Speaker 1: You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and
Speaker 1: Jason Kelly on Bloomberg Radio. So tons to talk about
Speaker 1: with our next guest, and he's kind enough to come
Speaker 1: back and spend some time with us to talk about
Speaker 1: today's environment, what's necessary from our global leaders um In
Speaker 1: and out of the executive suite. Joe Peterson has written
Speaker 1: a lot about leadership. He's the chairman of the Board
Speaker 1: of Overseers at the Hoover Institution at Stanford, professor at
Speaker 1: the Stanford Graduate School of Business, founder of Peterson Partners,
Speaker 1: as well as a former chairman of the board at
Speaker 1: jeff Blue Airways, and his latest book is Entrepreneurial Leadership,
Speaker 1: The Art of Launching new ventures, inspiring others and running stuff.
Speaker 1: He joins us on the phone from Park City, Utah, Joel,
Speaker 1: it is nice to have you back here on Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 1: How are you great? Nice to do with you again, Carol, Well,
Speaker 1: tell us a little bit, you know since we last talk. Um,
Speaker 1: I do think we are looking to the nation's leaders,
Speaker 1: the world leaders to kind of figure out our way
Speaker 1: through this world and figuring out how do you keep
Speaker 1: businesses going, how do you keep the economy going, how
Speaker 1: do you keep the financial markets secure? How do you
Speaker 1: see it? And how do you think the leaders are doing?
Speaker 1: Who's doing well too well? I think a lot of
Speaker 1: leaders are doing really well. We have a portfolio about
Speaker 1: fifty companies and they're adapting to it. They're reconsidering, you know,
Speaker 1: what is their covenant with their customers, what are the
Speaker 1: hard things that they haven't done that they need to do,
Speaker 1: and what ways can they build their business in this time?
Speaker 1: There are opportunities that are coming to the four. People
Speaker 1: are learning new ways of doing business, and I think
Speaker 1: we're actually recovering quite nicely from the covid um prices.
Speaker 1: And so what's what are the learnings that stick, Joel? Like,
Speaker 1: what are the things that you know, we've sort of
Speaker 1: learned in these remote working environments, in this zoom world
Speaker 1: and the distance world that you know, you feel like
Speaker 1: culturally or even in a day to day a setting
Speaker 1: are going to remain well. I think we were probably
Speaker 1: won't be taking trips across the country for a one
Speaker 1: hour meeting anymore. I think we found but there are
Speaker 1: a lot of things we can do on Zoom or
Speaker 1: other of these kinds of programs that are actually quite effective.
Speaker 1: So I think I think the travel and hospitality and
Speaker 1: streets will come back, but they'll come back relatively slowly. Um.
Speaker 1: I think we're finding that we missed people. I taught,
Speaker 1: of course at Stanford in the spring, and uh, I
Speaker 1: used to come out of class on a high. I
Speaker 1: would I would rust me with my students. It was fun.
Speaker 1: I would come out this time into a screen and
Speaker 1: come away think how much longer people? I have to
Speaker 1: do that again, you know? So, So I think we
Speaker 1: really understand that we need to be around people. Yeah. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: I think we are getting a little bit of a
Speaker 1: warped sense of kind of our lives that we are
Speaker 1: living it so much that things that we criticize our
Speaker 1: kids for doing being so much in front of a screen.
Speaker 1: We we have to to kind of keep things going.
Speaker 1: I want to go back to your portfolio fifty companies.
Speaker 1: Talk to us a little bit about them, the types
Speaker 1: of companies, and you said that they're doing well. I
Speaker 1: am just curious about, as a result of what we
Speaker 1: are going through in the pandemic, are there some in
Speaker 1: your portfolio that you're are like, this is going to
Speaker 1: be a turning point for them. Uh, in terms of
Speaker 1: maybe demand going forward. Well, you may have heard of
Speaker 1: the company Franklin Covey. I've been on the board there
Speaker 1: for about twenty nine years. It's a training company and
Speaker 1: they thought for a while that they were going to
Speaker 1: really have trouble because they do a lot of online
Speaker 1: or not online, but in person training, and they converted
Speaker 1: it over to all online and they're getting higher net
Speaker 1: promoter scores. They provided a bunch of free materials to
Speaker 1: schools that they work with and families. You know, people
Speaker 1: are teaching their kids at home now need materials, so
Speaker 1: they just for added it free to them. So they're
Speaker 1: figuring out new ways to connect with customers. We've got
Speaker 1: another one that's the robotics packaging company, you know, and
Speaker 1: and with fulfillment what it is UH, you're finding that
Speaker 1: they're being used a lot. They actually build packages around
Speaker 1: the products so there's no air, there's no seal, there,
Speaker 1: there's no peanut. They really create these very efficient so
Speaker 1: it's called smart packaging for a green planet. And so
Speaker 1: they've they've done well, So it really depends each one
Speaker 1: is different. Another one called Kota Paxi UH has basically
Speaker 1: given a lot of money to help people through this
Speaker 1: COVID thing through sales of their product. So interesting. Well,
Speaker 1: and I have to tell you, Jason, you know All
Speaker 1: Birds is in their portfolio. Jason and I are both
Speaker 1: fans Ums literally right now, And I have to say,
Speaker 1: you go to you know I remember, yeah, you go
Speaker 1: to their store in New York, and I mean it
Speaker 1: was constantly packed with people buying not just one pair,
Speaker 1: but usually multiple multiple pairs. How do you decide what
Speaker 1: you're going to invest in? You know, I'm pretty old fashioned.
Speaker 1: I'm probably the opposite of Warren Buffett. He always talks
Speaker 1: about the business plan beats out the people. I invest
Speaker 1: in people I find great entrepreneurs that I back them
Speaker 1: and help them great businesses, so to me, I and
Speaker 1: that's why our portfolio had in all of these different
Speaker 1: kinds of things. That was the first investor in Bonobos.
Speaker 1: You may have heard about business UM, and it's because
Speaker 1: there was a couple of students in mine that I loved,
Speaker 1: and you know, I just figured out how to how
Speaker 1: to help them get business. Still and what is the UM?
Speaker 1: And and do people you mentioned a couple of former students,
Speaker 1: like how do people find you? I mean I assume
Speaker 1: you're you were sought after anyways. Job, But but how
Speaker 1: do people get to you? Well, uh, so we're about
Speaker 1: a billion dollar series of fun, We're Insalt Lake, We're
Speaker 1: on the internet. I know I have a big network
Speaker 1: because I've done business on the coast for a long time.
Speaker 1: So and then I always tell people I've done a
Speaker 1: lot of favors for people over the years, never expecting
Speaker 1: anything back, and every once in a while I get surprised.
Speaker 1: So that's the stores of deals. So, Joel, I want
Speaker 1: to talk about leadership in the midst of this world
Speaker 1: we are living in. We got to chat with you
Speaker 1: a little bit about that when we were talking earlier
Speaker 1: in this year about your new book, Entrepreneurial Leadership. But
Speaker 1: this is a real test, I would imagine, and I
Speaker 1: know you talked to CEOs all across the world. If
Speaker 1: you can generalize what makes for a good leader in
Speaker 1: this topsy turvy world. Well, it's actually uh you know,
Speaker 1: I thought for a while, Liss no show of putting
Speaker 1: out a book on entrepreneurial leadership was the worst possible
Speaker 1: timing during this COVID thing. But I actually think that
Speaker 1: coming out of it, we need entrepreneurial leaders. These are
Speaker 1: people who really innovate, They create durable change. They're not
Speaker 1: merely presiders. They're not merely administrators, managers, politicians, you know,
Speaker 1: the kinds of leaders that you sometimes get in organizations.
Speaker 1: I think it's gonna be our lead an organization out
Speaker 1: of this mess without having kind of an entrepreneurial mind.
Speaker 1: That that's a really good point. That's that. So tell
Speaker 1: us a little bit more unpacked that a little bit
Speaker 1: for us, um Joel, if you would. In other words,
Speaker 1: what specifically do leaders at this point need to be
Speaker 1: thinking about. I mean, we talked Jason and I talked
Speaker 1: to a lot of CEOs who had to pivot quickly.
Speaker 1: Restaurants are having to do it right. They can't have
Speaker 1: everybody inside, so they've got to figure out how you know,
Speaker 1: you know upscale restaurants who are doing take out which
Speaker 1: they never thought they we do before. People are having
Speaker 1: to reimagine their businesses, and I think it starts with
Speaker 1: thinking about who are our customers? What's our covenant with
Speaker 1: our customers? And that takes new creative thinking outside the box.
Speaker 1: You know, at jet Blue we decided there are number
Speaker 1: one value a long time ago is safety and uh
Speaker 1: if you think of safety now it has to do
Speaker 1: with help is what it didn't used to. But now
Speaker 1: we sanitize our planes, people wear masks, we don't serve,
Speaker 1: sell the middle seats. We make sure we have HEPA filters,
Speaker 1: we take people's temperatures, you know, all kinds of things
Speaker 1: that are really consistent with our safety objectives. So I
Speaker 1: think every business is having to rethink these covenants. I mean,
Speaker 1: I would say that the first thing that you have
Speaker 1: to do as a leader in times like this is
Speaker 1: you have to survive. And job one is liquidity. So
Speaker 1: you've got to extend the runway. And I think a
Speaker 1: lot of leaders are challenged by that, but that's job one.
Speaker 1: You've got to do that. And I think you have
Speaker 1: to reimagine what it is your covenant with your customers
Speaker 1: and make sure you're delivering on that and then you
Speaker 1: uh and go from there. And I think a lot
Speaker 1: of it is communication. Our cover story of the magazine
Speaker 1: this week is about Ben and Jerry's, which, as you know,
Speaker 1: is part of UNI Leave, our giant company. But you know,
Speaker 1: after George Floyd in Minneapolis, I mean that company, you know,
Speaker 1: one of their board members said to the CEO you know,
Speaker 1: you've got to do something quickly, and they did, and
Speaker 1: that tends to be kind of their ethos of who
Speaker 1: they are. They're constantly thinking about bigger macro issues and
Speaker 1: how to have a voice out there um so that
Speaker 1: people really understand what they are and the culture of
Speaker 1: their company. So Joel, I have to say you open
Speaker 1: the boarding doors. That were to talk about the airlines,
Speaker 1: and we'd be remiss. It would be journalistic malpractice. We
Speaker 1: didn't ask you what happens with the airline industry now?
Speaker 1: I mean it is back on its heels, to say
Speaker 1: the least. We've got all these dire forecasts, especially about
Speaker 1: business travel. What's the road, the runway, whatever metaphor you
Speaker 1: want to use, what's the way back in the in
Speaker 1: the short and mid term here, Well, if it's gonna
Speaker 1: take some time for people to feel comfortable again, and
Speaker 1: it really starts out with the psyche of the customer,
Speaker 1: and I think they have to feel like it's still
Speaker 1: the safest way to get from point A to point
Speaker 1: buh So the airlines have been that for a long
Speaker 1: long time, and they've been actually a fuel efficient, carbon
Speaker 1: efficient way of doing that. Two, But they don't feel
Speaker 1: like it's a good way from a health standpoint, So
Speaker 1: I think we have to secure that. It's funny after
Speaker 1: nine eleven, it took about nine months for people to
Speaker 1: really start flying the way they've been flying before. It
Speaker 1: took some practice. They had to get used to the
Speaker 1: t s a, they had get used to titanium doors
Speaker 1: on the cockpits, etcetera. So I think it will take
Speaker 1: some time because it's so hard to imagine how things
Speaker 1: will come back. We've done scenarios where we looked at
Speaker 1: a V shape recovery, a U shaped recovery, an L
Speaker 1: shaped recovery, you know, which is to say a long
Speaker 1: long time. So I think you just have to imagine
Speaker 1: that you things are going to be different, and you
Speaker 1: have to be able to thrive, survive, then thrive in
Speaker 1: all of those scenarios. Do you think everybody thrives? I mean,
Speaker 1: Jeff Blue and American Right announcing kind of this big
Speaker 1: partnership collaboration. I mean, people are speculating, is this the
Speaker 1: first step to emerge or you know, do we we
Speaker 1: just have about forty seconds? Do you anticipate that there
Speaker 1: will be some you know, more consolidation here. I think
Speaker 1: there'll be some shuffling. I think you may see some
Speaker 1: carriers disappear. You may see all kinds of different things.
Speaker 1: I don't want to speculate or green any news. Well
Speaker 1: that you could always do that with us, Joe okay
Speaker 1: with it. Anytime you feel like if you come back,
Speaker 1: you come back and joyous, Joe Peter said, it's always
Speaker 1: a treat to catch up with you. We really appreciate
Speaker 1: Joe Peterson, of course, former chairman of Jet Blue, professor
Speaker 1: at Stanford's Graduate School of Business, founder of Peterson Partners.
Speaker 1: He's got his hands in a lot of pos love
Speaker 1: checking in with him head