing and how do you make up for it? Uh?
Speaker 1: If some, if even some of that interaction has to
Speaker 1: be virtual, that's a great question, Jason, and one that
Speaker 1: we've grappled with. UM. We have an Office of to
Speaker 1: Informational Learning that has penagogical experts who can allow us
Speaker 1: to recreate a few will not a hundred percent, but
Speaker 1: pretty close to that off that rich face to face
Speaker 1: interaction that you might have in an online setting. So
Speaker 1: we've tried to do that in as many of our
Speaker 1: classes as possible. But I don't want to make one
Speaker 1: more point. One of the controversial decisions we made over
Speaker 1: the summer, and for exactly the reasons that you outcline, Jason,
Speaker 1: is we decided we're going to come back and fall
Speaker 1: and have a hybrid quasi in person quasi online experience.
Speaker 1: And that's three to Aggrawall. She's the interim Dean of
Speaker 1: the Robbert Ahm School of Business at the University of Maryland.
Speaker 1: Interesting to talk with her. I have to say, Carol,
Speaker 1: you know the nuts and bolts of getting back to business,
Speaker 1: in this case business school. It is not easy. No
Speaker 1: it's not easy, and especially as she talks about these
Speaker 1: two pandemics that are facing our world right now, talking
Speaker 1: about of course the virus, and then also talk about
Speaker 1: diversity and inclusion. It's something the school has been focusing
Speaker 1: on a lot. She says, they put a lot of
Speaker 1: initiatives in place, but she said, we can kind of
Speaker 1: do better, especially when it comes to attracting a more
Speaker 1: diverse group of faculty, and so there are things that
Speaker 1: can be you know, definitely improved upon. And I think
Speaker 1: that point about the faculty is a really important one
Speaker 1: that maybe we're not focusing as much on. And I
Speaker 1: also was intrigued by what she said about the case studies,
Speaker 1: what they are actually studying, the examples that they're using
Speaker 1: to learn about business. You need to think about diversity,
Speaker 1: inclusion and a wider swath when it comes to that.
Speaker 1: That really stuck with me. Coming up, Jason, we've got
Speaker 1: one of those potential case studies. We're talking about Don Peebles.
Speaker 1: He's the founder, chairman, and CEO of the Peoples Corporation.
Speaker 1: He has been practicing diversity and inclusion at his own
Speaker 1: firm for years and also helping others to do exactly
Speaker 1: the same. Yeah, it's a smart conversation. I took a
Speaker 1: lot away from this one as well. That's coming up.
Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with
Speaker 1: Carol Masser and Jason Kelly from Bloomberg Radio. So, Carol,
Speaker 1: diversity and inclusion in action in the real estate world.
Speaker 1: What does it look like when you actually do this
Speaker 1: day to day? That's the question we pose to Don Peoples.
Speaker 1: He's the founder, chairman, and CEO of the People's Corporation.
Speaker 1: That's right, Jason. It's a privately held national real estate
Speaker 1: investment and development company. It's got a multibillion dollar portfolio
Speaker 1: projects New York, Boston, Philly, Washington, d C, Miami, and
Speaker 1: out on the West coast as well. He also served
Speaker 1: on the National Finance Committee of President Barack Obama. He's
Speaker 1: on the board of the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Speaker 1: He's also the former chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation.
Speaker 1: So he has seen the world from so many different perspectives. Initially,
Speaker 1: though we talked about the short term impact from the pandemic. Well,
Speaker 1: short short term impact, I think we're seeing it now.
Speaker 1: There's been a more of an exodus out of the
Speaker 1: cities UM and more so into the suburban markets. And
Speaker 1: then UM more people are relocating to UH places like
Speaker 1: Florida for example, UH in preparation for the winner. But
Speaker 1: I think that you'll see UM and a greater UM
Speaker 1: you know, stabilization as we get through this winter. I mean,
Speaker 1: the cities are not dead New York City, while you
Speaker 1: know it's it's limited occupancy right now in terms of
Speaker 1: office space, UM. Most restaurants are closed and other businesses
Speaker 1: are closed. UM. So there is a a short term
Speaker 1: decline because tenants aren't able to pay their rent and
Speaker 1: the office tenants who generate a lot of activity in
Speaker 1: the marketplace, the office workers are not there either. But
Speaker 1: I think that short term UM, I do think that
Speaker 1: the UM pandemic has structurally changed how we will consume
Speaker 1: office space as we go forward. I think that companies
Speaker 1: around the country and around the globe, especially here in
Speaker 1: the US, are reevaluating how they deal with placing their employees,
Speaker 1: how much they're going to rely upon remote working, which
Speaker 1: has proven for the typical office workers to be much
Speaker 1: more effective than UM most companies thought. And so I
Speaker 1: think that that will be a structural shift in UM
Speaker 1: the officias long term. I think that UM most retail
Speaker 1: UM has changed forever. But that was a pre pandemic technology.
Speaker 1: It had disrupted retail considerably. And so when you think
Speaker 1: about sort of the reorganization, the rethinking of offices done,
Speaker 1: you know what does that mean? Does does the pricing change?
Speaker 1: Does the relationship between the owner and the tenant change?
Speaker 1: Does what gets developed changed? I just wonder sort of
Speaker 1: thinking through the mechanics and and sort of playing that
Speaker 1: out what it looks like. Well, I think that first
Speaker 1: of all, I think that's the easy one. Is what
Speaker 1: gets developed definitely changes. It will what gets developed going
Speaker 1: forward will change in terms of how the office space
Speaker 1: will be configured going forward, and how protocols will be
Speaker 1: put in place, UH, in terms of how people enter buildings,
Speaker 1: how we met people entering the building, in terms of
Speaker 1: health and UH. And even once this pandemic is behind us, UH,
Speaker 1: the new buildings will be better designed and better built
Speaker 1: to address a future potential pandemic as well. I think
Speaker 1: also the close proximity of coworking and how most companies
Speaker 1: were shifting towards open floor plants. I think that changes
Speaker 1: isn't that kind of sorry to interrupt you, but isn't
Speaker 1: that kind of amazing? Because that really felt like something
Speaker 1: And listen, you know us, I mean, you know, Bloomberg,
Speaker 1: like we were all about the open. We still large
Speaker 1: to a large extent because nobody's really here, but I
Speaker 1: mean that seemed like a trend that was just going
Speaker 1: into the going into the future in many ways. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean Bloomberg were very innovative when you all built
Speaker 1: your your officers um um um and on the East
Speaker 1: Side and the old Alexander site. What happened there is
Speaker 1: you all created a almost to live and work environment
Speaker 1: to a degree because you've got the open cafeteria. Everything
Speaker 1: was open um even the waiting areas and so forth,
Speaker 1: where visitors were open, and your studios were pretty visible
Speaker 1: and open as well. So I think that that configuration
Speaker 1: is going to change to some degree, especially um how
Speaker 1: how people work at their desk. And also I think
Speaker 1: gone is going to be the days, even with the
Speaker 1: law firms and the like, where each individual has their
Speaker 1: own office or their specific workspace. I think that that
Speaker 1: will change because you'll see a lot more remote working
Speaker 1: and also those who travel to other locations will not
Speaker 1: need a fixed office. So I think the fixed office
Speaker 1: um UH or fifth six workspace has changed, will change.
Speaker 1: And I think also you'll see more collaborator spaces that
Speaker 1: have some form of social distancing potential and employ the
Speaker 1: immediate use. You'll see that in place now, I mean,
Speaker 1: but I mean you can really you can see that
Speaker 1: across the board. I happen to be, by the way,
Speaker 1: I'm not implored. I happen to be in zach Harbor,
Speaker 1: but I'm in Manhattan last week, and and and and
Speaker 1: what you're seeing in in UM office spaces that are
Speaker 1: being utilized and very few people are there, and I
Speaker 1: think that's going to take a lot of time for
Speaker 1: people to come back, And and buildings are going to
Speaker 1: have to employers, they're gonna have to tell people by
Speaker 1: action UM that it's safe to come back. So done.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about the wealth gap, because it has been
Speaker 1: a subject that we have I think taken much more
Speaker 1: seriously candidly over the past couple of months as we've
Speaker 1: really started to I hope, embrace this reckoning that we're
Speaker 1: seeing around racial inequality and being Bloomberg and Business Week,
Speaker 1: we follow the money, and the wealth gap is vast.
Speaker 1: I don't have to tell you what do we do
Speaker 1: about it? Well, I think we've got to widen the opportunity.
Speaker 1: I think that there's no talent is discriminated, distributed indiscriminately,
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, opportunity is distributd on a discriminatory basis,
Speaker 1: and I don't. I think that we've got to look
Speaker 1: at expanding access to capital, expanding opportunities in every industry
Speaker 1: across the board, and be mindful that we as business
Speaker 1: owners and entrepreneurs and CEO have to take affirmative steps
Speaker 1: and providing fair access to career and economic opportunities to
Speaker 1: minorities and women because both are severely underrepresented in every
Speaker 1: industry of any consequence in this country. You know, Donna,
Speaker 1: you know, our team here at Bloomberg did a story
Speaker 1: about Silicon Black Silicon Valley entrepreneurs venture capitalists and how
Speaker 1: they had reached certainly success in their lives and you know,
Speaker 1: in terms of Silicon Valley, but they were even having
Speaker 1: trouble being able to support other minority owned businesses at
Speaker 1: their own firms. We're finding it difficult to get others
Speaker 1: to get on board with them. And so I wonder,
Speaker 1: what's the trick here. How do we change this? Well,
Speaker 1: I think that we have to. I mean, my industry
Speaker 1: is one that I think it's has an easy remedy
Speaker 1: to it. It's um. You know, the real estate development
Speaker 1: business is a low barrier to entry industry. You can
Speaker 1: start off from any perspective UM as an entrepreneur and
Speaker 1: go into real estate development. Doesn't require any kind of
Speaker 1: license of specialized skill, requires some talent and access to capital.
Speaker 1: And the capital that funds real estated mainly through private
Speaker 1: equity and private equity. Biggest investors are public employee pension systems,
Speaker 1: and so for example, there's about seventy trillion dollars in
Speaker 1: venture capital and private equity right now, and about one
Speaker 1: point three percent of that money is deployed to businesses
Speaker 1: owned or run by minorities and women combined. And yet
Speaker 1: a significant portion of the contributors to the public pension systems,
Speaker 1: the workers who whose money is being investors are minorities
Speaker 1: and women. And so if we can have fair access
Speaker 1: to that capital, and those investors tell the allocators of
Speaker 1: capital that they want to see their capital deployed in
Speaker 1: a more diverse manner prudently by the way, but more
Speaker 1: diverse matter. Um, there is no shortage right now of
Speaker 1: capital in the marketplace. There is a shortage of where
Speaker 1: to deploy the capital. That's why we're seeing this from
Speaker 1: the market react the way it is, UM, And so
Speaker 1: I think that other aspects it's important is people have
Speaker 1: to understand we're not we don't in order to bring equality.
Speaker 1: It's not about redistributing wealth, redistributing opportunities, just just expanding
Speaker 1: it and expanding opportunities to create wealth. And so don
Speaker 1: how do those institutional investors. I agree with everything you're saying,
Speaker 1: and you're echoing something that John Rodgers said on this
Speaker 1: program about the institutional investors and especially the public pension funds,
Speaker 1: which candidly they've gotten religion about some other issues, you know,
Speaker 1: sometimes it's around gun control and other things where they've
Speaker 1: essentially said, look, I'm not going to invest in certain
Speaker 1: sectors or I'm not going to invest in certain managers
Speaker 1: unless they meet these certain criteria. E. S. G has
Speaker 1: been an area, especially around the environment and climate, where
Speaker 1: they've done that. Why haven't they done this yet in
Speaker 1: your estimation? Well, I think that in part because they
Speaker 1: are missing misinterpreting their role in studuciaries. I think that
Speaker 1: the idea to pick the most qualified, the best, and
Speaker 1: the least risk the firm that's been around longest. And
Speaker 1: so if you're going to have an aversion to first, second,
Speaker 1: third time funds, then it's going to be very difficult
Speaker 1: for you to create an environment where there will be
Speaker 1: more minority and women manage funds. So they've got to
Speaker 1: be willing to um make strategic prudent investments in utilizing
Speaker 1: a different criteria. That's Don Peebles, founder, chairman and CEO
Speaker 1: of the Peoples Corporation, so much to say about kind
Speaker 1: of where we are in terms of the real estate world,
Speaker 1: where we are going. You know what really stuck with me,
Speaker 1: Jason was how he said he does think the pandemic
Speaker 1: has structurally changed how we use our office space in particular,
Speaker 1: and we'll see how much of that sticks. But man,
Speaker 1: he's got a front row seat to this. We're gonna
Speaker 1: pull that through a little bit more Carroll. Next hour,
Speaker 1: when we hear from another legendary real estate investor talking
Speaker 1: about Tom Barrack of Colony Capital. He's going to talk
Speaker 1: to us about the future of cities and the suburbs.
Speaker 1: So that wraps up the first hour of the weekend
Speaker 1: edition of Bloomberg bus This week from Bloomberg Radio. I'm
Speaker 1: Jason Kelly and I'm Carol mass There plenty coming up
Speaker 1: in our next hour, including a fascinating story is one
Speaker 1: of the most read on the Bloomberg when it hit
Speaker 1: the Bloomberg terminal was all about a letter to Wall
Speaker 1: Street workers about Hey, why don't you come back to work. Plus,
Speaker 1: we're going to hear from the president CEO of Mahindra
Speaker 1: Automotive North America about what they're doing in Detroit. And
Speaker 1: we're gonna round out the show talking about your pet.
Speaker 1: It is a big business, right Scout. I love my dog.
Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week from
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Radio. Hello, I'm Carol Masser and I'm Jason Kelly.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to Bloomberg Business Week Week twenty six. So, Carol,
Speaker 1: if I've got my math right, that's half a year
Speaker 1: we've been working from home. Amazing, amazing. Yeah, I still
Speaker 1: can't believe it. Uh, And listen, we're starting to see
Speaker 1: more people trying to get back to work, certainly more
Speaker 1: conversations about it, and that certainly is something we're gonna
Speaker 1: get into over the next sixty minutes. We're also going
Speaker 1: to hear from the president CEO of Mahindra North America.
Speaker 1: They understand the auto space. Um, so we got a
Speaker 1: really great view of what's going on in that world,
Speaker 1: but also how that company is helping its community around itself.
Speaker 1: We're thinking so much more about our space where we
Speaker 1: live and where we work, and where we live at
Speaker 1: least increasingly we're living with pets, and we're going to
Speaker 1: talk about that with the CEO and founding partner of
Speaker 1: the Animal Policy Group. I heard your scouts ears perk
Speaker 1: up at this interview. She is a spoil a little
Speaker 1: pup first up. THO was something that caught her attention
Speaker 1: and really the attention of Bloomberg terminal users. Man, this
Speaker 1: was the most read story on the Bloomberg terminal. And yeah,
Speaker 1: that's what's gonna happen when you see this headline, Dear
Speaker 1: Wall Street, your boss wants you to come back to
Speaker 1: the office. Yep, everyone was reading this sending it around
Speaker 1: asking what you thought. Bloomberg News financi reporter Michelle Davis,
Speaker 1: she had a busy week. She filled us in on
Speaker 1: what's going on. This is really a story about a
Speaker 1: lot of the fear and tension and anxiety that's bubbling
Speaker 1: up on Wall Street right now, with you know, many
Speaker 1: folks considering whether they should return to the office after
Speaker 1: in some cases working from home for as long as
Speaker 1: six months. And over the summer, a lot of the
Speaker 1: banks started opening their offices back up, but they weren't
Speaker 1: requiring anyone to return, and for the time being, it
Speaker 1: seems like they still aren't requiring people to come in um,
Speaker 1: but more and more people are are starting to wonder,
Speaker 1: if you know, as they're reading between the lines of
Speaker 1: memos from their bosses, they're trying to figure out, you know,
Speaker 1: is my boss saying, but we work better in person
Speaker 1: because he wants me to go back. If I don't
Speaker 1: go back, is it going to jeopardize my boss or
Speaker 1: my job? You know, there's a lot, a lot up
Speaker 1: in the air, a lot of uncertainty that's coming around
Speaker 1: with this, with the open endedness, and so what we're
Speaker 1: hearing is that as more and more workers start to
Speaker 1: go back over the next few weeks, be it because
Speaker 1: they want to get away from you know, annoying housemates,
Speaker 1: or they want to change the scenery, or they are
Speaker 1: harried that you know, bosses, their colleagues are going to
Speaker 1: think that they're weak. Um. Wall Street is gonna be
Speaker 1: looking at this as kind of a testing period to
Speaker 1: to see if you know, social distancing can really be
Speaker 1: done in force from an office, and we've heard that
Speaker 1: at JP Morgan in particular, they executive they are going
Speaker 1: to be monitoring the situation to see that if as
Speaker 1: more people come in, you know, in the crowd, the
Speaker 1: trains get more crowded. Um, if things go well and
Speaker 1: infections don't spike, they're considering becoming more forceful in their
Speaker 1: language and saying, you know, rather than framing this as
Speaker 1: an invitation to return, requiring more people to return, with
Speaker 1: the idea being that, you know, if this is going
Speaker 1: to be the new normal where there's not gonna be
Speaker 1: a vaccine, you know, probably not this years, then let's
Speaker 1: get to that sooner rather than later. Let's let's you know,
Speaker 1: get more people back into the office. Because as well
Speaker 1: as things worked at home, like, it's still important from
Speaker 1: a culture and control standpoint, um, at least in banking
Speaker 1: for people to be you know, interfaced next to each
Speaker 1: other in person. Well, what's interesting and what I love
Speaker 1: about this story And if you haven't seen it, um,
Speaker 1: I think I've put it out on Twitter. You guys
Speaker 1: should everybody should read it in its entirety because you
Speaker 1: get into the specifics, like JP Morgan, you say they've
Speaker 1: been reimbursing uber and taxi rides to the office for
Speaker 1: traders below the managing director level so they don't have
Speaker 1: to share public transfer transportation, investment banking. You said that
Speaker 1: the firm has asked that fifty of its dealmakers be
Speaker 1: in the office on any given work day. So there's
Speaker 1: stuff we know going on, depending on maybe what your
Speaker 1: job is. What I think is interesting too though you
Speaker 1: talk about those that are eager to kind of get
Speaker 1: back to work and how that can create anxiety and
Speaker 1: others who aren't so eager to get back to work,
Speaker 1: and I think whether you have kids, how you get
Speaker 1: to work, Like, there's a lot of factors at play here, definitely,
Speaker 1: And I think what I have found most fascinating throughout
Speaker 1: this is that you know they're still a virus. And
Speaker 1: two months ago a lot of these banks were saying like, no,
Speaker 1: we don't want anyone. They're still saying we don't want
Speaker 1: anyone to build pressure to comment to the office like you,
Speaker 1: what's comfortable for you, what's that's for you and your
Speaker 1: family members. The fact that conversations are even happening right
Speaker 1: now around you know, we might get to the point
Speaker 1: in a few weeks where we're going to force you
Speaker 1: to come in like that. It just shows that we're
Speaker 1: entering a new phase where and that's what you guys
Speaker 1: are That's what you guys are hearing right from the
Speaker 1: folks and sources that you've talked to, that that's where
Speaker 1: it may be going. Yeah, it took it. It took
Speaker 1: a hard turn. It feels like, Michelle, I have to
Speaker 1: be honest, and and really what fascinates me about it
Speaker 1: is this notion that it took a hard turn just
Speaker 1: as bigger and bigger question marks were raised around what
Speaker 1: I and I think others think is the biggest issue,
Speaker 1: which is schools. I mean, if you have young kids,
Speaker 1: if you have school aged kids, especially elementary school aged kids,
Speaker 1: this is a very very difficult situation in terms of
Speaker 1: just the logistics of educating your kids and making a
Speaker 1: living absolutely, and and the public transportation, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: challenge is one that is getting back to normal in
Speaker 1: New York, especially hard. I thought it was interesting. One
Speaker 1: of the people I spoke to, who we included an
Speaker 1: anecdote from the person on the story, was saying that
Speaker 1: she just thinks it's going to be inevitable that everyone's
Speaker 1: going to return to lockdown in just a few months.
Speaker 1: So that's why she's the worker at working, and that's
Speaker 1: why she plans to kind of cycle in and out
Speaker 1: of the office right now, because she's like, it's probably
Speaker 1: the only opportunity I'll get to see coworkers because we
Speaker 1: all know how this story plays out, like the second
Speaker 1: you ease up on guidelines, infections are going to spike,
Speaker 1: and when you go back to the beginning. And that's
Speaker 1: reporter Michelle Davis love talking to her because she's got
Speaker 1: so many great sources across Wall Street and people are
Speaker 1: starting to speak out about what they're hearing and what
Speaker 1: they're feeling. This is such a complicated time when it
Speaker 1: comes to how we're gonna work. Carol, Yeah, it's all
Speaker 1: about comfort levels. But you know, there is pressure I
Speaker 1: think on companies because I think there's a fear of
Speaker 1: losing a little bit of your culture by not bringing
Speaker 1: workers together, or when it comes to Wall Street such
Speaker 1: a competitive space, they're worried about losing deals or trades,
Speaker 1: and so they kind of want to get their teams
Speaker 1: back together. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week. Coming up,
Speaker 1: We've got a conversation with the president CEO of Mahindra
Speaker 1: North America talking all about the city where they live.
Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with
Speaker 1: Carol Masser and Jason Kelly from Bloomberg Radio. Well, Carol,
Speaker 1: Mahindra and Mahindra. It's a massive global automaker, so much
Speaker 1: more one of India's largest companies. And we know them
Speaker 1: for their cars, but we also know them for agriculture,
Speaker 1: and we found out the company's North American operations. They're
Speaker 1: also well known in Detroit for helping that city that
Speaker 1: is a truly American story in many ways. Yeah, you
Speaker 1: know what they're doing, Jason. They're providing funding and they're
Speaker 1: helping to create urban and community gardens, and they're doing more.
Speaker 1: They're really helping to address COVID nineteen's impact on locally
Speaker 1: available food supplies in inner city areas. We're talking about
Speaker 1: Detroit Flint and Antiac. They are doing some really impressive work.
Speaker 1: Rick House, Presidency of Mahindra Automotive North America. He joined
Speaker 1: us to talk about that program. We had to begin though,
Speaker 1: about the impact of the virus on the auto industry
Speaker 1: and their company. Well, you know, COVID, like every other
Speaker 1: segment in UM, in the US industry and frankly in
Speaker 1: the world, we've been we've been heavily impact. We We've
Speaker 1: had to a furlough employee, shut down our facilities, try
Speaker 1: to bring them back up safely, UM all the protocols
Speaker 1: and and just getting people comfortable UM with being in
Speaker 1: the office and with being UM uh and it's kind
Speaker 1: of just sort of getting back into the routine above.
Speaker 1: It has has been a bit difficult to the last
Speaker 1: few months. Obviously, we're all looking forward to hopefully a
Speaker 1: vaccine later this year and we can start to do
Speaker 1: things in a little more normal way. But it's really
Speaker 1: disrupted our our business, including UM. I'm sure you've talked
Speaker 1: about this, including the supply chain, right because when the
Speaker 1: auto companies go down, the supply chains go down with it,
Speaker 1: and there has to be a coordinated restart or else.
Speaker 1: You know, you you don't have one part in you
Speaker 1: can't make things right. So yeah, it's been a it's
Speaker 1: been probably the most difficult year I've had in in
Speaker 1: almost the forty years I've been doing it so well.
Speaker 1: And I do wonder, Rick, I I imagine there's a
Speaker 1: lot going on among you and your global colleagues across
Speaker 1: the Mahindra landscape in in many ways, you know, dealing
Speaker 1: with this because this is a global pandemic. This isn't
Speaker 1: at all you know, sort of regionally focused in many ways.
Speaker 1: And I do wonder what some of those conversations are like,
Speaker 1: especially because you know, back in India this has been
Speaker 1: a massively impactful story as well. So they've they've had
Speaker 1: the same kind of contraction in the second quarter that
Speaker 1: we had. It was that was the worst one in
Speaker 1: the history of a company for the country, same as
Speaker 1: the United States, and so you know, certain segments are
Speaker 1: impacted worse than others. Um uh. You know, automotive has
Speaker 1: been greatly impacted, but of course Mahindra's in a number
Speaker 1: of major sectors and agriculture and India has actually done
Speaker 1: pretty well this year, and it's a lot of that's
Speaker 1: because the rural areas haven't been as impacted, and there
Speaker 1: was a good monsoon season this year, and so yeah
Speaker 1: around them hittal world, depending on what segments people are
Speaker 1: in and um, and what the impact in that specific
Speaker 1: country is, we've all had to take actions. What's the
Speaker 1: outlook look like to you at this point? What kind
Speaker 1: of visibility do you have? What kind of economic environment
Speaker 1: are you anticipating, you know, into early next year. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, look, at this point, frankly, it's still a
Speaker 1: little hard to say. We've been feeding people money here
Speaker 1: in the United States at least for the last for
Speaker 1: the last several months. Um, that's gonna slow down and
Speaker 1: um and and sort of stops as as as we
Speaker 1: kind of get ourselves back into the swing of things.
Speaker 1: So UM, so yeah, we're you know, I expect a contraction.
Speaker 1: The question is how long does it last. We've got
Speaker 1: a big election coming up. Um, there's a lot of
Speaker 1: stuff in play this year, so it's really hard to
Speaker 1: say where the industry, um, where the industry goes. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, we play in our our rocks are product
Speaker 1: plays in the off road segment, which, interestingly, along with
Speaker 1: swimming pools, motorcycles, bicycles, recreational vehicles and so on. Those
Speaker 1: segments have actually done okay this year because people are
Speaker 1: using those those kinds of products to the socially distance
Speaker 1: closer to their their home right, so closer to home.
Speaker 1: I mean, this is something that that you guys have
Speaker 1: been really focused on Carol's point and to your point,
Speaker 1: at a very holistic economic level. We're gonna talk more
Speaker 1: about this on the other side of some news, but
Speaker 1: in just a minute, sort of t this up for
Speaker 1: us what you guys have been doing, because you are
Speaker 1: sort of leveraging a lot of the aspects of the
Speaker 1: company to to help out urban farmers there in Detroit. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: yes we are, and so um you know, we've we've
Speaker 1: been involved in urban farming. It's very interesting. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: Mahindra as a company has a has a rise philosophy
Speaker 1: and it's and it's very personal for most of us.
Speaker 1: Um as we embed ourselves in different commun unities around
Speaker 1: the world. One of the things that we do and
Speaker 1: in fact, it is one of the reasons I joined
Speaker 1: the Hindran instead of maybe some other company who doesn't
Speaker 1: think like this is you go out you you you
Speaker 1: you engage with the community. You interact with the community
Speaker 1: and as the businesses start to rise, UM, we'd like
Speaker 1: the communities to rise along with us, and so UM.
Speaker 1: When I got back from um from when I relocated
Speaker 1: back many of back in two thousand thirteen, one of
Speaker 1: the first things I did was I said, Okay, what
Speaker 1: how are we going to engage with the community, and UM,
Speaker 1: we ultimately settled on It was sort of serendipity. I
Speaker 1: had been home not very many weeks and I was
Speaker 1: watching a show on one of the local news stations
Speaker 1: where they taught where they were talking about Detroit's large
Speaker 1: urban agriculture movement, which apparently has been kind of growing
Speaker 1: since the eighties when a former mayor, Coleman Young had
Speaker 1: a like a farm a lot program, farm a lot program.
Speaker 1: So over the course of the last several decades, Um,
Speaker 1: you know, that started because they were trying to turn bladed,
Speaker 1: abandoned lots into in the in the useful, uh, productive
Speaker 1: pieces of property. So you know, again, over the years
Speaker 1: since the eighties, this program has grown, and in fact
Speaker 1: it's become a worldwide model, and we have people that
Speaker 1: come into the city all over the United States and
Speaker 1: other countries to see how Detroit has managed all of
Speaker 1: this right. We looked at that situation and of course
Speaker 1: we're the largest producer of tractors in the world, and
Speaker 1: so we partnered up for the first few years with
Speaker 1: our with our with our agricultural division down in Texas
Speaker 1: and we ran the program as a joint program. But
Speaker 1: today um there are a number of their kind of
Speaker 1: feet on the boots on the ground, community organizations and
Speaker 1: small nonprofits that run these and these are just exactly
Speaker 1: the kinds of things that we like to get involved in.
Speaker 1: It's very personal for our whole team. And we have
Speaker 1: a team of folks who loves to engage with the community.
Speaker 1: You know. It's not like you go out one day
Speaker 1: a year and go paint houses or something. Right where
Speaker 1: we can engage with these folks all year round, and
Speaker 1: that's where cost the president CEO of Mahindra in North America.
Speaker 1: I loved his perspective Carroll, in part because this is
Speaker 1: a global automaker, but more than that, this is a
Speaker 1: global empire in many ways. So he's able to draw
Speaker 1: on not just intelligence about the car business, but intelligence
Speaker 1: about the entire global economy and also to take that
Speaker 1: down to a very local level in terms of how
Speaker 1: companies need to be thinking about the communities that are
Speaker 1: right in front of them. Man, he said it was
Speaker 1: his most difficult year that he has had in the
Speaker 1: forty years that he's been in the industry. And he said,
Speaker 1: you know, in terms of an outlook, there's just so
Speaker 1: much going on right now. Let's not forget even I
Speaker 1: think talked about it being an election year that it's
Speaker 1: hard to know kind of where we go from here,
Speaker 1: and if it's the toughest year for someone in the
Speaker 1: car business, that's saying something. You're listening to Bloomberg this week.
Speaker 1: Coming up, my conversation with Tom Barrick, the legendary real
Speaker 1: estate investor. He's stepping back from Colony Capital. They're making
Speaker 1: some aggressive moves. A great conversation coming up. This is Bloomberg.
Speaker 1: You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and
Speaker 1: Jason Kelly from Bloomberg Radio. Tom Barrick, that's a familiar
Speaker 1: voice to our audiences. Jason. He built, as you know
Speaker 1: so well, Colony Capital by buying distressed assets pretty much
Speaker 1: during each and every crisis over the past thirty years.
Speaker 1: But during the current downturn, you know what he's doing.
Speaker 1: He's actually selling brick and mortar properties as they look
Speaker 1: to reshape their portfolio really focus on what they are
Speaker 1: calling digital infrastructure. So this was sort of a big
Speaker 1: moment for many reasons because I actually saw Tom Barrick
Speaker 1: in the flesh in New York City, him and his
Speaker 1: new CEO, Mark Ganzy. They came to New York, We
Speaker 1: went to their offices socially distanced for a wide ranging interview.
Speaker 1: How the pandemic, it is accelerating so much of what's
Speaker 1: happening in an already disrupted real estate world. Check it out. Well,
Speaker 1: I think we're in transition um and as the engineers
Speaker 1: and the builders of this infrastructure, we we see where
Speaker 1: the traffic's going because once again we're entrusted with that information.
Speaker 1: And what I would tell you today is is from
Speaker 1: a network perspective, from a digital perspective, workloads are shifting
Speaker 1: from the urban core out of the suburbs in a
Speaker 1: in a pace that we've never seen in three decades.
Speaker 1: And what I mean by that is the proliferation of
Speaker 1: network infrastructure is more prominent in the suburbs than it
Speaker 1: is in the urban core today. So data centers are
Speaker 1: now being built, Jason, on the edge. We're now fighting
Speaker 1: to deploy infrastructure or build that next generation of real
Speaker 1: estate on the edge, which is happening in smaller cities
Speaker 1: where people have moved. You know, my belief is some
Speaker 1: of this is somewhat overblown. I think people will come
Speaker 1: back to the urban core, urban corps where really from
Speaker 1: a from a social perspective and from a cultural perspective,
Speaker 1: that is where people like to be, where they want
Speaker 1: to entertain themselves. So I don't view this as being
Speaker 1: binary in terms of, you know, nobody coming back to
Speaker 1: New York City or nobody going back to Los Angeles
Speaker 1: or Miami. People will come back when they feel offend
Speaker 1: it and they feel confident that there's a good vaccine
Speaker 1: and that they ultimately feel like that there's a good cure.
Speaker 1: But in the meantime, the activity in the suburbs, which
Speaker 1: was largely neglected from a digital perspective, is where we're
Speaker 1: spending all of our time. And so, Tom, what do
Speaker 1: you make of that as someone who's been looking at
Speaker 1: at real estate, and it's the buying and selling of it,
Speaker 1: the consumption of it, the creation of it. I mean,
Speaker 1: is this a. Is this a catalytic or moment or
Speaker 1: an inflection point that we will look back on and
Speaker 1: say our cities were changed, our lives were changed. I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't think so. I'm long New York City. By
Speaker 1: the way, if you were asking me if I go
Speaker 1: back with my distress hat on, the first place I
Speaker 1: would be used here. The last place I would be
Speaker 1: is in in the other end of the transportation right.
Speaker 1: So what's happened is great, great places to live around
Speaker 1: New York City have grown from where does the train
Speaker 1: and and the subway go? And that was the key
Speaker 1: consideration is I could buy a place in Granted at
Speaker 1: a thousand dollars of foot versus a co opera condo
Speaker 1: in Manhattan at four thousand foot, and I can commute
Speaker 1: back and forth in the subway or train. I think
Speaker 1: young people are going to get very tired of the
Speaker 1: suburbs very quickly. The financial engines will exist in places
Speaker 1: like New York, London, Paris, Los Angeles. But again it's
Speaker 1: just an excellent People here were already thinking of moving
Speaker 1: to Florida, with a confiscatory tax regime and a political
Speaker 1: situation which they weren't happy with. Whether the mayor is
Speaker 1: doing a good job or a bad job. It was
Speaker 1: perceived that it's um it's not working. You have an
Speaker 1: infrastructure here. People were worried about building a brand new
Speaker 1: condo or co op. The streets are falling apart, the
Speaker 1: subway doesn't work, the bridges and tunnels are a hundred
Speaker 1: years old. It's just accelerating everybody's thought and saying you
Speaker 1: know what this is. This has frightened me. Life is short.
Speaker 1: I want to enjoy my kids because of the digital frontier.
Speaker 1: I have other opportunities to do, and I want to
Speaker 1: be where I don't feel the pressure of this, of
Speaker 1: this epidemic every time I touch an elevator. My belief
Speaker 1: is that will vanish, that will go away the aftermath
Speaker 1: after this election cycle, whatever that is will will start
Speaker 1: to dissipate with with a vaccine, with the cure. And
Speaker 1: I always ask my friends, I said, great, a vaccine,
Speaker 1: you're gonna take one? Half of them? Say never? Right?
Speaker 1: So I think cities are here to stay. Suburbs are
Speaker 1: here to stay. The utilization of them is going to
Speaker 1: be different and and in a in a replicat herble way,
Speaker 1: it's impossible to replicate New York City. And that's Tom Barrick,
Speaker 1: the executive chairman of Colony Capital, the founder arguably one
Speaker 1: of the best known voices in real estate alongside Mark Ganzy.
Speaker 1: He's the CEO of Colony Capital as of July one.
Speaker 1: And listen, this is a seminal moment, an inflection point
Speaker 1: in many ways, handing over the reins, but also an
Speaker 1: entirely new strategy that they put in place actually before
Speaker 1: COVID nineteen, Carol, but it is all accelerating during this pandemic. Well,
Speaker 1: just interesting, right that he's normally a buyer during times
Speaker 1: of downturns and crises, and now he's actually doing some selling. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: talk about pivots during COVID nineteen. You're listening to Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Business Week coming up. While Colony, like so many other companies,
Speaker 1: are pivoting as a result of the pandemic, many of
Speaker 1: us have been turning to our pets for companionship and
Speaker 1: fun while working from home. Jason turns out it's part
Speaker 1: of a pet boom that's resulted in about two thirds
Speaker 1: of the country now owning a pet, everyone but you apparently,
Speaker 1: And we're coming up on that. Yeah, Apparently when you're pivoting,
Speaker 1: it helps to have someone to cut a with that
Speaker 1: is Bloomberg. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol
Speaker 1: Masser and Jason Kelly from Bloomberg Radio. Well, Carol, as
Speaker 1: you said on our show this week, we do love
Speaker 1: to take that three sixty degree look at the world,
Speaker 1: every aspect of work in personal lives. And the other
Speaker 1: thing that I would say is we also know everything
Speaker 1: in the world is ultimately a business story, and pets
Speaker 1: are no exception. I love this next guest because you
Speaker 1: noted that in the last twenty years, pets have gone
Speaker 1: from the backyard to sleeping on our beds. I can
Speaker 1: personally attest to that. Writing about our best friends, Mark Cushing,
Speaker 1: he's CEO, founding partner of the Animal Policy Group. He's
Speaker 1: got a great background, former government regulatory advisor, former litigator.
Speaker 1: He's got a new book out. It's called Pet Nation,
Speaker 1: The Love Affair that Changed America. Check it out. Well,
Speaker 1: I've got two cats from the same letter, Oscar and Chloe.
Speaker 1: Oscar is a fat cat. I'm ashamed to take him
Speaker 1: to the bet because he's a he's a big boy.
Speaker 1: Chloe would be a perfect Upper east Side Manhattan princess.
Speaker 1: And then not not busy enough, we have in nine
Speaker 1: month old pappy on puppy Wow. So you know the
Speaker 1: he's got the ears of course of a butterfly, and
Speaker 1: he is a speedster who lives to chase desert lizards.
Speaker 1: Oh my good that he's he's named after Louis Baton,
Speaker 1: but you wouldn't know it. He's just life to him
Speaker 1: as a lizard and he's in pursuit. Well, you need
Speaker 1: to get him a tiffany, although based on the news today,
Speaker 1: you don't need to get him a tiff I can
Speaker 1: get him cheap. I can get him cheap. Yeah, exactly,
Speaker 1: you get a cheap So this is obviously we're gonna
Speaker 1: this is gonna be a wide ranging conversation. But but
Speaker 1: I do want to start by this is very personal
Speaker 1: for you. I mean, you haven't always been in the
Speaker 1: pet business or in the animal business. So tell us
Speaker 1: about sort of how you got into this and then
Speaker 1: ultimately what inspired you to write this book. So I'm
Speaker 1: supposed to say that, you know, I love animals, and
Speaker 1: I gave up my traditional law practice for that didn't
Speaker 1: work that way. I was a partner in the largest
Speaker 1: national offerm in the d C office, and I'm a
Speaker 1: hired gun, right. I got called to solve the problem
Speaker 1: for the pet industry back in two thousand five in Congress,
Speaker 1: and I had good fortune and got a good result,
Speaker 1: and my phone started ringing off the hook. And I
Speaker 1: figured before that that that I'd do one thing and
Speaker 1: that'd be it. And fifteen years later, I'm full time.
Speaker 1: And so I I was pulled in for business reasons,
Speaker 1: and I was lucky because I caught the wave of
Speaker 1: the surge of interest in pets, and nobody saw it
Speaker 1: coming that, particularly the pet industry didn't. I don't think
Speaker 1: the pet industry, even as recently as two years ago,
Speaker 1: believed things were going to stay as good as they
Speaker 1: are and get even better. And so I've been very fortunate, Jason,
Speaker 1: to be on the front end of a lot of
Speaker 1: issues with great clients that you all know, like Mars, Veterinarians, Zhouetta's,
Speaker 1: Royal Cann just major groups and businesses that are involved
Speaker 1: in pet pet healthcare. There's a lot of bets Harry College.
Speaker 1: So Mark, I gotta ask you, I mean, one of
Speaker 1: the things that really jumps out to me, and as
Speaker 1: has been Uh. Well pointed out by my co host.
Speaker 1: I'm not a current pet owner, but I do have
Speaker 1: an appreciation for pets and have many in my extended family,
Speaker 1: a lot of dog lovers especially. Um. It sounds like
Speaker 1: a lot of excuse to me. But we'll just let
Speaker 1: it go first, Just let it go. Um. But market
Speaker 1: is fascinating to think about sort of the demographic in
Speaker 1: the economics of this, which I know you've studied extensively.
Speaker 1: How does that play through to this this broader industry
Speaker 1: and what does it mean in terms of whose owning pets?
Speaker 1: While we're approaching a hundred billion a year pet industry
Speaker 1: sector in the US and right now you have six
Speaker 1: households getting close to have a pet. So, uh, it's
Speaker 1: a significant percentage. And of all the pets own are
Speaker 1: owned by millennials and gen Z's. The whole transformation of
Speaker 1: pet culture, which my book that Nation covers, began with
Speaker 1: baby boomers, but the children of baby boomers, a lot
Speaker 1: of millennials and Gen Zs have just taken it and
Speaker 1: just surged ahead. And so you're seeing the following. They
Speaker 1: want to spend all the money it takes for pet healthcare.
Speaker 1: They want healthcare delivery for pets at the same level
Speaker 1: they get it as humans. They want designer you know,
Speaker 1: high end nutrition. They want basically care when they can,
Speaker 1: when they want it on demand, and there's really no
Speaker 1: end to what they would like to spend or are
Speaker 1: willing to spend to keep their pet comfortable, to enjoy
Speaker 1: their pet. Years ago, you couldn't couldn't think about that.
Speaker 1: We just had a great Hyundai Christmas had last December,
Speaker 1: if we can remember far ago of five Hundays tall
Speaker 1: too small, lined up and in front of them were
Speaker 1: five dogs position tall to small. The fascinating thing, Jason,
Speaker 1: is that the Hounday executives knew and wanted you to
Speaker 1: look at the dogs, not the cars. So we've reached
Speaker 1: we've reached a point where car executives will spend millions
Speaker 1: of dollars on a thirty second ad and the entire
Speaker 1: purpose is to associate their car brand with a dog. Period.
Speaker 1: No discussion of performance, engine, you know, miles per down,
Speaker 1: you name it. It's all about association with pets. So
Speaker 1: that that whole mindset is a cultural shift, and it
Speaker 1: plays out on the business side. You've got probably sixty
Speaker 1: private equity firms now that are investing directly in practice
Speaker 1: petinity Practice and solidation groups. There were five about six
Speaker 1: years ago, and I get calls weekly from groups saying
Speaker 1: we've got to get into PET because we know how
Speaker 1: thriving and how much of a recession proved it's proven
Speaker 1: to be and I think is now so veterinary practices
Speaker 1: erupt ten from last year during COVID. Yeah, it's that's
Speaker 1: a pretty good sign. Well, and it's you know, it's interesting,
Speaker 1: is I Um, I think about what Danny Blunt flower
Speaker 1: on from Dartmouth and he's walk about economics and as
Speaker 1: I've walked about masked on social distancing during the pandemic
Speaker 1: and just kind of look at, you know, garbage night,
Speaker 1: what kind of boxes people are putting out. There's been
Speaker 1: a lot of chewy boxes like it's but it's interesting
Speaker 1: to you know, you get an idea of what people
Speaker 1: are spending money on as they've been home. Listen. We
Speaker 1: have a bark box that comes in once a month,
Speaker 1: you know, um for our dog and you know, I'm
Speaker 1: happy on counts on it. My dog's waiting for his
Speaker 1: next scout knows when it cuts at the door, you know.
Speaker 1: But but it is interesting what a big business. It's
Speaker 1: become and just seems to get greater. I think you know, Jason,
Speaker 1: we have a market asked Mark. We have a market
Speaker 1: guest that comes on UM and constantly talks about Chewy.
Speaker 1: It's one of her favorite stocks. Well, let me give
Speaker 1: you an example that that you'll particularly appreciate. In Manhattan.
Speaker 1: I don't think any sector has changed itself to accommodate
Speaker 1: pets more and faster than the hotel sector, which is
Speaker 1: being hammered right now and COVID. So I'm I'm not
Speaker 1: trying to pick on them, just the opposite. Years ago,
Speaker 1: you know, no dogs allowed, no pets allowed, that was
Speaker 1: the standard. And you showed up in the four seasons
Speaker 1: and said meet my pappion, they'd say, were you camping
Speaker 1: the night you you're certainly not staying here. UM. Now
Speaker 1: now hotels high end to low end have special floors
Speaker 1: for non pet owners. In other words, the hotels now
Speaker 1: pet friendly, but they will carve out one floor and say,
Speaker 1: non pet owners, this is yours. And you couldn't have
Speaker 1: thought about that two decades ago. And and that's that's
Speaker 1: across the housing sector, it's across the hotel sector. The
Speaker 1: v R b O, Airbnb. All all that is just
Speaker 1: accommodated the fact that people want that's with them and
Speaker 1: even want to take them to work. As you know,
Speaker 1: a study was done in a great study that said
Speaker 1: workers and companies of a hundred employees are more like
Speaker 1: their company better if it's pet friendly, even if they
Speaker 1: don't have a pet. So you don't have a pet, Jason,
Speaker 1: but you like working and you like your boss more
Speaker 1: if it's a pet friendly environment. So that words out
Speaker 1: the Wall Street Journal to a piece two weeks ago
Speaker 1: on petsas perks and has now become a standard employee
Speaker 1: benefit part of your employee package. So you look around,
Speaker 1: you know, we're just finding some piece of this every
Speaker 1: week to you know, to unfold and plug pets in.
Speaker 1: And that's that's interesting. So one thing, you know, Mark
Speaker 1: and Carol brought this up as a concerned pet owner
Speaker 1: and also as a very empathetic human being, uh and
Speaker 1: someone who thinks about the world and thinks about pets especially,
Speaker 1: and this notion that you know, a do people have
Speaker 1: really leaned on their pets during this pandemic. They've been
Speaker 1: at home, they've been working from home. As people go
Speaker 1: back to the office, how much do you worry about
Speaker 1: And I'm not talking about separation as much as candidly
Speaker 1: like neglect. And you know people who have sort of
Speaker 1: adopted a pet for you know, out of some loneliness,
Speaker 1: which is legitimate, but now their life changes or goes
Speaker 1: back a little bit to normal and the pet, the
Speaker 1: dog or cat especially is left behind. Well, the New
Speaker 1: York Times did a piece ten days ago that claimed
Speaker 1: at least that pet owners now when they go back,
Speaker 1: are considering they haven't decided for sure, but they're considering
Speaker 1: buying another pet to keep their current pet company, so
Speaker 1: they're not lonely. Now. Two things about that are Two
Speaker 1: things about that are interesting just quickly. One thing is yeah,
Speaker 1: one thing is bad news. There aren't enough dogs in America.
Speaker 1: How to meet that demand and if thirty percent one out,
Speaker 1: to look the good and find one. But it just
Speaker 1: shows you that people are paying attention to their pet,
Speaker 1: and my sences are not going to neglect them. They're
Speaker 1: going to kind of deal with their home twice a week.
Speaker 1: And that's Mark Cushing, the CEO founding partner of the
Speaker 1: Animal Policy Group. As you said, he has a varied
Speaker 1: corporate and government background, but man pets. It's a massive business.
Speaker 1: He really captures it in this new book. I loved
Speaker 1: catching up with him, and really I learned a lot
Speaker 1: as a non pet owner about everything that's going on
Speaker 1: and all the money you guys are spending on those
Speaker 1: very friends. Well, it's a huge industry and it just
Speaker 1: gets bigger and bigger. And we've seen a lot of
Speaker 1: other big, well known companies, whether it's Mars and some others,
Speaker 1: just upping their exposure to the pet industry. So um,
Speaker 1: so great that we could wrap up with him, and
Speaker 1: that does wrap up the weekend edition to Bloomberg Business
Speaker 1: Week from Bloomberg Radio. Thanks so much for joining us.
Speaker 1: I'm Carol Masser and I'm Jason Kelly. Be sure to
Speaker 1: tune into Bloomberg Business Week Radio. That's our show live
Speaker 1: Monday through Friday, starting at two pm Wall Street Time.
Speaker 1: You can also watch the show live on YouTube. Just
Speaker 1: sir for Bloomberg Global News. And in addition to our
Speaker 1: daily podcast, you should be subscribing download our Business Week
Speaker 1: Extra podcast this week. It features our conversation with the
Speaker 1: writer and creator of the new Netflix series Away. We
Speaker 1: know you're binging out there. This is a good one. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it absolutely is. We'll be back next week at the
Speaker 1: same time. Stay safe, everybody, This is Bloomberg.