WEBVTT - Ford Cuts Workforce Making Electric F-150s on Weak Demand 0:00:01.360 --> 0:00:05.720 This is Bloomberg business Week Inside from the reporters and 0:00:05.880 --> 0:00:09.440 editors who bring you America's most trusted business magazine, plus 0:00:09.520 --> 0:00:13.680 global business, finance and tech news. The Bloomberg Business Week 0:00:13.720 --> 0:00:18.600 Podcast with Carol Messer and Tim Stenebeck from Bloomberg Radio. 0:00:20.239 --> 0:00:23.120 You're going to stay with cars a little bit with cars. 0:00:23.400 --> 0:00:25.319 It does already seem like a theme of twenty twenty 0:00:25.360 --> 0:00:27.960 four is the way that the American car buyer has 0:00:28.080 --> 0:00:31.440 cooled when it comes to electric vehicles. The latest is 0:00:31.440 --> 0:00:33.560 that Ford said it would reduce the number of workers 0:00:33.560 --> 0:00:35.800 making its F one to fifty lightning truck as demand 0:00:35.800 --> 0:00:39.280 for EV's continues to weaken. Fort cheers bouncing around early 0:00:39.320 --> 0:00:41.440 in the session on the news, off an earlier loss 0:00:41.440 --> 0:00:43.800 of one point five percent, now up nearly two percent, 0:00:43.800 --> 0:00:46.080 though the stock already down eight point four percent so 0:00:46.240 --> 0:00:48.159 far this year. Carol, It comes a bit over a 0:00:48.200 --> 0:00:50.680 month after Bloomberg reported that Ford would cut production goals 0:00:50.680 --> 0:00:53.680 for the F one fifty EV in half in twenty 0:00:53.720 --> 0:00:54.160 twenty four. 0:00:54.240 --> 0:00:56.480 Yeah, it's a big move, right, So what happened lessen 0:00:56.520 --> 0:00:59.000 two years ago? Ford CEO Jim Farley saw the electric 0:00:59.080 --> 0:01:02.040 F one fifty Lightning as a bet that the company 0:01:02.200 --> 0:01:05.399 was kind of all in in terms of its way forward. 0:01:05.440 --> 0:01:07.840 Ford's biggest move in fact, since Henry Ford ditch the 0:01:07.840 --> 0:01:10.319 AG model to you to make way for something new. 0:01:11.080 --> 0:01:13.119 I'll go to when it comes to things on forward 0:01:13.319 --> 0:01:15.200 And really what's going on in the EV space is 0:01:15.200 --> 0:01:16.120 our own Keith Notton. 0:01:16.200 --> 0:01:16.360 Yeah. 0:01:16.400 --> 0:01:18.360 He actually wrote a cover story for Bloomberg Business Week 0:01:18.360 --> 0:01:20.600 back in April of twenty twenty two that featured the 0:01:20.640 --> 0:01:23.160 Ford CEO and the company's massive make or break bet 0:01:23.200 --> 0:01:25.399 on EV's, and since then and before then, he's been 0:01:25.480 --> 0:01:28.360 chronicling the ups and recently the downs of Ford's transition 0:01:28.480 --> 0:01:31.880 to EV's. He joins us on Zoom from Detroit. So, Keith, 0:01:32.200 --> 0:01:34.520 I'm good to have you back with us. It's always 0:01:34.520 --> 0:01:36.560 good to chat EV's with you and what's going on 0:01:36.640 --> 0:01:38.759 in the environment. I went back and read that April 0:01:38.800 --> 0:01:43.640 twenty two cover story of Jim Farley and the debut 0:01:43.680 --> 0:01:46.800 of the f one to fifty Lightning give us sort 0:01:46.800 --> 0:01:47.960 of the post mortem here. 0:01:48.760 --> 0:01:49.960 Is it too. 0:01:50.040 --> 0:01:53.960 Early to say that this was a bet that's gone wrong? 0:01:55.400 --> 0:01:56.200 It's probably too. 0:01:56.200 --> 0:01:58.720 Early to go that far, Tim, but certainly it has 0:01:58.760 --> 0:02:01.560 not worked out the way for imagined it would. And 0:02:01.640 --> 0:02:04.440 you know, one of the comments from Jim Farley back 0:02:04.480 --> 0:02:07.800 around the time of the F one fifty lightning introduction 0:02:08.080 --> 0:02:12.160 kind of rings ominously now. He said this will be 0:02:12.240 --> 0:02:16.680 a test of acceptance of electric vehicles in America, because 0:02:16.680 --> 0:02:19.079 of course, the F series truck is America's number one 0:02:19.120 --> 0:02:22.840 selling vehicles. So if you can't sell an electric version 0:02:22.840 --> 0:02:26.040 of that, is America ready for evs Well, it turns 0:02:26.080 --> 0:02:29.080 out they're not as ready as Jim Farley and many 0:02:29.080 --> 0:02:31.160 others in the other industry thought they would be. A 0:02:31.160 --> 0:02:34.799 couple of years ago. You know, the EV sales growth 0:02:34.880 --> 0:02:38.640 rate has really slowed down. Now EV sales are still growing, 0:02:39.200 --> 0:02:41.600 we need to be clear about that. They're growing faster 0:02:41.720 --> 0:02:44.480 than the market. But last year they grew forty seven 0:02:44.600 --> 0:02:48.880 percent and this year UBS says they'll grow about eleven percent. 0:02:49.720 --> 0:02:51.360 So I know We've gone round and round with you 0:02:51.400 --> 0:02:53.480 on this, but I'm going to go back there. So Keith, 0:02:54.080 --> 0:02:56.800 it's just a matter of time or timing, and so 0:02:56.880 --> 0:02:59.560 maybe the timeline is a little bit longer on the 0:02:59.639 --> 0:03:01.680 ramp up to EV. Certainly here in the United States, 0:03:01.720 --> 0:03:05.840 globally we're seeing certainly a pickup. But help us out here. 0:03:06.560 --> 0:03:10.440 Yeah, it is a much stronger take rate in China 0:03:10.919 --> 0:03:13.840 and in Europe, but there are some you know, government 0:03:14.000 --> 0:03:17.160 incentive reasons for that, particularly in China. You know, if 0:03:17.200 --> 0:03:20.480 you want to get an EV in Shanghai, well your 0:03:20.720 --> 0:03:22.880 license plate is free. If you want to get an 0:03:22.919 --> 0:03:25.880 internal combustion engine vehicle, you have to pay twelve thousand 0:03:25.919 --> 0:03:28.920 dollars for that license plate. So China has used a 0:03:28.960 --> 0:03:32.840 real stick approach to become the world's largest EV market. 0:03:33.080 --> 0:03:36.040 Here in the United States, consumers are saying prices are 0:03:36.120 --> 0:03:38.680 still too high. The average price of an EV is 0:03:38.680 --> 0:03:42.280 still around sixty thousand dollars even after all the price cuts, 0:03:43.000 --> 0:03:46.200 and that the charging network is just not robust enough. 0:03:46.240 --> 0:03:49.880 People are worried about being left stranded by the side 0:03:49.920 --> 0:03:51.880 of the road with no charg or nearby. 0:03:52.320 --> 0:03:54.400 Yeah, and certainly the cold weather around the country hasn't 0:03:54.400 --> 0:03:56.280 helped the image or the thought of that. I think 0:03:56.360 --> 0:03:59.119 for a lot of people. Keith, what do you think 0:03:59.200 --> 0:04:05.040 needs to happen for the US to actually consistently sell 0:04:05.400 --> 0:04:08.720 more evs and make sure that it is a country 0:04:08.760 --> 0:04:10.840 that's moving in that direction, Because I think what's so 0:04:11.000 --> 0:04:14.440 striking about the news that we got earlier today that 0:04:14.560 --> 0:04:18.880 you reported is that Ford's actually redirecting some of the 0:04:18.880 --> 0:04:21.960 money that was going to EV's and actually to build 0:04:22.000 --> 0:04:24.920 more of the new Ford Bronco, which is an internal 0:04:24.920 --> 0:04:25.720 combustion car. 0:04:26.839 --> 0:04:29.760 Yeah, exactly, we are going back to gas fueled cars 0:04:29.800 --> 0:04:32.919 at Ford with this announcement today. They are cutting a 0:04:32.960 --> 0:04:36.880 shift at the electric vehicle plant and taking some of 0:04:36.880 --> 0:04:39.680 those workers and moving them over to the Bronco and 0:04:39.839 --> 0:04:42.839 Ranger pickup truck plant, which are both internal combustion engine 0:04:42.880 --> 0:04:45.799 vehicles that are selling well, and those are the vehicles 0:04:45.800 --> 0:04:47.839 that make money for Ford, so they need them to 0:04:47.880 --> 0:04:51.000 sell well so they can finance this EV future. It's 0:04:51.040 --> 0:04:55.200 this very delicate balance. I think Americans have to be 0:04:55.240 --> 0:04:58.320 convinced that they don't give up anything to get an 0:04:58.320 --> 0:05:01.920 EV but instead they gain some and right now they see, 0:05:02.480 --> 0:05:06.440 you know, convenience being sacrificed because it takes longer to 0:05:06.560 --> 0:05:09.160 charge than it does to gas up a car, and 0:05:09.240 --> 0:05:10.920 it's just simply more expensive. 0:05:11.640 --> 0:05:13.680 Hey, I'm just thinking about how hard this has got 0:05:13.720 --> 0:05:16.240 to be for Jim Farley on this whole idea of 0:05:16.600 --> 0:05:21.040 balancing production to meet customer demand and still being committed 0:05:21.080 --> 0:05:24.359 to a future with evs, but also as a publicly 0:05:24.400 --> 0:05:26.599 held company, knowing that every quarter they're going to have 0:05:26.640 --> 0:05:30.159 to answer to their investors. So it's not going to 0:05:30.160 --> 0:05:31.080 be easy, is it? 0:05:32.240 --> 0:05:35.800 No? And they are losing billions on evs. In fact, 0:05:35.920 --> 0:05:39.000 last year they initially said they expected to lose three 0:05:39.080 --> 0:05:42.720 billion dollars on evs in twenty twenty three, and then 0:05:42.720 --> 0:05:45.000 they had to increase that to four and a half 0:05:45.320 --> 0:05:49.000 billion dollars for four point five billion dollars, and now 0:05:49.040 --> 0:05:53.720 they're maybe even worse. So it's it's it's a very 0:05:55.000 --> 0:05:58.120 difficult business case to make, particularly when the uptake is 0:05:58.160 --> 0:06:01.240 going slower than you expected because they counted on volume 0:06:01.720 --> 0:06:03.440 to really kind of turn it around. 0:06:03.760 --> 0:06:06.760 Keith, is this a Ford problem or is it uh 0:06:08.080 --> 0:06:10.400 systemic systematic wide problem? 0:06:10.480 --> 0:06:10.880 Like? Is it? 0:06:11.320 --> 0:06:12.240 Yeah? Is it? Like? 0:06:12.440 --> 0:06:14.640 Is it affecting the other companies the same way that 0:06:14.640 --> 0:06:15.479 it's affecting Ford? 0:06:16.400 --> 0:06:19.960 The EV slowdown is affecting everybody. GM has delayed the 0:06:20.040 --> 0:06:23.039 launches of a couple of evs. Everybody is sort of 0:06:23.080 --> 0:06:26.799 scaling back their EV spending. Even Elon Musk is cutting 0:06:26.839 --> 0:06:30.640 the prices of his best sellers to try and stimulate sales, 0:06:30.960 --> 0:06:34.640 but it's still seeing market share losses and margins getting compressed. 0:06:35.120 --> 0:06:39.440 So there is an overall slow down in the US 0:06:39.520 --> 0:06:40.520 EV market. 0:06:40.279 --> 0:06:41.080 But is it hitting. 0:06:42.880 --> 0:06:45.840 Yeah, And so to the forward point, So Ford got 0:06:45.880 --> 0:06:50.400 out there early with the lightning by essentially converting you know, 0:06:50.520 --> 0:06:53.960 the gas fueled F one fifty into an electric vehicle. 0:06:54.560 --> 0:06:57.080 They have a second generation of EV's coming that will 0:06:57.120 --> 0:06:59.680 be ground up. You know that we're designed from the 0:06:59.680 --> 0:07:03.000 start as electric vehicles, and they promised those will be 0:07:03.520 --> 0:07:07.720 just really advanced, lots of digital features that consumers will love. 0:07:08.040 --> 0:07:11.000 Those don't come till twenty twenty five or twenty twenty six, 0:07:11.440 --> 0:07:13.840 and they were just downgraded this week by UBS who 0:07:13.880 --> 0:07:16.239 said that the EV payoff is going to take longer 0:07:16.280 --> 0:07:17.440 than expected for Ford. 0:07:17.680 --> 0:07:19.320 You know what I don't understand. We're coming off of 0:07:19.320 --> 0:07:24.720 COP twenty eight, right that happened in Dubai and the agreement, 0:07:24.800 --> 0:07:27.400 the big agreement that everybody pointed to, this transition away 0:07:27.400 --> 0:07:30.840 from fossil fuels as part of a global stock take 0:07:30.880 --> 0:07:33.320 if you were will It was the first time that 0:07:33.400 --> 0:07:36.360 COP mentioned this. So it's out there, and I think 0:07:36.400 --> 0:07:41.640 about the regulatory push also, so it means we're going 0:07:41.720 --> 0:07:43.960 to get there again or I don't know. I try 0:07:43.960 --> 0:07:46.280 to kind of make sense of it, if you will, Keith, 0:07:46.320 --> 0:07:48.080 that we've got stuff like that, I think it means. 0:07:48.480 --> 0:07:50.360 Yeah, I think what you're seeing is that it'll just 0:07:50.440 --> 0:07:55.000 take longer to get there because you know, government regulation 0:07:55.240 --> 0:07:57.640 or guidance can only go so far. It becomes a 0:07:57.640 --> 0:08:00.880 pocketbook issue for consumers. We're just not going to shell 0:08:00.920 --> 0:08:04.880 out sixty thousand dollars for an electric vehicle when an 0:08:04.920 --> 0:08:09.400 average internal combustion engine vehicle costs thirteen thousand dollars less. 0:08:09.560 --> 0:08:12.040 Hey, before we go thirty seconds, who is buying or 0:08:12.080 --> 0:08:14.720 who are buying evs here in the United States? What's 0:08:14.720 --> 0:08:17.240 the demographic and just quickly if you can, sorry. 0:08:17.160 --> 0:08:21.760 Yeah it is. It is primarily men wealthy. They're buying 0:08:21.800 --> 0:08:24.040 it as an extra car for their household rather than 0:08:24.080 --> 0:08:25.600 as their primary daily driver. 0:08:26.160 --> 0:08:28.600 All right, good stuff, as always listen, Thank you so much. 0:08:28.760 --> 0:08:31.000 I always appreciate it. Have a great and safe weekend. 0:08:31.160 --> 0:08:33.880 Bloomberg News auto reporter Keith Nott and joining us there 0:08:34.000 --> 0:08:36.320 and again for shares if we take a look there. 0:08:36.520 --> 0:08:38.440 Higher on the day on this news up about one 0:08:38.480 --> 0:08:41.480 and a half percent off their earlier highs of two percent, 0:08:41.720 --> 0:08:43.800 but also off their lows of the day when they 0:08:43.800 --> 0:08:45.319 were down about one and a half percent. 0:08:45.440 --> 0:08:47.000 And if you want some good weekend reading, and maybe 0:08:47.000 --> 0:08:49.640 you missed the first time around, go check out Keith's 0:08:49.800 --> 0:08:53.240 cover story about Jim Farley and Ford's bed on evs 0:08:53.640 --> 0:08:55.360 back in April of twenty twenty two. It's on the 0:08:55.360 --> 0:08:58.080 Bloomberg terminal and it's at Bloomberg dot com slash business. 0:08:57.880 --> 0:08:59.199 With Yeah, that cover store is a great one. 0:08:59.240 --> 0:08:59.440 Yeah. 0:08:59.480 --> 0:09:02.040 Yeah, I think it's important and I love kind of 0:09:02.120 --> 0:09:04.320 also hearing from Keith that you know, longer term, the 0:09:04.320 --> 0:09:06.560 commitment is still there and that's the direction. It's just 0:09:06.600 --> 0:09:09.000 again maybe taking a little bit longer, especially here in 0:09:09.000 --> 0:09:09.720 the United States. 0:09:10.559 --> 0:09:14.079 You're listening to the Bloomberg Business Week podcast. Catch us 0:09:14.120 --> 0:09:17.360 Live weekday afternoons from two to five pm Eastern Listen 0:09:17.400 --> 0:09:19.559 on Apple car Play and then brought auto with a 0:09:19.559 --> 0:09:26.040 Bloomberg Business app, or watch us Live on YouTube. Thanks again, 0:09:26.480 --> 0:09:31.360 be love to make what lives. 0:09:32.040 --> 0:09:35.240 Yeah, all right, Well, life is about a lot of 0:09:35.280 --> 0:09:38.600 things when it comes to investing, and it often means transitioning. 0:09:38.600 --> 0:09:40.319 We talked about that kind of with the EV space. 0:09:40.320 --> 0:09:42.200 There's a lot going on. There's a term that I 0:09:42.240 --> 0:09:44.640 came across and kind of getting ready for this segment 0:09:44.679 --> 0:09:47.120 Transition finance, which is shaping up to be one of 0:09:47.160 --> 0:09:50.320 the new year's most important subjects for anyone professing to 0:09:50.400 --> 0:09:52.200 care about the climate crisis too. 0:09:52.679 --> 0:09:56.240 Yeah, So it's distinct from green finance, which generally targets 0:09:56.280 --> 0:09:59.640 so called climate solutions like wind farms or battery plants, 0:10:00.000 --> 0:10:02.920 and said, it's loosely defined as investments mainly in industries 0:10:02.920 --> 0:10:06.319 and infrastructure that helped drive efforts to achieve a net 0:10:06.400 --> 0:10:07.880 zero economy exactly. 0:10:08.080 --> 0:10:10.800 So we've discussed about a lot of these things, and 0:10:10.840 --> 0:10:13.760 we've also talked about kind of the rethink among investors 0:10:13.760 --> 0:10:16.880 when it comes to esg's investing, specifically, declining in the 0:10:16.960 --> 0:10:19.360 US has resulted in an overall slide in the global 0:10:19.400 --> 0:10:23.400 market for ESG investing. A recent assessment by the Global 0:10:23.400 --> 0:10:26.320 Sustainable Investment Alliance. They provide updates on the size of 0:10:26.320 --> 0:10:29.240 the market every two years. Well, the twenty twenty two 0:10:29.280 --> 0:10:32.440 review FOLKS published in late November, shows that investors had 0:10:32.480 --> 0:10:36.960 thirty point three thirty point three trillion and sustainable assets. 0:10:36.960 --> 0:10:39.840 That's down from thirty five point three trillion in twenty 0:10:39.920 --> 0:10:42.400 twenty and in US you really saw a big drop 0:10:42.440 --> 0:10:45.480 sustainable assets falling to eight point four trillion last year 0:10:45.520 --> 0:10:50.080 from just over seventeen trillion two years earlier. According to 0:10:50.120 --> 0:10:52.679 that report, a lot of it was attributed to a 0:10:52.800 --> 0:10:55.320 change of methodology used to calculate the numbers. But we 0:10:55.360 --> 0:10:58.439 are seeing investors kind of rethink and retrench a little bit. 0:10:58.480 --> 0:11:00.559 It's not the first time we're hearing this. So here 0:11:00.559 --> 0:11:02.719 to talk emerging trends in the ESG space. We got 0:11:02.760 --> 0:11:06.800 more In O'Brien, SVP of Corporate Governance at Siegal Macro Advisors, 0:11:07.280 --> 0:11:11.680 US based investment consultancies with combined advisory assets exceeding five 0:11:11.760 --> 0:11:15.120 hundred billion dollars. She joins us on a zoom Seagle 0:11:15.280 --> 0:11:17.640 Marco Advisors. I should tell you I read that incorrectly. 0:11:17.640 --> 0:11:19.920 I'm sorry, Maureen. So tell us a little bit about 0:11:19.920 --> 0:11:21.040 the study and the findings here. 0:11:22.520 --> 0:11:23.760 Yeah, thanks for having me on. 0:11:23.960 --> 0:11:27.680 So every year, Siegal Market Advisors surveys our top investment 0:11:27.760 --> 0:11:31.760 managers on emerging ESG trends. This is what they're doing 0:11:31.880 --> 0:11:36.559 in house, how they're tracking admissions, how they're looking at DEI, 0:11:37.240 --> 0:11:40.240 whether they're continuing to have a hybrid model. So we 0:11:40.280 --> 0:11:43.160 ask them a variety of questions and then put those 0:11:43.280 --> 0:11:45.720 results together in a summary report that we put up 0:11:45.720 --> 0:11:46.599 on our website. 0:11:46.880 --> 0:11:48.520 All right, so what were some of the summary and 0:11:48.559 --> 0:11:50.320 why do you think it's important to kind of remind 0:11:50.320 --> 0:11:51.520 people of what's going. 0:11:51.320 --> 0:11:53.960 On so on climent. 0:11:54.120 --> 0:11:56.880 As you guys were just talking about, we are seeing 0:11:56.920 --> 0:12:01.200 some movement there of investment managers who are tracking their 0:12:01.360 --> 0:12:05.160 emissions internally and then also tracking emissions for clients. 0:12:05.520 --> 0:12:06.400 So what that's. 0:12:06.200 --> 0:12:11.120 Telling us is that more retirement funds benefit funds are 0:12:11.200 --> 0:12:15.079 seeking to establish their carbon footprint and then see how 0:12:15.080 --> 0:12:18.040 they can reduce that footprint over time. So we're seeing 0:12:18.320 --> 0:12:21.200 more than a majority of investment managers start to track 0:12:21.240 --> 0:12:25.160 those emissions and look at zero targets, which is a 0:12:25.240 --> 0:12:29.040 change that we're seeing incremental progress on. Another big finding 0:12:29.080 --> 0:12:32.960 in the survey this year is on DEI during the 0:12:33.040 --> 0:12:37.040 Black Lives Matter movement and from the follow up to that, 0:12:37.120 --> 0:12:40.440 we saw a lot of investment managers making announcements about 0:12:40.760 --> 0:12:44.920 hiring and promoting women and people of color, and unfortunately, 0:12:44.960 --> 0:12:47.880 the survey results this year showed that those gains have 0:12:48.120 --> 0:12:49.520 essentially disappeared. 0:12:50.120 --> 0:12:52.240 It looks like women have. 0:12:52.360 --> 0:12:55.199 Gone down as an overall percentage of the workforce and 0:12:55.360 --> 0:12:59.200 a percentage of the c suite and particularly black employees 0:12:59.240 --> 0:13:03.840 have seen big reductions in the overall workforce and fifty 0:13:04.240 --> 0:13:07.640 decrease of black representation the c suite is what the 0:13:07.720 --> 0:13:08.840 survey found this year. 0:13:09.360 --> 0:13:11.240 Hey, Maureen. When Carol and I talk about this, we 0:13:11.320 --> 0:13:13.240 always go back to this one idea, and it's actually 0:13:13.720 --> 0:13:17.280 makes sense because it's earning season. When we hear from 0:13:17.320 --> 0:13:22.680 companies and we hear what moves a company's stock during earnings, 0:13:22.920 --> 0:13:26.560 it's top line, it's bottom line, and it's what the 0:13:26.600 --> 0:13:30.959 outlook is. They're not talking about ESG that doesn't move 0:13:30.960 --> 0:13:33.360 the stock. It never comes out, It never comes up 0:13:33.360 --> 0:13:36.199 in the context of it actually being something that they're 0:13:36.600 --> 0:13:39.360 talking about with relation to the company's stock pricer or 0:13:39.400 --> 0:13:42.080 the company's business. I don't want to say never, because 0:13:42.280 --> 0:13:45.480 it has before, but mainly that's what we're hearing. Does 0:13:45.520 --> 0:13:47.480 that change. Do we ever start to see some sort 0:13:47.480 --> 0:13:51.960 of some sort of metric that actually moves a stock 0:13:52.120 --> 0:13:54.360 relating to what you're talking about. 0:13:55.960 --> 0:13:58.920 Part of the difficulty when we talk about ESG is 0:13:58.960 --> 0:14:02.320 that it's not one thing. So there's a lot of 0:14:02.360 --> 0:14:06.360 discussion about ESG in the regulatory environment right now and 0:14:06.440 --> 0:14:10.920 among investors, but essentially it's being talked about. It's sort 0:14:10.920 --> 0:14:15.239 of one concept and it's really many things. So aspects 0:14:15.320 --> 0:14:19.080 like worker rights and climate change are gonna affect how 0:14:19.120 --> 0:14:22.840 successful companies are. I don't think it's a clear line 0:14:22.880 --> 0:14:27.760 between there is a good DEI program and then the 0:14:27.800 --> 0:14:30.400 next day the company is shooting the lights out compared 0:14:30.400 --> 0:14:33.880 to the competition. These are inputs and factors that do 0:14:33.960 --> 0:14:38.280 have an impact over time, but they're not overnight market movers. 0:14:39.120 --> 0:14:39.800 I guess too. 0:14:39.840 --> 0:14:43.560 It's just, you know, it all seemed to make so 0:14:43.640 --> 0:14:46.320 much sense early on, and I think, you know, the 0:14:46.720 --> 0:14:50.560 original idea of VESG was kind of the vulnerable vulnerability 0:14:50.560 --> 0:14:53.520 excuse me, of companies publicly held companies when it came 0:14:53.560 --> 0:14:56.800 to ESG metrics, right, what it meant for them, I 0:14:56.800 --> 0:15:01.200 don't know whether media, whether what narrative change, and it 0:15:01.280 --> 0:15:03.800 was like kind of this doing good thing. And I'm 0:15:03.800 --> 0:15:06.600 not saying that they can't be both. But having said that, 0:15:07.240 --> 0:15:09.840 all the money that has gone into ESG investing, maren, 0:15:11.200 --> 0:15:13.640 what what can we turn to to say, Okay, it's 0:15:13.720 --> 0:15:16.440 really improved things, Because you just talked about that things 0:15:16.440 --> 0:15:18.160 haven't in some ways gotten better. 0:15:20.640 --> 0:15:20.960 Yeah. 0:15:21.040 --> 0:15:23.440 I mean, the first of all, we used to not 0:15:23.680 --> 0:15:26.320 know right, We just didn't have a lot of data. 0:15:26.440 --> 0:15:31.720 I mean, the only required ESG information out there was 0:15:32.280 --> 0:15:36.160 how many employees you have, so not even a breakdown 0:15:36.200 --> 0:15:39.720 of demographics, for example, But we didn't have any data 0:15:39.760 --> 0:15:41.320 around carbon emissions. 0:15:41.680 --> 0:15:42.440 We still don't have. 0:15:42.440 --> 0:15:47.000 A lot of data around that workplace issues. You know, 0:15:48.400 --> 0:15:50.840 how companies are doing with their turnover rate. You know, 0:15:50.880 --> 0:15:54.360 companies will often say employees are their most valuable asset, 0:15:54.800 --> 0:15:58.360 but there was no required measurement of that asset apart 0:15:58.400 --> 0:16:01.880 from where the operations are and how many people work there. 0:16:02.240 --> 0:16:05.760 So a large part of ESG has just been trying 0:16:05.840 --> 0:16:10.080 to get that data available. You've seen a huge increase 0:16:10.120 --> 0:16:13.920 in the number of companies that have sustainability reports, that 0:16:14.000 --> 0:16:18.360 are joining up for organizations like CDP, the Climate Disclosure 0:16:18.440 --> 0:16:23.120 Project and other initiatives where they're voluntarily providing this data. 0:16:23.560 --> 0:16:26.560 But it's still not at the point where the data 0:16:26.720 --> 0:16:30.320 is as easily comparable as it is with financial data. 0:16:30.400 --> 0:16:33.040 So that's a big part of the problem. But that 0:16:33.240 --> 0:16:33.960 is changing. 0:16:34.360 --> 0:16:39.040 The SEC has a pending climate rule that is looking 0:16:39.080 --> 0:16:42.560 like it will require lots of information on climate and 0:16:42.600 --> 0:16:46.480 so once companies begin reporting on that, it's much easier 0:16:46.520 --> 0:16:49.440 to do that evaluation of who are the winners and 0:16:49.520 --> 0:16:52.080 losers in this climate transition. 0:16:52.520 --> 0:16:54.960 We want to share from our audience though some of 0:16:54.960 --> 0:16:56.920 the stats I think that you talked about earlier and 0:16:57.000 --> 0:16:59.720 reminding us how things haven't changed. If you look at 0:17:00.160 --> 0:17:03.640 the workforce, you know, it's still predominantly white. So it's 0:17:03.680 --> 0:17:09.359 sixty three percent of the individuals who are working are 0:17:09.840 --> 0:17:13.560 are white individuals. If you look at race, right, again, 0:17:13.720 --> 0:17:15.920 white predominantly about seventy nine percent. 0:17:16.000 --> 0:17:17.399 If you look at it, it's in the C suite. 0:17:17.440 --> 0:17:18.400 So that's a sweet yeah. 0:17:18.400 --> 0:17:21.160 Get so that's I mean the people making the decisions, 0:17:21.200 --> 0:17:23.640 it's three percent black, seventy nine percent white. 0:17:23.480 --> 0:17:26.720 Right, exactly overwhelmingly. And then again gender, which you talked 0:17:26.720 --> 0:17:30.119 about earlier, again c suite gender composition, you're talking about 0:17:30.119 --> 0:17:33.119 only twenty six percent or women. I mean it just 0:17:33.240 --> 0:17:35.639 I've been doing this a long time and nothing's changed. 0:17:36.240 --> 0:17:38.600 Just got ten seconds here. What do you hope people 0:17:38.640 --> 0:17:41.320 take away from this conversation? Please, if you could be quick. 0:17:42.560 --> 0:17:45.760 Yes, it's important to set goals, track progress, and be 0:17:45.840 --> 0:17:51.800 public about the journey without intentionality. The historical trends do 0:17:51.880 --> 0:17:52.800 not reverse. 0:17:52.480 --> 0:17:55.240 Themselves, all right, And it's there is something to having, 0:17:55.400 --> 0:17:57.040 like the importance of data so that you can actually 0:17:57.119 --> 0:17:57.919 understand what's going on. 0:17:57.960 --> 0:17:58.920 We're talking about it now. 0:17:59.080 --> 0:18:01.200 Yeah, well we've talked for a long time. But see 0:18:01.200 --> 0:18:02.480 the numbers of the concrete numbers. 0:18:02.600 --> 0:18:02.959 Marine. 0:18:02.960 --> 0:18:05.440 Thank you so much. Marin O'Brien, Senior vice president of 0:18:05.480 --> 0:18:08.880 Corporate Governance at Siegel Marco Advisors from Chicago. 0:18:09.000 --> 0:18:09.760 This is Bloomberg. 0:18:15.119 --> 0:18:18.960 You're listening to the Bloomberg Business Week podcast. Listen live 0:18:19.080 --> 0:18:22.000 each weekday starting at two pm Eastern on Apple car 0:18:22.000 --> 0:18:24.960 Play and Android Auto with the Bloomberg Business ad You 0:18:25.000 --> 0:18:28.280 can also listen live on Amazon Alexa from our flagship 0:18:28.320 --> 0:18:32.119 New York station. Just say Alexa Play Bloomberg eleven thirty. 0:18:33.400 --> 0:18:33.560 Well. 0:18:33.600 --> 0:18:36.119 A billionaire couple is giving one hundred million dollars to 0:18:36.160 --> 0:18:39.760 Atlanta's Spelman College, which the woman's school says is the 0:18:39.920 --> 0:18:43.480 largest ever single donation to historically black college or university. 0:18:43.880 --> 0:18:46.879 The donation announced yesterday by Rhonda Striker and her husband 0:18:46.880 --> 0:18:50.119 William Johnston. She is the billionaire granddaughter of the founder 0:18:50.160 --> 0:18:53.399 of medical device maker Striker Corporation. He is the chairman 0:18:53.480 --> 0:18:56.160 of money management firm green Leaf Trust. They live in. 0:18:56.119 --> 0:18:58.880 Michigan, Spellman said it would use seventy five million dollars 0:18:58.960 --> 0:19:01.480 to indow scholarships. The rest of the money will be 0:19:01.560 --> 0:19:04.800 used for other purposes, including developing an academic focus on 0:19:04.840 --> 0:19:08.920 public policy and democracy and improving student housing, a sore 0:19:09.000 --> 0:19:11.400 point in recent years among Spelman's students. 0:19:11.480 --> 0:19:13.040 We are so delighted to have with us to talk 0:19:13.040 --> 0:19:15.679 about this historic gift in what it is a historic 0:19:15.680 --> 0:19:19.800 here for Spelman Doctor Helene Gale, she's president of Spelman College. 0:19:19.800 --> 0:19:22.000 She is on Zoom from Atlanta and also with us. 0:19:22.000 --> 0:19:25.240 Delighted to have here, Bloomberg News Higher Education Finance reporter 0:19:25.320 --> 0:19:30.840 Janet Lauren in our Bloomberg Interactive Brokers studio. Doctor Gail, congratulations, 0:19:30.880 --> 0:19:33.600 Thank you for giving us some time here. Can you 0:19:33.640 --> 0:19:35.359 talk to us a little bit about how this gift 0:19:35.400 --> 0:19:37.639 came up, how did Ronda Striker come to be a 0:19:37.680 --> 0:19:40.760 trustee at Spelman, and what's it like to receive the 0:19:40.800 --> 0:19:42.680 news of a gift of this magnitude. 0:19:43.800 --> 0:19:47.160 Well, thank you and thanks for having me on. 0:19:47.800 --> 0:19:47.960 Well. 0:19:48.000 --> 0:19:51.639 Rando Striker is one of our longest serving trustees. She 0:19:51.800 --> 0:19:56.600 was brought on by one of my predecessors over twenty 0:19:56.680 --> 0:20:00.840 years ago, and over the years she and her husband 0:20:00.840 --> 0:20:05.480 have continued to contribute to Spelman and you know, have 0:20:05.560 --> 0:20:10.760 been incredibly generous donors, but this is clearly the largest single. 0:20:10.520 --> 0:20:11.879 Gift that they have ever given. 0:20:11.920 --> 0:20:14.240 And as you said in the run up to this, 0:20:14.359 --> 0:20:17.560 it's the largest single gift that Spelman has ever received, 0:20:17.720 --> 0:20:22.159 and the largest gift to any HBCU. So it's pretty 0:20:22.200 --> 0:20:27.439 exciting and you know, truly a transformational gift that I 0:20:27.480 --> 0:20:30.800 think can make such a huge difference for Spelman, not 0:20:30.840 --> 0:20:32.720