Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week Inside from the reporters and
Speaker 1: editors who bring you America's most trusted business magazine, plus
Speaker 1: global business, finance and tech news as it happened. Its
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Bloomberg Quick Takes.
Speaker 1: Tim Stinovik on Bloomberg Radio. Hi, everyone, welcome to the
Speaker 1: weekend edition of Bloomberg Business Week. This week, how we
Speaker 1: can't seem to get enough of sporting and outdoor goods
Speaker 1: here what's flying off the shelves at Academy Sports and
Speaker 1: Outdoors from the company CEO. Plus, we talked to our
Speaker 1: Dr Rachel Do, the co founder of Mody Health, on
Speaker 1: how her company changed during the pandemic. Also, Tim, we
Speaker 1: get a fascinating tale on the life cycle of a
Speaker 1: pair of jeans, tour and jeans not right now, but
Speaker 1: I do every day, all right? Well, listen, that pair
Speaker 1: of jeans when you are wearing them, goes through a lot.
Speaker 1: We'll get the story from the author of Unraveled, The
Speaker 1: Life and Death of a garment and later on Margaritaville
Speaker 1: in Times Square, Jimmy Buffett's laid back state of mind
Speaker 1: finding a home in the heart of Manhattan Marguerite Deville
Speaker 1: in New York as a performing musician. New York is
Speaker 1: probably the hardest market to ever crack as a lot
Speaker 1: of performer. But I broke through, and I did it
Speaker 1: with a lot of hard work and a lot of
Speaker 1: inspiration from other people. I had to just look at
Speaker 1: it as this. It's an island, and I've I've been
Speaker 1: an island boy for a long time. It's a little
Speaker 1: different island, So I got to figure out how to
Speaker 1: get these islanders, to figure out what those other island
Speaker 1: just like about what I'll do. For more on that
Speaker 1: story in an overview of our latest issue, let's bring
Speaker 1: in the editor of the magazine, Joel Webber. Joel will
Speaker 1: go inside this unusual attraction in just a moment, but
Speaker 1: I want to start on a more serious note. This week,
Speaker 1: a Senate report is blaming intelligence and security failures for
Speaker 1: the January six riot at the US Capitol, and a
Speaker 1: group of online salutes is helping to I d some
Speaker 1: of those who took part that story in the politics section.
Speaker 1: That's right that they called themselves this edition hunters, and
Speaker 1: it's really a total amateur network who following the January
Speaker 1: January six insurrection turned the Internet into basically a man
Speaker 1: hunt in an attempt to find some of the people
Speaker 1: who were perpetrators. And they've been successful, um, but they've
Speaker 1: also not been successful. What motivates them, Joel, It's really
Speaker 1: a quest for justice. And when you think about the
Speaker 1: historical president for something like this, like I was fascinated
Speaker 1: by this, this idea that you know, when when JFK
Speaker 1: was assassinated, there was really just one piece of footage
Speaker 1: that you know, millions of people spent decades boring over
Speaker 1: this time. Because of the amount of cameras and footage
Speaker 1: and everything that we that we have at at our availability,
Speaker 1: it's it's a mountain of options for everyone to sleuth through.
Speaker 1: All right, Tel, So let's get to a story now
Speaker 1: in the feature section. President Trump has been kind of
Speaker 1: quiet until last weekend. Uh, he did make a speech
Speaker 1: in North Carolina. So let's talk about his life post
Speaker 1: White House. It's a little bit different from other past presidents. Well,
Speaker 1: mar Lago is really the center of that, and it's
Speaker 1: almost like a like a retreat, a winter retreat, if
Speaker 1: you will. And and granted he's now in New Jersey
Speaker 1: at his home in Bedminster, but what Josh really, Josh Green,
Speaker 1: who wrote the story, really writes about here is that
Speaker 1: mar Lago is basically the center of an alternative universe
Speaker 1: for GOP hardliners who are in favor of Trump and
Speaker 1: his presidency, and it's really the center of its own universe,
Speaker 1: and it has had a gravitational poll on really a
Speaker 1: lot of the heavyweights within the Trump orbit. So center
Speaker 1: of certainly he is the center of attention, I should say,
Speaker 1: down there in mar Lago, when he's down there in
Speaker 1: Florida specifically, but I do wonder about his grasp on
Speaker 1: the Republican Party. Is the center of the Republican Party
Speaker 1: right now? Yeah, And that's really big, Hume. What's clear,
Speaker 1: and we've seen that just within the last weeks and months,
Speaker 1: as the whole law in the party is very much
Speaker 1: still in his hands. Um, that it's and that's been
Speaker 1: the draw to Florida is that there's one of the
Speaker 1: one of the sources that Josh got was an amazing
Speaker 1: quote from was as long as the fish are still biting,
Speaker 1: you don't take your your lure out of the water, right.
Speaker 1: And this is the sense that from from fundraising, from
Speaker 1: even just being shouldering up to the former president. To
Speaker 1: do all of that stuff, you have to be in
Speaker 1: South Florida near him, and that has created like this
Speaker 1: um sticky quality of being down there too. Whereas a
Speaker 1: lot of people would usually be leaving, now South Florida
Speaker 1: has become this this little universe of for the GOP.
Speaker 1: All Right, I gotta talk to us about a story
Speaker 1: in the finance section FOMO big time, whether it's something
Speaker 1: Elon Musk is tweeting about, or a meme stock or
Speaker 1: buying a house. At this point, there's an incredible fear
Speaker 1: of missing out right now. Yeah, So Leonel Lauren wrote
Speaker 1: the story and and it really I think helps some
Speaker 1: up not only multiple stories in the issue, but just
Speaker 1: the zeitgeist that I think many investors feel right now.
Speaker 1: I mean, we have some of the most prominent investors
Speaker 1: in the world, professional investors in the world saying that
Speaker 1: they're even feeling like they've been missing out on stuff.
Speaker 1: And and just as a as a normal person who's
Speaker 1: like goes to the playground with his son and it's
Speaker 1: like I'm getting tons of inquiries and and people pitching
Speaker 1: different stuff, and it just feels like it's what it's
Speaker 1: this cacophony of alternative things that are suddenly captivating us
Speaker 1: and as a society. And I thought Leonel did a
Speaker 1: really good job of pulling that together. Whether it's meme,
Speaker 1: stocks or housing, you name it, it's trading cards, it's
Speaker 1: like it's all over the place. Well back to our
Speaker 1: cover story now, Joel. And usually when the name Buffett
Speaker 1: is uttered on Bloomberg, we're not talking we're talking about Warren,
Speaker 1: but not this time. We are talking about Jimmy Buffett. Joel. Uh.
Speaker 1: Margaritaville Enterprises just just a massive, massive company. What's with
Speaker 1: the latest project happening right here in New York City? Well,
Speaker 1: you hit it right. This is the other Buffett and
Speaker 1: Jimmy Buffett basically had a song, Margariteville, that inspired a
Speaker 1: business empire. And it's really never been written about how
Speaker 1: parrot heads um his followers. It's this cult following. And
Speaker 1: now he's basically conquered New York, which has long been
Speaker 1: even as a musician. It was a tip that somebody
Speaker 1: told him, is like, you've got to be able to
Speaker 1: conquer New York. And so now years later, here he
Speaker 1: is with this three and seventy million dollar hotel that's
Speaker 1: just opening in New York. As New York reopens, it's
Speaker 1: its own economy, the perfect symbol for getting things back
Speaker 1: to normal. Jimmy Buffett being back here in New York City.
Speaker 1: Joel Webber, editor of the magazine, thanks so much for
Speaker 1: joining us. Coming up as summer approaches, one sporting goods
Speaker 1: company is having trouble keeping up with the demand offense.
Speaker 1: Everybody wants to get outside. I love it too. You're
Speaker 1: listening to Bloomberg Business Week is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Business Week with Carol Messer and Bloomberg Quick Takes Tim
Speaker 1: Spinovik from Bloomberg Radio. Academy Sports and Outdoors. Tim, they
Speaker 1: went public back in October. It's up of that from
Speaker 1: its I p O, the KKR back company. It has
Speaker 1: certainly seen its stock on a tear this year alone,
Speaker 1: nearly double A and Academy reported earnings this week, raising
Speaker 1: its forecast for its fiscal year despite some ongoing issues
Speaker 1: tied to the COVID nineteen pandemic. That's right, they laid
Speaker 1: it out in their financial filing. Ken Hicks is Chairman
Speaker 1: Presidency of Academy Sports and Outdoors. He's also former chairman
Speaker 1: and CEO Foot Locker and Ken began with an update
Speaker 1: on academies business. We're obviously seeing some very strong business. Uh.
Speaker 1: We're you know, reported sales up almost thirty nine percent
Speaker 1: and and very strong profits. And we've up to our
Speaker 1: estimate for a year two between UH six and nine percent. Uh.
Speaker 1: And what we're seeing is the customer who found the
Speaker 1: new hobby, found fishing or camping, were riding bikes, built
Speaker 1: their home gym, is coming back and buying more. And
Speaker 1: so people who got into the outdoors uh or into
Speaker 1: a sport are really continuing with that. Well, that's interesting.
Speaker 1: And your supply chain, you guys have had no problem
Speaker 1: meeting everything that you needed to. Well, no, the s
Speaker 1: fly chain, the supply chain is a challenge, but you know,
Speaker 1: we never closed during COVID and we were able to
Speaker 1: stay open and that allowed us to be able to
Speaker 1: order goods and see what was happening. And so i'd
Speaker 1: say we're a little bit ahead of some of the
Speaker 1: others and our team is just doing a terrific job
Speaker 1: getting the merchandise through. But it is not easy. So
Speaker 1: we still don't have of inventory issues in some areas,
Speaker 1: but overall it's at an acceptable level. Is it getting easier.
Speaker 1: Are you seeing things you know, kind of lighten up
Speaker 1: in terms of the supply chain getting more you know normal?
Speaker 1: If I can, I think we're going to see this
Speaker 1: through the remainder of the year. How does that make
Speaker 1: you change? You're thinking about how you want your supply
Speaker 1: chain to work going forward? Well, we actually, uh have
Speaker 1: a major study underway right now. We're going to take
Speaker 1: some significant actions to improve our supply chain going forward
Speaker 1: to really make it more flexible and more up to date.
Speaker 1: We you know, it works okay, but we're gonna need
Speaker 1: as we grow, a much stronger supply chain. What does
Speaker 1: that mean though, Ken? Does that mean more stuff in
Speaker 1: your backyard to where you're selling? What does it mean?
Speaker 1: Because I'm assuming most of your your sales are helped
Speaker 1: me out here, remind me, is it mostly North America? US?
Speaker 1: All of our sales are US. We're in uh the
Speaker 1: south central part of the United States. And you know
Speaker 1: the thing better systems, better processes. Uh. You know, we've
Speaker 1: got the infrastructure in terms of buildings, but what we
Speaker 1: need now are better processes and systems to be able
Speaker 1: to track and flow the goods through the system faster
Speaker 1: and more accurately and keep a better eye on it.
Speaker 1: So it's not necessarily manufacturing bringing manufacturing back home to
Speaker 1: the U S. You just need systems that can track it.
Speaker 1: I think I've always the Apple model where I could
Speaker 1: buy a phone and I could tell where it was
Speaker 1: at every step of the you know, the stages. That's
Speaker 1: what you're looking to do. Yeah, car right on. Hey,
Speaker 1: listen in the ken in the corporate earnings release, you
Speaker 1: guys noted there. Here's a direct quote. There is still
Speaker 1: economic concertainty from the impact of COVID, niteen and other
Speaker 1: external factors. Is that the supply chain or something else?
Speaker 1: I would say, just it's the supply chain is part
Speaker 1: of it. But also you know, people are still uh
Speaker 1: trying to find their way in what they do in
Speaker 1: our markets. A lot of people have been out for
Speaker 1: a while, but you know, how will people spend their money? Uh,
Speaker 1: and how long people will continue with some of the
Speaker 1: hobbies and habits that they've got. We're seeing that they're continuing.
Speaker 1: But as people go out to eat more, go on
Speaker 1: vacations and things, you know that there's a there's always
Speaker 1: a risk of of how much money they have to
Speaker 1: spend on other adventures right the while it is just
Speaker 1: so wide and so you make choices, and most people
Speaker 1: would say so thin, exactly exactly, especially you've got a
Speaker 1: kid in college. Hey, listen, when they want to ask you,
Speaker 1: your stock is nearly shorted the float as a percentage
Speaker 1: excuse me of the float. I know CEOs don't like
Speaker 1: to talk about their stock price, But in the world
Speaker 1: of meme stocks, where high short positions get the attention
Speaker 1: of the retail redded investor crowd, are you a little
Speaker 1: concerned about getting caught up in that? Not really, because
Speaker 1: the the I think the lift we we saw it
Speaker 1: today and we've seen so far is based on the
Speaker 1: performance that we had. And unlike some of the other
Speaker 1: stocks that you you're referring to, they don't have the
Speaker 1: underlying foundation of a good, solid business. We do. We've
Speaker 1: got sales growth, we've got profit growth, and we have
Speaker 1: opportunities for uh, you know, expansion online and in other
Speaker 1: markets that a lot of other people don't have. So
Speaker 1: we've got that solid foundation to continue to grow, and
Speaker 1: I think that's what will allow us to whether through
Speaker 1: some of the challenges that other other stocks have seen.
Speaker 1: Can really quickly twenty seconds one item that's just flying
Speaker 1: off the shelfs right now. Uh tense ten people. People
Speaker 1: are camping like crazy, tens flying off the shells. Everybody
Speaker 1: wants to go camping this summer. Listen. I spent a
Speaker 1: lot of time in the last week or so now
Speaker 1: that the weather is better outside, and I get it,
Speaker 1: I've kind of forgotten we've had a pandemic. I haven't
Speaker 1: had a mask on. Uh, from the minute I get up,
Speaker 1: from the minute I go to bed. It's a different
Speaker 1: experience outdoors, way better than indoors any day of the week.
Speaker 1: Ken Hicks's chairman, president and CEO of Academy Sports and Outdoors.
Speaker 1: Still ahead on Bloomberg Business Week Holistic Approach to Health,
Speaker 1: and later on our cover story on the Pirate taking
Speaker 1: on New York City Jimmy Buffett, Margueritaville and its new
Speaker 1: attraction in Times Square. Can't say it enough, but it's
Speaker 1: five o'clock somewhere well, Martin. Marinaville is kind of an enigma.
Speaker 1: That's where the something that I never envisioned happening when
Speaker 1: I wrote that song in about five minutes on the
Speaker 1: seven Mile Bridge. It just goes to show you that
Speaker 1: anything can happen in America. That story is still to go.
Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Broadcasting from the financial capital of the World,
Speaker 1: Bloomberg eleven Rio in New York to Washington, d C.
Speaker 1: Bloomberg to Boston, Bloomberg one oh six one does San Francisco,
Speaker 1: Bloomberg nine sixty to the country Sirius xm Chado one
Speaker 1: nine team, and around the globe the Bloomberg Business app
Speaker 1: and Bloomberg Radio dot Com. This is Bloomberg Business Week.
Speaker 1: And the health of Americans has really been in the spotlight,
Speaker 1: yes because of the pandemic, but also because of comorbidities
Speaker 1: during this health crisis, and we're now looking at our health,
Speaker 1: not just our physical well being, but also our well being.
Speaker 1: Everything matters. Yet that holistic approach to medicine and health
Speaker 1: that Dr Eva Do focuses on. She's the co founder
Speaker 1: of Moody Health. It's a platform that offers both live
Speaker 1: telemedicine and telewellness consultations, as well as an on demand
Speaker 1: health and wellness streaming service. Here's Dr Do. We've seen
Speaker 1: a dramatic increase of users and patients on our platform.
Speaker 1: Obviously during the pandemic when things were shut down and
Speaker 1: people were staying in. Having access to virtual care as
Speaker 1: well as virtual health and well being support was critically important.
Speaker 1: So the pandemic has really um skyrocketed us and really
Speaker 1: expanded our our platform significantly over the last fourteen months.
Speaker 1: Dr Do are you offering vaccinations? No, we're not. We're
Speaker 1: a truly virtually not even hybrid exactly. So we are
Speaker 1: a virtual platform that offers virtual care with every type
Speaker 1: of practitioner you could possibly want, so you can really
Speaker 1: get a holistic approach everything from traditional primary care to
Speaker 1: mental health, to complementary alternative life coaches, nutrition, as well
Speaker 1: as a streaming service and health memberships that allow a
Speaker 1: holistic approach to getting the support, guidance and tools you need.
Speaker 1: I'm really curious about the holistic approach because one thing
Speaker 1: that the pandemic has done, among the many things, is
Speaker 1: it's it's shown us the verities between many different types
Speaker 1: of people in the US and around the world, and indeed,
Speaker 1: we've seen those with cold morbidities suffer worse fates when
Speaker 1: they do get sick with coronavirus. And I'm wondering if
Speaker 1: you can speak to the way that you perhaps think
Speaker 1: that we may start to actually think differently about taking
Speaker 1: a holistic approach to medicine on the other side of
Speaker 1: the pandemic, it's such a critically important issue right now.
Speaker 1: You're absolutely right, people are really looking at their health
Speaker 1: from a different perspective. You know what we're seeing at
Speaker 1: MOTI Health and really within the industry of health and
Speaker 1: well being care is a higher level of interest and
Speaker 1: attention to preventative health and wellness, including mental health, and
Speaker 1: the pandemics really created a significant amount of stress and
Speaker 1: emotional strain on so many who are now also in
Speaker 1: need of mental and emotional health support. And you're completely
Speaker 1: correct when you're talking about the need for a holistic approach,
Speaker 1: more inclusive ability these and access to people of all
Speaker 1: different backgrounds. And that's one of the reasons why a
Speaker 1: virtual health platform is such such a timely and important
Speaker 1: need right now within the industry. So having virtual access
Speaker 1: really does create more accessibility to people being able no
Speaker 1: matter what type of income, level of background, that you
Speaker 1: are being able to have access to whole person care
Speaker 1: to really optimize your health and well being. Not only
Speaker 1: during the era of COVID, decreasing risk of getting COVID
Speaker 1: or becoming extremely ill from COVID, but also on the
Speaker 1: other side of the pandemic. To really optimize your health
Speaker 1: and well being so that you can experience health, wellness
Speaker 1: and really thrive as a human being is so important.
Speaker 1: But there is still this technological gap between many people
Speaker 1: in the United States, and we saw that really play
Speaker 1: out when it came to the way that people were
Speaker 1: scheduling and given access to vaccines. There were many people
Speaker 1: in the US who didn't necessarily have the technological know
Speaker 1: how in order to schedule those appointments, and I'm wondering
Speaker 1: how you account for that with a telemedicine service. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: you know, a system that was rolled out very quickly.
Speaker 1: It was an emergency UM you know response, and so
Speaker 1: it wasn't necessarily set up in the most accessible way
Speaker 1: to those who are elderly or those who didn't have
Speaker 1: access to a computer or a smartphone for example. So
Speaker 1: when it comes to platforms like ours, um, really all
Speaker 1: you need is Internet access and it's as simple and
Speaker 1: easy to use as something like a Facebook, right. So
Speaker 1: being able when it comes to health technology to make
Speaker 1: it more accessible, it's not only about having access to
Speaker 1: the physical platform, right, So that's Internet connectivity but you
Speaker 1: really have to be designing the user experience for people
Speaker 1: of all different technology levels and skills. That's Dr Rachel
Speaker 1: even Do. She's the co founder of Moody Health and listen,
Speaker 1: we've had these conversations a lot over the past year
Speaker 1: or so and just talking about holistic health. It had
Speaker 1: some momentum pre pandemic him, but definitely has picked up
Speaker 1: a lot of speed. And this whole idea of the
Speaker 1: digitization of our world has also picked up speed. And
Speaker 1: that includes finally in medicine. And I think as we
Speaker 1: hear from these medical professionals, tell the medicine it's here
Speaker 1: to stay. It is, and even beyond that, Carol, I
Speaker 1: think it made a lot of people rethink their own
Speaker 1: priorities in life and what they wanted to be doing.
Speaker 1: And this holistic approach to health, it not only includes
Speaker 1: physical health, but it includes mental health and mental state
Speaker 1: and how you're feeling about things. How many meditation apps
Speaker 1: do you have on your phone? How many do I use?
Speaker 1: The question? That's true, I have several. I don't know
Speaker 1: he's using as much as I should. You're listening to
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Business Week coming up next. We're looking at the
Speaker 1: life cycle of a pair of genes. I'll tell you
Speaker 1: it goes around the world. This is Bloomberg. You're listening
Speaker 1: to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and bloom Burg
Speaker 1: Quick Takes Tim Stinovik from Bloomberg Radio. We've talked about
Speaker 1: this a lot, the fashion and retail industry's impact on
Speaker 1: the environment, and Tim, there's a new book out it
Speaker 1: looks into this. It's entitled Unraveled, The Life and Death
Speaker 1: of a Garment. It's by Maxine Beta, founder and director
Speaker 1: of the think tank New Standard Institute, which describes itself
Speaker 1: as a think in due tank using data and the
Speaker 1: power of citizens to turn the fashion industry into a
Speaker 1: force for good. And prior to running NSI, she co
Speaker 1: founded and was the CEO of z D. It's a
Speaker 1: fashion Brandon lifestyle destination. It's got the goal of creating
Speaker 1: a transparent and sustainable future for the apparel industry. But
Speaker 1: let's get back to her book, because it is called
Speaker 1: Unraveled and Tim, it truly follows the life cycle of
Speaker 1: a pair of genes. You know about that, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: It's involves so mining resources. The book part the story
Speaker 1: of a pair of gene It starts in a cotton
Speaker 1: field in West text it travels to UM, then China
Speaker 1: to see where that cotton is turned into a textile.
Speaker 1: Then it goes from UM China to Bangladesh where that
Speaker 1: text stile is cut and sown into a garment UM
Speaker 1: and then travels back to the United States to the
Speaker 1: distribution centers the Amazon facilities, where I got the opportunity
Speaker 1: to speak to the UM workers there as well. UM
Speaker 1: and then it it UM. I spoke to a lot
Speaker 1: of shoppers understanding their relationship to clothing, why they're buying
Speaker 1: the clothes UM and after the brief stop in UM
Speaker 1: a shopper's closet that the clothes are donated or are
Speaker 1: thrown out and and UM. The book UH follows that
Speaker 1: along UM Sugana, where the second hand market of clothing
Speaker 1: UH is significant, UM and the landfill there where a
Speaker 1: lot of our clothing actually ends up. I don't know
Speaker 1: how you feel, but the pandemic has made me kind
Speaker 1: of rethink a lot of things in my life, and
Speaker 1: that includes stuff. I grew up with a mom who
Speaker 1: was like, by quality, you don't need a lot of stuff,
Speaker 1: you just need good stuff. You know, and think it
Speaker 1: would be thoughtful. We've really evolved into a consumption society
Speaker 1: where you know, when we talk a lot about fast fashion,
Speaker 1: you weard a couple of times it was inexpensive, you
Speaker 1: toss it out. Um, what was the most disturbing thing?
Speaker 1: Are things that you found out in doing this book? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think it's it's really the the speed, um, the accumulation, um.
Speaker 1: You know, the scale of the industry and where where
Speaker 1: it's leaving workers and workers not you know, workers in
Speaker 1: women in bangladeshion and women make up a large percentage
Speaker 1: of the garment workers Googly and also the workers domestically. UM.
Speaker 1: You know, we not tend not to think about Amazon
Speaker 1: as a session company, but it is the largest online
Speaker 1: apparel retailer um in terms of number of shoppers. In
Speaker 1: the book, you know, I I got to go to
Speaker 1: China and see these rivers that are black, and then
Speaker 1: I went to Bangladesh and the rivers became even more
Speaker 1: black and Ghana at the end, which was, um, you know,
Speaker 1: the most black rivers you got to actually see. I
Speaker 1: was able to see the impact that our clothing has
Speaker 1: and that's something that's such a huge shift from even
Speaker 1: a generation ago, because in the sixties of clothing that
Speaker 1: Americans war with American made today that's less than so
Speaker 1: we don't see the interact that our clothing has UM.
Speaker 1: But yet it's a normous and the rivers are black.
Speaker 1: I'm assuming it's runoff from the manufacturing and dies or
Speaker 1: what have you. Yes, exactly, Maxine. You know sometimes we
Speaker 1: talk about the food industry. There's been books before over
Speaker 1: the past few decades that if you really knew what
Speaker 1: was in certain foods, you probably wouldn't need it. And
Speaker 1: I do wonder how much of what we wear, if
Speaker 1: we really understood the process of it, you know, ultimately
Speaker 1: ending up in our closet, how many of us would say,
Speaker 1: you know what, I don't want it? Yeah, I think
Speaker 1: it definitely. I mean going through this process has changed
Speaker 1: my relationship to so they for sure, UM And you know,
Speaker 1: I I see the work that goes into it. I
Speaker 1: see the resources and the environmental impact that it has
Speaker 1: UM and so I've I've definitely changed the relationship to
Speaker 1: my own order grope. But it hasn't been one of
Speaker 1: um you know that I try to resist ever over
Speaker 1: buying anything. It's actually been a very positive experience. Or
Speaker 1: I realized you know, I don't have to jump on
Speaker 1: that trend that's kind of being pushed on me. I can,
Speaker 1: you know, really love my clothes, and so you know,
Speaker 1: that's that's the message that I'm trying to get across,
Speaker 1: as if we actually moved to a relationship where we
Speaker 1: you know, deeply loved our things, we will end up
Speaker 1: wearing them more. UM and that is actually the biggest
Speaker 1: driver of the reduction in resource us. It's just increasing
Speaker 1: that you of our clothing. I got a teenager who
Speaker 1: definitely looks at kind of what a company stands for
Speaker 1: and their impact on the environment. You're seeing increasingly, certainly
Speaker 1: kind of startup companies and even some of the major
Speaker 1: companies really look at their impact at the environment and
Speaker 1: figuring out how to do it better. How hard is it, though,
Speaker 1: to do it better to manufacture it to reduce the
Speaker 1: impact on the environment. How difficult is it? Really? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think what we have to recognize is, you know,
Speaker 1: as you were saying, it's uh, it's the young generation
Speaker 1: that is really understanding, you know, the environmental crisis in
Speaker 1: which we find ourselves in. Um and so they're the
Speaker 1: ones that are really pushing for this change. But what
Speaker 1: we're at this place right now where the industry is
Speaker 1: responding with um, you know, quite a lot of marketing
Speaker 1: around sustainability, but we're not seeing a lot of disclosures
Speaker 1: UM talk about financial disclosures, but environmental disclosures that are
Speaker 1: clear that are you know, apples apples con person So
Speaker 1: it's very hard for consumers to be able to understand
Speaker 1: what is a company that is you know, doing your
Speaker 1: work and what is kind of greenwashing along the way
Speaker 1: right right, And we we have this similar conversation when
Speaker 1: it comes to diversity and inclusion. Right there's a lot
Speaker 1: of conversations going on it once again, and and it's
Speaker 1: you know, taking the words and turning them into action
Speaker 1: so that there are change. I guess my question is, though,
Speaker 1: can we easily or can we make the changes, the
Speaker 1: necessary changes so that there aren't workers who are basically, um,
Speaker 1: you know, kind of in a prison cell manufacturing the
Speaker 1: sweater that I'm wearing or the genes that I'm wearing.
Speaker 1: Is there ways to do it so that the dyes
Speaker 1: aren't running off into the water in developing markets? Can
Speaker 1: we do it in an affordable way? Because I remember
Speaker 1: a conversation years ago with someone who said, listen, we
Speaker 1: can do it in a better way, but are you
Speaker 1: ready to pay seventy bucks for that T shirt? You know,
Speaker 1: so can we do it? Basically? Is the question? The
Speaker 1: answer the simple answers yes, um. You know it's not.
Speaker 1: It doesn't take new technology to improve the energy of
Speaker 1: energy efficiency in mills and to switch over to alternative
Speaker 1: energies UM UM at the mills. And I talked about
Speaker 1: the mills because that's really the UM ground zero when
Speaker 1: we talk about energy, climate emission UM and chemical emissions
Speaker 1: is at that phase where you're turning the fiber into
Speaker 1: a textile. So really this is possible. And the researchers
Speaker 1: who are focused on e f G, who have been
Speaker 1: looking in terms of the labor side UM have also
Speaker 1: said as well that it wouldn't mean a seven D
Speaker 1: dollar T shirt. In fact, it would be something like
Speaker 1: fifteen additional scents and that's even yes, but the cost
Speaker 1: would be absorbed you know, by the by the consumer,
Speaker 1: not the company itself. How do we move the mark?
Speaker 1: How do we do it or who has to do
Speaker 1: it within the industry. Yeah, so that's the work that
Speaker 1: we're you know, focusing in on the Standard Institute now
Speaker 1: is we need to move to a place that is
Speaker 1: beyond this marketing talk, beyond the talk um. We need
Speaker 1: to have very clear disclosures around the total environmental impact,
Speaker 1: actual disclosures around wages. And that's the way that we
Speaker 1: can be able to kind of move from the race
Speaker 1: to the bottom to a race to the top. And
Speaker 1: so that's the kind of policy that we're pushing, um
Speaker 1: trying to advance at NSI is a place that we
Speaker 1: can have a level field um and make the progress
Speaker 1: we need to make in the time frame that we
Speaker 1: need to make it. What is the time frame realistically
Speaker 1: that we can make these changes. Well, you know, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's what it's always a tough part
Speaker 1: right now. We find it with climate change, right people
Speaker 1: put out goals and they're like, Okay, we're gonna be
Speaker 1: carbon neutral or have a zero carbon impact, but we're
Speaker 1: going to do it, you know, twenty years from now.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's like it seems like a long time
Speaker 1: because a lot of damage is done in the interim exactly.
Speaker 1: And I think that even the bigger problems that the
Speaker 1: executives who are you making those commitments are like, we're
Speaker 1: not going to be there at that time. So you
Speaker 1: know that's why if we if we move, we keep
Speaker 1: those targets, but moved to disclosures. Right now, we're creating
Speaker 1: the right incentive incentives you know, with in the C
Speaker 1: suite to actually make the progress right now and not
Speaker 1: kick the can. And and it isn't it doesn't you know,
Speaker 1: as I said, it's rocket science. Um. You know the
Speaker 1: people who are doing this work, you know, it ends
Speaker 1: up a lot of it being cost saving because it's
Speaker 1: about energy efficiency. UM. So this is very possible. It's
Speaker 1: about getting needs to work together on their facilities. But
Speaker 1: it is highly doable. We just have to create the
Speaker 1: will to make it happen. Is there one company that
Speaker 1: you point out is saying, listen, this company has really
Speaker 1: been bad in terms of you know, fast fashion if
Speaker 1: you will, or just you know, we want something, we
Speaker 1: get it quickly and we think about consumption differently. Just
Speaker 1: got about thirty seconds left. Yeah, I mean, I think
Speaker 1: any of those um companies they're with their business model
Speaker 1: is getting us to something and where it one. And
Speaker 1: there's just you know, women you know are are there
Speaker 1: are the surveys that are finding that women are seeing
Speaker 1: that they're clothing feels old after wearing it. Only one
Speaker 1: that type of model that we need to kind of
Speaker 1: move away from. That's Maccine Beta, author of the new
Speaker 1: book Unraveled, and just talking about you know, starting from
Speaker 1: the cotton fields in essentially the United States and just
Speaker 1: being manufactured overseas and then ending up in a junk
Speaker 1: pile ultimately. You know, I was thinking about this. It's
Speaker 1: it's like what we think about when it comes to food,
Speaker 1: and the conversation has changed around food and where your
Speaker 1: food comes from. I think increasingly people are going to
Speaker 1: start thinking the same way about their garments. Well, you
Speaker 1: and I have had this conversation just this past week
Speaker 1: about we just take certain things for granted, and then
Speaker 1: when you start to break it down, whether it's when
Speaker 1: we can access websites, we're like, oh wait, how does
Speaker 1: it actually happen? And then you understand some of the
Speaker 1: vulnerable points or some of the impacts it has kind
Speaker 1: of on our world. Hey, we're all connected. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: Well that reps up the first half of the weekend
Speaker 1: edition to Bloomberg Business Week from Bloomberg Radio. I'm All
Speaker 1: Masser and I'm Tim Stanovick. Coming up in our next hour,
Speaker 1: how a MC became the people's stock by not being
Speaker 1: a game stop remake plus wasting away in Times Square,
Speaker 1: we hear from Mr Margheritaville himself. We're talking about Jimmy Buffett.
Speaker 1: It is this week's cover story. This is Bloomberg. This
Speaker 1: is Bloomberg Business Week inside from the reporters and editors
Speaker 1: who bring you America's most trusted business magazine, plus global
Speaker 1: business finance and tech news as it happened, s Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Business Week with Carol Messer and Bloomberg Quick Takes. Tim
Speaker 1: Stinovik on Bloomberg Radio. Hi am Carol Masser and I'm
Speaker 1: Tim Stanobeck plenty head in our second hour of the
Speaker 1: weekend edition to Bloomberg Business Week, including the president of
Speaker 1: the Client Solutions Group over at Deell Technologies, Tim on
Speaker 1: whether we are continuing to use more PCs, laptops and
Speaker 1: tablets as we increasingly moved to the other side of
Speaker 1: the pandemic and some of us getting away from working
Speaker 1: from home, some of us still staying there well, speaking
Speaker 1: of what's going to happen in the future. We're also
Speaker 1: going to speak with Jamie Metzel, technology futurist on a
Speaker 1: new fund in town tracking the biology revolution plus the
Speaker 1: Margaritaville lifestyle courtesy of Jimmy Buffett and cultivated and followed
Speaker 1: by his disciples of parrot heads. You know who you are.
Speaker 1: It's all now coming to New York's Times Square. So
Speaker 1: to have a Margaritaville in Tom Square and having had
Speaker 1: in the Broadway experience, this is kind of the icing
Speaker 1: on the cake to take in New York today. The
Speaker 1: first up this hour, though, this is a voice we've
Speaker 1: checked in with several times throughout the pandemic. Yeah, we've
Speaker 1: asked him about things such as everyone moving to Austin,
Speaker 1: I T. Spending in the demand, or the death of
Speaker 1: the PC. Well Sambird joined us again. He is president
Speaker 1: of the Client Solutions Group of at Dell Technologies. He's
Speaker 1: responsible for Dell's commercial and consumer client portfolio that includes notebooks, desktops, workstations, tablets,
Speaker 1: and software. Basically, tim a lot of stuff. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: like we do right now. We began by asking how
Speaker 1: he's doing and how things have changed since the last
Speaker 1: time we spoke back in December. Yes, since since we talked,
Speaker 1: we talked about some of the demand we saw in
Speaker 1: the PC industry in the space that my business operates
Speaker 1: for Dell, and you know, we we saw we closed
Speaker 1: out the year as we thought with really strong demand Carol,
Speaker 1: the industry had ship three d and two million units
Speaker 1: last year, which was a record in the past six years.
Speaker 1: And then you know, since that point in time, we've
Speaker 1: seen really strong continued demand in my space. So just
Speaker 1: ended our first quarter, had revenue growth in our business,
Speaker 1: a record for Q one, and um continued strong profitability
Speaker 1: in the business. What is it specifically? I love when
Speaker 1: we can drill down with someone like you, you know,
Speaker 1: is it notebooks, as it desktops, as at workstations? Is
Speaker 1: it peace? Like you and I have talked about the
Speaker 1: death of the PC for a long time. UM, what
Speaker 1: is it dough that really kind of ramped up? Yeah,
Speaker 1: well we saw and you know, last time we talked
Speaker 1: a little bit about we we joked out the death
Speaker 1: of the PC, and then seeing the PC really become
Speaker 1: an important tool for people in the in the past year,
Speaker 1: critical whether you were doing work from home, learning from home,
Speaker 1: just trying to you know, get a kind of escape
Speaker 1: valve and entertain yourself at all. Now comes to us
Speaker 1: in our home on our PC. So it's a really
Speaker 1: important tool for people to have. It's a great friend,
Speaker 1: it's a great asset, and we we've seen growth, Carol,
Speaker 1: in all different spaces. So we continue to see demand
Speaker 1: in the consumer space as people move to more of
Speaker 1: a one to one kind of computing model of I
Speaker 1: need when I'm at home, I need my PC to
Speaker 1: be able to do my stuff on my PC. We're
Speaker 1: seeing the commercial space grow, We're seeing notebooks grow, and
Speaker 1: then interestingly, in the last quarter or so, I've seen
Speaker 1: I would say we have seen a resurgence in in
Speaker 1: demand around desktops. We've still seen a market that has
Speaker 1: shifted more to people wanting notebooks and mobile computing, but
Speaker 1: desktops that were shrinking a lot last year and mobile
Speaker 1: was hyper growing, we're now seeing growth in the desktop
Speaker 1: space as well. So desktop I'm assuming you mean like
Speaker 1: in the business commercial space, correct, you know, we see
Speaker 1: it in the business commercial space. We see also see
Speaker 1: it at home, like people will use it at home
Speaker 1: for for gaming or for maybe it's just a great
Speaker 1: system that I keep in one place, an archive a
Speaker 1: lot of my data on Yeah, listen, I always thought
Speaker 1: I remember growing up and I think getting like the
Speaker 1: first calculator. It's like that was a calculator for the family,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. And it's just we've really
Speaker 1: evolved to everybody has their phone, everybody has a laptop,
Speaker 1: everybody or might also have a desktop. I mean, there
Speaker 1: really is this this whole idea of this one to
Speaker 1: one commuting model, computing model. Excuse me, you really do
Speaker 1: see it evolving, especially after year like this past year. Oh,
Speaker 1: I think that's exactly right, Carol. We we joke and
Speaker 1: call it to you know, do anything from from anywhere
Speaker 1: world and the reality is to make that happen, and
Speaker 1: you can do that today and people are doing that today,
Speaker 1: they will do that in the future. Technology plays a
Speaker 1: huge part in that and whether it's a you know,
Speaker 1: a home and a one to one environment or think
Speaker 1: about you know, businesses, and it used to be technology
Speaker 1: and PCs were like the domain of the I. T. Department.
Speaker 1: It's now everywhere in the company. It's you know, the
Speaker 1: technology you're putting in someone's hands. It matters when they
Speaker 1: decide to take the job. Line of business. Leaders in
Speaker 1: a company care about that technology because it helps their
Speaker 1: you know, their team be more productive, more innovative. Do
Speaker 1: great things for their customers. So it really is that
Speaker 1: kind of world you described. It's it's you know, changed
Speaker 1: from the one for a lot of people to everyone
Speaker 1: needs their own and it needs to be a really
Speaker 1: great tool. I hear a lot of optimism. What about
Speaker 1: the supply chain and being able to get the components,
Speaker 1: chips and the like that you need to kind of
Speaker 1: keep this momentum going. You know, we you know, we
Speaker 1: definitely are working around getting those parts. We have a
Speaker 1: world class supply chain. But when you look at the
Speaker 1: way the global economy has improved, Carol, and there's a
Speaker 1: there's a greater demand for everything, including PCs with the
Speaker 1: growth we expect this year, there's a shortage out there
Speaker 1: of semiconductors. So we are operating in that environment. We've
Speaker 1: operated with some shortages in our industry for the past
Speaker 1: three years and been successful, and we think we have
Speaker 1: a team and a forecast in an approach that will
Speaker 1: get us, uh, you know, the parts that we need.
Speaker 1: We're definitely in a challenged supply world. That was Sanbury,
Speaker 1: president of the Client Solutions Group at Dell Technologies, coming
Speaker 1: out how a MC became the people's stock by not
Speaker 1: being a Game Stop remake. This is Bloomberg. This is
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Bloomberg Quick Takes
Speaker 1: Tim Stintovan from Bloomberg Radio. The day doesn't seem to
Speaker 1: go by without us talking a little bit about the
Speaker 1: meme stock of the from Hurts to Game Stop to
Speaker 1: AMC and even most recently Wendy's I was just gonna
Speaker 1: say it continues on. One story reported for Business Week
Speaker 1: is about how AMC became the people stock by not
Speaker 1: being a Game Stop remake. Filling us in is Bloomberg
Speaker 1: News High Yield, Distressed Debt and Bankruptcy reporter Cat Doherty
Speaker 1: and Business Week editor Jill Weber. When we were thinking about, um,
Speaker 1: what an interesting take on it would be? Um, Kat
Speaker 1: and her co author Brandon cod And kind of hit
Speaker 1: on something that I thought was particularly interesting, which is, actually,
Speaker 1: it's almost like AMC learned from Game Stop in real
Speaker 1: time from earlier this year and was able to sort
Speaker 1: of have a slightly different response that might make a
Speaker 1: world of difference for them. Uh So Cat talk to
Speaker 1: us about that, what's different about this meme stock than uh,
Speaker 1: you know, the mania that we saw earlier this year.
Speaker 1: So There's two main differences that we point out in
Speaker 1: our piece. The first is the company a MC leaning
Speaker 1: into UH the enthusiasm from all of its investors and
Speaker 1: from the Reddit crowd that is out there um and
Speaker 1: making trends on Twitter and hashtags AMC Army. They're communicating
Speaker 1: directly with those people, and they're offering perks like free
Speaker 1: large popcorns in a movie when you sign up and
Speaker 1: you are an investor with a MC. We saw the
Speaker 1: exact opposite with Game Stop when it's shares were surging
Speaker 1: and it was trending online and on social media. Management
Speaker 1: didn't acknowledge or communicate with that crowd in the same way. Now,
Speaker 1: what AMC has done is it's taken that enthusiasm and
Speaker 1: it's issued new shares this week and every time that
Speaker 1: it's doing that, sure it's deluding the existing shareholders, but
Speaker 1: for everyone involved, for all shareholders UM and debt holders,
Speaker 1: that means more cash on the balance sheet. And this
Speaker 1: is a company that has deferred rent payments coming to
Speaker 1: They do have very high coupon payments on their debt,
Speaker 1: so when the interest payments are coming, they need cash
Speaker 1: to pay that. And so every time that they have
Speaker 1: announced these equity sales or issuing new shares that is
Speaker 1: just more cash that the company can use and and
Speaker 1: prosper into the future. Yeah, and you know it's interesting.
Speaker 1: First of all, I can't imagine like a company going
Speaker 1: to a big institutional inns investor, pension ventsy ever going
Speaker 1: through some popcorn your way or something like. It just
Speaker 1: wouldn't work. But it's different this kind of retail investor
Speaker 1: militia um cat that's out there, and it is interesting
Speaker 1: to see the CEO kind of playing to them directly exactly.
Speaker 1: I'm we in our story referenced this TikTok video UM
Speaker 1: that I think captures this sentiment perfectly. It's a young
Speaker 1: millennial that walks into an AMC and the cashiers asked
Speaker 1: him does he need anything, and he says no, I'm
Speaker 1: I'm okay, I'm just checking on the feeders. And the
Speaker 1: cashier looks back and he says, well, would you work here?
Speaker 1: And his answer is no, but I'm a part owner
Speaker 1: or I'm I'm one of I'm the money, he says.
Speaker 1: And I think that that sentiment is it's hilarious, um
Speaker 1: and in in an entertaining way. It really depicts what's
Speaker 1: going on here. You have these investors and a lot
Speaker 1: of them they're popping on threads and they're talking about
Speaker 1: experiences at AMC or wanting to save AMC. There's some
Speaker 1: personal connection UM that we're seeing here. And you saw
Speaker 1: that too with a company like Hurts, when people were
Speaker 1: jumping into that name and they recognized the branch, they
Speaker 1: recognized the name. Some of these meme stocks they have
Speaker 1: that similarity, that similar thread running through where there are
Speaker 1: people that have engaged with these companies. You know, gel
Speaker 1: are in a different world here. Well, what I love
Speaker 1: about it is like it kind of can inspire those
Speaker 1: of those who maybe don't own a MC, Like I'm
Speaker 1: just gonna look through my portfolio this weekend and decide
Speaker 1: what am I part owner of that I'm going to
Speaker 1: go kind of like show up and sail a part
Speaker 1: owner of UM. But but you know, in serious like,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm drawn to this idea that there is a
Speaker 1: change and even what it means to be a CEO.
Speaker 1: Because of this and that you know, you we could
Speaker 1: potentially see you know, executives interacting with with investors, small
Speaker 1: time investors in a in a completely different way going forward,
Speaker 1: Do you feel like there's is this um sort of
Speaker 1: a canary in the coal mine. Are we going to
Speaker 1: see more stuff like this going forward? It's a great
Speaker 1: question and something that we're definitely tracking because we haven't
Speaker 1: had any moment in time to compare it to. This
Speaker 1: is such a unique um these unique circumstances that are
Speaker 1: popping up because of everything that's come before. So you
Speaker 1: have the pandemic, people at home, people engaging on social media.
Speaker 1: I think social media, that social media was there even beforehand,
Speaker 1: but this is like an extreme. This is kind of
Speaker 1: the next level. And I think that we're we're gonna
Speaker 1: see if a free popcorn or these incentives, if there
Speaker 1: are other companies that might offer I don't know, a
Speaker 1: free T shirt or um, a visit to a location,
Speaker 1: if it's a retailer, or or an experience. UM. I
Speaker 1: it's it's definitely an interesting trend. That's trend that's becoming
Speaker 1: more and more popular. I gotta say in the normal times,
Speaker 1: I frequent a c not not infrequently, like, and I
Speaker 1: have to also see that, like it's just not that
Speaker 1: good of an experience. The popcorn is not that good.
Speaker 1: I don't see myself wearing an AMC shirt. But you know,
Speaker 1: like especially when you compare it to like the Alamo
Speaker 1: that I go to in Brooklyn, it's just like a
Speaker 1: completely different experience. So like I get all of it,
Speaker 1: and I think it also just does speak to like
Speaker 1: the moment of people being so cooped up for for
Speaker 1: a year that even AMC starts to sound good, right, Carol,
Speaker 1: I mean, like, Chryl, are you going to AMC this week?
Speaker 1: That's a no cat? Are you going? I well, it's look,
Speaker 1: if I'm trying to listen, you might have some reporting
Speaker 1: to call. The coin is though, this story isn't over,
Speaker 1: And like that's the thing, as we watched the gyrations
Speaker 1: on a sometimes hourly basis in this stock cat, we
Speaker 1: have to remember that this story isn't over yet. Just quickly,
Speaker 1: it definitely is not. And I was I have woke
Speaker 1: up every single morning, um, and I know when there's
Speaker 1: some sort of when there's an active story going on,
Speaker 1: I can judge it by my inbox and because of
Speaker 1: a m C I have just I know every single
Speaker 1: time my alarm goes off, Well, here we go again,
Speaker 1: and it's it seems like the same story, but it's not.
Speaker 1: It's just the development. That's Bloomberg's Cat Doherty and Business
Speaker 1: Week editor Joel Webber. You're listening to Bloomberg business Week.
Speaker 1: Coming up, wisdom Tree has a new funny. It's tracking
Speaker 1: advancements in biology. All that and more coming up this
Speaker 1: biz Bloomberg Broadcast from the financial capital of the World,
Speaker 1: Bloomberg eleven Frio in New York to Washington, d C.
Speaker 1: Bloomberg to Boston, Bloomberg one O six one to San Francisco,
Speaker 1: Bloomberg nine sixty to the country Sirius XM Chado one
Speaker 1: nineteen and around the globe the Bloomberg Business app and
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Radio dot Com. This is Bloomberg business Week. Definitely
Speaker 1: a friend of the show. While he dropped by again,
Speaker 1: we're talking about Jamie Metzel. He's senior fellow over at
Speaker 1: Atlantic Council, former director on the U. S. National Security Council,
Speaker 1: the State Department, and on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Speaker 1: Founder and chair of the Global Movement One Shared World.
Speaker 1: I gotta say, is a bio and background is just killer. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Quite the resume for Jamie Matze. Also a special strategies
Speaker 1: for wisdom Tree leverage data from Metzel and its construction
Speaker 1: of the Wisdom Tree bio Revolution Index and the Wisdom
Speaker 1: Tree Bio Revolution Fund and et F targeting companies expected
Speaker 1: to be impacted by advancements in genetics and biotechnology. Listen,
Speaker 1: it's a strategy, tim that we've seen with Kathy wood
Speaker 1: over at Ark invest This has been one of her
Speaker 1: verticals of looking at what's going on in the mapping
Speaker 1: of the genome and the impact it's really having on
Speaker 1: biotechnology and science at large. Yeah, and incredibly hot space
Speaker 1: right now. Jamie joined us with more along with Jeremy Schwartz,
Speaker 1: global head of Research at Wisdom Trade. The big issue
Speaker 1: is that we are we humanity are at the earliest
Speaker 1: stages of a revolution that is already changing the way
Speaker 1: we do and think about healthcare. But this is like
Speaker 1: the equivalent of the early days of industrialization or the
Speaker 1: early days of the Internet revolution, where the incredibly powerful
Speaker 1: tools of the genetics and biotechnology revolutions aren't just going
Speaker 1: to transform healthcare, but these same capabilities will over time
Speaker 1: fundamentally transform a lot of other fields, including agriculture, material energy,
Speaker 1: data storage. And so I've always thought that this was
Speaker 1: just an incredible investment opportunity, and then last year Um,
Speaker 1: I somebody reached out to me and it was Jeremy
Speaker 1: Short Jerry, what was it about it that was so
Speaker 1: appealing to you guys? Well, you know, we've been doing
Speaker 1: a lot of investment around these big trends or we're
Speaker 1: calling mega trends and growth opportunities. And I read Jamie's book.
Speaker 1: Actually one of my friends had highlighted as something that
Speaker 1: he was doing some investing around. I read the book
Speaker 1: and I was like, Wow, these are these are really
Speaker 1: big picture trends that's changing our lives. Um. And then
Speaker 1: I started thinking about how do we identify these companies
Speaker 1: on an ongoing basis? And I just reached out to
Speaker 1: Jamie and said, let's start the conversation. Are you interested
Speaker 1: in collaborating on something like this. We've been working with deep,
Speaker 1: thoughtful partners in this collab reform. You need to really
Speaker 1: know the space and know the cutting edge technologies. H
Speaker 1: and I view Jamie as this biology guru who really
Speaker 1: could help us guide the big picture. What are the
Speaker 1: important technologies, what are the important companies? And getting some
Speaker 1: collaboration from Jamie on identifying these technologies and companies H
Speaker 1: has has has been a really great so what's the
Speaker 1: data specifically behind the index that ultimately led to the
Speaker 1: e t f UM Jamie, what was what was it
Speaker 1: the data that was specifically used because I think you know,
Speaker 1: when you're talking about things that can impact agg materials,
Speaker 1: data storage, I mean, there's a lot there to unpack,
Speaker 1: but there's a lot there. But what we were looking
Speaker 1: at is parts of all of these different sectors where
Speaker 1: these revolutionary tools of the genetics and biotech revolutions we're
Speaker 1: going to empower new business models, new ways of doing things.
Speaker 1: And one great example of this that's very intimate for
Speaker 1: many of us are these m RNA vaccines. And so
Speaker 1: you and I, Carol, have talked about this the miracle
Speaker 1: of these mr and A vaccines. They're very different from
Speaker 1: the polio vaccine, for example, which was a dead or
Speaker 1: attenuated version of the polio virus. What the mRNA vaccine
Speaker 1: is we are basically injecting new instructions to ourselves to
Speaker 1: produce something that otherwise are these can't produce, which is
Speaker 1: this this spike protein uh, and then we have a
Speaker 1: natural immunological response. But that ability um to kind of
Speaker 1: manipulate in many ways the code of life. It's the
Speaker 1: m R and A vaccines aren't just about vaccines. This
Speaker 1: technology is a platform for thinking differently about how we
Speaker 1: treat all sorts of diseases um going future, including lots
Speaker 1: of cancers and possibly even all Teimer's. But the m
Speaker 1: R and A technology also has huge implications for how
Speaker 1: we think about growing crops and disrupting the way we
Speaker 1: think about fertilizer. And I have to say it reminds
Speaker 1: me a lot. I've been talking with Kathy wood over
Speaker 1: at our Investments for seven years, and she kicked off
Speaker 1: her company and she taps completely into the innovative space.
Speaker 1: She in particular has a fun that's just focusing on
Speaker 1: the genomic revolution, which was up percent last year. About
Speaker 1: before that, it's kind of writing a little bit of
Speaker 1: water in terms of performance UM this year. You're fun
Speaker 1: though the biotech and pharmaceutical exposure really is the bulk
Speaker 1: of the investments at this point. Are you concerned at
Speaker 1: all though that the run you know has kind of
Speaker 1: already happened. What makes you confident that it has the
Speaker 1: legs to keep going because your exposure, even though it
Speaker 1: applies to a lot of the world, is still really concentrated.
Speaker 1: In particular in that biotech um space. There is a
Speaker 1: lot of excitement in this in this space, but we
Speaker 1: are at the very earliest stages of this, as I
Speaker 1: was saying before, of this transformative revolution. That's Jeremy Schwartz,
Speaker 1: Global head of Research at Wisdom Tree and Jamie Metzel,
Speaker 1: Senior Fellow at Atlantic Council. You're listening to Bloomberg Business
Speaker 1: Week coming up, Margaritaville takes Manhattan. That's right. Forget the
Speaker 1: New York State of Mind, Jimmy Buffett's latest empire expansion
Speaker 1: and state of mind right here in New York City.
Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with
Speaker 1: Carol Messer and Bloomberg Quick Takes Tim Stinovik from Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 1: Sugar so well with the most of cover story this
Speaker 1: week of Bloomberg Business Week. It is all about Jimmy
Speaker 1: Buffett and Margharitaville and Margarita Ville Enterprises. It is now
Speaker 1: in New York City. It's at the corner of Seventh
Speaker 1: and St. And we're delighted to have with us right
Speaker 1: now Jimmy Buffett and his company's CEO. He is John Cohen.
Speaker 1: First of all, New York City because you guys are
Speaker 1: around the country. You're also in the Bahamas, you're in
Speaker 1: Costa Rica. Why New York City? And why now? Well,
Speaker 1: it's an island. Well that's true, that's why New York.
Speaker 1: So after all these years of doing this, why New
Speaker 1: York now? Well, why New York Now? I guess we
Speaker 1: all were. There's a little bit of history involved with
Speaker 1: that fact of as a performer. Uh. It always was
Speaker 1: said to me that you had to you had to
Speaker 1: take New York no matter how popular were elsewhere in
Speaker 1: the country. And that was something that was difficult to do,
Speaker 1: but I took it as a challenge. But once you're
Speaker 1: here and you connect up, it's one of the most
Speaker 1: delightful places to be. And uh, I've had a summer
Speaker 1: home out on Long Island for a long time, and
Speaker 1: I was always coming into the city and got involved
Speaker 1: in musicals and so um, you know, and let's say
Speaker 1: I frequented a few bars on this island. And uh,
Speaker 1: I thought, when this all came together, you never really
Speaker 1: know how it all happens. But we've had enough magic
Speaker 1: in turning this five minute tune into a brand that
Speaker 1: we just kind of we kind of followed the universe
Speaker 1: on where it takes us. And that's my take on
Speaker 1: and I'm sure John's got another one, John speaking about
Speaker 1: speaking of that magic, how do you get this across
Speaker 1: the finish line, especially in the midst of a pandemic. Well,
Speaker 1: it takes as Jimmy, as Jimmy always says, it takes
Speaker 1: a lot of a lot of people to help you.
Speaker 1: And we had great partners, including the City of New York.
Speaker 1: But you know, I would say, well New York obviously
Speaker 1: as an enormous number of visitors. There's really no resort
Speaker 1: in New York. So this gives people an opportunity to
Speaker 1: visit and go on vacation in Times Square. We'll talk
Speaker 1: to us about if we go and visit, because there's
Speaker 1: a lot of moving parts. There's bars, there's the resort,
Speaker 1: there's the hotel, of course, So give us an idea
Speaker 1: of kind of if somebody visits, what are we going
Speaker 1: to see. Well, you're gonna first, first of all, you're
Speaker 1: gonna have fun. You're gonna walk in from one of
Speaker 1: the more frenetic towns in the world too, is Jimmy
Speaker 1: said earlier in Oasis, And you're gonna take a deep
Speaker 1: breath and you have a drink, and you'll be able
Speaker 1: to see the Statue of Liberal without getting on a ferry,
Speaker 1: and a fabulous show designed by Jimmy to his music. Uh.
Speaker 1: Then you'll come upstairs and you'll have the choice of
Speaker 1: eight other bars, fantastic views. You'll feel a little bit
Speaker 1: like you're on a on a cruise ship in your room,
Speaker 1: and then you get to go out to check out
Speaker 1: a bunch of other bars and a lot of wonderful
Speaker 1: food retail opportunities. And I would say it's a real
Speaker 1: combination of entertainment and hospitality. Well, I do think that
Speaker 1: a lot of us could use a deep breath and
Speaker 1: a drink right now in a vacation as we do
Speaker 1: hopefully soon get to the other side of this pandemic. Jimmy,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm, I'm wondering about what you did during the pandemic,
Speaker 1: how you got through it, and what you did from
Speaker 1: a creative perspective. Well, it was you know, if you
Speaker 1: if you look at the way I looked at it,
Speaker 1: and world history, nobody has ever stopped fund complete and
Speaker 1: uh that that basically happened now and I think that's
Speaker 1: you know, it's entertainment and its creativity. That is that
Speaker 1: then layer that keeps us from going back to being
Speaker 1: as tribal as as as some people are these days.
Speaker 1: And it and and funest part of life. And I
Speaker 1: was brought up that way and raised that way down
Speaker 1: on the on the Gulf coast and the and the
Speaker 1: you know, and the remnants of the French Empire in
Speaker 1: Louisiana and La bonton Roulet was something my grandmother and
Speaker 1: grandfather taught to their children and I talked to mind.
Speaker 1: So fun has always been there, and the thing of
Speaker 1: it is, uh. The other little known secret is the
Speaker 1: Tri State areas has been an incredible uh place for
Speaker 1: our you know, die hard long term fans uh. And
Speaker 1: I've I've been playing here for forty years. I mean,
Speaker 1: Jones Beaches like playing Florida to me, you know, as
Speaker 1: far as friends. So there are a lot of parrot
Speaker 1: heads in the Tri State area. So of course tourism
Speaker 1: is one thing that New York said, hopefully we'll come
Speaker 1: back to. But you know, I gotta tell you know,
Speaker 1: I wrote that song about five minutes and I went
Speaker 1: and knocked on the door on Duval Street and Key
Speaker 1: West to get a job, and I got one. I
Speaker 1: played it there in a place called Crazy Old Philis
Speaker 1: the first time, and I think nineteen seventy two. This
Speaker 1: is a lot different up here, and I just I
Speaker 1: just had that one. I just took that that great.
Speaker 1: You know, it's almost a light speed run from Duval Street,
Speaker 1: you know, to seven and four the street and look
Speaker 1: at this place and go through. What an incredible job
Speaker 1: they did. But I always I love the fact that
Speaker 1: when it was being built, uh, you know, I love
Speaker 1: kind of hanging. I came in and to see the
Speaker 1: building process and talk to people that were building it,
Speaker 1: and the excitement from construction workers in New York. They
Speaker 1: were the nicest construction workers, you know, every want to see.
Speaker 1: And uh, it kind of emulates to the fact that
Speaker 1: everybody from you know, from our partners into the financial
Speaker 1: partners of people working here. There's there's a real kind
Speaker 1: of sense of community and and fun that we're having that. Uh,
Speaker 1: it's pretty special even on this island. Well, I gotta
Speaker 1: say the Bloomberg audience likes to have fun too, But
Speaker 1: they're also a financial audience. And you guys have spent
Speaker 1: a few hundred million dollars to get this done. Several
Speaker 1: years to get it done. And when it comes down
Speaker 1: to it, I mean, how long does it take to
Speaker 1: make it kind of a profitable venture? You guys know,
Speaker 1: New York City is an incredible place to do anything,
Speaker 1: but it can also be a very difficult And Times Square,
Speaker 1: I've seen a lot of restaurants, have seen a lot
Speaker 1: of hotels open and closed in the same year. I've
Speaker 1: seen a lot of Broadway shows open and closed in
Speaker 1: the same year. So what is it going to take,
Speaker 1: um to make it successful financially? And are you seeing
Speaker 1: already demand in terms of rooms and people wanting to
Speaker 1: be there? Well, I think the first thing is that
Speaker 1: while there are a lot of hotels in Times Square,
Speaker 1: there's not a hotel in Times Square where you can
Speaker 1: jump in a pool twelve months a year. Good point.
Speaker 1: So uh, it separates us, I think in a fairly
Speaker 1: material way. Um. And and this is a very profitable
Speaker 1: business because while it's fun to drink, it's also profitable
Speaker 1: to drink and so um. One thing we've never had
Speaker 1: trouble with is is demand and profitability. So um. We've
Speaker 1: learned from Jimmy from his career. You know, deliver value
Speaker 1: so long as you're creating fun for people, and you're
Speaker 1: doing it at fair price. Our experiences that you do
Speaker 1: very well. Well. Are you guys seeing already demand in
Speaker 1: terms of people wanting to come stay at the hotel?
Speaker 1: Can you give us any indication or can you give
Speaker 1: us a little idea of what kind of demand you're seeing? Absolutely,
Speaker 1: the advanced bookings are very strong. Obviously, our timing, which
Speaker 1: we didn't control, the brilliance of American science did H,
Speaker 1: is fantastic. There's a lot of pent up to man,
Speaker 1: you know, people haven't been able to have fun for
Speaker 1: a long time, and it's a bit of an allegory
Speaker 1: really for the comeback of not just New York but America.
Speaker 1: Everybody could sure you use a visit to Margarita. So
Speaker 1: one last question, guys, I have to say, in the
Speaker 1: lead up to this, Tim and I've been talking around
Speaker 1: the newsroom like we're gonna interview Buffett and they're like
Speaker 1: Warren and we're like, no, Jimmy Buffett, the other Buffet.
Speaker 1: You guys are actually friends Jimmy, and we're curious, did you, guys,
Speaker 1: do you talk business with him? Do you talk investments
Speaker 1: with him? Do you drink Margarita's with him, Like, I'm
Speaker 1: just curious about that relationship. Yeah, if you if you
Speaker 1: were distant, something may because of the Warren you'd call
Speaker 1: him to. We've we've been friends for a long long time.
Speaker 1: We were introduced by his sister Dars to my mom
Speaker 1: and they went on a genealogical kind of trip and
Speaker 1: that was the first time that she said, you know,
Speaker 1: you ought to meet Warren, you ought to buy Berkshire
Speaker 1: And that was like in nineteen seventy two, and I
Speaker 1: did both, Wow, have you bought bit coin? And yes, yeah,
Speaker 1: I know I know anything. I know what Warren things
Speaker 1: about it, but you know it is, yeah, a little
Speaker 1: dabble in there done do anybody harm? You know? I
Speaker 1: think in the in the entertainment side of it, it's
Speaker 1: pretty injy. I'm looking at how how you could uh
Speaker 1: tickets to me is an interesting thing of how you
Speaker 1: could control maybe scalping and in the long run, you know,
Speaker 1: I don't see anybody's done anything about it yet that
Speaker 1: has actually worked, but this this could be a possibility.
Speaker 1: That's what I'm kind of looking at. That's deed of
Speaker 1: the Buffett and John Colan, the CEO of Margarita Ville.
Speaker 1: How much fun was that? That was awesome? Oh my god.
Speaker 1: Also that story in Bloomberg Business Week, the cover story,
Speaker 1: It is so good. I had no idea that the
Speaker 1: buffet brand was so big. It's a lifestyle and that's
Speaker 1: what they're all about, this whole idea. You get into
Speaker 1: this mindset and then you want to continue to perpetuate it,
Speaker 1: essentially if you're at home. I mean, they have a
Speaker 1: high end basically drink mixer for making great Margarita's. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's pretty remarkable. All about getting that next generation into
Speaker 1: it too. You got to get those younger guys to
Speaker 1: be parrodhoods. All right. That wraps up the weekend edition
Speaker 1: of Bloomberg Business Week from Bloomberg Radio. Thanks so much
Speaker 1: for joining us. Have a great weekend everyone. I'm Carol
Speaker 1: Masso and I'm Tim Stanivk. Will be sure it's seen
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