Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week from Bloomberg Radio. Hello, I'm
Speaker 1: Jason Kelly and I'm Carol Master. Welcome to the weekend
Speaker 1: edition of Bloomberg Business Week. Over the next couple of hours,
Speaker 1: we're going to bring you some of our most important
Speaker 1: conversations that we had throughout this week. And Jason safe
Speaker 1: to say it definitely has been a somber week. A
Speaker 1: nation once again in crisis. We're still fighting back from
Speaker 1: the coronavirus pandemic, but now we've got another fight against injustice.
Speaker 1: In the aftermath of the death of African American George Floyd,
Speaker 1: protests rising civil unrest. We saw that throughout the week
Speaker 1: around the nation, reminding us once again of the inequalities
Speaker 1: that exist in our society. And we looked at it
Speaker 1: through our Bloomberg Glens right talking with business, nonprofit, public
Speaker 1: sector leaders and how the divide in our society has economic, business,
Speaker 1: market and most importantly societal implications. Well, it's crisis on
Speaker 1: crisis for sure, and I think one of the things
Speaker 1: we learned throughout the course of the week and having
Speaker 1: conversations with CEOs and other leaders, was that you can
Speaker 1: really separate the two and I think what we have
Speaker 1: experienced over the past few months is a culmination, a
Speaker 1: sad culmination in many ways of decades and I think
Speaker 1: some people would argue centuries of injustice and a lot
Speaker 1: of economic elements and economic disparities maybe is a better
Speaker 1: way to say it, that have been exacerbated over the
Speaker 1: past few months and really laid bare, and once you
Speaker 1: see them, it's hard to look away. And there's a
Speaker 1: lot of hope out there. And we talked about it
Speaker 1: with a lot of people that maybe this is the
Speaker 1: moment where we start to make some changes. And one
Speaker 1: of the voices we all agree that we needed to
Speaker 1: hear from was John Hopebriant. He's the founder, chairman, and
Speaker 1: CEO of a nonprofit Operation Hope. He created that in
Speaker 1: the aftermath of a riots. He's still working to help
Speaker 1: the disenfranchised. But he talked to us about reducing inequality,
Speaker 1: reducing the injustices in the United States. We talked to
Speaker 1: some other leaders who are dealing not only with this
Speaker 1: crisis which is right in front of them, but the
Speaker 1: existing health crisis and the economic crisis that has been
Speaker 1: born out owing to the pandemic, the coronavirus pandemic. Tim Ryan.
Speaker 1: We had a thoughtful conversation with him. I think he's
Speaker 1: the chair of p WC based up in Boston. He
Speaker 1: talked to us about not only what he's doing and
Speaker 1: how he is very methodically and I think very thoughtfully
Speaker 1: responded to his employees about what happened with George Floyd
Speaker 1: and the aftermath and the protests there, but also what
Speaker 1: getting back to work looks like, because that also is
Speaker 1: important as we start to get some sense of normalcy,
Speaker 1: even though we know we're never going to be the same.
Speaker 1: And one of the folks who's also thinking a lot
Speaker 1: about that is Candice Lee. She's Vanderbilt University's first female
Speaker 1: athletic director and she's the first female African American to
Speaker 1: lead an athletic department in the SEC, a very important
Speaker 1: conference in the world of sports. So she talked to
Speaker 1: us about her role in basically caring for her athletes. Yes,
Speaker 1: so many important conversations. First of that, we want to
Speaker 1: take you inside the magazine's cover story. It's on how
Speaker 1: radical repression is built into the U. S economy and
Speaker 1: how one fifty years after the Civil War, the color
Speaker 1: of money is still white. It's a provocative and thoughtful story.
Speaker 1: Here's more from economics editor Peter Coy. The truth is
Speaker 1: that the economics profession has had a hard time understanding
Speaker 1: race racial discrimination. If you open a standard textbook that
Speaker 1: will tell you that workers are in the madginal product
Speaker 1: or the labor I value they provide to the the employer,
Speaker 1: it would make no sense to do anything else because
Speaker 1: if you paid somebody less than they were worth, they
Speaker 1: would go someplace else. Of course, that doesn't really describe
Speaker 1: the real world where we do see racial discrimination. So
Speaker 1: economists for decades have been struggling with how to explain it.
Speaker 1: And I go through various theories, but come around to
Speaker 1: the idea that you know, maybe it's nothing more complic
Speaker 1: Cada than the white power structure paying people less because
Speaker 1: they can get away with paying people less, and all
Speaker 1: kinds of other forms of discrimination against African Americans and
Speaker 1: other racial minorities that just persist decade after decade. So
Speaker 1: how do we change things, because, as you put in
Speaker 1: your story, the greatest frustration is that nothing ever seems
Speaker 1: to change. I mean, this is not new as you know.
Speaker 1: You're right, Jason. We talked to um Francis fry At
Speaker 1: at Harvard, and she said, you know, four years we've
Speaker 1: been fighting racism, so you know, and even John Hopebrien
Speaker 1: of Operation Hope, you know, yes, it's terrible what happened
Speaker 1: to George Floyd, but this shouldn't you know, this happens
Speaker 1: a lot. So so what do the economists say, Peter,
Speaker 1: you know, how how do we make a change? What
Speaker 1: do we need in terms of maybe the new school
Speaker 1: of economic thought. I did not write a prescriptive story here,
Speaker 1: as more of an analy political story, like, let's just
Speaker 1: I think the first step is to acknowledge it is
Speaker 1: a problem. Yeah, I think that. I think that that
Speaker 1: actually is a good first step because there are a
Speaker 1: lot of white accept at times like this, when it's
Speaker 1: pretty clear that's something deeply wrong, who will revert to
Speaker 1: the thinking that I think we pretty much put that
Speaker 1: behind us. They may have cordial relations with their neighbors
Speaker 1: or people down the street or at work who are
Speaker 1: of other races. They may see the success of people
Speaker 1: here and there and conclude that the problem is solved.
Speaker 1: You need to stop and say no, it's not. And
Speaker 1: until you do that progress will not be made. And
Speaker 1: that's editor Joel Weber and Economics editor Peter Coy talking
Speaker 1: about that story in the magazine. I have to say, Carol,
Speaker 1: I think both you and I when we read it
Speaker 1: for the first time, probably stopped in our tracks. Because
Speaker 1: Peter is a beautiful writer. He's also someone who captures
Speaker 1: both the science and the art and the emotion effortlessly,
Speaker 1: and I think reading it and understanding it was a
Speaker 1: very powerful exercise, no doubt. He wraps up his story saying, Um,
Speaker 1: these two lines, it just they stuck with me. Whether
Speaker 1: all that anger will move America forward isn't so clear,
Speaker 1: And of course he's talking about the civil unrest. He
Speaker 1: goes on to say, Peter, that is what's clear is
Speaker 1: the need for the power structures of economics and business
Speaker 1: to grapple with life as it's lived, not as a
Speaker 1: textbook specifies. So, you know, economics and theory it's failing
Speaker 1: us at this time, and so we need to kind
Speaker 1: of figure out a different way to really tell the
Speaker 1: story that we're all living. Really provocative and I highly
Speaker 1: recommend it's a must read for everyone you're listening to.
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Business Week. Coming up, we chat with p WC
Speaker 1: chair Tim Ryan on how leaders should be thinking about
Speaker 1: the numerous crises they're facing. This is Bloomberg. You're listening
Speaker 1: to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Jason Kelly
Speaker 1: from Bloomberg Radio. Today we're bringing you some of the
Speaker 1: most important, we hope informative conversations we had this week
Speaker 1: on our daily Bloomberg Business Week radio show. It was
Speaker 1: a difficult week, but one where we went deep with
Speaker 1: a lot of people to try and understand not just
Speaker 1: where we are, but where we may be going next.
Speaker 1: And Jason, we spoke with Tim Ryan. He's the tour
Speaker 1: at PwC. He's been having lots of conversations with CEOs
Speaker 1: and leaders all around the country. It was a really
Speaker 1: deep conversation moved and impacted both you and I, and
Speaker 1: he talked about our world that's being tested on multiple
Speaker 1: fronts and how we all need to be drivers have changed.
Speaker 1: I look at it from two perspectives and let me
Speaker 1: let me start up by saying GTBC, NORMI do we
Speaker 1: have all the answers, but we look at it from
Speaker 1: two perspectives. For the last four years, we've been taking
Speaker 1: very aggressive steps to improve our inclusion with inside the
Speaker 1: full walls of p WC, and and it starts at home.
Speaker 1: We all be better and we need to be better,
Speaker 1: and myself and over a thousand executives who are part
Speaker 1: of CEO Actions for diversity Inclusion, we have committed to
Speaker 1: make our organizations better, safer, more aware, and more understanding.
Speaker 1: But as you point out or asking your question, policy
Speaker 1: making also plays an important part. The reality is that
Speaker 1: we need more thoughtful policy at the city, state, and
Speaker 1: federal level to make sure that we get some we
Speaker 1: get at some of the more important parts or equally
Speaker 1: important parts around inclusion if we're to get to a
Speaker 1: better performance at a sustaind level. So, for example, we
Speaker 1: think about the economic inequalities that exists in our country.
Speaker 1: Policy the policy making plays an important role there as well.
Speaker 1: You know, it's interesting tempted to hear your response to
Speaker 1: the to the first question because it does feel like
Speaker 1: we're in a different moment where I dare say, and
Speaker 1: this is no judgment on any of your predecessors or
Speaker 1: any predecessors of current ceo is, but I have a
Speaker 1: hard time believing that in a previous generation of leaders,
Speaker 1: it would be almost acceptable in some ways for a
Speaker 1: leader of your stature to personally respond to all of
Speaker 1: those things. Do you feel like you bear more of
Speaker 1: a responsibility to show a level of transparency and I
Speaker 1: dare say authenticity to a broader spectrum of people. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a it's a fair question. I am. I certainly
Speaker 1: sincerely believe I have a responsibility to the fifty five
Speaker 1: people who trust me with their leadership than that. That
Speaker 1: is very personal to me. I was speaking with somebody
Speaker 1: over the weekend, or many many people. In one conversation,
Speaker 1: I asked us, do you think everybody's getting three thousand emails?
Speaker 1: And I honestly don't know the answer. What I am
Speaker 1: proud of is the culture is that people expect to
Speaker 1: have immediate access at PBC to the top and I
Speaker 1: and I take that responsibility very seriously. I think some
Speaker 1: of it's a sign of times. I think some of
Speaker 1: it is the culture of the organization. And when I
Speaker 1: look at those three thousand emails and over and and
Speaker 1: I'm behind today to be clear, because it's the message
Speaker 1: out today. But I think part part of it is
Speaker 1: many thousands just saying thank you, thank you. I shot
Speaker 1: a video on Friday morning and saying how sick I was.
Speaker 1: Part of it is thank you for the commitment and leadership,
Speaker 1: but hundreds were here are suggestions and and and we're
Speaker 1: going through them like we to think that in in
Speaker 1: a world where leadership is looked up to, we don't
Speaker 1: have all the answers. And I think part of it
Speaker 1: is Part of it is we need to get it
Speaker 1: at all levels in an organization. One of our black
Speaker 1: associates I spoke to today, he has three years experience
Speaker 1: with us. He was both um, he was both excited
Speaker 1: but also angry that society is not making more progress,
Speaker 1: is it, Tim, You need to listen to not only
Speaker 1: the views of partners and people in the middle and
Speaker 1: leadership pills, you need to listen to our views as well.
Speaker 1: I think it's I think it's incredibly important that we
Speaker 1: do that. I think today more than ever, well, you know,
Speaker 1: going back to oh Man, you just kind of chills
Speaker 1: my spine. We spoke with John Hopebryant Um Sherman and
Speaker 1: cy of of UM Hope and what's interesting is he
Speaker 1: said he was talking to a lot of young people, Tim,
Speaker 1: who said, you know, because everybody's like please, you know,
Speaker 1: looting doesn't solve anything. But these young people said to him, listen,
Speaker 1: you get to be you have a seat at the table.
Speaker 1: You know you're in the room where it all happens.
Speaker 1: You go to the White House, you talked to c eos.
Speaker 1: For us, our voices aren't heard unless we take these
Speaker 1: drastic actions, and we need to figure out a way
Speaker 1: to make sure everyone is heard. And Tim, I feel
Speaker 1: like we have a lot of conversations about this and
Speaker 1: yet nothing happens. Yeah, I think, I think, Um, it
Speaker 1: is really important for us to understand to our black
Speaker 1: and brown citizens of the United States, what happened last
Speaker 1: day is not new. What happened in Central Park is
Speaker 1: not new. Too many. It feels new because we start
Speaker 1: on a video, but it is not new. And as
Speaker 1: I speak with and I'm not black, I cannot say
Speaker 1: I've walked in people's shoes, but as I've listened to hundreds,
Speaker 1: what they will tell you is that this is not new.
Speaker 1: And four years ago we had shootings in Dallas, we
Speaker 1: had violence in Louisville, two years ago we had volunced
Speaker 1: in Charlottesville. We have it again. And it's incumbent on
Speaker 1: people in my role and other roles to say enough
Speaker 1: is enough, and we're going to fix it, and we
Speaker 1: have to work together to do that. So, Tim, I
Speaker 1: want to talk about the return to work, except one
Speaker 1: more question for you about sort of where we are
Speaker 1: at this particular moment having to do with protests. You've
Speaker 1: got curfews happening at major cities around the country, including
Speaker 1: here in the Tri State area, and I do wonder
Speaker 1: how do you balance sort of the safety of your
Speaker 1: employees with the notion that you want them to be
Speaker 1: able to express themselves at times like this. Yeah, we
Speaker 1: encourage Jarre people to make sure their point of view
Speaker 1: is heard, and protesting is an important part of expressing ourselves.
Speaker 1: We obviously want to make sure they're safe as well,
Speaker 1: so we've encouraged people to do that and use the
Speaker 1: best judgment, and cities where we have had protests, we've
Speaker 1: used are YU wanted security team to make sure we're
Speaker 1: checking out on people that they're safe. If we've had
Speaker 1: a few instances, we simply had to move people because
Speaker 1: they were in very closely affected areas. But freedom of
Speaker 1: speech and the ability to get your views heard both
Speaker 1: internally within the firm and outside is something that we
Speaker 1: think is really important. Obviously, we wanted to be peaceful,
Speaker 1: we want our people to be safe, but getting our
Speaker 1: emotions out and getting our feelings out is important, and
Speaker 1: the numbers really speak to the importance of getting those
Speaker 1: views out and having voices heard. So it is a
Speaker 1: very important part of our nation and the freedom to
Speaker 1: get your view out there and and something we're supportive of.
Speaker 1: That's Tim Ryan. He's a char at p WC. And
Speaker 1: that's just scratching the surface Jason. For a full interview,
Speaker 1: be sure to check out the Business Week Extra podcast.
Speaker 1: We talked about how work will not look like the
Speaker 1: way it was twelve to thirteen weeks ago, and certainly
Speaker 1: not the way it's done today. We really went a
Speaker 1: lot of places with him well, and it was interesting
Speaker 1: to hear his very personal response and the way that
Speaker 1: he is engaging with his employees, even from a remote basis,
Speaker 1: on how they're feeling, how they're doing, how their work
Speaker 1: is going to be different, because you can't really separate
Speaker 1: all of these different things, all of these crises that
Speaker 1: we're facing. Its impacting who we are, how we work,
Speaker 1: and who we want to be. You're listening to Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Week Coming Up Checkers CEO Francis Alan. She tells us
Speaker 1: how the restaurant industry is forever changed name CEO of
Speaker 1: Checkers and Rallies. In February began her job working from home.
Speaker 1: You'll hear her story. This is Bloomberg. You're listening to
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Jason Kelly from
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Radio. We'll bring you some of the most important
Speaker 1: and formative conversations we had on our daily radio show
Speaker 1: throughout the week. Um of course, much of it on
Speaker 1: the news about the civic unrest that we've seen in
Speaker 1: the last week, but we're also still dealing with the
Speaker 1: virus and industries trying to come back. Karl, we caught
Speaker 1: up with Francis Alan. This was a conversation I was
Speaker 1: looking forward to in part because these are restaurants that
Speaker 1: I have frequented throughout my life. She's the CEO of
Speaker 1: Checkers and Rally's. Those are drive through restaurants. These are
Speaker 1: restaurants that have actually done okay through the pandemic, and
Speaker 1: she gave us a window into the restaurant industry how
Speaker 1: it will never be the same post pandemic. It's really
Speaker 1: been so rewarding to UH to work through this crisis
Speaker 1: with with such a dedicated and resilient team of people.
Speaker 1: There's always a silver aligning right and in every crisis,
Speaker 1: and I think, uh, you know, usually it brings out
Speaker 1: the best of people. And I can certainly say that
Speaker 1: that's true for the Checks and Raleigh's whole organization. UM.
Speaker 1: For that, I'll start with the safety. Obviously, when when
Speaker 1: we put a taskforce together to create a response plan,
Speaker 1: we had two priorities. The first priority was the safety
Speaker 1: of our guests and our employees, and the second was
Speaker 1: really to keep our restaurants open so we can continue
Speaker 1: to employ our team members and feed our guests. So
Speaker 1: UM incredibly proud of the of the operations team we
Speaker 1: actually as as well as complying with all of the
Speaker 1: CDC mandates both individual, state and local government requirements, we've
Speaker 1: actually put in fifteen new contact less experiences to protect
Speaker 1: our employees and our guess, everything from UM plexigoth areas
Speaker 1: at the windows, UM cashiers with color coded gloves for
Speaker 1: handling payments, UM praise for handling payments, Infrared thermometers obviously.
Speaker 1: Fortunately you already did fifteen minute hand washing, so UM,
Speaker 1: you know, we already had a very high standard of cleanness. UM.
Speaker 1: You know, cup refills, We've always refilled people's cups. But
Speaker 1: now we'll still do that, but we'll give you a
Speaker 1: fresh cup. So a ton of new UM procedures at
Speaker 1: the restaurant sanitation obviously to keep people safe, on people
Speaker 1: and labor UM. You know, obviously at first priority as
Speaker 1: the employees who show up for work every day, and
Speaker 1: I'm so proud of them and what they've done and
Speaker 1: how they kept going. We're fortunate in that we have
Speaker 1: not had to lay off anybody. We did follow some
Speaker 1: people at this corporate office, but we were able to
Speaker 1: bring them back after thirty days. But we've been looking
Speaker 1: after our team members with sickly with closure pay if
Speaker 1: if the restaurant has to close, and we've also instigated
Speaker 1: a thank you pay for those restaurant team members that
Speaker 1: that have UM stayed with us through throughout their s
Speaker 1: virus UM. I'm very proud to say we also have
Speaker 1: a an employee relief fund. It was actually established in
Speaker 1: thousands five following the days of Hurricane Katrina, and has
Speaker 1: provided more than five hundred thousand dollars and assistant to
Speaker 1: about six hundred employees and their families. And we've expanded
Speaker 1: that to UM to obviously include anybody that can't work
Speaker 1: due to Corona related issues. So a lot of a
Speaker 1: lot of work put together to for our people, keep
Speaker 1: our guests and our employees safe. And then of course
Speaker 1: all the marketing shifts that that we need to needed
Speaker 1: to make, so shifting really into free delivery, meal bundles, um,
Speaker 1: social media and UH and just trying to stay very
Speaker 1: nimble and flexible. And that's for instance, Allen CEO of
Speaker 1: Checkers and Rallies drive in And as you pointed out
Speaker 1: earlier in the show, this is someone who had as
Speaker 1: a rich, deep experience in this business. But she basically
Speaker 1: has like been to headquarters a couple of times, but
Speaker 1: she doesn't really work there yet. She's been working from
Speaker 1: her home in Colorado, managing this massive enterprise remotely and
Speaker 1: thinking about a lot of health and safety issues as
Speaker 1: she thinks about reopening. Well, her perspective is an important one, Jason,
Speaker 1: qus are quick service restaurants, right, She has worked. She
Speaker 1: was CEO of Boston Market, president of Jack in the Box,
Speaker 1: also senior positions at Denny's dunkin Donuts USA. So when
Speaker 1: we want to understand this segment of the restaurant industry,
Speaker 1: she's really a great person to get some insight. One
Speaker 1: of the takeaways more blurring a fast casual and drive
Speaker 1: through restaurants, and she said, you know what, you're gonna
Speaker 1: love this, Jason, get ready for more comfort food on
Speaker 1: the menu. I know. That was actually really good to hear.
Speaker 1: I basically was like, well, what about healthy things? And
Speaker 1: she said, you know what, that's not exactly what people
Speaker 1: want and I should correct that. The guy said a
Speaker 1: few minutes ago, it really isn't about reopening for her,
Speaker 1: It's it's more the idea they never really closed. How
Speaker 1: do they adjust going forward and how does the industry
Speaker 1: around them adjust? That was a really important takeaway too.
Speaker 1: You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week coming up the role
Speaker 1: of sports in the age of COVID nineteen. An wonderful
Speaker 1: interview we caught up with Candice Lee. She is the
Speaker 1: first female athletic director at Vanderbilt University, also first African
Speaker 1: American woman to have an SEC athletic program, and I
Speaker 1: gotta tell you, she says, we all missed sports and
Speaker 1: she's getting ready to try and open up. This is Bloomberg.
Speaker 1: You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and
Speaker 1: Jason Kelly from Bloomberg Radio. They were bringing you some
Speaker 1: of the most important and we hope informative conversations we
Speaker 1: had on our daily Bloomberg Business Week radio show. It
Speaker 1: was a week where I felt like everyday, Carol, we
Speaker 1: were trying to get our heads around what was happening
Speaker 1: in the news that day, knowing that what's happening now
Speaker 1: is going to have a profound effect on where we
Speaker 1: are in the coming months and years. And then includes
Speaker 1: an interview with Candice Lee Jason. She's Genderbilt University's first
Speaker 1: female athletic director. What's interesting is when we booked her,
Speaker 1: we thought, Okay, we're gonna talk about what's going on,
Speaker 1: you know in terms of sports at the college level.
Speaker 1: You know, how do you you know, run a program?
Speaker 1: Uh in a world of COVID nineteen And then of
Speaker 1: course that conversation was impacted as well by the news
Speaker 1: out of Minneapolis and the death of George Floyd oh Man.
Speaker 1: Um I thought, what and what what a tragedy that
Speaker 1: could have been and shouldn't have been avoided? And um
Speaker 1: it was heartbreaking. It was very difficult to watch. I
Speaker 1: will admit that I have not been able to watch all.
Speaker 1: I know it's seven or eight minutes long. I have
Speaker 1: not made it through that entire video. I mean I've
Speaker 1: seen I've seen clips, and um it's traumatizing. So I
Speaker 1: would say that, UM. I mean my reaction was the
Speaker 1: reaction of I think so many of us that um
Speaker 1: it was necessary. It was unnecessary. And Candice, you know
Speaker 1: you have a responsibility as so many do to you know,
Speaker 1: young people who are ultimately in your care. You know
Speaker 1: you were catching them at an incredibly important and informative age.
Speaker 1: How do you take what's going on in the country
Speaker 1: and you think about your role being as important as
Speaker 1: it ever was, more important maybe than it ever was.
Speaker 1: As as you think about the the young folks that
Speaker 1: that you're trying to to counsel through all of this.
Speaker 1: We're all thinking about it as parents, I know, and
Speaker 1: obviously you see it through a different lens than I do.
Speaker 1: I like how you phrased the question, because you're right then,
Speaker 1: um it is it is the care of our student
Speaker 1: athletes that is our priority. And I think that in
Speaker 1: some ways, you know, you feel helpless when you see
Speaker 1: a situation like this and you you start wrapping your
Speaker 1: brain and you it stirs up a lot of emotions,
Speaker 1: and then I start thinking about how not that I
Speaker 1: have a ton of experience, but if you if you
Speaker 1: imagine being a college student and trying to process that
Speaker 1: and make sense of it, how intimidating and overwhelming that
Speaker 1: must be. And I think the thing that we have
Speaker 1: to do is just start with transparency and opthenticity. Those
Speaker 1: are the things I talked with our student athletes about
Speaker 1: UM over the weekend, and same with our staff. You know,
Speaker 1: it's a it's a chance to to really be vulnerable
Speaker 1: and wrestle with this together. I don't have all the answers,
Speaker 1: and I'm real clear about that, but I do want
Speaker 1: our student athletes to understand that we can provide them
Speaker 1: with a safe space to explore how they're feeling, and
Speaker 1: we want to equip them with I mean, it's it's
Speaker 1: it's hard to make sense of something that's just tragic.
Speaker 1: It's hard to make sense of that. But what I
Speaker 1: hope is that our student athletes will feel like they
Speaker 1: can make a difference, Like if they're convicted about this
Speaker 1: topic or anything that they're passionate about, that they'll use
Speaker 1: their plans for them to really affect change and do
Speaker 1: it in a healthy way. The thing I think that
Speaker 1: many of us wrestle with, for many people wrestle with
Speaker 1: when you're just so heartbroken over something and it's hard
Speaker 1: to understand why people do certain things. How can you
Speaker 1: mobilize people to want to make a change, but but
Speaker 1: not be so frustrated that you paralyzed or you know,
Speaker 1: not have a hard heart and and and that's um
Speaker 1: I think that's a challenge for all of us. But
Speaker 1: I know that's a challenge when you're eighteen, nineteen, twenty
Speaker 1: years old, and and you know, it's a privilege to
Speaker 1: be able to be with with with folks when they're
Speaker 1: developing their ideas and they're building a foundation. But it's
Speaker 1: also a huge responsibility, you know, because they looked to us.
Speaker 1: You talked about the care, they looked us for that guidance.
Speaker 1: We want to pivot, uh to your plans at Vanderbilt.
Speaker 1: But I have one last question, and I do wonder Candice,
Speaker 1: what you think is the role and responsibility of of
Speaker 1: sports professional or collegiate in terms of being an agent
Speaker 1: for change. Well, I think when you when you look
Speaker 1: at the athletics platform, um I saw I actually saw
Speaker 1: a tweet yesterday that and I'm sure I'm sure you
Speaker 1: all saw this or other people are saying something similar,
Speaker 1: but it talked about if the world would treat each
Speaker 1: other the way people treat each other in a locker room,
Speaker 1: where they're folks from all walks of life and um
Speaker 1: different perspectives, what they're working towards a common goal. And
Speaker 1: that really struck me because I think that when you
Speaker 1: when you look at athletics and you get on a team,
Speaker 1: I don't know that people are focused on race or
Speaker 1: geographical area or sexual orientation, or they're they're working together
Speaker 1: to try to win right there, competing on the same
Speaker 1: team with a common goal. And when I think about
Speaker 1: that and all the opportunities that have been created. Now,
Speaker 1: don't get me wrong, athletics has not been perfect in
Speaker 1: this space, so I'm I'm certainly not saying that, but
Speaker 1: I do think that given the great widespread interests that
Speaker 1: there is an athletics and the way that it allows
Speaker 1: you to cheer for the same thing without regard to
Speaker 1: those things that that that make us different, then I
Speaker 1: think it's kind of a natural thing to look at
Speaker 1: athletics in terms of leadership when it comes to opportunities
Speaker 1: and and to this equality and fairness, because that's what
Speaker 1: sport is. Sport is about fairness and and and I
Speaker 1: I think you've got to be careful here because I
Speaker 1: know that that doesn't mean that every athlete as a
Speaker 1: social activist. I understand that. But the fact that sports
Speaker 1: is something that ties a lot of us together and
Speaker 1: brings people to common spaces and allows them to interact
Speaker 1: where these same people might not might not be together
Speaker 1: if if it were not for a football game or
Speaker 1: soccer match. And I think that that shows us that
Speaker 1: sport has the ability to be far reaching. So I
Speaker 1: think with that there's expectations, right that maybe you can
Speaker 1: change people's minds or you can raise awareness about something. Well.
Speaker 1: In Canadice, for all of those reasons that you just described,
Speaker 1: we are so collectively interested in seeing sports come back,
Speaker 1: especially college sports come back. I grew up down South,
Speaker 1: have a lot of friends who went to Vanderbilt and
Speaker 1: other SEC schools, and there is nothing I don't have
Speaker 1: to tell you. There is nothing like SEC sports and
Speaker 1: there's nothing like SEC college football. What's right? What's your
Speaker 1: best guess for for what we see this fall? I've
Speaker 1: been really intentional about about not trying to guess. I'll
Speaker 1: tell you that we're preparing to come back in the
Speaker 1: fall as scheduled. And and I'm and I'm not trying
Speaker 1: to dodge your question. I think the reality is that
Speaker 1: this pandemic has taught us that um, as much as
Speaker 1: we think we're in control of things, we're very vulnerable
Speaker 1: and and and that's humbling, especially in athletics, because you know,
Speaker 1: we're we're very focused, we're very regiment we're very structured,
Speaker 1: and and I think there's a lot of humility that
Speaker 1: comes with knowing that you really don't know what the
Speaker 1: future holes. Having said that, I was on a call
Speaker 1: earlier today and the point was made. I had not
Speaker 1: thought about this, But you know, we've been in this
Speaker 1: mode for you know, roughly ninety days. We still have
Speaker 1: a decent amount of time before we have to play
Speaker 1: our first football game, and and and time is is
Speaker 1: really important here because with each passing day and with
Speaker 1: each passing week, we learn a little bit more and
Speaker 1: with more data, you know, you feel armed to make
Speaker 1: better decisions. And I think that all of us desperately
Speaker 1: want sports back. It's a rallying cry. It ties communities together.
Speaker 1: We all we all want something to cheer for, we
Speaker 1: all want to feel united, and sports is a great
Speaker 1: way to do that. And I just think we just
Speaker 1: have to be diligent about trying to resume activity in
Speaker 1: the safest way possible. You know, that's part of the
Speaker 1: care for the student athletes that you all were talking
Speaker 1: about earlier. That's part of it, right, It's fundamental their
Speaker 1: health and safety and the health and safety of our community.
Speaker 1: So and um, it's challenging, right sure, well, and and Candice,
Speaker 1: it also feels like one of the challenges is going
Speaker 1: to be protecting so many of the sports beyond college football,
Speaker 1: given the economic headwinds that UH that athletic departments are
Speaker 1: going to face. I have to think you're thinking about
Speaker 1: that as well, given the upside down world we're living
Speaker 1: in potentially, And I'm not asking you to guess about this,
Speaker 1: you know, if we have you know, spectator list games,
Speaker 1: how are you sort of thinking about different ways that
Speaker 1: you can ensure that many uh cauge college athletes still
Speaker 1: get a chance to to play at a time when
Speaker 1: a lot of schools are canceling pro grams. You're right,
Speaker 1: we're very, very dependent on the revenue that's tied to football.
Speaker 1: There's no question about that. There's no debating that. You
Speaker 1: have to look at each individual situation in terms of
Speaker 1: like how much a particular athletics department depends on revenue
Speaker 1: that's tied to tickets or concessions or you know, it
Speaker 1: varies by institution. What doesn't vary, though, is that we
Speaker 1: all need football. We all we all needed to. It's
Speaker 1: the financial engine that drives everything, you know, and that's
Speaker 1: that's just the way that it's structured. That's Vanderbilt University's
Speaker 1: first female athletic director, first African American woman to had
Speaker 1: an SEC athletic program, Candice Lee. I gotta say I'm
Speaker 1: a big fan already. Yeah, the Commodores, man. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's a really interesting school. It's obviously a very prestigious university.
Speaker 1: Plays an important role there in Nashville and in the South.
Speaker 1: And you know, as you said earlier in the show,
Speaker 1: you know we caught her at an interesting moment. You know,
Speaker 1: we went into this conversation. I think when we originally
Speaker 1: had it on our calendar, is thinking, okay, cool, we're
Speaker 1: going to talk about what college football is going to
Speaker 1: be like in the role of student athletes, and you know,
Speaker 1: I think that we're reminded every day of the interconnectedness
Speaker 1: of so many things. And you know, having truly a
Speaker 1: trailblazer in Kandice League take over that role at this
Speaker 1: moment provided us some fascinating insights. And I've got to say,
Speaker 1: bottom line, they are preparing to come back in the fall.
Speaker 1: And then she also really stressed the importance the role
Speaker 1: of sports at times of division, So that really stayed
Speaker 1: with me. All Right, that wraps up the first hour
Speaker 1: of the weekend edition of Bloomberg Business Week from Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 1: I'm Jason Kelly and I'm Carol mass are plenty coming
Speaker 1: up in our next hour, we're gonna continue to explore
Speaker 1: the political and economic aftermath of the civil unrest that
Speaker 1: we're seeing in our country. Right now, we're going to
Speaker 1: hear from John Hope Bryant. He's a guest we really
Speaker 1: wanted to speak to because of the work that he's
Speaker 1: doing with Operation Hope. We also take you to Topeka, Kansas.
Speaker 1: We talked to the mayor there. Her personal story is
Speaker 1: incredible and the insights that she has on the ground
Speaker 1: about the protest, but also the coronavirus. They are riveting.
Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week from
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Radio. Hello, I'm Carol Masser and I'm Jason Kelly.
Speaker 1: Today we're bringing you some of the most important, we
Speaker 1: hope informative conversations we had on our daily Bloomberg Business
Speaker 1: Week radio show. Wide ranging conversations, serious conversations, Carol, in
Speaker 1: many ways, and we hope thoughtful, you know, trying to
Speaker 1: explore with people where we are at this moment through
Speaker 1: candidly the Bloomberg lens. We're talking about economics, we're talking
Speaker 1: about business, We're talking about leadership in many ways as
Speaker 1: the country and we as not just humans, but we
Speaker 1: as business people try and get our arms around where
Speaker 1: we are and where we should go next. And Jason,
Speaker 1: the cover story in the magazine really deep dive into
Speaker 1: the unrest and what's being impacted. Again, like you said,
Speaker 1: everything is connected business, economic, society, the market, and we
Speaker 1: use that in terms of all of our conversations this week,
Speaker 1: and that included one with Edelman founder and CEO Richard Edelman.
Speaker 1: He reminded us businesses, they are our own best hope.
Speaker 1: You can't be anti capitalism right now, Companies can make
Speaker 1: decisions with money and how they spend it to really
Speaker 1: bring about some significant change. And I think if there's
Speaker 1: a through line for this hour of the show, that's
Speaker 1: really it that money and leadership are at the core
Speaker 1: of all of this. We heard from Frances Fry she was,
Speaker 1: I'm going to say, one of our favorite interviews of
Speaker 1: the week. She's a professor at Harvard Business School. She's
Speaker 1: got a new book that's called Unleashed, and really what
Speaker 1: it's about is looking at leadership from a completely different perspective,
Speaker 1: in a word, accountability, right and she did it while
Speaker 1: looking at the companies of Uber and we work specifically
Speaker 1: changing those toxic cultures for the better. And Carol Economics
Speaker 1: is that the core of the argument made by John
Speaker 1: Hope Bryant. He's the founder, chairman, and CEO of Operation
Speaker 1: Hope down in Atlanta. He gave us a little bit
Speaker 1: of a history lesson, but also some very specific steps
Speaker 1: we need to be thinking about when it comes to
Speaker 1: being different on the other side of this consciousness, it's
Speaker 1: like a rubber band that has expanded, you know, it
Speaker 1: never returns to its original side. First of all, thank
Speaker 1: you and your colleagues for all that you do than
Speaker 1: for being a light on the heel in a moment
Speaker 1: of darkness. The media is playing an outsize role in
Speaker 1: our consciousness these days because some of our national leaders
Speaker 1: are not stepping up in a way that it's holistic,
Speaker 1: that's bridge building, that's bringing us together, that's providing a
Speaker 1: light and a way forward. So thank you guys for
Speaker 1: doing that. You know, you know, a rubber band has expanded,
Speaker 1: doesn't return as it was original size. It's forever extended.
Speaker 1: And so when things like this happened, you you stop
Speaker 1: having black people saying I feel discriminated against and white
Speaker 1: people saying I have no idea what you're talking about.
Speaker 1: As Will Smith said, the racism didn't did not get discovered,
Speaker 1: it got filmed. And now when something like this happens,
Speaker 1: it just becomes undeniable. It's like that people of good will,
Speaker 1: which are most people, just go, that's just that's just ridiculous,
Speaker 1: Like that's that's disgusting that we can't. We can't, that's
Speaker 1: not that, that's not our nation, that's not you know
Speaker 1: what if that's my child and we started having a
Speaker 1: week conversation and not a Medu conversation and then he
Speaker 1: began to do something about it. I over the weekend,
Speaker 1: I've had a problem with the looting, and operage was
Speaker 1: founded in the after the Rhine King rides in, so
Speaker 1: this strikes me very close to home. Um were the
Speaker 1: largest what we do in the country because we responded
Speaker 1: differently to the riot. After it was over, he decided
Speaker 1: to respond, not react. But this rioting and the looting
Speaker 1: of that continues. We will destroy the moral authority that
Speaker 1: George Floyd's gave us. To honor his legacy. I was,
Speaker 1: you know, talking to some young people, and they said, John,
Speaker 1: you get to be at the table. You know you
Speaker 1: you get to talk to people, you get to do media,
Speaker 1: you get to go to the White House, you get
Speaker 1: to go go you know, CEOs offices. And they listened
Speaker 1: to you. We've been listen. We've been talking. My my
Speaker 1: grandfather was talking, my father has been talking, and I'm talking.
Speaker 1: They don't listen to us. No one listens to us
Speaker 1: until we tear some stuff up. So he said, look,
Speaker 1: we don't want to tear stuff up. It's primarily not
Speaker 1: us tearing stuff up. We've been infiltrated, so and so forth.
Speaker 1: But what stuff gets torn up people are actually listening
Speaker 1: to us. So now we can handle the time back
Speaker 1: to you to go talk for us in these board
Speaker 1: rooms and and hopefully cut a deal to get me
Speaker 1: an internship to stop the poverty, sto increase the peace,
Speaker 1: and Greece of legislation to get us some fairness. And
Speaker 1: I think that goes back to that Dctor King quote.
Speaker 1: He said the violence is the language of the unseen,
Speaker 1: and they unheard. Dr King wasn't endorsing violence, he was
Speaker 1: acknowledging the pain. Well, and jentlemen, I'm glad you brought
Speaker 1: up Dr King because you're there in Atlanta, and I
Speaker 1: think a lot of us saw your mayor, and I'm
Speaker 1: from Atlanta, as you know, and so I was paying
Speaker 1: very close attention, even close for attention to it. The
Speaker 1: legacy of Dr King and the legacy of so many others,
Speaker 1: whether it's former mayor and de Young, whether it's obviously
Speaker 1: Congressman Lewis, and so many others like you who are
Speaker 1: down there in Atlanta, which has again such a rich
Speaker 1: legacy here. What have you learned and what are we
Speaker 1: learning there that maybe we can taken in a broader
Speaker 1: sense because mayor Bottoms, you know, spoke so passionately about
Speaker 1: the that legacy, and I wonder how that translates, especially
Speaker 1: to a business audience. Yeah, so that's a very good question.
Speaker 1: I think that this goes back, you know, by the
Speaker 1: way things are calming down here where things are popping
Speaker 1: off and heating up other places. We're starting to transition
Speaker 1: a bit here. And I think it's part in part
Speaker 1: because the mayor, who's a black woman, said stop saluting
Speaker 1: like you're not honoring our legacy. This is ridiculous. She
Speaker 1: she behaved like a parent, and a lot of our
Speaker 1: national leaders are not behaving my good parents. Then you've
Speaker 1: had corporate leaders step up, and that's Operation Hope founder
Speaker 1: John Hope Bryant. Of the many favorite conversations we had
Speaker 1: this week, I have to say that one stood abou
Speaker 1: in part because we found ourselves. I think it's safe
Speaker 1: to say both of us. Carol quoting him back to
Speaker 1: other people throughout the gross. I sent him an email
Speaker 1: late in the week basically saying that this notion that
Speaker 1: this is a crisis of poverty, this is a crisis
Speaker 1: of economics that we're facing. It's structural, it's not new
Speaker 1: it's literally hundreds of years old, and we have to
Speaker 1: face that if we're going to do anything about it. Well,
Speaker 1: he's so right, and he said, what happened with George Floyd. Yes,
Speaker 1: obviously upsetting, obviously wrong. We know that, but it's not new.
Speaker 1: And he did say for companies, for leaders, you have
Speaker 1: to reimagine your budget. Where are you spending your ad dollars,
Speaker 1: Where are you putting, you know, efforts into internships, where
Speaker 1: are they going? And you need to think about the
Speaker 1: broader population. You need to think about the minority population
Speaker 1: if you really want to bring about some changes because
Speaker 1: as you said, and as he said, this is about poverty,
Speaker 1: it's about economics. That's how you make changes. And it's
Speaker 1: interesting later on in the show, we're gonna hear echoes
Speaker 1: of that when we hear from Richard Edelman, because he
Speaker 1: talks about the specific steps that he's going to take
Speaker 1: at his company, and you have to get down to
Speaker 1: brass tacks to really understand where we move forward. And
Speaker 1: that's part of the conversation we're going to have next
Speaker 1: with the mayor of Topeka, Kansas, Michelle de la Isla,
Speaker 1: on how her city is dealing with unrest and inequality.
Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with
Speaker 1: Carol Masser and Jason Kelly from Bloomberg Radio. Jason, a
Speaker 1: lot of our conversations revolved around the protests that have
Speaker 1: been happening in cities across the country this week, and
Speaker 1: that included in Tobecca, Kansas, and we caught up with
Speaker 1: the mayor of Topeka, Kansas, Michelle de la Isla, who
Speaker 1: talked about the support she has given to the protesters
Speaker 1: and you know, talked about some of the division that
Speaker 1: we're seeing right now in her city as well as
Speaker 1: across the country. I loved her story. It's a very
Speaker 1: personal one and it's a reminder that mayors, they are
Speaker 1: on the front lines, and they are human beings and
Speaker 1: they are citizens. Ultimately, the stories that she told us
Speaker 1: really emphasized is that check this conversation out. Let's start
Speaker 1: with the history of the city as the city of
Speaker 1: Topeka is the home of brown Bie Board and I
Speaker 1: I think it's one of the things that I'm extremely
Speaker 1: proud of and have seen our citizens speak up very
Speaker 1: loudly about the injustices that we have been seeing in
Speaker 1: our nation. Occur UM with regards to African Americans being
Speaker 1: spotted UM not only by by the hands of regular citizens,
Speaker 1: but also by a scene the death of George Floyd
Speaker 1: UH that has left our community completely heartbroken. I think
Speaker 1: I shared a few days ago. I think it was
Speaker 1: last week. The days become hours and and and years,
Speaker 1: you know, But I remember after seeing those events I
Speaker 1: shared with my community that I just cried myself to sleep.
Speaker 1: UM A Modobrey, Brianna Taylor, UM, George Floyd are just
Speaker 1: three of the examples of so many things that have
Speaker 1: happened in our community that I know also well because
Speaker 1: as soon as I became elected, we had UM the
Speaker 1: fatal shooting of a young man called dominiqu White UM
Speaker 1: who later on was found to have a firearm on him,
Speaker 1: but regardless, it was the death of a young man
Speaker 1: who happened to be African American. And and we had
Speaker 1: our Caucasian officers in that situation in our community all
Speaker 1: too well. Understands our community having an outcry and and
Speaker 1: asking for action UM. And it's been beautiful to see
Speaker 1: that the work that we have done in our community
Speaker 1: since then, UM has started creating a positive ripple effect
Speaker 1: as part of the protests that we've had in our
Speaker 1: community have been extremely peaceful with police involvement, so much
Speaker 1: so that I was privileged to bend my knee with
Speaker 1: my police chief side by side and having our police officers,
Speaker 1: UM support a lot of the rallies that we've been having. However,
Speaker 1: we also had just Monday, UM, one of our peaceful
Speaker 1: protests have a secondary protest that became violent. So the
Speaker 1: same thing that is happening in the nation is happening
Speaker 1: here in Topeka, Kansas. So I read, UM, I was
Speaker 1: reading some press coverage of what's been going on in
Speaker 1: your in your city, and I believe something you said
Speaker 1: was I think that people have a lot of anger.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of pent up frustration in regard to
Speaker 1: the inequities that we've been having in this country. So
Speaker 1: the anger and the injustices we know mayor Delisa is
Speaker 1: not They're not new, right, So how do we take
Speaker 1: this and how do we take this and turn it
Speaker 1: into actions that make a difference, really make a difference.
Speaker 1: I mean, Brown v Board is what over sixty years ago,
Speaker 1: over sixty UM. I think that first of the things,
Speaker 1: the first thing that we need to do is to
Speaker 1: be comfortable with having uncomfortable conversations. UM. I think that
Speaker 1: a lot of families and a lot of individuals, especially
Speaker 1: are our Caucasian brothers and sisters, are very uncomfortable talking
Speaker 1: not about the gory of how our nation started. But
Speaker 1: we also will always want to focus on the glory,
Speaker 1: right um. And when I talk to groups and I
Speaker 1: talked about inclusion, I always talk about how, yes, our
Speaker 1: country was built on the premise of liberty and um,
Speaker 1: freedom of expression and freedom of worship. However, in that
Speaker 1: same breath, people stopped and picked up my great great
Speaker 1: great great grandmother in Africa and decided to make our
Speaker 1: slaves based on the color of our skin. And we
Speaker 1: have never talked about those inequities that have been happening.
Speaker 1: And if we really want to see change, we need
Speaker 1: to start creating conversations and spaces in which we could
Speaker 1: talk about the origins of our country, the fact that
Speaker 1: we instill slavery just based on the color of skins
Speaker 1: of individuals, that we have deprived individuals from having access
Speaker 1: to success, and that still continues in these systems. But
Speaker 1: most importantly, once we have those real conversations, we have
Speaker 1: to follow them up by having people elected that can
Speaker 1: really make a change in these policies and making sure
Speaker 1: that people who feel this en franchise actually vote. Um,
Speaker 1: it's imperative because we wouldn't be able to have these
Speaker 1: conversations if we wouldn't have people in office. Then now
Speaker 1: are able to have these conversations about wanting to hide
Speaker 1: from them. And if we want to see change, it
Speaker 1: has to start at the polls. It has to start
Speaker 1: with us being on board decisions, with voting and with
Speaker 1: being engaged. So what have you seen over the last
Speaker 1: few days in in any sort of change in tone
Speaker 1: or change in rhetoric that that either gives you hope
Speaker 1: or you know, maybe it gives you a little bit
Speaker 1: of pessimism. I'm guessing you're going to lean towards hope,
Speaker 1: just based on a little bit of the of your
Speaker 1: tone and some of the things I've I've seen you say,
Speaker 1: mayor so here is some some examples of hope. When
Speaker 1: I first got elected that we had in our laps,
Speaker 1: the loss of Domini, wife's uh life. Um, we were
Speaker 1: we were scared about having conversations on race. We were
Speaker 1: scared about standing up and saying hey, we we don't
Speaker 1: quite understand, because I can tell you as a woman
Speaker 1: of color, um, I do still have the sticker shock
Speaker 1: of walking into boardrooms were not the only person that
Speaker 1: I'm the only female and the only person of color,
Speaker 1: sometimes in a position of leadership. But in my condition,
Speaker 1: the only bad experience that I had what a police
Speaker 1: officer was when my son UM, who has some severe
Speaker 1: persistent mental illness, was pulling his seatbelt off. And that
Speaker 1: was at the time before I was mayor or a
Speaker 1: person known in the community, driving a beat of Taurus
Speaker 1: with two kids in the back, and he pulled the seatbelt.
Speaker 1: And when I went to explain to the officer that
Speaker 1: I didn't have my seatbelt because I was doing the
Speaker 1: mama drive of telling my kid, get your seatbell and
Speaker 1: I get stopped right, and instead of me having an
Speaker 1: opportunity to have any legal representation, I was told, hey, uh,
Speaker 1: just say Nola Contendra when you're in front of the
Speaker 1: judge and it'll be fine. Um. So that's my only
Speaker 1: bad experience that I ever had. So I thought that's
Speaker 1: as worse as it gets, right, and all of us
Speaker 1: that in in seventeen I get immersed into this whole
Speaker 1: different perspective of what black men and women are dealing
Speaker 1: within their communities. Why other individuals who are social economically
Speaker 1: disadvantage we're dealing within our communities. And it was a
Speaker 1: state of shock. And that's Topeka Mayor Michelle de la
Speaker 1: Isla a very important and I think strong voice in
Speaker 1: all of this. A reminder again that mayors they are
Speaker 1: dealing with all aspects of this. And hearing her talk
Speaker 1: about not just her personal experience in interactions with the police,
Speaker 1: but also the work that she's doing around the virus
Speaker 1: and helping to understand the front line of that battle
Speaker 1: as well. I really took a lot from this conversation. Well,
Speaker 1: she reminded us Jason that brown v board right over
Speaker 1: sixty five years ago happened in Topeka, right so that
Speaker 1: they have been dealing with injustices and equality. You know,
Speaker 1: it's just in the fabric of that city. What I
Speaker 1: loved about what she had to say is you have
Speaker 1: to get comfortable about being uncomfortable, and you need to
Speaker 1: talk about the origins of our country to really understand
Speaker 1: what's going on and to bring about change. That they
Speaker 1: stayed with me. You're listening to Bloomberg Bus Week coming up.
Speaker 1: Richard Edelman. He talks to us about what he's hearing
Speaker 1: from c e O s and what he's telling his
Speaker 1: own employees about both of the major crises we're facing,
Speaker 1: COVID and it's aftermath, but also the death of George
Speaker 1: Floyd and what it means as leaders re examine what
Speaker 1: companies they want to lead. This is Bloomberg. You're listening
Speaker 1: to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Jason Kelly
Speaker 1: from Bloomberg Radio. Today we're bring you some of the
Speaker 1: most important, we hope informative conversations we had on our
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Business Week radio show. We're here every day two
Speaker 1: pm to six pm Wall Street Time, and a complicated
Speaker 1: week to say the least, Carol, a troubling week, but
Speaker 1: we brought I think some interesting conversations to bear as
Speaker 1: we all try and move forward. Well yeah, I mean, Jason,
Speaker 1: Companies right um having their hands full back to back crises,
Speaker 1: first the virus and now the civil unrest that's really
Speaker 1: shutting down cities again in reaction to the death of
Speaker 1: George Floyd. Richard Edelman is someone who is in constant
Speaker 1: communication with corporate leaders, really all leaders. He is the
Speaker 1: founder and CEO of the Global Communications from Edelman, and
Speaker 1: he talked to us about what needs to change in
Speaker 1: the corporate community in order to really bring about change
Speaker 1: and get to those inequalities in our society. What happened
Speaker 1: is that, UM, this is more global. It's also more
Speaker 1: cross industries than we expected, UM into cars, energy, UM.
Speaker 1: And then on top of that, we had one major
Speaker 1: account shift and then it happens in our business. UM.
Speaker 1: But you know, we still have people around the world,
Speaker 1: and UM, we are going to run our business and
Speaker 1: break even for the next period of time because I
Speaker 1: want to keep as many people as we can and
Speaker 1: we're a family business, so we can do that well.
Speaker 1: And Richard, I have to say in Caroline, I've been
Speaker 1: talking about it sort of off air as we've been
Speaker 1: prepping for this, you know, and I don't often do this,
Speaker 1: but you know, kudos to you for for owning it.
Speaker 1: I mean, this is it's a tough time and I
Speaker 1: do think that, and I think that that leads us
Speaker 1: right into to the next thing we want to talk
Speaker 1: to you about, which is we seem to be at
Speaker 1: a moment. We talked a little bit about this last time,
Speaker 1: but I feel like it's become much sharper or coming
Speaker 1: to much sharper relief, which is leaders really need to
Speaker 1: speak to their own employees and speak to the public
Speaker 1: even more candidly and even more forthrightly, not just about
Speaker 1: their own businesses, but about the issues of the day
Speaker 1: and civil unrest and what it means and the deep injustices,
Speaker 1: UH and inequality that we're seeing here. Tell us about
Speaker 1: the conversations first you're having internally, and then maybe expand
Speaker 1: to some of the folks that that you're talking to.
Speaker 1: As Carol said that the leaders in the world, Well,
Speaker 1: on Friday, we had our community of people who are
Speaker 1: of color on the phone and when your man was
Speaker 1: talking about how he had been apprehended and by police
Speaker 1: and unfairly and another you know African American woman has
Speaker 1: brothers and she wonders whether they're going to come home
Speaker 1: at night, and you know, it's just surreal. UM And
Speaker 1: and I've made a commitment for Edelman that we're going
Speaker 1: to UM offer money for anybody who's a person who
Speaker 1: interested vice president of to go on boards of local
Speaker 1: NGOs UM that are actually serving in distress communities. I
Speaker 1: think that's important and also We're going to double our
Speaker 1: purchases from UM minority owned small business because again, I
Speaker 1: want to get people back to work. I think that's
Speaker 1: the key point in all of this. We can't have
Speaker 1: this be an anti capitalism moment. You know, the idea
Speaker 1: of community versus capitalism is such a false choice. And
Speaker 1: I want people to recognize that business is the best
Speaker 1: hope here, not government UM and that UM. If we
Speaker 1: can get stores and communities and training centers and and
Speaker 1: and and help people, you know, get skills, then then
Speaker 1: we're going to really be much better off. This mirror
Speaker 1: is exactly what John Hope Bryant said to us that
Speaker 1: Operation Hope, and he said, ultimately is you need to
Speaker 1: have companies, you know, speak with their with their money,
Speaker 1: with their dollars, what they decided to spend money on,
Speaker 1: whether it's minority owned businesses, you know, as part of
Speaker 1: their supply chain, whether it's creating internships that provide jobs
Speaker 1: for minorities. He said, you know, this is a poverty problem,
Speaker 1: and that's how you, you know, Richard, ultimately fix it. Well, Carol,
Speaker 1: I love the idea of also recruiting at junior colleges,
Speaker 1: primarily black colleges, you know, we can't just have the
Speaker 1: same universities be our feeders. And over time, UM, we're
Speaker 1: going to be a majority minority country and that's who
Speaker 1: should be the workforce. And we need to push and
Speaker 1: use this moment as a wake up UM too to
Speaker 1: get to get action. And the CEO, as I'm talking
Speaker 1: to a totally on this, they want to UM, they
Speaker 1: want to be part of the solution. They feel deeply
Speaker 1: moved by what happened last week. They're disgusted by the
Speaker 1: murder of that young man and it's unacceptable, but they
Speaker 1: want to fix the underlying problems of sickness and obesity
Speaker 1: and ill health and like this. That's Edelman founder and CEO,
Speaker 1: Richard Edelman, and god, I really feel like, first of all, Jason,
Speaker 1: we talked to him because he had to let workers
Speaker 1: go as well after making some promises back in March
Speaker 1: that he didn't expect to do that. So he's dealing
Speaker 1: with all of this on a personal level as well,
Speaker 1: and the responsibility of running a firm and kind of
Speaker 1: keeping it going and what's going to be possibly you know,
Speaker 1: tougher economic times. But also got into you know, the
Speaker 1: commitment of global leaders, what they need to be doing
Speaker 1: right now to bring about change, especially when we've got
Speaker 1: such a divided country. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week.
Speaker 1: Coming up Harvard Busines of School professor Frances Fry. She's
Speaker 1: very popular at the school. She's got a new book out.
Speaker 1: It's called Unleashed, The Unapologetic Leader's Guide to empowering everyone
Speaker 1: around you. She was brought in to fix uber and
Speaker 1: we works toxic cultures. Man, I could have talked to
Speaker 1: her for hours. Oh, you're gonna love this conversation because
Speaker 1: you just get a sense of she's got some stories.
Speaker 1: This is Blipper. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with
Speaker 1: Carol Masser and Jason Kelly from Bloomberg Radio. So Jason
Speaker 1: will bring you some of the most important and informative
Speaker 1: conversations we had throughout the week. We continue to talk,
Speaker 1: of course about the big story, the virus and you know,
Speaker 1: companies reopening, the economy reopening. But again, of course, all
Speaker 1: of that was overshadowed by the civic unrest that we
Speaker 1: saw in the country, um in major cities in the
Speaker 1: aftermath of the killing of George Floyd Well, and it's
Speaker 1: putting leaders on the front foot and leaders in the spotlight.
Speaker 1: So we turned into Harvard Business School professor Francis Fry.
Speaker 1: This is one of these conversations. Full confession that when
Speaker 1: we finished talking to her after fifteen or twenty minutes,
Speaker 1: I thought, no, no, no, no, no, don't keep going.
Speaker 1: Don't go. She's got a new book. It's called Unleashed,
Speaker 1: The Unapologetic Leader's Guide to Empowering Everyone around You. The
Speaker 1: lessons they are not obvious in many ways, and they
Speaker 1: are drawn on some pretty amazing experiences she has had. Personally.
Speaker 1: She is not an Ivory Tower type. She's been in
Speaker 1: the trenches. And when I say trenches, we're talking uber
Speaker 1: and we work. I think that there are great leaders
Speaker 1: and then there are people that are not very good leaders.
Speaker 1: I think leadership can be taught. So for those that
Speaker 1: for those leaders that aren't doing a good job, if
Speaker 1: they have the desire to get better, we can teach them.
Speaker 1: If they don't have the desire to get better, I
Speaker 1: wish for them to step aside. How do you teach them?
Speaker 1: Because these are these are tough people who are often
Speaker 1: in positions where they are and you have run into
Speaker 1: some of them very directly, who are very confident and
Speaker 1: they know where they're going. I just finished listening to
Speaker 1: a six part podcast on we Work, and you know
Speaker 1: more about that story, uh than I do. But but
Speaker 1: I do wonder how do you break through to two
Speaker 1: people or there's some who just can't be broken through. Well,
Speaker 1: I find that if you can break through, it's usually
Speaker 1: either through emotion or logic. And the lesson to be
Speaker 1: learned is that if someone is if someone is like
Speaker 1: at an emotional level, no amount of logic is going
Speaker 1: to penetrate. And if someone is at a logical level,
Speaker 1: no amount of motion is going to penetrate. So you
Speaker 1: have to see where they are and then bring either
Speaker 1: the moral or the rational argument to them. Um, I
Speaker 1: will tell you in my lifetime, I have met very
Speaker 1: few people that uh didn't want to improve. Well so,
Speaker 1: so okay, so take us back to you are hired
Speaker 1: your tap to be Uber's first senior VP of Leadership
Speaker 1: and Strategy, curious about the conversations to get you there,
Speaker 1: and then you walk in the and then you walk
Speaker 1: in the door, and then what so just take us
Speaker 1: back there. Yeah. So I was asked to go by
Speaker 1: a former student to go and meet with the then
Speaker 1: CEO Travis kalmick Um, And my first reaction was no,
Speaker 1: because I, like everyone else, had read the newspaper and said,
Speaker 1: I only like to help good people win. This does
Speaker 1: not seem like a good person. So no. And the
Speaker 1: student was said, UM, I think he's a very good person.
Speaker 1: I think he's out of his depth on parts of
Speaker 1: the job. Will you do me a favor and come
Speaker 1: meet with him? And so I flew out to California.
Speaker 1: I was planning to meet with him for an hour,
Speaker 1: and I stayed for three days um talking with him
Speaker 1: and realized that this was a person who was last job,
Speaker 1: he had led eight people, this company had gone through
Speaker 1: hyper growth. It now had between ten and fifteen thousand people.
Speaker 1: So he totally needed help and leadership. But you know
Speaker 1: how I knew that. He said, I totally need help
Speaker 1: on leadership, and then on the strategy part. You know,
Speaker 1: he's like a mad genius in his mind, but it
Speaker 1: wasn't getting out into the minds of everyone in the organization.
Speaker 1: And so he asked me to help strategy, at least
Speaker 1: in so far as we could communicate it so that
Speaker 1: everyone was going off the same script. And then he said,
Speaker 1: you have full license to do what's ever necessary. That
Speaker 1: was my conversation with him. And then I went and
Speaker 1: met with a lot of employees, thought a lot of them.
Speaker 1: I think I interacted with about fift employees before I
Speaker 1: said yes, because I only like to help good people win.
Speaker 1: And if I didn't have the sense that this was
Speaker 1: overwhelmingly good people, I could never have gone to the organization.
Speaker 1: And I have to say it was overwhelmingly good people.
Speaker 1: And you walked out of there feeling the same way.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, So you know, nine months later, the culture
Speaker 1: was completely turned around. Everything that you've read about in
Speaker 1: the culture back in two thousand and seventeen. None of
Speaker 1: that could happen today, like just literally none of it.
Speaker 1: And we had it. We had it. None of it
Speaker 1: could have happened within nine months. Um, And we've taught,
Speaker 1: We've brought in the largest executive education program I think
Speaker 1: ever into a company. UM, And I've never met such
Speaker 1: willing learners. I love this notion that you talked about
Speaker 1: in the book, which is in in some ways turning
Speaker 1: leadership on its head, or at least broadening there, widening
Speaker 1: the aperture a bit, because I think we we think
Speaker 1: so much about you know I'm the leader, I'm the decider,
Speaker 1: and you know it needs to be about me and
Speaker 1: I need to sort of have this command and control.
Speaker 1: And you make a different argument. I think help us
Speaker 1: understand your sort of rubric I guess for thinking about leadership. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I do make I think the exact opposite argument.
Speaker 1: So you're exactly right. No, as what you were saying,
Speaker 1: oh good, okay, I was like, wow, I really misunderstood
Speaker 1: what you're saying. No, no, no, no, I was giving
Speaker 1: sorry you couldn't see me. I was nodding vigorously. So
Speaker 1: leadership is about making other people better, Like leadership fundamentally
Speaker 1: is about other people. And so the mistake that some
Speaker 1: people make is that they think their job is to
Speaker 1: be leaderly. And it's like they have a mirror in
Speaker 1: their office and they keep looking in their mirror to
Speaker 1: see how they're doing. And you should really put a
Speaker 1: window in your office because you should be spending all
Speaker 1: of your time seeing how other people are doing. And
Speaker 1: a job of a leader is to make others better
Speaker 1: in there as a result of their presence and into
Speaker 1: their absence. And so I do think that it does
Speaker 1: really turn around what leadership is because it's not about
Speaker 1: the leaders. In fact, our first chapter is called It's
Speaker 1: not about You? So how do you do that? Like?
Speaker 1: What does that look like in practice? When I walk
Speaker 1: into a meeting if the most interesting person in the
Speaker 1: room to me is me and I'm happiest when everyone
Speaker 1: else is looking at me. But if when I walk
Speaker 1: into a room, the most important people to me are
Speaker 1: everyone else in the room and my helping to set
Speaker 1: them up for success, and I will be looking super
Speaker 1: curiously and with all of my attention of how can
Speaker 1: I make you better? Like what are the obstacles in
Speaker 1: the way, how can I get you to reach higher?
Speaker 1: How can I get you to develop more skills to
Speaker 1: do a better job. So it's really it's not self distracted,
Speaker 1: it's other distracted. We're just like sitting with this. Jason
Speaker 1: and I are looking at each other because this is
Speaker 1: pretty powerful, Um, you know, apply it. And I wonder,
Speaker 1: how are you looking at what what you're saying right
Speaker 1: now and what you've just written in this book With
Speaker 1: what's going on in the world and what's been going
Speaker 1: on in the world for the last three months, the
Speaker 1: virus first of all, and what's been kind of put
Speaker 1: front and center once again, those things that ail our society.
Speaker 1: We knew that they were there, but you know, we're
Speaker 1: being confronted with it. And then certainly what happened with
Speaker 1: George Floyd in Minneapolis. Yeah, so I'll start with George Floyd.
Speaker 1: Uh that which is you know, our kind tree has
Speaker 1: been grappling with issues of race for I don't know,
Speaker 1: close to four hundred years, and we've never dealt with them.
Speaker 1: And UM, I think that everyone probably because we're all
Speaker 1: in COVID together and we're all breathing the same breath.
Speaker 1: Everyone witnessed it seems at the same time the death
Speaker 1: of a man because of the color of his skin,
Speaker 1: and this time it has sparked collective reckoning um and
Speaker 1: feels like at least the first moment in my life
Speaker 1: where we might be willing to change. Um. But what
Speaker 1: we know about change is you have to do three things.
Speaker 1: If you're going to change. You have to honor the past.
Speaker 1: We've never done that regarding race. You have to have
Speaker 1: a clear and compelling change mandate. We have that right now.
Speaker 1: And you have to have a rigorous and optimistic way forward.
Speaker 1: And so I think great leaders will honor the past
Speaker 1: and we'll have an optimistic, a rigorous and optimistic way
Speaker 1: forward and the same thing. And that's like point lead
Speaker 1: for George Floyd. It's also what's happened with COVID, you know, um,
Speaker 1: like I think you could line up great leaders, great
Speaker 1: world leaders, from pop to bottom and look at how
Speaker 1: well their countries are responding, and it's like a one
Speaker 1: to one, Like great leadership is playing out on the
Speaker 1: world stage. We're all given the same conditions. It's just
Speaker 1: whether or not it's about setting others up for success
Speaker 1: or whether or not the leaders thinks that leadership is
Speaker 1: all about them. It's like pretty straightforward. Yeah, when I
Speaker 1: feel like we're seeing that at companies too, right, I
Speaker 1: mean we're seeing, you know, both in terms of COVID
Speaker 1: and in terms of the reaction to the to the
Speaker 1: murder of George Floyd, you know, the that exact same
Speaker 1: thing that it's all the same circumstances and and granted,
Speaker 1: their little variables here and there about what type of
Speaker 1: company you run, but but it seems like so much
Speaker 1: of it is ultimately about and we have these conversations
Speaker 1: all the time, leaders being a link to to say
Speaker 1: something in many ways, and it seems so simple, but
Speaker 1: I feel like that gets lost. It's like Twitter versus
Speaker 1: Facebook right now. Oh, you know, those are two platforms.
Speaker 1: I just got on my first social media platform and
Speaker 1: that's LinkedIn. I'm on neither Twitter nor book. I don't
Speaker 1: do well with distress. And that's Harvard Business School Professor
Speaker 1: Francis Fry I will say, Carol. The other thing we
Speaker 1: realized was we've done a show at Harvard Business School
Speaker 1: and we thought, man, we got to get her the
Speaker 1: next time we go up. She was so fun and
Speaker 1: so candid and really bringing some serious insights at a
Speaker 1: time where we really need them. You know what's interesting too,
Speaker 1: She talked about especially in terms of the civic unrest
Speaker 1: and what's happening in terms of inequalities. Um. She talked
Speaker 1: about how our companies have been grappling with issues of
Speaker 1: race for four hundred years. She reminded us that this
Speaker 1: has not been something that just popped up. It's obviously
Speaker 1: been around for a long time. And she said, because
Speaker 1: of COVID nineteen, because all of us being at home,
Speaker 1: we're all witnessing the death of a black man at
Speaker 1: the same time. That's really powerful, and that's had a
Speaker 1: very very big impact, and we do want you to
Speaker 1: hear this entire conversation, so check out our Business Week
Speaker 1: Extra podcast we've actually got to this week one from
Speaker 1: Tim Ryan up at p w C, and also this
Speaker 1: conversation with Frances. It's a good one. She also said,
Speaker 1: very few people who don't want to get better, which
Speaker 1: gives me some hope, some optimism, which I think is
Speaker 1: a really great way to wrap up our show. And
Speaker 1: that does wrap up the weekend edition to Bloomberg Business
Speaker 1: Week from Bloomberg Radio. Thanks so much for joining us.
Speaker 1: Stay safe everyone. I'm Carol Masser and I'm Jason Kelly.
Speaker 1: Be sure to tune into Bloomberg Business Week Radio with
Speaker 1: Carol and Me live Monday through Friday starting at two
Speaker 1: pm Wall Street Time, and of course you can always
Speaker 1: watch the show live on YouTube. Check it out just
Speaker 1: search for Bloomberg Global News. We'll be back right here
Speaker 1: next week at the same time. This is Bloomberg