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. Over the next couple of hours,
Speaker 1: we're going to bring you some of the most important
Speaker 1: and informative conversations we've had this week on our daily
Speaker 1: radio show. And Jason, let's remind everybody it's week fourteen.
Speaker 1: Working from home for many of us. Even as New
Speaker 1: York City, once the center of the pandemic in the US,
Speaker 1: it continued to reopen along with much of the New
Speaker 1: York metro area. Meanwhile, we saw other states this week
Speaker 1: around the US, we saw their virus numbers go up,
Speaker 1: and some of the headlines crossing the Bloomberg companies cutting workers.
Speaker 1: Industries are still continuing to struggle with the economic shutdown, right,
Speaker 1: and not to mention roiling protests continuing across the country
Speaker 1: and a reckoning of sorts certainly on the front lines
Speaker 1: of corporate America. This is not just a societal problem.
Speaker 1: This isn't just people out marching in the streets. This
Speaker 1: is a real conversation that's happening inside boardrooms at companies.
Speaker 1: We know that we've talked to a lot of people
Speaker 1: about them. Yeah, and our conversations this week, we're really
Speaker 1: full of stark realities. I felt like we continue to
Speaker 1: fight that health crisis. There are many millions out of work,
Speaker 1: and we're still trying to figure out, as you said,
Speaker 1: why racism persists in our world. And Carol, that was
Speaker 1: part of my conversation with TPG founding partner and co
Speaker 1: CEO Jim Coulter. We spent forty five minutes at a
Speaker 1: live event walking through what it is like to invest
Speaker 1: in a new era, and that new era is not
Speaker 1: only about coronavirus, of course, but it's also about a
Speaker 1: new era of corporate responsibility and corporate accountability. Plus, we
Speaker 1: talked with Sports Illustrated executive editor and contributing correspondent for
Speaker 1: CBS sixty Minutes, John Worth, I'm a friend of the show.
Speaker 1: We talked with him Jason on how to westart sports
Speaker 1: in a pandemic Tennessee says pretty easy to do social distancing,
Speaker 1: which may explain why the U s t A said.
Speaker 1: The US Open will happen as scheduled in late summer
Speaker 1: in New York, but it's going to be very different Yeah,
Speaker 1: we're not going to be there, most likely because no spectators.
Speaker 1: Plus another addition of Business Week Talks featuring our conversation
Speaker 1: with Hilton president and CEO Christmas set up right hospitality
Speaker 1: industry still reeling from the virus. First up, though, as
Speaker 1: we mentioned, our conversations this week really full of stark realities.
Speaker 1: We continue, as we know, to be in the thick
Speaker 1: of that health crisis, and we're still trying to figure
Speaker 1: out why racism persists in our world. And we start
Speaker 1: there with our cover story on how quotas can help
Speaker 1: fix the glaring whiteness of America's c suites. We cut
Speaker 1: up with Rebecca Greenfield. She's in charge of diversity coverage
Speaker 1: here at Bloomberg News. Yeah, so, I think you mentioned
Speaker 1: the main problem, which is how few black leaders there are.
Speaker 1: And this is not because they have There haven't been
Speaker 1: a lot of efforts to change the makeup of companies.
Speaker 1: There have been billions of dollars spent and decades of
Speaker 1: trying and companies saying it's in their best interest to
Speaker 1: do this, and both companies one person I quote said so,
Speaker 1: but it's so awesome. They look like plantations. Organizational chart
Speaker 1: looks like plantations and black folks are at the bottom.
Speaker 1: That was a close system I gave me and that's
Speaker 1: the reality and it's and it hasn't changed. So what's
Speaker 1: what When left their own devices, companies aren't really able
Speaker 1: to move the needle. And it's it's because it's a
Speaker 1: very complicated and difficult problem to solve. So like I
Speaker 1: was wondering, if we need something more aggressive or more coercive,
Speaker 1: and quotas are very controversial, but they have been proven
Speaker 1: to work in that capacity, which is to get more representation.
Speaker 1: They don't fix everything, they don't fix racism, but they
Speaker 1: do move the needle more than what companies they are doing.
Speaker 1: And we know, Rebecca, it has helped move the needle
Speaker 1: with women. Correct. Yeah, So there is this law that
Speaker 1: was passed in California UM a couple of years ago
Speaker 1: that where they required boards there to have at least
Speaker 1: one female director UM by last year and then they're
Speaker 1: upping that um depending on the size of the awards.
Speaker 1: So there were there's a quota. They've been sued because
Speaker 1: like Jile engines, quotas are an illegal gray area, but
Speaker 1: it has touched all of these boards of pillow companies
Speaker 1: in California to add women. Um, and they were worried
Speaker 1: that they wouldn't be able to find qualified candidates. But
Speaker 1: at the end of the day they did to comply
Speaker 1: because if they didn't comply, they had to pay are
Speaker 1: thousand dollar fine. Well, and it's interesting, you know, Becky.
Speaker 1: You you also bring up the idea that even talking
Speaker 1: about them maybe spur action. I mean, is that a
Speaker 1: reasonable argument? I mean, what do you think about that? Well,
Speaker 1: I would say that so far, a lot of the
Speaker 1: feedback I think, yeah, them gets a lot of people
Speaker 1: at set because they don't like them. I can tell
Speaker 1: you that from my Twitter mentions gonna turn for the
Speaker 1: worst today. Um. But I think my my motivation for
Speaker 1: making this argument and writing this and thinking about this
Speaker 1: for a long time is that we do need things
Speaker 1: more radical if there's going to be real change, because
Speaker 1: there is a lot of you know, milion mouse or
Speaker 1: what I mean, very well meaning acting in the area
Speaker 1: and it doesn't doesn't do anything right. Um. I think
Speaker 1: it's also rethinking of what the front of action or
Speaker 1: quotas are for. I think some people I told you said,
Speaker 1: we need to rethink it as this way of counteracting,
Speaker 1: well not as like this representation challenge, and that's reporter
Speaker 1: Rebecca Greenfield. As you mentioned at the top, she leads
Speaker 1: all the coverage. She has been unbelievably busy, took some
Speaker 1: time to write this cover. It's the remarks in the
Speaker 1: magazine and takes quotas straight on and really sort of
Speaker 1: ways the benefits and the negatives of doing that, and
Speaker 1: makes some comparisons, some important comparisons to what companies have
Speaker 1: done when it comes to gender. But as she rightly
Speaker 1: points out, nothing gets people charged up like quotas. So
Speaker 1: certainly though something that's being discussed considering some of the
Speaker 1: inequalities that are out there. All Right, you're listening to
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Business Week. Coming up, one of our go to
Speaker 1: voices on the pandemic. We're talking about Dr William hazel Teen,
Speaker 1: he joins us on his new book, A Family Guide
Speaker 1: to COVID. This is Bloomberg Face is Bloomberg Business Week
Speaker 1: with Carol Masser and Jason Kelly from Bloomberg Radio. Well,
Speaker 1: today we're bringing you some of the most important and
Speaker 1: informative conversations we had on our daily Bloomberg Business Week
Speaker 1: radio show this week. And the virus still front and
Speaker 1: center all the inequalities, all the challenges that come from
Speaker 1: trying to fight this disease. Carol right and Jason one
Speaker 1: of the voices that we always look forward to talking
Speaker 1: to about the virus. He understands the healthcare and biotech
Speaker 1: world so well. We caught up again with Dr William
Speaker 1: hazel Teen. He's a chairman and president of Access Health International.
Speaker 1: It's a nonprofit think tank. It's mission is to improve
Speaker 1: access to high quality and affordable health care for people everywhere.
Speaker 1: His latest mission a new book. It's for families. It's
Speaker 1: called a Family Guide to COVID, and it's really to
Speaker 1: help everybody at all different ages talk about the virus. Well,
Speaker 1: I'm looking right now at what's happened in Florida, and
Speaker 1: in many ways it was predictable. It was averaging about
Speaker 1: five hundred, between four and five hundred up to eight
Speaker 1: hundred cases sometimes for about a month and a half,
Speaker 1: and then starting in uh the end of May early June,
Speaker 1: he just started to rise. There were two thousand five
Speaker 1: cases uh and now there may be about two thousand
Speaker 1: new cases. It's pretty serious. And what it means is
Speaker 1: that the precautions the people were taking were eased off
Speaker 1: about two weeks ago, and we're now seeing that as
Speaker 1: spikes and newly diagnosed confections, mostly because people are getting
Speaker 1: uh mild lil or seriously ill. And that's happening in
Speaker 1: many parts of the country. Some other parts, like New
Speaker 1: York City, it's still relatively calm. People in New York
Speaker 1: are really scared and they know it's important to keep
Speaker 1: social distance. But even in New York, it's people are
Speaker 1: beginning to forget. And so, what have we learned about
Speaker 1: our initial response? Doctor haselteen that we can maybe put
Speaker 1: into practice now because there is this I think strong
Speaker 1: resistance on the part of both government leaders and just
Speaker 1: everyday people to go back to a full on shutdown. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I understand that it's uh, that's fully fully understandable and
Speaker 1: m what the way I look at is the following
Speaker 1: We paid a price, but we didn't get the benefit.
Speaker 1: That's because we didn't do it right. We didn't really
Speaker 1: enforced contact racing and mandatory isolation, and people weren't particularly
Speaker 1: observant all all the people weren't observant about the precautions
Speaker 1: they were urged to take, so we never cleared the
Speaker 1: infection like a number of other countries did or reduce
Speaker 1: it down to a very manageable level of say a
Speaker 1: half a dozen, five six in the whole country. We
Speaker 1: just didn't do that, and so we we paid a price,
Speaker 1: but we didn't get a benefit. The net result is
Speaker 1: we're now going to end up in a different situation,
Speaker 1: which is I call it back to the future. When
Speaker 1: I was born seventy five years ago, it was right
Speaker 1: on the cusp of the vaccine and antibiotic miracles. Before
Speaker 1: that time, people lived with the understanding that death could
Speaker 1: strike them at any moment. Even I remember polio, I
Speaker 1: remember being terrified a rheumatic fever. Those are things we
Speaker 1: couldn't control. And in fact, we built America. We built
Speaker 1: the world in a world without vaccines and in the
Speaker 1: world without antibiotics. But you pay a price that we're
Speaker 1: beginning to understand, and that price is death is at
Speaker 1: your shoulder at all moments. And it seems that we're
Speaker 1: willing to adapt to that. We've adapted in the past,
Speaker 1: we'll adapt again. We have exiting the time at least
Speaker 1: for now, where we have a free ride and don't
Speaker 1: have to worry about dying of an infectious disease tomorrow. Wow. Okay, So,
Speaker 1: so how do we do this? Because you know, you're right,
Speaker 1: you know, we're kind of in this interesting situation. And yes,
Speaker 1: history has shown us we can forge ahead and we
Speaker 1: can you know, build society. But there is a cost
Speaker 1: to it. So as we reopen, do we do it?
Speaker 1: You will pay the price? Yes, we do do it.
Speaker 1: I I happen to agree. We don't have any choice
Speaker 1: because Americans seem to be undisciplined and we don't have
Speaker 1: either the leadership, the governments or the government apparatus that
Speaker 1: we need. We need leaders that are clear, consistent, credible,
Speaker 1: and compassionate. We need government governance that works, and we
Speaker 1: need a public health service very much like an army
Speaker 1: that has unitary command from the top to the bottom.
Speaker 1: When the president says it's up to the governors, he's right.
Speaker 1: He doesn't have a tool he can use like he
Speaker 1: can use the military abroad. We don't have that tool.
Speaker 1: When the governor say it's up to the municipalities in
Speaker 1: the cities. I live in New York, and you can
Speaker 1: see the tension between the governor and the mayor, and
Speaker 1: the mayor might even in some places as the county
Speaker 1: leader may say it's up to the local authorities. We
Speaker 1: don't have unitary command in public health service. If there's
Speaker 1: a lesson we learned from this, we need unitary command
Speaker 1: to protect us internally as we do externally. Our biggest
Speaker 1: threats in my lifetime have not come from abroad. They've
Speaker 1: come from diseases within our own country, whether it was
Speaker 1: HIV age or where there was a number of other
Speaker 1: diseases polio that I can remember. Right, those are the
Speaker 1: big threats, and we're not prepared for those like we
Speaker 1: are prepared for external threats. Right. That's Dr William Hasletine.
Speaker 1: He's the chairman and president of Access Health International. And
Speaker 1: I do think Jason, when we finished our conversation with
Speaker 1: him during the week, we both were like, WHOA, We're
Speaker 1: still in the thick of it. That's exactly right. And
Speaker 1: I think he reminded us that this is affecting lots
Speaker 1: of different people and that depending on what age you
Speaker 1: are and depending on your perspective, you may have different questions.
Speaker 1: He also reminded us that this is fast moving. Is
Speaker 1: so one of the things I really like about this
Speaker 1: book is it does exist in paper. You can get
Speaker 1: it but it also gives you access to a website
Speaker 1: because the questions and the answers they're always changing, right,
Speaker 1: And I also thought one of the takeaways and he says,
Speaker 1: we need kind of a huge public health service in
Speaker 1: place on the scale and operational level of the military
Speaker 1: if we really really want to get ahead of the virus.
Speaker 1: And he says, we don't really have that in place.
Speaker 1: You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week. Coming up, we go
Speaker 1: to the intersection of the two crises that we are
Speaker 1: constantly talking about, the health crisis and racial justice. We
Speaker 1: catch up with the CEO and co founder of Incredible Health.
Speaker 1: It's an important conversation. This is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Business Week with Carol Masser and Jason Kelly from Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 1: We're bringing you some of the most important and informative
Speaker 1: conversations we had on our daily radio show throughout the week.
Speaker 1: We caught up with Dr Iman Abuse. We had spoken
Speaker 1: with her a few weeks back. Carol, she's the CEO
Speaker 1: and co founder of Incredible Health. Initially back in the
Speaker 1: day and back a few weeks ago, we had caught
Speaker 1: up about essentially how hospitals are being staffed. She has
Speaker 1: a new model to really match nurses into the healthcare system.
Speaker 1: We wanted to talk to her about some different things,
Speaker 1: this time about diversity in healthcare and also her personal
Speaker 1: experience being a black founder. We did a pretty detailed
Speaker 1: nurse impact study and discovered that two percent of the nurses,
Speaker 1: only two percent of the nurses stelt at their hospitals
Speaker 1: were very prepared. And what a lot of the hospitals
Speaker 1: have been have been spending their time doing in the
Speaker 1: last couple of months is getting a soft pile of
Speaker 1: personal protective equipment and also getting their infection control protocols
Speaker 1: in place so it's safer um for so it's safe
Speaker 1: for patients to come back. Right. This is a business
Speaker 1: model question to some extent. I wonder it though, Why
Speaker 1: in an area that's so known for innovation and at
Speaker 1: least outwardly forward thinking, why this lesson hasn't been learned
Speaker 1: earlier around Silicon Valley. Yeah, I mean, look that the
Speaker 1: statistics are bad. You know, less than one percent to
Speaker 1: venture capital goes to black founders, even though we're starting
Speaker 1: over ten percent of the company's UM. I think there's
Speaker 1: two challenges there. One is just making it actually making
Speaker 1: it a priority UM and believing that the problem is real.
Speaker 1: And then the first the second is, you know, the
Speaker 1: solutions are more around investors expanding their networks so they're
Speaker 1: more diverse and so they're able to source better deal
Speaker 1: flow that way. And then the second is like looking
Speaker 1: at the bias and that's that's going on in the
Speaker 1: actual diligence process. Honestly, it compares a lot to what
Speaker 1: operators do as well when we're hiring. UM, when we're
Speaker 1: hiring and we're looking to hire a diverse team, we
Speaker 1: do have to look at our sourcing as well as
Speaker 1: the actual interview process itself to make sure we end
Speaker 1: up with a diverse team or in the case of investors,
Speaker 1: a diverse portfolio. Right, you need to have a focus,
Speaker 1: You have to have a concerted effort. You have to
Speaker 1: know that this is what you want to do right
Speaker 1: to get it done, absolutely, and I think that's probably
Speaker 1: the biggest piece. It's missing making it a priority, having
Speaker 1: a gold hied to it, making someone accountable to it.
Speaker 1: Someone's performance evaluation is going to be tied to it,
Speaker 1: you know. And and once you do that UM, as
Speaker 1: a leader and especially as the CEO, then then change
Speaker 1: starts to happen internally, right, because that's what you know,
Speaker 1: We've had so many conversations and we wonder, so what's
Speaker 1: different this time around? This is not a new problem, right, Um,
Speaker 1: it's been going on for a long time. Do you
Speaker 1: have hope that something changes dramatically in terms of diversity
Speaker 1: and you know, getting rid of racism in our society?
Speaker 1: I mean, this is the first time in my lifetime
Speaker 1: that I've seen non black communities heavily involved and engaged
Speaker 1: and enraged by the topic. And the media attention on
Speaker 1: it is also very high as well. So I'm hopeful
Speaker 1: that there will be some permanent changes. Um. That's you know,
Speaker 1: it's long past two, right, and so you know, back
Speaker 1: to incredible health for for a minute. I mean, how
Speaker 1: does that play through your own business model? Because I
Speaker 1: believe the last time you were with us, you were
Speaker 1: talking about this issue of you know, diversity across the
Speaker 1: healthcare spectrum and especially dealing in this pandemic which has
Speaker 1: been ultimately very uh discriminating in its own way against
Speaker 1: you know, people of color, people from lower socioeconomic bounds.
Speaker 1: How are you seeing it play out in your business?
Speaker 1: And and uh and through this crisis. Yeah. So Incredible
Speaker 1: Health out of Score is a software platform, and so
Speaker 1: there's a couple of ways where it plays out. First
Speaker 1: is that when it's when it comes to building the
Speaker 1: actual software itself. UM, we do have to keep in
Speaker 1: mind that we are building it for a very diverse population.
Speaker 1: Over twenty percent of nurses help identify as minorities, and
Speaker 1: so we do have to take things into accounts such
Speaker 1: as UH features that remove bias and hiring UM. You know,
Speaker 1: like we remove the current locations for example of nurses
Speaker 1: because we noticed that employers were discriminating on based on
Speaker 1: simply based on location. Another thing we do is we
Speaker 1: provide salary calculators to all the nurses on our platform
Speaker 1: and career coaches. Because UM minorities are usually they don't
Speaker 1: negotiate as hard or not as aware of what their
Speaker 1: salaries should be. And so we really do build features
Speaker 1: and products that make, you know, reduce the amount of
Speaker 1: discrimination that's happening. And that's Dr Iman Abuse joining us
Speaker 1: from San Francisco, the co founder and the CEO of
Speaker 1: Incredible Health, and I really appreciated her candor Carol, her
Speaker 1: sharing her experience with us both as a person as
Speaker 1: a really well educated, successful person who still faces some
Speaker 1: of the systemic racism that is in Silicon Valley, but
Speaker 1: also she faces it on behalf of her company all
Speaker 1: the time and dealing with this question of diversity within
Speaker 1: the health care system. Well, remember, she's one of a
Speaker 1: small number of venture backed female black founders in the
Speaker 1: health tech sector, so she is in a unique position
Speaker 1: to not only look at of course what's going on
Speaker 1: in the virus, but also racism in America and being
Speaker 1: a black corporate leader. She really, I feel like um
Speaker 1: gave us some great insight into all of that, and
Speaker 1: she also notes Jason that diversity isn't just a moral
Speaker 1: and human rights issue, it's also about building a better business.
Speaker 1: So really gave us some wonderful perspective. You're listening to
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Business Week. Coming up my conversation with TPG founding
Speaker 1: partner co CEO Jim Culture. He usually talks about the
Speaker 1: year ahead in November, but we had to get a
Speaker 1: reboot bond that that's coming up. That's exactly what it was.
Speaker 1: This is bloombergs is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser
Speaker 1: and Jason Kelly from Bloomberg radio. Well, today we're bringing
Speaker 1: you some of the most important and informative conversations we
Speaker 1: had on our daily radio show this week and even
Speaker 1: beyond the radio show. Carol, you know, we always like
Speaker 1: to mix it up, we do. And Jason, you had
Speaker 1: a great conversation this week. It's part of a Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Live virtual event called the Year Ahead Revisited, Investing in
Speaker 1: a New Era event, and you caught up with Jim
Speaker 1: Coulter because usually at the end of the year, right
Speaker 1: you talk about with him what's to come in the
Speaker 1: coming year. We'll here you did halfway through a reboot
Speaker 1: because this year is not turning out like everyone expected,
Speaker 1: not at all. And I was very grateful to him
Speaker 1: for doing this because basically went to him a few
Speaker 1: weeks ago, and this was even before the killing of
Speaker 1: George Floyd and all the racial protests and all the
Speaker 1: racial reckoning and social reckoning that has ensued, and I said, look,
Speaker 1: the world is so different from what we talked about
Speaker 1: in November. Would you consider this reboot as you said?
Speaker 1: And he was very gracious, and you know, was able
Speaker 1: to really get real with me and our massive audience
Speaker 1: on this to let them know how an investor, but
Speaker 1: also how a business leader is thinking about all these conversations.
Speaker 1: So twenty seven years ago, Jason, when we began building TPG,
Speaker 1: we realized, as well as building an investment firm, we
Speaker 1: were building a really interesting front row seat for the
Speaker 1: world of business. So if you look inside our ecosystem today,
Speaker 1: over two companies across twenty nine different countries, twelve different sectors,
Speaker 1: more than a billion dollars of revenue, and we're in
Speaker 1: the boardroom of those companies watching the challenges they faced.
Speaker 1: In addition, we write almost ten thousand pages a year
Speaker 1: of things called investment memos. Think of them as research,
Speaker 1: and so we challenged ourselves to from time to time
Speaker 1: pick our head up from the individual investments and see
Speaker 1: what the ecosystem is telling us about the world. We
Speaker 1: began sharing that privately with our investors, and somewhere along
Speaker 1: the way, I'm not quite sure how you did it,
Speaker 1: you convinced me to do this publicly, and here we are,
Speaker 1: And I have to say part of the inspiration for
Speaker 1: this was candidly me thinking about you and thinking what
Speaker 1: you must be going through in your own mind and
Speaker 1: with your team. You know, it's also interesting for me
Speaker 1: to think about, and as we kick off this idea
Speaker 1: that even when you and I conceive this a couple
Speaker 1: of months ago, this this refresh, the world has become
Speaker 1: a very different place. And I would love for you
Speaker 1: to to set the table, if you can, by talking
Speaker 1: about these dual crises that that we're facing, you know,
Speaker 1: one that we've been in for a number of weeks,
Speaker 1: now number of months, but one that's a little more recent.
Speaker 1: Let's start, if we can, on this question of racial justice,
Speaker 1: because I know it's something you've thought about, and I
Speaker 1: know that TPG is talking about and that you're talking
Speaker 1: to that huge uh sort of rolode start, not even Rolodex,
Speaker 1: but you know the partners that you have around the world.
Speaker 1: A lot has changed since were together in November. A
Speaker 1: number of the trends we're talking about, the rise of
Speaker 1: subscription businesses, corporate responsibility are continuing apace. But clearly, when
Speaker 1: the history of the year is written, it will be
Speaker 1: about two issues that have shaped the first half of
Speaker 1: the year, and I think those two issues are likely
Speaker 1: to drive the year ahead. The coronavirus we're all beginning
Speaker 1: to build our understanding on, but much more recent is
Speaker 1: the racial justice movement, and quite frankly, Um, I hesitated
Speaker 1: to talk about it today. It still feels early. It
Speaker 1: still feels like a moment that we're all dealing with
Speaker 1: the pain of the murders of Ray Schard, Brooks, Mond Aubrey, George, Floyd,
Speaker 1: Brinn and Taylor, and we're still in the middle of
Speaker 1: I think a societal and personal journey, particularly for people
Speaker 1: like you and I, Jason, who I had the privilege
Speaker 1: of growing up in a country as a white male.
Speaker 1: But I knew you'd ask your reporter, So let me
Speaker 1: just share a few early thoughts about where I think
Speaker 1: we are and how it might shape the year ahead. Uh.
Speaker 1: There are many many words that we could use, but
Speaker 1: I think it it may be best just to start
Speaker 1: with pictures. Um, it feels different this time, thirty undred
Speaker 1: cities of protests, and if you go into these pictures,
Speaker 1: you see a racially the first group of people engaged
Speaker 1: in it. Only two years ago, fort of people were
Speaker 1: backing the Black Lives Matter movement. Today, seven out of
Speaker 1: ten white Americans say that racial injustice is a major
Speaker 1: problem for the country. These protesters were not deterred by
Speaker 1: a global pandemic. They were not deterred by tear gas
Speaker 1: in Washington, tornadoes in Florida, and the depth and breadth
Speaker 1: of what we're seeing I think speaks well to how
Speaker 1: it will shape the world ahead. One of the pictures,
Speaker 1: quite frankly, the really impacted me was this is no
Speaker 1: longer just the US issue. It's an issue that has
Speaker 1: grabbed the global attention, both reflecting upon the US and
Speaker 1: reflecting on broader issues within the world. So as I
Speaker 1: look at where we traveled so far and the world ahead,
Speaker 1: I think we're in the midst of a social and
Speaker 1: political revolution that's likely to be expressed in many ways.
Speaker 1: The question we also have to engage on as will
Speaker 1: it be expressed in the business and investment world. And
Speaker 1: here I think I'm beginning to see a birth of
Speaker 1: a bit of optimism and a bit of action that
Speaker 1: I'm I have to say, I wasn't expecting to see
Speaker 1: as fast, and I'm gratified to see that it is moving.
Speaker 1: One of the cultural bell weathers I always looked to
Speaker 1: Jason are the sports, UH teams and Hollywood, and some
Speaker 1: time they give you a sense of how the world
Speaker 1: is going to engage in an issue. And here the
Speaker 1: news is frankly, nothing short of gratifying and amazing the NFL,
Speaker 1: which was only that Colin Kaepertick took a knee. Think
Speaker 1: about what's happened since then, and in the immediate one,
Speaker 1: it's moved to the right side of this issue. The
Speaker 1: idea that NASCAR would ban the Confederate flag from its
Speaker 1: events is it was a distant thought not too long ago.
Speaker 1: And one of the things I love if you look
Speaker 1: at the announcement here, Jason, the presence of the Confederate
Speaker 1: flag small C Confederate traditionally has been large c delegating
Speaker 1: not only the flag but the Confederacy to the place
Speaker 1: it belongs to go. And the Premier League, perhaps the
Speaker 1: most coveted advertising space and sports is Premier League Jersey.
Speaker 1: What's on there now? Black Lives Matter. So we're beginning
Speaker 1: to see the early signs of engagement through some of
Speaker 1: the cultural icons of the world. But the question is
Speaker 1: isn't going to spread? And here again Cautious Green shoots
Speaker 1: three points I'd make. First of all, we have a
Speaker 1: little bit of an inside view of this because we
Speaker 1: own a company called ever five, which is the number
Speaker 1: one producer of software on everything from D and I
Speaker 1: training to ally ship UH to unconscious bias. They also
Speaker 1: produce software that is resetting the teaching of African America
Speaker 1: in history. And when we look inside that company I
Speaker 1: was talking to see over the weekend, we are seeing
Speaker 1: a doubling and tripling of inquiries from companies. So companies
Speaker 1: are understanding they can't just speak externally about this. They
Speaker 1: need to get their own house in order. So first
Speaker 1: of all, we're seeing early evidence of companies changing their
Speaker 1: internal practices. Second, companies are stepping forward in a public way,
Speaker 1: and they're stepping forward with their pocket book. UH. Fortune
Speaker 1: one hundred has already, according to Actio, has done a
Speaker 1: billion six of pledges led by Bank of America. And
Speaker 1: so we're seeing engagement at a level we haven't seen before.
Speaker 1: And the third area, and this is in some ways
Speaker 1: I think the most important is our business is really
Speaker 1: going to change their business practices to reflect this. And
Speaker 1: again early green shoots the pent pledge, the idea of
Speaker 1: putting fifteen percent of your shelf space into African American
Speaker 1: brands and companies Amazon, Microsoft often IBM have stopped selling
Speaker 1: facial recognition software as day Lauder is changing their hiring
Speaker 1: practices and committing to reflect the world makeup in their
Speaker 1: in their workforce, not just their historical makeup. And the
Speaker 1: third thing I would point out is yet to be seen,
Speaker 1: but again I'm hopeful, is will consumers engage. Because we
Speaker 1: can get society to engage, businesses to engage, in consumers
Speaker 1: to engage, it will build the foundation of what's happening here.
Speaker 1: While in no way drawing equivalency. Over my career, I've
Speaker 1: seen time time where consumers have picked up social issues
Speaker 1: and expressed that in their buying patterns. We saw that
Speaker 1: in the clean food movement, where organic grew to new
Speaker 1: levels as people expressed their desire to change how we
Speaker 1: eat as Americans. More recently, sustainable products of all sorts
Speaker 1: have really become the consumer choice CpG growth over the
Speaker 1: last few years have been in sustainable products. There any
Speaker 1: percent of consumers say that they will spend more for
Speaker 1: a green product. So as we look forward on the
Speaker 1: racial justice, will consumers also express their desire here? We're
Speaker 1: seeing early evidence of that. Recent polls showed that seventy
Speaker 1: percent of consumers said that they would reconsider their purchasing
Speaker 1: habits from a company if the CEO didn't speak up
Speaker 1: on this matter. So if we can get all of
Speaker 1: these flywheels working society, business, consumer behavior, I think that
Speaker 1: the year ahead will be deeply shaped by this moment
Speaker 1: in this movement. That's TPG co CEO and founding partner
Speaker 1: Jim Coulter and what I love Jason. You guys talked
Speaker 1: about everything, obviously what's been going on in the last
Speaker 1: thirteen fourteen weeks, uh, and of course you delved into
Speaker 1: our investment environment and kind of where we are. He
Speaker 1: like so many others, are telling us we're at a
Speaker 1: time where we're going to see a lot of changes
Speaker 1: in industries that have happened because of the virus, but
Speaker 1: it sticks around longer, whether it's fitness, whether it's education,
Speaker 1: whether it's healthcare. And that was part of just a
Speaker 1: forty five minute, uh conversation. So if you want to
Speaker 1: check out the whole thing, just go to Bloomberg. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I really enjoyed catching up with Jim. It was a
Speaker 1: nice way to sort of reset my mind a little
Speaker 1: bit about where we're going, and also to be reminded
Speaker 1: that for big investors and big executives there is opportunity
Speaker 1: in disruption. Well that wraps up the first hour of
Speaker 1: the weekend edition of Bloomberg Business Week from Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 1: I'm Jason Kelly and I'm Carol mass are planning coming
Speaker 1: up in our next hour, We're gonna go inside the
Speaker 1: magazine looking at how for black CEOs in technology, humiliation
Speaker 1: is part of doing business. It's not a new reality, Jason. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: it's an enduring one and a reminder of the many
Speaker 1: things that still need to change across this country. This
Speaker 1: story really knocked us back, and Sarah McBride told it
Speaker 1: so well. That's coming up, plus another edition of Business
Speaker 1: Week Talks featuring conversation with Christmas Seta about a year
Speaker 1: on from the company's one anniversary. He is the ling
Speaker 1: like all of us, with an unprecedented landscape. He's the
Speaker 1: President CEO of Hilton Worldwide. This is Bloomberg. You're listening
Speaker 1: to Bloomberg Business Week from Bloomberg Radio. Hello. I'm Carol
Speaker 1: Masser and I'm Jason Kelly. Today we're bringing you some
Speaker 1: of the most important, we hope informative conversations we had
Speaker 1: on our daily Bloomberg Business Week radio show across the week,
Speaker 1: right and conversations that were happening. As we know, the
Speaker 1: news continued to change around us. Now. One of the
Speaker 1: guests that we caught up with is Everett Sands. He's
Speaker 1: the founder and CEO of le Industry. It's a fintech company.
Speaker 1: It's a company that focuses on learning to very small businesses,
Speaker 1: especially those owned by minorities, women and veterans. And I
Speaker 1: really felt like he is another one of those voices
Speaker 1: that helped open up kind of our eyes to what's
Speaker 1: going on in America. Yeah, looking forward to hearing that
Speaker 1: one back. Plus another edition of Business Week talks our
Speaker 1: conversation with Hilton Worldwide President and CEO Christmas Seta for stuff. Though,
Speaker 1: let's go inside the magazine. It's a story that kididly
Speaker 1: is hard to read. It's about black CEOs in technology
Speaker 1: and the fact that humiliation, well that is part of
Speaker 1: the job. We caught up with reporters Sarah McBride, Well, um,
Speaker 1: it's just a sad state of affairs another way, whereas
Speaker 1: Silicon Valley is disappointing this time when it comes to
Speaker 1: African American founders. I with my colleague Crea a Non
Speaker 1: reported a story where it was just jaw dropping the
Speaker 1: number of anecdotes we heard from black founders and how
Speaker 1: they've just been subtly and not so subtly mistreated every
Speaker 1: step of the way in ways that white founders never
Speaker 1: have to think about. Yeah, I mean, and and it's interesting, Sarah,
Speaker 1: because what you guys do a really nice job of
Speaker 1: the industry. And I have to say, it's one of
Speaker 1: those stories that you have to read it and as
Speaker 1: you're reading it, it's actually hard to read in something
Speaker 1: it's horrifying in in a lot of cases, and and
Speaker 1: sort of embarrassing in a lot of ways to think about, um,
Speaker 1: because it is anecdotal through your story, but also appears
Speaker 1: to be systemic. This is not sort of these one
Speaker 1: off things that that are happening. I mean, this is
Speaker 1: constantly happening right. In fact, one founder who I talked
Speaker 1: to who isn't in the story, basically told me she
Speaker 1: was insulted that it's so well documented the racism in
Speaker 1: Silicon Valley. She asked me, why do I even still
Speaker 1: have to talk to you to explain how racist Silicon
Speaker 1: Valley is? Can't we move behind beyond the anecdotes and um,
Speaker 1: the founder that was the lead of the story will
Speaker 1: hate as somebody I met at a dinner maybe five
Speaker 1: or six years ago, and his story he just stuck
Speaker 1: with me all those years, and um, when this moment came,
Speaker 1: I knew it was the time to approach him and
Speaker 1: asked if he'd go on the record with it. And
Speaker 1: he's somebody who's run a company listed works for many years,
Speaker 1: and has raised many venture rounds for the company, and
Speaker 1: one of his key aids is for many years with
Speaker 1: his white marketing head, and whenever they went to a
Speaker 1: meeting together, very often the investor would just assume his
Speaker 1: marketing head was the CEO and reach out their hand
Speaker 1: to him first and shake the wrong guy's hand and
Speaker 1: say hi, Will. And they said it was horrifying that
Speaker 1: it also became funny when it happened. You know, they
Speaker 1: had dozens and dozens of times over the years. I
Speaker 1: spoke to both of them in the end, and um,
Speaker 1: they said that if that happened, if the meeting got
Speaker 1: off on that foot, there was just no recovery and
Speaker 1: they would never raise money from that venture firm because
Speaker 1: the VC would realize the mistake and just be so
Speaker 1: mortified that they would want to end the meeting as
Speaker 1: quickly as possible, and there was never a check written
Speaker 1: from any of those firms. He Will told me about
Speaker 1: one time he raised a one hundred million dollar round
Speaker 1: last year where he was sitting in a meeting. The
Speaker 1: investor had made that mistake, and Will was five or
Speaker 1: ten minutes into his presentation and the investor interrupted and said,
Speaker 1: you know, I just wanted to say again, how very
Speaker 1: sorry I am that I made that mistake, which told
Speaker 1: Will that the investor had heard nothing for the previous
Speaker 1: ten minutes. He's just been so embarrassed. Um, it's just
Speaker 1: an unpleasant situation when you're forced to deal with your
Speaker 1: own racism, and certainly for the founder, not conducive to
Speaker 1: raising any money. And that's reporter Sarah McBride and Carol
Speaker 1: I have to say. When I read this story, and
Speaker 1: even as we were talking to Sarah, I just thought,
Speaker 1: I can't believe this. I mean, this is really stunning. Yeah,
Speaker 1: really important story, Jason, and she noted in her story
Speaker 1: about the racial makeup of VC very similar to the
Speaker 1: rest of the tech industry, with about three percent of
Speaker 1: investment partners at VC firms being black. I do want
Speaker 1: to put out one positive note though. In her story
Speaker 1: she talked about tech companies vcs. They're really responding in
Speaker 1: recent weeks with messages of solidarity, and they've also contributed
Speaker 1: more than three million dollars um are made investments towards
Speaker 1: minority groups. So they really, I think, are trying to
Speaker 1: make it better. But they've got a long way to go.
Speaker 1: They have a long way to go, and I feel
Speaker 1: like one of the things I took away from that
Speaker 1: story was all of the unconscious bias that is built in,
Speaker 1: you know, and I feel like maybe we're not talking
Speaker 1: as much as we should about that because the specific
Speaker 1: anecdotes about, you know, a black CEO walking in with
Speaker 1: his white employee and the VC going to the white
Speaker 1: employee and basically introducing himself and assuming that he was
Speaker 1: the CEO, and the implications of that, the idea that
Speaker 1: basically that meeting never gets back on track and an
Speaker 1: investment doesn't happen, And so it's insidious in many ways,
Speaker 1: and I think a really important thing for us all
Speaker 1: to be thinking about. You're listening to Bloomberg business Week
Speaker 1: coming up, the CEO of Lendustry on the importance of
Speaker 1: lending money to minority owned small businesses. This is Bloomberg.
Speaker 1: You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and
Speaker 1: Jason Kelly from Bloomberg Radio. We're bringing you some of
Speaker 1: the most important and informative conversations we had throughout the
Speaker 1: week on our daily radio show, covering a lot of
Speaker 1: subjects Jason, but of course front and center, yes, the virus,
Speaker 1: but also the continued protests over racism across the country.
Speaker 1: And I felt like so many of our conversations Carol
Speaker 1: really met at that nexus and really illustrated something that
Speaker 1: we've been talking about for the last few weeks, which
Speaker 1: is this crisis. Both of these crises ultimately have a
Speaker 1: massive economic component, and that was at the core of
Speaker 1: our conversation with Everett Sance. He's the founder and the
Speaker 1: CEO of Lendustry. They work with small businesses, mostly minority
Speaker 1: owned businesses, and one of the things they're doing is
Speaker 1: helping them navigate all the relief that's being put out
Speaker 1: by the government. Here's what he had to say. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think the first thing we want to do is
Speaker 1: kind of look at how we how those businesses entered
Speaker 1: um the COVID, you know, the COVID of pandemic situation. Right. So,
Speaker 1: I mean minority owned businesses were already in financially curious
Speaker 1: positions before the start of before the start of the pandemic. Um.
Speaker 1: And now what we're seeing is okay, closures kind of
Speaker 1: national average. Then you jump up to h for Latino
Speaker 1: and forty one percent for African American. This is the
Speaker 1: study out of University of California, right. Um. But the
Speaker 1: problem is is that it's just been devastating for so long.
Speaker 1: Access to capital has been an issue for so long.
Speaker 1: And then when you look at some of the programs
Speaker 1: that have been pushed forward. Let's take PPP for example.
Speaker 1: Historically SPA has only done three percent of its lending
Speaker 1: to African Americans. Um. And so the thought process might be, well, Okay,
Speaker 1: here's this new program. It has no collateral, it's it's
Speaker 1: a it's going to give you a forgivable loan. And
Speaker 1: you know you have African Americans coming in and saying, wait,
Speaker 1: I don't know anyone that's ever been a proof for
Speaker 1: sp A. The last time I try to get a
Speaker 1: proof for sp A, I got declined. The banks that
Speaker 1: I need to go to are the banks that have
Speaker 1: also declined me to get this loan, and I know,
Speaker 1: by the way, the process has come frosome. I don't
Speaker 1: really know that there's going to be a forgiveness process
Speaker 1: that I'm going to be able to accomplish. I mean,
Speaker 1: let's just stop for a second loan and forgivable or
Speaker 1: forgivable loan don't even go together in a sentence, by
Speaker 1: the way. Um And then when you also think about it,
Speaker 1: it's like, Okay, the money is going to run out,
Speaker 1: so I gotta have all my paperwork together. The money
Speaker 1: is going to run out immediately, and I'm going to
Speaker 1: deal with something that I already tried in the pass
Speaker 1: and I have no peers that have been able to
Speaker 1: accomplish it. So that's the problem. Um. And And so
Speaker 1: an entity like industry is constantly working on the solution,
Speaker 1: which is trying to help change that narrative. What really
Speaker 1: does change that narrative, what makes the biggest difference and
Speaker 1: gives these you know, gives those individuals who have been
Speaker 1: forgotten in the financial system, you know, an opportunity. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean, first of all, I heads off to the
Speaker 1: government in the administration because they have definitely tried to
Speaker 1: make some concrete changes. Last night was our nineteenth change. UM,
Speaker 1: so I think that they're definitely trying, but I think
Speaker 1: from our prospective of industry, there's some near term, some
Speaker 1: middle term and long term solutions. But the near term
Speaker 1: is we've got to get them back off the sideline.
Speaker 1: We've got to raise the flag, sound low alarms and
Speaker 1: say the positive alarms, right the bells. Maybe it's a
Speaker 1: better word that there is a hundred and twenty billion
Speaker 1: dollars left. The process has gotten easier, and the forgiveness
Speaker 1: process is being worked on. UM. We also have some
Speaker 1: suggestions that can make it even better, where we would say, hey,
Speaker 1: let's take the loans at a hundred thousand dollars and below,
Speaker 1: and let's just make them forgivable really really simple, one
Speaker 1: page application with certifications to the bar. The second thing
Speaker 1: we would encourage is an extension of the program. It's
Speaker 1: going to take a lot longer to rebuild the hope
Speaker 1: within the African American bars. I mean, you can't go
Speaker 1: sixty days saying jump in line, we're gonna give you
Speaker 1: this sp A loan and expect bars to react really quickly,
Speaker 1: especially after what happened around one. So one of the
Speaker 1: things we think is Let's let the community development financial institutions,
Speaker 1: the minority deposit institutions, and the CDCs also called mission
Speaker 1: based lenders, let them have until September thirty have to
Speaker 1: keep working on this bar. It doesn't hurt the economy
Speaker 1: for them to keep going in any way, shape or form.
Speaker 1: So let's get to the long term here, because they're
Speaker 1: big structural issues. We've talked about them. Uh, what does
Speaker 1: the government? What does the private sector need to do?
Speaker 1: You first? Yeah, so I think great question, Jason, you know,
Speaker 1: mid term kind of right now. One of the things
Speaker 1: that really look at is that one of the really
Speaker 1: important features of the Cares Act has nothing to do
Speaker 1: with p P p H. A considerable amount of money,
Speaker 1: a minimum of one on a quarter billion dollars who
Speaker 1: was given to each state based on population. States got
Speaker 1: more money than the one in a quarter and several
Speaker 1: of those states have taken a portion of that money,
Speaker 1: and they said, we're going to give grants to small
Speaker 1: business owners. Lindustries actually in contracts right now are in
Speaker 1: conversations with one large state where we're going to release
Speaker 1: a nine figure some to those states to that state
Speaker 1: small business owners. When you think about how to help
Speaker 1: small businesses, it's always a combination of equity and debt UM,
Speaker 1: so that would be obviously the equity portion. The other
Speaker 1: thing we're looking at is all SBA loans approved between
Speaker 1: now in September six months of principle and interests will
Speaker 1: be paid by s b A. So if you got
Speaker 1: a loan September one, the first payment will be April one.
Speaker 1: And so we want to help small business owners have
Speaker 1: that combination of patient capital, equity and debt so that
Speaker 1: they can restart and continue on their businesses and hopefully
Speaker 1: thrive beyond that. Is there a case that the money
Speaker 1: is there through the government relief program, certainly for minority
Speaker 1: owned businesses UM, and they just need some help in
Speaker 1: getting access to it, and we need the system to
Speaker 1: be a little bit more simpler. You know, it's a
Speaker 1: great question. I think part of it is when you
Speaker 1: think about access, which is what we know. Common theme
Speaker 1: has always access to capital. One of the things we've
Speaker 1: tried to do with Lineasters we've tried to partner with
Speaker 1: financial institutions. So we have fourty different financial institutions that
Speaker 1: we partner with. For example, of p p P, we
Speaker 1: partner with Goldman Sacks They've been an amazing partner. They
Speaker 1: don't do small business lending. So part of it is
Speaker 1: as financial institutions, we've got to say, Okay, what am
Speaker 1: I good at and where can I find a partnership
Speaker 1: that can deploy the capital um to all business owners?
Speaker 1: And yes, and with intentionality around minority business owners. So
Speaker 1: you know, there might be a financial institution that says
Speaker 1: I'm going to focus on home ownership, Well, they're going
Speaker 1: to need help with small business or vice verstart right
Speaker 1: or student loans or other things that have affected underserved communities,
Speaker 1: underserve borrowers, small business owners. I do think there's some
Speaker 1: other things that could also be done, which is we
Speaker 1: could look at banks, for example, and we can say,
Speaker 1: let's just let's give them double regulatory credits. So Community
Speaker 1: Reinvestment Act, let's give them double regulatory credits if they
Speaker 1: either deploy this capital or they partner with a mission
Speaker 1: base linder that deploys the capital. And that's industry CEO
Speaker 1: Everett Sands. This was a really important conversation and a
Speaker 1: callback for sure, Carol to the conversation we had a
Speaker 1: few weeks ago that you and I keep going back
Speaker 1: to w John Hope Bryant the idea that there are
Speaker 1: some systemic structural economic elements to this, to this social
Speaker 1: justice movement that we really need address well. And he
Speaker 1: reminds us too that there's so much room to still
Speaker 1: make up in terms of the injustices and equalities in
Speaker 1: our financial system when it comes to people of different colors.
Speaker 1: We need to understand. I love this point that he
Speaker 1: made that we will make mistakes as we go along.
Speaker 1: That's key to the process and it's okay, and it's
Speaker 1: how we all get better. You're listening to Bloomberg business Week.
Speaker 1: Coming up, Sports Illustrated Executive editor John Worth, iim on
Speaker 1: bringing back sports in a pandemic. We're gonna talk tennis.
Speaker 1: We are, and we're gonna lament the fact that we
Speaker 1: won't see him at the US Open, but it was
Speaker 1: good to catch up with him and get his perspective.
Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with
Speaker 1: Carol Masser and Jason Kelly from Bloomberg Radio. Well, today
Speaker 1: we're bringing you some of the most important, we hope
Speaker 1: informative conversations we had across the week on our Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Business Week Daily radio show. Yeah, and this is a
Speaker 1: guest we love talking with Jason. We're talking about John
Speaker 1: worth On, executive editor for Sports Illustrated, attributing and correspondent
Speaker 1: for CBS sixty Minutes, and we caught up with him
Speaker 1: to talk about professional sports, how they're looking to get
Speaker 1: back to business. But what's interesting is we had to
Speaker 1: talk about tennis because the U s t A came
Speaker 1: out this week and they said, Yep, the US Open.
Speaker 1: It's going to take place like it always does in
Speaker 1: Flushing Meadows at the Billy Jean King National Tennis Center
Speaker 1: as scheduled in late August, but big difference. There's not
Speaker 1: going to be any fans. We're all sort of cautiously
Speaker 1: optimistic and a little ambivalent, and it's it's great that
Speaker 1: the tennis micro economy will be restarted in some of
Speaker 1: these players who haven't earned a dime since, you know,
Speaker 1: since February and March can make some prize money. But
Speaker 1: it's going to be a very very different US Open,
Speaker 1: and that all sort of presupposes that we don't see
Speaker 1: some unpleasant trends in COVID. I mean, I think everybody
Speaker 1: is a little ambivalent here. Well, I feel like just
Speaker 1: on the educational side. We've been watching like some of
Speaker 1: the you know, Ivy League institutions way in you know,
Speaker 1: how do you open in the fall. We've been waiting
Speaker 1: for some of the iconic stars of tennis, and we
Speaker 1: did get a story are Jillian Tan Serena Williams said
Speaker 1: she will or she plans to participate in the US Open,
Speaker 1: and that was that that I was told was was
Speaker 1: pivotal that this is being driven by television dollars and
Speaker 1: Roger Federer's injured her his knee, and a lot of
Speaker 1: players are in Europe and have expressed some real uh
Speaker 1: uneasiness with crossing an ocean and coming to the US.
Speaker 1: And Serena Williams, who does not have to cross an ocean,
Speaker 1: and is uh your sister turned forty today and Serena's
Speaker 1: almost thirty nine. Um she has indicated she is willing
Speaker 1: to play, and I was told that that went a
Speaker 1: long way towards enthusiasm and this event is going to happen.
Speaker 1: They're not gonna have as many stars as they did
Speaker 1: last year, but they've They've got Serena and that's a
Speaker 1: good starting place and it is very significant if if
Speaker 1: Serena Williams says, I'm gonna make like Federer and I'm
Speaker 1: gonna sit this one out. Maybe I'll see in one.
Speaker 1: I don't know if we are having the same conversation. Really, Yeah,
Speaker 1: that makes an interesting point. Um, a minute ago before
Speaker 1: we do some news, John, what do you think what
Speaker 1: jumps out at you as other than not having fans
Speaker 1: as the most radically different thing either for the players
Speaker 1: or for those watching. Um, you know, for for the
Speaker 1: sake of this broadcast, I will say that the US
Speaker 1: Open makes, you know, hundreds of millions of dollars, and
Speaker 1: a lot of that is driven by sponsor dollars. And
Speaker 1: it will be interesting to see not just fans, but
Speaker 1: no one in the suites, no one in the the
Speaker 1: hospitality villages. Um. There there is a huge sort of uh,
Speaker 1: you know, a lot of revenue. There's a lot of
Speaker 1: scene at the US Open. Has nothing to do with tennis.
Speaker 1: That's for you know, it's for hospitality and entertainment that's
Speaker 1: not going to be there. The fact that there is
Speaker 1: enough money in television a loan to pay the prize
Speaker 1: money and then presumably make the financials work, tells you
Speaker 1: a lot about a media dollars these days, but also
Speaker 1: what percent of the revenue sup years we're getting in
Speaker 1: previous years, um, which is not going to look favorably
Speaker 1: compared to other sports. We're here with John worth On,
Speaker 1: executive editor for Sports Illustrated, special correspondent of course for
Speaker 1: CBS sixty minutes. John, what do you see coming back
Speaker 1: elsewhere in the sports world? Um, it's a great question.
Speaker 1: I think a lot of this depends on labor relations.
Speaker 1: A lot of this depends on what season it is,
Speaker 1: whether there's international travel. I mean, the NBA is still
Speaker 1: talking about having this sort of bubble season in Florida.
Speaker 1: Baseball is unclear whether baseball will return given nothing to
Speaker 1: do with co only ten gentially having to do with COVID,
Speaker 1: It's it's sort of the same labor stripe that's plagued
Speaker 1: baseball for for decades. Golf is back. Um, some of
Speaker 1: this is about the sport itself. Well, you know, when
Speaker 1: to tennis, one thing it's got going for it is
Speaker 1: you've got two players separated by a net and yards apart.
Speaker 1: They're socially distanced. They're also getting on planes from all
Speaker 1: over the world. College sports may not have international trail BOWLD,
Speaker 1: but you also have the issue of sort of unpaid labor.
Speaker 1: When you when you hear about a style Ohio State
Speaker 1: football players, for example, who have to sign waivers about
Speaker 1: getting COVID, it makes us uneasy. So Ever, every sport
Speaker 1: sort of has its own set of challenges and uh,
Speaker 1: it's going to bring you know, We're we're learning a
Speaker 1: lot about labor economics, We're learning a lot about risk reward,
Speaker 1: We're learning a lot about how sports are governed and
Speaker 1: which unions have cloud It's really in some ways that
Speaker 1: someone who covers sport, it's really exposed a lot of
Speaker 1: the things that we don't often see exposed. That's John Worthime,
Speaker 1: executive editor for Sports Illustrated, really interesting to hear what
Speaker 1: he had to say about Serena Williams that if she
Speaker 1: didn't sign on for the US Open, maybe it wouldn't
Speaker 1: be happening. Jason absolutely, Well, we know that this is
Speaker 1: a star driven business in way ways, and so yes,
Speaker 1: Serena signing on, especially with the absence of Federer. He
Speaker 1: has taken himself out of the season owing to that knee.
Speaker 1: We don't know what it's going to be like though
Speaker 1: the U s Open. And he also was able to
Speaker 1: give us some nice perspective on their sports and all
Speaker 1: the question marks around that well, and so many of
Speaker 1: the question marks have to do with what he said.
Speaker 1: We're learning a lot about labor economics because union and
Speaker 1: labor issues and negotiations are often what's determining how, when
Speaker 1: and if sports of all kinds ultimately come back. So
Speaker 1: a little bit of an economic lesson there as well.
Speaker 1: You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week. Coming up business Week Talks.
Speaker 1: Our latest edition features the conversation with Hilton President and
Speaker 1: CEO Christmas set Up. This is Bloomberg. You're listening to
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Jason Kelly from
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Radio. It's time for another edition of Bloomberg Business
Speaker 1: Week Talks. And in this edition we welcome back someone
Speaker 1: we've talked with Jason before. It's Christmas Seta. He's the
Speaker 1: president CEO of Hilton Worldwide Holdings. And we know how
Speaker 1: many times we talked throughout the week about the travel industry.
Speaker 1: It's ten of the global economy and it is getting
Speaker 1: being hit on so many different fronts, and leisure travels,
Speaker 1: business travelers. They're not going to come back for a
Speaker 1: long time. They're not and that was clear from what
Speaker 1: he said. I mean, he's an naturally optimistic guy, but
Speaker 1: this is a business that is really facing a massive reckoning.
Speaker 1: Check it out. I'm saddened by everything that's going on.
Speaker 1: And this is something that as you can imagine, in
Speaker 1: a in an industry and in a company that is
Speaker 1: incredibly diverse, this is this is a huge issue. This
Speaker 1: is Diversity is not a new thing for us. You know,
Speaker 1: We've been focused in this area for a long long
Speaker 1: time and and been recognized for number two Diversity inc
Speaker 1: um ranking in the United States for for diversity um
Speaker 1: But the reality is um as is depicted by what's
Speaker 1: going on, you know, right here in my hometown of Washington.
Speaker 1: You know, I could literally hear the protests going on
Speaker 1: from my house and explaining to my children, two of
Speaker 1: whom both in New York and Washington, ended up in
Speaker 1: the march, you know, to or their black friends in
Speaker 1: the in this process, this is a sad day for America.
Speaker 1: And I think we've had many of these side sad
Speaker 1: days over the years and in recent years, and I
Speaker 1: think to your to your point in the question, it's
Speaker 1: high time we do something about it, that we not
Speaker 1: just talk about it, but that we act upon it.
Speaker 1: And that means that collectively, as a society and as
Speaker 1: a country, as we think about reform, we need to
Speaker 1: think about this and we need to do something about it,
Speaker 1: including the criminal justice system. And that means each and
Speaker 1: every one of us um that has that, that our
Speaker 1: leaders across a broad range of industries, we need to
Speaker 1: even if we were we were focused on it, and
Speaker 1: even if we were, as is the case with Hilton,
Speaker 1: recognized for it, we have to recognize we have never
Speaker 1: done enough. Given what is going on and what we're seeing,
Speaker 1: what is abundantly clear is there is so much more
Speaker 1: to do, and so, like everything for me and for Hilton,
Speaker 1: it's about trying to be a constructive part of the solution.
Speaker 1: And so you know, we are very I've been communicating
Speaker 1: like crazy with all of our team members, including our
Speaker 1: black team members, all around the country. The stories I've
Speaker 1: been hearing our heart wrenching that they're pouring their hearts
Speaker 1: out about the impact, you know, throughout their life that
Speaker 1: racism has had on them. There's obviously no place in society,
Speaker 1: no place in in in our industry, and no place
Speaker 1: in our company for racism, and so as a company,
Speaker 1: as much as we've been focused on it, there is
Speaker 1: so much more that we can do at all levels
Speaker 1: of our company to create more opportunities for our black
Speaker 1: team members. And that means at the very top of
Speaker 1: the ecosystem as we think about and already we're thinking
Speaker 1: about our border directors, to the lowest levels of the company,
Speaker 1: and to make sure that we're creating opportunities and a
Speaker 1: feeder system to to develop up our teammates in the
Speaker 1: in the black community in a way where they can
Speaker 1: have bigger and better opportunities. And so as they say,
Speaker 1: this is something we were focused on, Okay, but I
Speaker 1: don't want to rest on our laurels and the fact
Speaker 1: that we were ranked number two, and that's not good enough.
Speaker 1: I think for everybody, every leader, I think that the
Speaker 1: messages um we we obviously have not done enough, and
Speaker 1: that as society, as business leaders, as political leaders, we
Speaker 1: need to use this moment to rally for change and
Speaker 1: not have it be like it has honestly been in
Speaker 1: a number of other cases in recent years where we
Speaker 1: talk there's a burst of activity and then we go
Speaker 1: back to to uh, you know, back to where we
Speaker 1: were well. And Chris, this is obviously coming at a
Speaker 1: time when you are listening and thinking about your business
Speaker 1: and probably the most existential and holistic way that you
Speaker 1: ever have. And you've been in this business for a
Speaker 1: long time. If you think thirty seven years, believe right,
Speaker 1: I would have said, did you start when you were five?
Speaker 1: What happened? Chris? Oh? I thank you, Carol. That's very
Speaker 1: kind of you, know, I didn't. I'm older than you think.
Speaker 1: All the gray hairs that I that I have and
Speaker 1: a lot more than in ninety days and I had
Speaker 1: had before. Exactly what's the biggest, single thing that's going
Speaker 1: to change about travel? I think here's the thing I think, guys,
Speaker 1: when you wake up And you may think I'm being apollyon,
Speaker 1: and I'll answer the question. I think when you wake
Speaker 1: up in three years, okay, I think travel it's hard
Speaker 1: to see it right now, like it was hard to
Speaker 1: see it after nine eleven. In the in the wake
Speaker 1: of that, I think travel and the experience in a
Speaker 1: hotel will look a lot more like it did ninety
Speaker 1: days ago than it does now. Okay. And now it
Speaker 1: looks like there's not many people in the hotels. You
Speaker 1: see people in ppe um, social distancing, you know, unbelievable.
Speaker 1: You know, hygiene protocols like our deal with a saw
Speaker 1: in the Mayo Clinic to provide hospital cleanliness standards, etcetera.
Speaker 1: Some of that stuff will will go on and and
Speaker 1: some of it, you know, we'll we'll reverb back to normal.
Speaker 1: What will be different, you know, in my mind is
Speaker 1: things that were already happening will accelerate. Okay. So example,
Speaker 1: we've made and we talked about it last year when
Speaker 1: we were together, huge investments in technology. And I'm not
Speaker 1: just saying it because we've made these investments, uh to
Speaker 1: promote Hilton, that's my job. But but I'm saying because
Speaker 1: I think it will be broadly what you find in
Speaker 1: the industry. There are things with technology, the digitization of
Speaker 1: of our business that we're happening, but we're happening at
Speaker 1: a relatively slow pace, and I think many of those
Speaker 1: things will the adoption rate to the expansion of the
Speaker 1: digitization and the speed of that happening will excel accelerate
Speaker 1: like crazy. So example, we've already rolled out to almost
Speaker 1: every hotel in the world digital check in, digital room selection,
Speaker 1: and digital key so on your Hilton Honors app you
Speaker 1: can have you already could have had contactless entry. So
Speaker 1: for our Hilton Honors members, about a third of the
Speaker 1: people used it. Um I. You know, when we have
Speaker 1: customers that are coming back in the hotels, you will
Speaker 1: see mass adoption of that, and then people won't go back.
Speaker 1: It'll be like a cash flow machine was, you know,
Speaker 1: thirty five years ago, where everybody, you know, once it
Speaker 1: got adopted, people realize, wow, this is easy, this is seamless.
Speaker 1: Why wouldn't I do this? You know, other technologies like
Speaker 1: how you run everything in the room, we call it
Speaker 1: Connected room, how you run temperature, how you run lighting,
Speaker 1: how you run your audio visual um all of that
Speaker 1: which we developed in a proprietary technology called Connected Room,
Speaker 1: and we're rolling out not as extensively as Digital key.
Speaker 1: You will see that demand for that, an adoption of
Speaker 1: that accelerate. I do believe you also see hygiene standards,
Speaker 1: while they were really good in the industry already, by
Speaker 1: the way Mayo Clinic was was was sort of shocked
Speaker 1: at how good we already were when we when we
Speaker 1: sat down with them to figure out what to do.
Speaker 1: There's no reason why you won't see those higher, higher standards.
Speaker 1: But it's digitization will accelerate because I gotta ask you,
Speaker 1: because people are like, you know, tweeting at me and
Speaker 1: messaging me. I've got to ask you because you said
Speaker 1: it's going to be you know, three years from now,
Speaker 1: Well it'll look a lot like you know, more like
Speaker 1: it did you know ninety days ago, right pre COVID
Speaker 1: in terms of kind of the travel industry, the hotel
Speaker 1: industry coming back. But you know, what, what are you
Speaker 1: seeing so far? I mean, how robust pick up and
Speaker 1: travel do you expect based on any of the advanced
Speaker 1: booking data that you're seeing. And I'm also curious about
Speaker 1: about business travel. Yeah, well, I think you know, there's
Speaker 1: three big segments in our business. There's leisure, transient, business transient,
Speaker 1: and then group business. You know, the vast majority of
Speaker 1: our business, well of our business relates to business related travel,
Speaker 1: either groups or business trems, and of it is what
Speaker 1: you would think of as leisure travel. Most people don't
Speaker 1: think about that, but that's sort of the breakdown of
Speaker 1: of our business. And what we're seeing is significant recovery okay,
Speaker 1: but still um very significantly off of any sort of
Speaker 1: historical standards. So I'll give you put put some basic numbers.
Speaker 1: I think at the bottom, system wide occupancy for us
Speaker 1: in uh in eight in in May would have been
Speaker 1: you know, like ten or twelve percent, two or three
Speaker 1: times better than it was. But to keep that in perspective,
Speaker 1: we finished last year with an average occupancy of almost
Speaker 1: seventy okay, so it is meaningfully devastatingly um lower than
Speaker 1: where it was. But you are seeing a slow grind
Speaker 1: and the way it's happening, which is fairly typical by
Speaker 1: the way and other a their declines, it's leisure first,
Speaker 1: it's business, and then it's group and right now what
Speaker 1: we're really seeing is predominantly growth and leisure. So like
Speaker 1: Memorial Day weekend, we had markets near beaches and you
Speaker 1: know where people want to get out. We had hotels
Speaker 1: that we're at capacity, the lower capacity because of distancing
Speaker 1: than normal, but as much capacity as we can handle.
Speaker 1: But business travel has not really come back in earnest
Speaker 1: because most people still aren't back in their offices and
Speaker 1: allowing people to travel. And that's Chris Is said of
Speaker 1: the president CEO of Hilton Worldwide. Good to catch up
Speaker 1: with him. He's an optimistic guy. As we said, and
Speaker 1: yet and yet the travel business is going to take
Speaker 1: a long time to recover well. And as we say,
Speaker 1: we uh, you know, do this show that the news
Speaker 1: is happening around us as we have these interviews. And
Speaker 1: after we talked with Chris, Hilton, Worldwide came out and
Speaker 1: said it's cutting nearly its corporate workforce globally, so we're
Speaker 1: talking about coporate employees. It's also extending its corporate pay cuts,
Speaker 1: reduced hours and furloughs for up to three more months.
Speaker 1: So they are continuing to have to pair back their
Speaker 1: industry because Jason, it's really simple. The demand is just
Speaker 1: not there and they just don't know when it's going
Speaker 1: to come back. And that wraps up the weekend. Addition
Speaker 1: to Bloomberg Business Week from Bloomberg Radio, thank you so
Speaker 1: much for joining us. I'm Jason Kelly and I'm Carol Masser.
Speaker 1: Be sure to tune into Bloomberg Business Week Radio live
Speaker 1: Monday through Friday starting at two pm Wall Street time.
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Speaker 1: search for Bloomberg Global News. And in addition to our
Speaker 1: daily podcast, download our Business Week Extra podcast this week
Speaker 1: as well, featuring our conversation with comedian Paul Riser. It's
Speaker 1: not just a comedian man. He's an actor, he's an author,
Speaker 1: he's a writer. If you follow his Twitter feed, he's
Speaker 1: certainly watching what's going on the world around us. But
Speaker 1: just like us, Jason, he is working from home. Yeah. True,
Speaker 1: multi hyphen it. It was definitely one of our favorite
Speaker 1: conversations of the week. We'll be back right here next
Speaker 1: week at the same time. This is Bloomberg