Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Quick Takes Tim Stinovic from Bloomberg Radio. Well, just about
Speaker 1: an hour ago, we saw President Biden signing the roughly
Speaker 1: one trillion dollar Infrastructure Bill into law. Part of the
Speaker 1: spending bill we know, tim includes an expansion of access
Speaker 1: to broadband internet. Charlie Vote is CEO of DCS. It's
Speaker 1: a company that designs, develops, and manufactures communications network equipment
Speaker 1: for telecom operators and enterprises. He joins us on the
Speaker 1: phone from plain Oe, Texas. Charlie, great to have you
Speaker 1: with us this afternoon. What are what do you at
Speaker 1: DCS ink see from this infrastructure bill. Well, first of all,
Speaker 1: thanks for having me on, and certainly it's a great
Speaker 1: opportunity for the entire industry to achieve Biden's goal of
Speaker 1: providing affordable broadband for everyone and inching us a bit
Speaker 1: closer to building one century from a broadband perspective, so
Speaker 1: we're pretty excited. Well, what does the Infrastructure Bill or
Speaker 1: in law essentially do, specifically when it comes to giving
Speaker 1: um wider broadband access to Americans as it will it
Speaker 1: really move the needle in your view? Well, I mean,
Speaker 1: there's been many studies, you know, several years ago that
Speaker 1: we anticipated that would take about eighty billion dollars to
Speaker 1: deliver broadband everywhere. And when you look at America, there's
Speaker 1: about thirty million Americans that have either no broadband or
Speaker 1: very limited broadband. And in broadband, you know sort of
Speaker 1: UH mapped in in this sort of category of having
Speaker 1: less than three megabits of of up speedies in meg
Speaker 1: down and and now with the new guidelines, UH, service
Speaker 1: buyers are going to have to enable a hundred mag
Speaker 1: down in twenty meg up, which is which is still
Speaker 1: slow relative to what most of US and major potent
Speaker 1: markets are available. And specifically when you look at what
Speaker 1: companies like DCS are offering, you know, some of the
Speaker 1: large tier ones today. So tell us about about DC yes,
Speaker 1: and specifically how you work in different cities around the
Speaker 1: country in order to bring broadband to Americans. So we
Speaker 1: UH we deliver the core edge broadband access technology to
Speaker 1: the service providers as well as provide in home WiFi technology.
Speaker 1: So we we deliver fiber access UH to homes and
Speaker 1: businesses not only here but around the world. We're in
Speaker 1: about seventy countries around the world. But we've been very
Speaker 1: active for the last twenty years and delivering services here
Speaker 1: in the United States, and I can I can speak
Speaker 1: volumes this this bill speaks volumes too. I think the
Speaker 1: opportunity to provide services where it's fundamentally just been too expensive.
Speaker 1: I mean, the construction costs to dig up streets and
Speaker 1: deliver fiber access to direct homes has has frankly been
Speaker 1: one of the most inhibited costs. Is that a necessary
Speaker 1: costs for when we think about the future and when
Speaker 1: we think about getting these Americans access to broadband? After all,
Speaker 1: Elon Musk is able through Starlink to get broadband to
Speaker 1: people all over the United States and indeed even in
Speaker 1: some parts of the ocean, as he was tweeting about
Speaker 1: over the weekend. Uh So, is it is this really
Speaker 1: the right way for to deliver broadband access in this
Speaker 1: day and age? Well, I would tell you the answers. Yes,
Speaker 1: I mean we we've been delivering you know, subspeed broadband,
Speaker 1: you know, using legacy copper for the last twenty five years.
Speaker 1: But if you truly want to get to a place
Speaker 1: where consumers and businesses can enjoy the mega trends that
Speaker 1: we're seeing from you know, just simple high def video collaboration,
Speaker 1: video gaming. That's that's taking on new heights. You know,
Speaker 1: you've got augmented virtual reality, You've got megaverts that Facebook
Speaker 1: is promoting. You know, the Internet of things is growing
Speaker 1: in and when you look at all these challenging bandwidth
Speaker 1: required services, you know, to to really be able to
Speaker 1: keep up with uh these services. Uh, we believe um
Speaker 1: that fiber based broadband is the only way that consumers
Speaker 1: are really going to get the services that they want.
Speaker 1: And the services that you know, consumers are able to
Speaker 1: get through satellites that you've been referred to are still
Speaker 1: very limited, you know, che I mean, Charlie, I'm sure
Speaker 1: that you've seen some of the research out there, and
Speaker 1: that is, you know about of adults with incomes below
Speaker 1: thirty dollars a year report not having home broadband services
Speaker 1: in comparison to about seven percent of adults with household
Speaker 1: earnings over a hundred thousand dollars a year. Low income,
Speaker 1: elderly populations, people of color, those who live in rural
Speaker 1: and tribal areas disproportionately likely to lack broadband access. We've
Speaker 1: seen this research come out from Brookings and others. UM,
Speaker 1: are those the people that you think ultimately will get served. Well,
Speaker 1: I think they will. And you know, as part of
Speaker 1: the sixty billion dollars, I think there's fourteen billion dollars
Speaker 1: that's being allocated as financial support for those in needs.
Speaker 1: So I do believe that this bill is you know,
Speaker 1: is achieving both the infrastructure aspects of it, which you
Speaker 1: know there's forty two billion that's going towards infrastructure and
Speaker 1: and you know there's other funds being allocated to support
Speaker 1: those in need. And so I look, I mean I've
Speaker 1: been in this industry for thirty years. We've never seen
Speaker 1: anything like this, and I think this is a great
Speaker 1: step forward. Uh. Does it get us all the way there,
Speaker 1: We'll see, but it certainly is a really good start.
Speaker 1: What what does this mean now for your company specifically? UH,
Speaker 1: in terms of business, I'm just curious. Well, it certainly
Speaker 1: is going to help fuel not only existing service writers,
Speaker 1: but I think that there's a new breed of service
Speaker 1: for writers that based on technology and technology that's available today,
Speaker 1: UM is going to enable new companies and opportunity to
Speaker 1: provide you know, communities and and UH residents around the
Speaker 1: United States an opportunity to get services where they weren't
Speaker 1: in the past. So for us, it's a certainly an
Speaker 1: opportunity for our existing customers to get financial support to
Speaker 1: accelerate the pace at which they would have historically not
Speaker 1: you know, taken on this challenge just because of the
Speaker 1: cost structure. And then I think there's going to be
Speaker 1: a lot of new fiber over builders that you're going
Speaker 1: to see also participate. Hey, Charlie, I do wonder are
Speaker 1: you guys already thinking about hiring an expansion plans just
Speaker 1: to meet maybe the greater demands of the infrastructure spending
Speaker 1: on this We are and in fact, you know, as
Speaker 1: you probably know, we trade on the nastack and I
Speaker 1: get a lot of questions from analysts and shareholders about,
Speaker 1: you know, our spend and where our spend has been
Speaker 1: this year, and and we have been investing you know,
Speaker 1: at a at a much higher pace in one and
Speaker 1: and we certainly anticipate, you know, that is going to
Speaker 1: give us the same opportunity like like many in our industry.
Speaker 1: And our backlog is up three times what it was
Speaker 1: this time last year. So, uh, you know, if we
Speaker 1: if we can successfully navigate you know, the world of
Speaker 1: getting semiconductor chips um you know that that I think
Speaker 1: is the real question here is is you know this
Speaker 1: is this is designed to be deployed over the next
Speaker 1: five years. And I think you know what gets us
Speaker 1: somewhat comfortable is that you know the process will probably
Speaker 1: take hold over the next six months, you know, from
Speaker 1: a filing perspective, and then you look at the awards
Speaker 1: that will probably take place in the latter part of
Speaker 1: two and that means that you know, deployments will start
Speaker 1: in our view, and I think that's about the time
Speaker 1: we believe that the chip shortage will will begin to alleviate.
Speaker 1: All right, that's a really important point and I'm glad
Speaker 1: you brought that up. Uh. He's the president CEO of
Speaker 1: dz S. Charlie Vote, joining us on the phone from Plano, Texas.
Speaker 1: We mentioned last week about female NBA enrollment hitting a
Speaker 1: record high for the school year. That staff the results
Speaker 1: of some research that was released on Friday by the
Speaker 1: Forte Foundation. It's a nonprofit working to create gender equity
Speaker 1: and business. So great to have joining with us. Forte
Speaker 1: Foundation CEO Alyssa Sankster. She's on the phone in Austin, Texas. Alyssa.
Speaker 1: Good to have you here on Bloomberg Radio. Tell us
Speaker 1: a bit about the work you guys did, and then
Speaker 1: the results you found. Sure, so, we look every year
Speaker 1: at women's enrollment in full time NBA programs, and this
Speaker 1: year what we found was that three schools had actually
Speaker 1: reached gender parody UM and that was George Washington University,
Speaker 1: University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, and Johns Hopkins University's Kerry
Speaker 1: School of Business. But overall, these numbers for all of
Speaker 1: our schools had gone up from thirty nine percent last
Speaker 1: year to this year. Wait, okay, let me let me
Speaker 1: take a step back here, because when Caroline I talked
Speaker 1: about this last week, it was our Bloomberg Business Week
Speaker 1: by to the day, and we were both shocked that
Speaker 1: we're not even close to parody, even though this is
Speaker 1: a record. Let's start with what those three schools that
Speaker 1: you mentioned are doing to get to gender parody and
Speaker 1: then go into why there is still a lack of
Speaker 1: gender parody. Sure, So, you know, we first started tracking
Speaker 1: this UM back in earlier and gotsh two thousand five
Speaker 1: the number was around twenty percent. And so what we've
Speaker 1: been monitoring over the last couple of decades is how
Speaker 1: that's tracking toward purity. And it's a slow going It
Speaker 1: takes usually a half percent one percent up and then
Speaker 1: it will take a step back. And depending on how
Speaker 1: the economy is going. Um, sometimes NBA enrollments are counter
Speaker 1: to that, and so you never know exactly how it's
Speaker 1: all gonna play out. But the things we know are
Speaker 1: that women need we need more women in that pipeline,
Speaker 1: and in order to make that happen, you need to
Speaker 1: be talking to women more earlier in the pipeline, and
Speaker 1: you need to also be able to make sure that
Speaker 1: they are ready to go and ready to apply to
Speaker 1: the business school. So, um, we're just going to continue monitoring,
Speaker 1: and it is shocking that it's taking us this long,
Speaker 1: especially when law and medicine were there back in the
Speaker 1: early two thousand's. Well, the other thing though I always
Speaker 1: think about to listen, we talked about this women generally,
Speaker 1: where men and women like coming out of undergraduates in general,
Speaker 1: like in uh, you know, early programs, training programs, whether
Speaker 1: it's on Wall Street now, so where they tend to
Speaker 1: like track fairly equally. It's then when you start to
Speaker 1: get into the higher positions that something comes undone and
Speaker 1: whether it's women pop out of the workforce to have
Speaker 1: kids or the perception of them in the workforce that
Speaker 1: they will ultimately pop out to have kids. Like, there's
Speaker 1: things that just go on dynamics are also not having
Speaker 1: a sponsor someone to really kind of watch out for
Speaker 1: you and move you along, or men just wanting other
Speaker 1: men because they relate best to other men. Uh, there
Speaker 1: are just some things that it feels like still need
Speaker 1: to be dealt with. There are, and I think that
Speaker 1: this is one of the levers that we can pull,
Speaker 1: and that is reaching gender parity in the classroom and
Speaker 1: NBA programs because those are key pathways into those business
Speaker 1: leadership positions. But you're right, that doesn't mean the work
Speaker 1: is done. That means that we have to depend on
Speaker 1: our companies to be tracking and measuring performance, setting gold
Speaker 1: for their managers about how they are investing and um
Speaker 1: engaging with their employees and building them into the next
Speaker 1: leaders that they want to promote and so um there's
Speaker 1: a lot of work that companies have to do once
Speaker 1: those women enter the workforce in making sure that the
Speaker 1: environment and the landscape for their future leadership is being
Speaker 1: monitored and established. So what's the thing that holds women most?
Speaker 1: Holds them back the most because they can come out
Speaker 1: of you know, getting an m B A. But I
Speaker 1: do wonder what are you hearing from the work that
Speaker 1: you guys are doing that holds women back the most
Speaker 1: when it comes to really getting to those senior positions.
Speaker 1: What is it? UM? I think it's we often hear
Speaker 1: that you leave a job because of a manager, not
Speaker 1: because the company. And I think that companies, UM would
Speaker 1: be uh, it would be good for companies to focus
Speaker 1: a lot on how they're training those managers and how
Speaker 1: they are setting those goals. Like I said, UM, I
Speaker 1: think that the environment in the landscape was really built
Speaker 1: by men for men a long time ago, and so
Speaker 1: we are trying to adapt and change, um the workforce
Speaker 1: and it's a much more diverse workplace now, so companies
Speaker 1: have to really monitor and track that. Okay, Well, speaking
Speaker 1: of monitoring and tracking. According to Catalyst it's a global
Speaker 1: nonprofit UH as of August of one, only thirty positions
Speaker 1: of CEO at SMP five companies were held by women,
Speaker 1: So that's just six percent of companies in the SPI
Speaker 1: were held by women. Help us understand the path from
Speaker 1: a graduate education in business and NBA to the executive
Speaker 1: ranks and when we will start to see more gender
Speaker 1: parity in the executive ranks as a result of what
Speaker 1: we're seeing at the NBA level right. And when we
Speaker 1: first started, there really was one CEO at the time
Speaker 1: when for Tape began, and so we we've definitely seen
Speaker 1: some improvement there one woman ceo UM and we've seen
Speaker 1: some improvement there. Again, it's slow going and there are
Speaker 1: a lot of steps that have to happen between graduate
Speaker 1: business education and the c suite and UH. It can
Speaker 1: be opportunities, it can be assignments, it can be domestic
Speaker 1: or global, it can be the number of reports. It's
Speaker 1: all kinds of different experiences, and it's taking risk and
Speaker 1: and stepping out there and saying I want the job.
Speaker 1: So I think on the side of the companies, they've
Speaker 1: got to be UM giving these opportunities to the leaders
Speaker 1: that they want to see at the top in ten
Speaker 1: twenty years. And the women and the men have to
Speaker 1: say what do we want leadership to look like? And
Speaker 1: they have to take those steps and they have to
Speaker 1: raise their hand and say I want to go forward
Speaker 1: and be a leader. Um. I think there's a lot
Speaker 1: of work being done right now to create those opportunities,
Speaker 1: and so i'm I'm I'm not sure we're going to
Speaker 1: solve it, um in you know, the next twenty years
Speaker 1: necessarily been improvement. I know. Oh my god, how long
Speaker 1: have we been talking about this? A long time? A
Speaker 1: long time? And you've seen movement on boards, right, You've
Speaker 1: seen the board numbers really change and shift. It's just
Speaker 1: that in the c suite, especially at that CEO position,
Speaker 1: that's one position out of all the positions, and so
Speaker 1: it's hard to um make gender equity happen in in
Speaker 1: those positions. But it wasn't a lot of group progress
Speaker 1: on boards. Well, Alissa, has the pandemic set women back?
Speaker 1: Maybe I'm asking the obvious question, because we certainly have
Speaker 1: seen stories that say yes, indeed they have. And I
Speaker 1: thought it was interesting. At the beginning of the pandemic,
Speaker 1: we thought this was going to be a great equalizer
Speaker 1: because everybody was working at home and it could be
Speaker 1: easier on women, and yet it hasn't turned out that way, right.
Speaker 1: I think I think what maybe made things easier at
Speaker 1: work made things more difficult at home, and so having
Speaker 1: to balance everything that was going on in your home life,
Speaker 1: if you had children or others in the household with you.
Speaker 1: I think that women took on, as they often do,
Speaker 1: a larger amount of that work. And so where we've
Speaker 1: seen it impact, I think, you know, in terms of
Speaker 1: across the ECONO me, I think definitely women had challenges.
Speaker 1: I don't think we saw NBA women leaving their jobs
Speaker 1: necessarily getting laid off, But I do think that the
Speaker 1: challenge now will be getting back to normal. And if
Speaker 1: we are going to go back into this post pandemic
Speaker 1: work style, how are we going to make sure that
Speaker 1: those at home who are working from home remotely taking
Speaker 1: advantage of flexible opportunities are actually included and thought about
Speaker 1: as in the same way that those who are back
Speaker 1: in the officer thought about. Lissa, what's the message for
Speaker 1: the top NBA programs around the country. It's something that
Speaker 1: we look at really closely at Bloomberg and at Business Week,
Speaker 1: and I'm wondering what the takeaway is from this survey
Speaker 1: about how can they can get to gender parody. I mean,
Speaker 1: where does it start. Does it start at the dean level,
Speaker 1: does it start at the faculty levels? Do they need
Speaker 1: representation there. Um, yeah, they definitely need representation at the
Speaker 1: faculty level. And I think paying attention to the role
Speaker 1: models that you put up in front of the classroom
Speaker 1: is important. I think thinking about the inclusive inclusivity of
Speaker 1: your campus and looking at what's happened in the classroom
Speaker 1: and um, knowing what kind of cases are being taught.
Speaker 1: Are their female protagonists, Are you bringing in women leaders, Um,
Speaker 1: are you making sure that women are heard in the
Speaker 1: classroom and that their perspective is also valued and shared
Speaker 1: with the rest of their classmates, And that the men
Speaker 1: are learning as much from the women as the women
Speaker 1: are from the men. So I think all of those
Speaker 1: things are important, and I think deans have their eye
Speaker 1: on this, and I think that's why you've seen a
Speaker 1: significant improvement in the last five years around these numbers,
Speaker 1: and we are starting to see purity in the classroom.
Speaker 1: All Right, We're gonna run, Hey, listen, Thank you so much,
Speaker 1: appreciate Alyssa Sayingster She is Chief executive officer Forte Foundation,
Speaker 1: on the phone from Austin, Texas.