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. Bloomberg
Speaker 1: business Week with Carol Messier and Bloomberg Quick Takes Tim
Speaker 1: Stinovic on Bloomberg Radio. Hi, everyone, Welcome to the weekend
Speaker 1: edition of Bloomberg Business Week, earning the season officially underway,
Speaker 1: with America's biggest banks among those who report third quarter
Speaker 1: results this week. We're also going to talk about one
Speaker 1: of the leaders of those banks, the first woman to
Speaker 1: lead a top US lender, City Group CEO, Jane Fraser,
Speaker 1: the subject of our cover story, and it's a very
Speaker 1: special double issue this week. It's known as the Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Business Week Persuasion Issue, and we'll explain more in just
Speaker 1: a moment. Also ahead on our broadcast will talk Afghanistan
Speaker 1: and risk mitigation with retired four star General Stanley McCrystal,
Speaker 1: and pick up on our conversation with tech titan Michael
Speaker 1: Dell that is part of our Bloomberg Business Week Talk series.
Speaker 1: All that and more to come, but we begin by
Speaker 1: welcoming in the Features editor at Bloomberg Business Week. Mac
Speaker 1: cheffin Max, we're calling this the persuasion issue. Tell us why. Yeah, Well,
Speaker 1: so we got this idea about almost a year ago.
Speaker 1: Believe it. Um, We're watching the uh, you know, the vaccine,
Speaker 1: the vaccines get closer to release, um, the COVID vaccine,
Speaker 1: and we were talking about the fact that you know,
Speaker 1: at some point, yes, everyone is worried about supply, but
Speaker 1: at some point, you know, convincing people vaccine resistant people
Speaker 1: to get vaccinated is going to be a huge issue.
Speaker 1: And that kind of got us as a newsroom or
Speaker 1: as a you know, as the magazine into conversations about
Speaker 1: just the importance of persuasion in business. You know, so
Speaker 1: much of business runs on convincing people to to do things,
Speaker 1: to change their minds to you know, Marketing, of course,
Speaker 1: is a kind of persuasion. Sales as persuasion. UM. And
Speaker 1: you also and and and then you know, this vaccine issue.
Speaker 1: We were um pressing on that. I mean, of course,
Speaker 1: now there's plenty of vaccine in the US to go around,
Speaker 1: but but there's this persistent group of people who are
Speaker 1: vaccine hesitants. So we were hoping to speak to two
Speaker 1: more or less all these ideas with these stories. Well,
Speaker 1: one of the features this week comes from Kurt Wagner,
Speaker 1: and we've come to know social media as a space
Speaker 1: that almost seems designed to rile people up and keep
Speaker 1: them coming back. Kurt writes that Twitter is actually trying
Speaker 1: to change that. How exactly. Yeah, this this story started
Speaker 1: a conversation with me and Kurt talking about whether Twitter
Speaker 1: could get people to stop dunking on one another. A
Speaker 1: junk is when you, um, you know, you retweet, You
Speaker 1: take someone else's tweet and put a witty or clever
Speaker 1: remark on top of it. But often they just become
Speaker 1: vectors for harassment, for you know, crude language, for for nastiness,
Speaker 1: and and the thing about Twitter is it's kind of
Speaker 1: made that part of the appeal. You know, this is
Speaker 1: this is the social network. Um, you know, until they
Speaker 1: banned him that that gave us Donald Trump. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: so much of Twitter is about these very heated conversations.
Speaker 1: And as Kurt wright, the company was kind of designed
Speaker 1: that way. It was designed to get people to kind
Speaker 1: of behave in outlandish or provocative ways in order to
Speaker 1: get followered. So the fact that they're trying to address
Speaker 1: that is significant. It's significant both you know, as a
Speaker 1: as a business story, as a company story. If if
Speaker 1: Twitter the company is able to do this, it could
Speaker 1: have implications for for its long term viability but also
Speaker 1: could potentially hurt its growth. But it also it has
Speaker 1: implications for for all sorts of other social media companies because,
Speaker 1: as as Kurt says in this um in this excellent article, UM,
Speaker 1: the idea of designing ways to stop people from being
Speaker 1: outrageous on social media kind of goes against everything social
Speaker 1: media design has stood for over the last fifteen years.
Speaker 1: So it's in some ways it's kind of silly, but
Speaker 1: it also it's sort of a very old and interesting move. Okay,
Speaker 1: so just real quick, Max, take us through some of
Speaker 1: those changes that that Twitter has implemented because people who
Speaker 1: don't use the platform might not have realized it over
Speaker 1: the past year. Yeah, so they've added all of these
Speaker 1: what they call speed bumps. So, if you're gonna send
Speaker 1: a message, um, if you're going to take an article
Speaker 1: that you read on Twitter and broadcast it to your followers,
Speaker 1: it's gonna it's gonna put a pop up in front
Speaker 1: of you and says, hey, do you want to read
Speaker 1: this first? Before you endorse this. UM. So that's one
Speaker 1: of them. If you type in something you know, a
Speaker 1: curse or a racial slur or or some some other
Speaker 1: handful of offensive terms into a reply tweet, you know,
Speaker 1: when you're replying to somebody, it will put a pop
Speaker 1: up in front of you and say, hey, you know,
Speaker 1: do you want to Are you sure you want to
Speaker 1: do that? Um? And And not all of these have worked.
Speaker 1: Not all of these things have worked perfectly. It's not
Speaker 1: like Twitter is still in many ways, you know, full
Speaker 1: of um nastiness. UM. But there are encouraging signs here.
Speaker 1: And and Kurt talked to these outside researchers who have
Speaker 1: been working with Twitter for years, and there's been a
Speaker 1: lot of frustration kind of from that community, the world
Speaker 1: of sort of academia and people who are interested in
Speaker 1: in kind of dialing down the temperature on social media.
Speaker 1: They've been really frustrated with Twitter over over the years.
Speaker 1: But they're starting to warm up to this company and
Speaker 1: starting to see some encouraging signs. Another really provocative story,
Speaker 1: I think, uh that's part to this coverage. It talks
Speaker 1: about a spate of nonprofits who are trying to perform
Speaker 1: political extremists in the same way, right Max that a
Speaker 1: a alcoholics anonymous works and helps people combat addition. UM
Speaker 1: tell us a lot about that one. Yeah, so it's
Speaker 1: boom times for deprogramming. De programming, I think is is
Speaker 1: not the not the politically correct term. I think de
Speaker 1: radicalization is the term that that that these um, these
Speaker 1: consultants and nonprofits prefer. But it's this idea that people
Speaker 1: who fall into extreme belief systems UM, you know, can
Speaker 1: be talked out of it. And treating these extreme belief systems,
Speaker 1: you know, and and and and they really run the gamut,
Speaker 1: you know, from like um radical um you know, islam
Speaker 1: radical Islamism to kind of far right you know, white
Speaker 1: nationalist UM type extremism, and and and and as you
Speaker 1: say that, they're they're treating it like, you know, like
Speaker 1: like an addiction, UM and and like it's it's something
Speaker 1: that that these people are are are compelled to do.
Speaker 1: One of the most interesting things in this article to
Speaker 1: me to a main character, and I mean it's a
Speaker 1: really breathtaking story. And I don't want to ruin the
Speaker 1: whole thing, but the main character, who's who's a young
Speaker 1: man who's who has fallen in with various extreme ideologies.
Speaker 1: He bounces between ideologies. It's not like he he embraces
Speaker 1: radical Islam, but then he falls into sort of far right,
Speaker 1: you know, white nationalist type behavior, and then he gets
Speaker 1: into snakes, you know, and and so it's just this
Speaker 1: thing where I think the Internet in particular has has
Speaker 1: you know, exploited vulnerabilities that you know, hamp that you know,
Speaker 1: some percentage of population have where they're just drawn to
Speaker 1: these ideologies. Internet kind of turbo charges it, all right.
Speaker 1: That's Max Staffkin. Features that are a Bloomberg Business Week,
Speaker 1: our special double issue, the Persuasion Issue. It's at a
Speaker 1: newsstands and online. Now coming up, Retired four star General
Speaker 1: stanmon Crystal on the US withdrawal from Afghanistan and dealing
Speaker 1: with risks in all walks of life. You're listening to
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Business Week. This is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg Business
Speaker 1: Week with Carol Masser and Bloomberg Quick Takes. Tim Stinovik
Speaker 1: from Bloomberg Radio. We'll safe to say he knows a
Speaker 1: lot about the subject of risk, dealing with it, facing it,
Speaker 1: managing it, and Tim now writing about it. Retired four
Speaker 1: star General Stan mc crystal is former commander of the
Speaker 1: Joints Special Operations in Iraq and founder of the Crystal Group.
Speaker 1: His latest book, Risk a User's Guide, aims to help
Speaker 1: individuals and organizations mitigate risk. Yeah, he's lived in life
Speaker 1: filled with the deadly risks of combat. We know that.
Speaker 1: We began though our conversation along those lines by asking
Speaker 1: for his thoughts on the recent US military withdrawal from Afghanistan,
Speaker 1: where he also served. I was sad to see the
Speaker 1: way it played out overall, because many of us became
Speaker 1: very emotionally connected with Afghanistan. So it's important to remember that,
Speaker 1: because I also would tell you that's one of the
Speaker 1: reasons my views are biased by my personal opinion. I
Speaker 1: think that's unfortunate we pulled out, But I would say
Speaker 1: that I think President Biden made a courageous decision. I mean,
Speaker 1: he the accord that was signed in Doha by President
Speaker 1: Trump's administration essentially set a hard date of one May.
Speaker 1: So President Biden was faced with the choice of either
Speaker 1: aggregating that that agreement and extending the war, or following it,
Speaker 1: which is essentially what he did. People ask me if
Speaker 1: I agreed with it, and my answer is I respect
Speaker 1: a decision by the commander in chief. It's not the
Speaker 1: recommendation I would have made, but that's where system is
Speaker 1: supposed to work. Military leaders provide best device, and then
Speaker 1: president decides the top He is military officer. We're talking
Speaker 1: about General Mark Millary, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and stuff.
Speaker 1: He called the twenty year war in Afghanistan a strategic failure?
Speaker 1: Why was that? And do you agree? Well, I couldn't
Speaker 1: argue with the fact it was a failure of somebody.
Speaker 1: If I tried to say, no, it's a success that
Speaker 1: I think they'd be disingenuous. However, I will say that
Speaker 1: it wasn't completely for naught. Afghanistan is a very different
Speaker 1: country than it was in two thousand one when we
Speaker 1: went back. So the reality is the twenty years of
Speaker 1: educational opportunities for females, for young people, and other advances,
Speaker 1: the Taliban are going to try to control a very
Speaker 1: different state, and I'm hopeful in the long term that
Speaker 1: either causes them to change the way they lead or
Speaker 1: open opportunities for different governance. I'm wondering General McCrystal, if
Speaker 1: the way that the United States left Afghanistan, if it
Speaker 1: turnishes the United States reputation in the view of countries
Speaker 1: around the world. Yeah, there's it certainly doesn't help. UH.
Speaker 1: There were some miscalculations that came out, and I don't
Speaker 1: find fault with the planning, but you know, things happen.
Speaker 1: But the reality is when people see it from afar,
Speaker 1: whether they are our potential enemies, in which case they
Speaker 1: might think less of us or our potential allies, and
Speaker 1: they're trying to decide if we are a reliable, capable partner.
Speaker 1: So in a very public world, as I'll describe it,
Speaker 1: every time you have a challenge like that, it has
Speaker 1: some effect on your reputation. It's like a commercial firm.
Speaker 1: We now need to work on that. We need to
Speaker 1: pay attention and work to try to recover a bit
Speaker 1: of lost ground there. Well, you know, the world continues
Speaker 1: to find itself in some incredibly risky situations. Your book
Speaker 1: is all about it, and I think about it's the
Speaker 1: financial crisis, the pandemic that we're still dealing with, today's
Speaker 1: increasingly UH crisis within the energy sector, cyber attacks, our
Speaker 1: leaders ignoring the signs. Are are there systems for detecting risk?
Speaker 1: Um not good currently focusing on the wrong signs and
Speaker 1: methodologies or risk in terms of obviously like pulling out
Speaker 1: of something like Afghanistan. Yeah, I would say, first, we
Speaker 1: don't assess risk very well because we're always externally trying
Speaker 1: to predict what they will be and when they'll come,
Speaker 1: and that's really just too hard because they're they're too varied.
Speaker 1: I think we need to be looking internal or what
Speaker 1: is it that you think a leader needs to keep
Speaker 1: in mind when it comes to diversity and assessing risk.
Speaker 1: I think we think about diversity too often is just
Speaker 1: gender or race or religious background. We're really talking about
Speaker 1: difference of perspectives. And so if we talk about bringing
Speaker 1: together a team, will call it a board of directors
Speaker 1: or anything else. If you have diversity on and on
Speaker 1: a superficial level of general and whatnot, you might not
Speaker 1: have diversity of perspective. You might have people all from
Speaker 1: the same background, all bankers or whatever, and so what
Speaker 1: they'll do is the lead blind spots, and diversity needs
Speaker 1: to be thought of not as equality. Equality is a
Speaker 1: legal right and a moral right. Diversity is an operational
Speaker 1: necessity for organizations. So it's ensuring that you've got people
Speaker 1: that are looking from every different angle and bring different
Speaker 1: experience of expertise. Have a question for you, and you know,
Speaker 1: I'm going to give credit where credits to do, because
Speaker 1: your team kind of shared some thoughts with us. But
Speaker 1: one of the things that came to their mind, and
Speaker 1: we think this is just spot on, is how do
Speaker 1: you feel US leadership dealt with COVID nineteen and what
Speaker 1: could have been done differently? Yeah, that's a great question.
Speaker 1: I think they fumbled it pretty badly. If you think
Speaker 1: about COVID nineteen. Although it is a dangerous risk, it's
Speaker 1: not ten feet tall, it's not unbeatable, and it wasn't unexpected.
Speaker 1: We have this kind of challenge every few years, and
Speaker 1: we know a lot about public health, so we actually
Speaker 1: know what to do about it. And then of course
Speaker 1: we've got to help with the scientific miracle of a
Speaker 1: fast vaccine. But if you think about from the beginning,
Speaker 1: what we really needed was clear communication, even admitting what
Speaker 1: we don't know, informing the national population. And then we
Speaker 1: needed a clear narrative, how is it is our nation
Speaker 1: going to deal with that? Tell people if we want
Speaker 1: to use the war analogies I think would have been appropriate.
Speaker 1: We asked every American to take part in the common
Speaker 1: defense of every other American, and then of course we
Speaker 1: go down the willingness to make decisions, overcome the inertia
Speaker 1: that that sometimes causes us issues, and the ability to
Speaker 1: be adaptable as things changed, like the rise of the
Speaker 1: delta variant. In almost every case, we fumbled it pretty badly.
Speaker 1: And I would argue that the seven hundred thousand Americans
Speaker 1: that we have lost is far more than we ever
Speaker 1: needed to lose. Do you think General the crystal that
Speaker 1: Americans would have made that sacrifice if it was communicated
Speaker 1: to them in the way that that you you you
Speaker 1: communicated it to us, because it does seem like right
Speaker 1: now there is not a sense of shared sacrifice among
Speaker 1: all of us right now with the way that people
Speaker 1: act when it comes to being asked to wear a mask,
Speaker 1: taking a vaccine, a vaccine mandate, that sort of thing.
Speaker 1: Jim Tim, You're right, I think that they would have.
Speaker 1: Of course, we couldn't approve it until we did it.
Speaker 1: But if we go back in times in our history
Speaker 1: when we have asked the American people to sacrifice and
Speaker 1: be a part of that, we hadn't very good results.
Speaker 1: And I think that's the only way to go when
Speaker 1: we're trying to do something that affects all of us.
Speaker 1: That was where hired four star General Stan McCrystal, founder
Speaker 1: of the Crystal Group. His latest book, Risk, a User's Guide,
Speaker 1: is out now and the Crystal Group, by the way,
Speaker 1: helped the city of Boston during the pandemic. Still ahead
Speaker 1: on Bloomberg Business Week the latest installment of our Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Business Week talk series, and it's with Dell Technologies founder, chairman,
Speaker 1: and CEO Michael Dell. We'll get into that. We've also
Speaker 1: got our cover story this week. It is on City
Speaker 1: Group CEO Jane Fraser, who is looking to change your
Speaker 1: mind about how we work and about cities. Come back
Speaker 1: and up next, we catch up with the president of
Speaker 1: the software maker Splunk, Teresa Carlson. She's spent about a
Speaker 1: decade as a senior executive at Amazon Web Services before
Speaker 1: joining Splunk earlier this year, and look, she definitely knows
Speaker 1: a thing or two about the cloud. This is Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Broadcasting from the financial capital of the World, Bloomberg eleven
Speaker 1: Frio in New York to Washington, d C. Bloomberg to Boston.
Speaker 1: Bloomberg one oh six does San Francisco, Bloomberg nine sixty
Speaker 1: to the country, Sirius XM Chto one nine team and
Speaker 1: around the globe, the Bloomberg Business app and Bloomberg Radio
Speaker 1: dot com. This is Bloomberg Business Week. It's a company
Speaker 1: with a market cap in access of twenty five billion dollars.
Speaker 1: In late last month, you might remember Piper Sandler came
Speaker 1: out saying it was a top pick heading into the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter. We're talking about the infrastructure, software and data
Speaker 1: platform company Splunk, where Teresa Carlson serves as president and
Speaker 1: chief Growth Officer. Her background is pretty impressive. She previously
Speaker 1: led Amazon Web Services public sector business for more than
Speaker 1: a decade, and in just six months at her new company,
Speaker 1: she says her work with clients to access us in
Speaker 1: secure data more important than ever. And there's no literally
Speaker 1: customer that I talked to before I came here that
Speaker 1: didn't tell me that their use of Splunk they said
Speaker 1: as mission critical for their business, and I think it's dim.
Speaker 1: It's demonstrated through the types of customers we work with,
Speaker 1: which are really the fortune one ninety plus of the
Speaker 1: and one hundred customers work with us. But it's going
Speaker 1: really well. We are moving to the clouds very quickly,
Speaker 1: and that's one of the reasons that came over here
Speaker 1: to continue to help our customers moved to the cloud
Speaker 1: and take full advantage of flunt cloud. How much was
Speaker 1: that moved to the cloud accelerated during the pandemic? And again,
Speaker 1: I know you've only been there for six months, but
Speaker 1: I know that you know about what's been happening there
Speaker 1: over the last eighteen months during the pandemic. I know
Speaker 1: that you have nineties three of the one fortune one
Speaker 1: hundred companies using the product um how much of that,
Speaker 1: how much was that accelerated during the pandemic and how
Speaker 1: much more room is there to grow? Well, we grew
Speaker 1: our annual cloud revenue over seventy for the tenth straight quarter,
Speaker 1: and so it just continues to show you the acceleration
Speaker 1: of the cloud. And I will kind of share some
Speaker 1: of my previous experience that AWS demonstrated this because I
Speaker 1: ran our public sector business and industries groups at a
Speaker 1: BS and during COVID, we saw acceleration within our sstomers
Speaker 1: like two years to three years of acceleration to the
Speaker 1: cloud during the pandemic because they could not get into
Speaker 1: their data centers they could could not get in and
Speaker 1: take advantage of their applications, so many of them had
Speaker 1: support or rebuild those applications very quickly. So especially if
Speaker 1: you're talking in mission critical areas like government, healthcare, financial services, UH,
Speaker 1: telco areas that really uh the world cannot do without.
Speaker 1: They have to keep going. So they had to figure
Speaker 1: out how they got use of their technology when many
Speaker 1: of their employees could not go into the data centers.
Speaker 1: So you saw the growth of cloud computing really moving fast,
Speaker 1: and I heard so many customers say it was such
Speaker 1: a differentiator for them in their business and their mission
Speaker 1: during that time. And it also accelerated the use of
Speaker 1: cloud skills. And of course one of the primary things
Speaker 1: that that like is as a data company, the customers
Speaker 1: need to be able to take advantage in use their data.
Speaker 1: So as a result of that, customers really started thanking themselves.
Speaker 1: How do I make that move more rapidly? You guys
Speaker 1: think too, uh. And you have such a great perspective, Teresa,
Speaker 1: because you were uh leading the Amazon Web services public
Speaker 1: sector business for more than a decade and then you
Speaker 1: of course are now it's blunk. But I am curious
Speaker 1: about data democratization is that truly achievable? And will there
Speaker 1: always be some entities or parties or countries China for example,
Speaker 1: that will have access to more and better data, and
Speaker 1: so there will always be some kind of imbalance and
Speaker 1: power plays or are our power powerful components when it
Speaker 1: comes to the data universe, Well, I don't know about
Speaker 1: better data that you know, efficiency of use of that data.
Speaker 1: And there's still no companies that drives interet innovation more
Speaker 1: rapidly than US companies. I mean, if you look at
Speaker 1: the use in the growth of cloud tools, you know
Speaker 1: aws that you know kind of started from scratch. They
Speaker 1: are they are uh data, they are services from day
Speaker 1: one when nobody really even knew what cloud was. And
Speaker 1: then you have Google, you have Microsoft, and you have
Speaker 1: this explosion of startups as a result of cloud computing,
Speaker 1: and the companies in the US and around the world
Speaker 1: that are developing as a result of cloud computing, the
Speaker 1: access and lead that they have with data is quite amazing.
Speaker 1: But I would say what's the most important is the
Speaker 1: ability to take advantage and use your data. And one
Speaker 1: of the big key trends that's happening is you know,
Speaker 1: open source data that's out there can be utilized in
Speaker 1: massive ways to actually understand a problem set. And you
Speaker 1: saw this as an example happening during COVID where you
Speaker 1: saw crowdsourcing going on so people could solve the problems
Speaker 1: faster of what was going on and have had deeper understanding.
Speaker 1: But in terms of the data elements itself, I would
Speaker 1: just say, um, if you look at all the companies
Speaker 1: like Talenteer, Conflent and others that have gone public, you
Speaker 1: are seeing companies that are truly data driven, and they
Speaker 1: have slices of the way they use their data and
Speaker 1: tag it that allows these companies to really do things
Speaker 1: that they never thought of doing. Right now, they can
Speaker 1: throw their data in somewhere and it gets organized. They
Speaker 1: don't have to put it in all these tables. That's
Speaker 1: Teresa Carlson, president and chief Growth Officer at the publicly
Speaker 1: traded software maker and data company Spunk. You're listening to
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Business Week. Coming up next, we pick up on
Speaker 1: our conversation from last week with the founder, chairman, and
Speaker 1: CEO of Dell Technologies, not other than Michael Dell, including
Speaker 1: his thoughts on the next big technological breakthrough and facing
Speaker 1: down carl Icon gotta say. In the book, he talks
Speaker 1: about having dinner at Carl Icon's house and Mrs Icon
Speaker 1: cooked for them. It's a great read. And that's another
Speaker 1: edition of Bloomberg Business Week Talks. This is Bloomberg. You're
Speaker 1: listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Quick Takes from Bloomberg Radio. So last week we featured
Speaker 1: a little bit of our conversation with Michael Dell. It
Speaker 1: was when he talked about the new term outlook for
Speaker 1: Dell Technologies and really the broader technology sector. There's so
Speaker 1: much going on, certainly in the financial markets when it
Speaker 1: comes to tech stocks, and really just broader in terms
Speaker 1: of some macro themes. Well, in part two of our conversation,
Speaker 1: we're going to dive deeper into the billionaire innovator's origins.
Speaker 1: We also got his thoughts on the labor crunch taking
Speaker 1: place across the US and also what he thinks is
Speaker 1: the next big technological breakthrough. Here's a hint Ai is
Speaker 1: going to play a big role. That's a pretty big
Speaker 1: hint him just gonna say. A portion of this interview
Speaker 1: is featured in this week's double issue. It's part of
Speaker 1: our Bloomberg Business Week talk series, and we start off
Speaker 1: with a story from Dell's new book. It's entitled Play
Speaker 1: Nice But When a CEO's journey from founder to Leader,
Speaker 1: and it's about pacing down activist investor Carl Icon when
Speaker 1: he bought a steak in the company in Dell and
Speaker 1: tried to block Michael Dell's move to take the company private.
Speaker 1: Was very hard. You know, I didn't really have much
Speaker 1: experience dealing with somebody who would just go on television
Speaker 1: and lie. You know that That's not something I had
Speaker 1: experienced very often in my in my business career. Um.
Speaker 1: But you know, ultimately, as I talked about in the book,
Speaker 1: I did go to his house and confront him, and
Speaker 1: you know, really saw that he didn't have any plan
Speaker 1: whatsoever for the company and to him, it was just
Speaker 1: a big poker game. And and uh, you know, it
Speaker 1: turned out to be way more difficult than that than
Speaker 1: I thought, As was chronicled on Bloomberg television and radio
Speaker 1: very extensively. It was a story that never ended until
Speaker 1: it did. And and uh, you know, fortunately we were
Speaker 1: able to accelerate our transformation. Are our shareholders got some
Speaker 1: of the benefits of our transformation if we were successful,
Speaker 1: which we turned out we we we were without taking
Speaker 1: on any of the risk. And and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: I I've learned how to how to how to face
Speaker 1: down carl Icon. So there you go. Yeah, I'm wondering, Michael,
Speaker 1: if you if you missed the days of of of
Speaker 1: running a company that's that's private, that that doesn't have
Speaker 1: a report card available to you each and every day
Speaker 1: Monday through Friday from you know, nine thirty to four,
Speaker 1: every day where you watch the company's stock move. Because
Speaker 1: you do talk a little bit in the book about
Speaker 1: the way that big swings in the company's stock would
Speaker 1: would make you feel and the way that you thought
Speaker 1: that analysts and investors were missing it. Do you miss
Speaker 1: the days of of of of not running a public company. Well,
Speaker 1: I've I've I've done both right, And uh, you know,
Speaker 1: the key for us was really putting the company on
Speaker 1: a different trajectory. And back in two thousand twelve and
Speaker 1: two thousand and thirteen, the markets really didn't give us
Speaker 1: permission to go invest in those new areas. Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: now I think we're in a different spot, new capabilities,
Speaker 1: new growth rate, and new trajectory. And you know, we
Speaker 1: also reignited that entrepreneurial spirit which was the formation of
Speaker 1: the company, and very much kept that alive even as
Speaker 1: we've transitioned back to being public again. Well, you know,
Speaker 1: it's interesting too, and we've really leaned on I think
Speaker 1: even more so during the pandemic. Are our leaders right
Speaker 1: of companies UM to help us get it through. I
Speaker 1: think about Black Lives Matter and you know, one of
Speaker 1: the things we wanted to ask you, and it feels
Speaker 1: like from reading your book, you don't play around too
Speaker 1: much or careful around politics. And I can understand that
Speaker 1: for for CEO S. But you know, your home state
Speaker 1: of Texas. Uh, you know, I have a lot of
Speaker 1: family in Texas. You seem to be you know, you
Speaker 1: really love that state and you write a lot about
Speaker 1: it in your book. How do you feel about things
Speaker 1: like the abortion law and the voting rights one? Would
Speaker 1: you would you have spoken out about? Yeah? I have
Speaker 1: spoken out about voting rights and certainly we've communicated with
Speaker 1: our team members about UM. You know some of the
Speaker 1: some of the recent laws. Uh. Look, I would much
Speaker 1: rather see our policymakers focus on education and infrastructure and
Speaker 1: broadband and you know, the things that will help the
Speaker 1: state continue to be successful. And as we've communicated to
Speaker 1: our team members, you know, our belief is that uh,
Speaker 1: you know, they should have more access to healthcare, not
Speaker 1: not less. Do you worry though about you know, some
Speaker 1: of these issues that it will it'll hurt Del's ability
Speaker 1: to a tract talent, especially in Austin or are generally speaking,
Speaker 1: haven't seen that problem yet. Well, well, we'll see how
Speaker 1: it plays out and uh, you know, uh to again,
Speaker 1: our company will go where the talent is and you know, uh,
Speaker 1: let's let's see also how how the courts you know,
Speaker 1: rule on these things. And you know, uh, I think
Speaker 1: there's still a lot that we don't know about how
Speaker 1: how this plays out. Hey, Michael, I want to stick
Speaker 1: on on talent because we have spoken to executives in
Speaker 1: recent months who've said, Hey, the labor crunch that we're seeing,
Speaker 1: it's really across the spectrum from hourly employees all the
Speaker 1: way up to executives. If you had to raise wages
Speaker 1: to attract and retain talent, well you're always adjusting, you know,
Speaker 1: compensation and benefits. Pretty pleased with our attrition, you know,
Speaker 1: our data says, you know, we're uh uh in the
Speaker 1: you know, kind of lower quartile of attrition. So I
Speaker 1: haven't really had an enormous challenge there as I know
Speaker 1: many companies have. And look at um, you know, Uh,
Speaker 1: our job is to create an inspiring and uh you know,
Speaker 1: passionate environment where people can do their very best work.
Speaker 1: And we attract a lot of young people into our company.
Speaker 1: Given those opportunities, I think if we keep doing that, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, we'll we'll be just fine. Am C. It
Speaker 1: is a company that we know, We've all talked about it,
Speaker 1: um you know, the king of growing uh storage device market.
Speaker 1: We know cloud compute geting is changing all of this.
Speaker 1: Uh you know, a former we were talking to some
Speaker 1: of our colleagues, uh, a former MC executive telling uh
Speaker 1: them that EMC was once the last or what was
Speaker 1: the last great storage companies. There will never be another one.
Speaker 1: So what is the future of that market in your view?
Speaker 1: And how do you think Dale specifically can benefit from that? Well,
Speaker 1: the interesting thing is if you peel back the onion
Speaker 1: on just about anything that's going on. You were talking
Speaker 1: about crypto earlier, DEFECI, finance, autonomous vehicles, you know, just
Speaker 1: pick your new thing that's happening. Behind all of that
Speaker 1: is an enormous amount of data and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: it turns out you need a lot of cloud infrastructure,
Speaker 1: uh no matter where it is, and you need a
Speaker 1: lot of data to make all these things happen. And
Speaker 1: so you know, as the number one company in the
Speaker 1: world that provides all of that, we're seeing some really
Speaker 1: nice growth in those areas. So uh, I think the
Speaker 1: world's kind of figuring out. Yeah, public cloud is a thing,
Speaker 1: but it's not just the public cloud, it's multi cloud.
Speaker 1: It's also the edge and there's enormous growth going on
Speaker 1: as everything in the world becomes intelligent and connected and
Speaker 1: now with five g uh, the distributed computing world is
Speaker 1: even more distributed. All that creates enormous opportunities for us
Speaker 1: have to say that, Um, you know, we want to
Speaker 1: talk a little bit about innovation. We've got a few
Speaker 1: minutes left. Mike Bloomberg stop on my desk. I was working.
Speaker 1: I have a huge pile of books and he's like,
Speaker 1: do you read all of these? And I'm like, I try,
Speaker 1: I said, but one book I'm reading right now is
Speaker 1: Michael Dale's new book. And he's like, I know Michael,
Speaker 1: and he goes really smart guy, really innovative guy, and uh,
Speaker 1: it was just kind of interesting. And he talked about,
Speaker 1: you know, how you reinvented your company. Um, when it
Speaker 1: comes to innovation reinvention, Um, what are the technologies that
Speaker 1: you think we should be focusing on? You know what?
Speaker 1: Gender know what get you excited? Is it crypto? Is
Speaker 1: it AI? Is it something? Is it the metaverse? What
Speaker 1: do you think is interesting? Because reading your book, I
Speaker 1: mean you've been involved in the text space since you
Speaker 1: were a kid, and I just wonder what really catches
Speaker 1: your attention now? Yeah, you know, the power of AI
Speaker 1: to again use all this data to up end and
Speaker 1: reinvent every part of our world in society is incredible,
Speaker 1: I think. Uh, you know, they're going to be incredible
Speaker 1: innovations in the intersection of the bio biological and computational
Speaker 1: sciences in all the areas you you talked about. Uh,
Speaker 1: it's hard to predict you know exactly how all these
Speaker 1: things are going to uh evolve, But you know when
Speaker 1: when you have these powerful ingredient technologies coming together, and look,
Speaker 1: you have an enormous amount of risk capital right now
Speaker 1: that's going after these problems and even hard a hard
Speaker 1: tech problems. I think that the future is is super
Speaker 1: bright for for uh, you know, humankind. That's Dell Technologies founder,
Speaker 1: chairman and CEO, Michael Dell of the next big tech breakthrough.
Speaker 1: Check out his new book Play Nice But when a
Speaker 1: CEO's journey from founder to leader. I gotta say, Tim,
Speaker 1: it's a fun read. It's a really fun read. We
Speaker 1: get a lot of books. Yeah, we get a lot
Speaker 1: of books, and I gotta be honest, I don't read
Speaker 1: them all. I don't have enough time in the day. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: this was a fun one though. It was. It was
Speaker 1: just his stories and from kid to you know, tech
Speaker 1: entrepreneur to a very wealthy and successful individual, one of
Speaker 1: the wealthiest in the country. Well, you can hear the
Speaker 1: entire interview at Bloomberg dot com, and a portion of
Speaker 1: it is featured in our latest edition of Business Week
Speaker 1: Talks in this week's double issue that wraps up the
Speaker 1: first hour of the weekend edition of Bloomberg Business Week
Speaker 1: from Bloomberg Radio. I'm Carol Masser and I'm Tim standing back.
Speaker 1: Coming up in our next hour, we're talking to shopping
Speaker 1: and traveling. If you're planning on doing either of those
Speaker 1: things in the next few months, and probably a lot
Speaker 1: of you are you're gonna want to stick around. I
Speaker 1: gotta say, I'm just getting back to traveling for the
Speaker 1: first time, getting on a plane, looking forward to it.
Speaker 1: We've got some important insight on the retail sector from
Speaker 1: the president of the International Council of Shopping Centers and
Speaker 1: our Pursuits team. It's out with its annual shoes. We're
Speaker 1: talking veil, We're talking big, skuy and more. This one
Speaker 1: speaks to me. I know it did. I bet you
Speaker 1: were taking notes and like taking the whole section home. BLUs.
Speaker 1: We'll catch up with award winning actor and best selling author,
Speaker 1: also entrepreneur Samhwin. Yeah, he does it all. I've been
Speaker 1: looking forward to this, and yes, we are talking about
Speaker 1: the hunkin Outlander. There I said it. All the women
Speaker 1: out there thinking the same thing, and I'm going to
Speaker 1: say some guys too might be interested in hearing from him.
Speaker 1: I want to be inclusive. That's what we are at
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Business Week Straight Ahead. Our cover story too on
Speaker 1: City Group CEO Jane Fraser, the first woman to run
Speaker 1: a top US bank, who is trying to lead a
Speaker 1: long shot comeback and Torment he rivals in the process. No,
Speaker 1: it's interesting, Sam Hugh and the actor he plays Jamie
Speaker 1: Fraser on the Autlander series. And then we've got Jane Freezer,
Speaker 1: who is the cover story of Business Week. Yeah, all
Speaker 1: just comes together. Centers they call that, right, synergies. This
Speaker 1: is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg Business Week Inside from the
Speaker 1: reporters and editors who bring you America's most trusted business magazine,
Speaker 1: plus global business, finance and tech news as it happened,
Speaker 1: Sloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Bloomberg Quick Takes
Speaker 1: Tim Stinovic on Bloomberg Radio. Hi, A'm Carol Masser and
Speaker 1: I'm Tim plitty Head in our second hour of the
Speaker 1: weekend edition of Bloomberg Business Week, including a visit from
Speaker 1: a man who literally does it all. Award winning actor,
Speaker 1: best selling author, whiskey maker and philanthropist Sam Hwan pays
Speaker 1: us a visit. Plus tis the season for holiday shopping
Speaker 1: and skiing, to how supply chain constraints could actually affect
Speaker 1: retailers in the coming months, and where to go when
Speaker 1: you're ready to hit the slops. I'm already ready, I know, right,
Speaker 1: so ready. First up, this hour though, let's get to
Speaker 1: the cover story of this week's double issue. The first
Speaker 1: woman to lead a top us bank has a plan
Speaker 1: to remake one of America's biggest lenders. Bloomberg News finance
Speaker 1: reporter Jenny Seraine wrote the piece about City Group CEO
Speaker 1: Jane Fraser, who's not afraid to give her workers what
Speaker 1: they want as long as it means crushing their competition.
Speaker 1: And they're just an interesting company. You know, They've had
Speaker 1: a really rough go of it recently, and I think
Speaker 1: they needed this fresh air and fresh blood and they've
Speaker 1: got that, and so it will be interesting to kind
Speaker 1: of see where she takes it from here. Well, speaking
Speaker 1: of fresh air, I mean the piece literally opens with
Speaker 1: fresh air talking about an outdoor space that that city
Speaker 1: has for employees, and also the way that that city
Speaker 1: is different than the other majors in thinking about a
Speaker 1: return to work. Take us through what Jane Fraser is
Speaker 1: doing and why this is this is kind of crazy
Speaker 1: for for what's happening in Wall Street. Yeah, I think
Speaker 1: that's exactly right. So a lot of where this started
Speaker 1: was just we were hearing grumblings over and over again
Speaker 1: that people were leaving other banks and joining cities simply
Speaker 1: because they really liked the way she talked about the
Speaker 1: future of work and and what that looks like. And
Speaker 1: so you know, she's doing the thing where they are
Speaker 1: allowed to work from home at least two days a
Speaker 1: week on a permanent basis. That's one thing, But I
Speaker 1: think the more interesting thing that she said is, um,
Speaker 1: it's not just about this hybrid half in, half out situation.
Speaker 1: They're also being really flexible. So you know, if it's
Speaker 1: three o'clock and you want to knock off and go
Speaker 1: pick up your kids from school or or take them
Speaker 1: to a soccer game, that's fine. You know, log on
Speaker 1: later and finish your work up whenever you can. Um,
Speaker 1: it's this whole idea of flexibility that people seem to
Speaker 1: really appreciate. You know, she's acknowledging that people are not
Speaker 1: just robots at a desks, that they're real people with
Speaker 1: real lives and really embracing that. All right, So don't
Speaker 1: penalize me because I really hate this is like it
Speaker 1: is because she's a woman that she looks at it differently,
Speaker 1: because that kind of makes me crazy. But there is that,
Speaker 1: But is it also a leader who's understanding that the
Speaker 1: world has changed because of the pandemic, and we have shown,
Speaker 1: certainly the big banks how much they could get downe home.
Speaker 1: Is it also third um kind of her sticky to
Speaker 1: the other banks and saying, you know, it's a fight
Speaker 1: for competition, uh, and so if this is what we
Speaker 1: have to do to kind of draw on talent, this
Speaker 1: makes sense. Yeah. I think she's she's definitely unique, and
Speaker 1: that she seems more willing to listen to her eployees
Speaker 1: and has kind of let that guide a lot of
Speaker 1: her decisions, you know, since becoming CEO. And also she
Speaker 1: was president before that, So I think she's very unique. UM.
Speaker 1: A lot of the other CEO is kind of get
Speaker 1: an idea in their head and and stick to it
Speaker 1: and and don't really let a lot of um advice
Speaker 1: UM come their way. But I think she's she's very
Speaker 1: unique in that sense. UM. And I do think, you know,
Speaker 1: it's a war for talent right now. These banks are
Speaker 1: it's a very cutthroat environment for for bankers, for traders,
Speaker 1: for engineers, for all sorts of different folks, and she's
Speaker 1: acknowledging that and I think really kind of setting them apart.
Speaker 1: I thought of the other cover story that was on
Speaker 1: Business Week. I don't know, is it over the summer
Speaker 1: where it's like, basically, I don't get out of bed
Speaker 1: for thousand dollars just to steal you know, the supermodel line.
Speaker 1: But it was basically because we just continue to see
Speaker 1: right to him that Wall Street, the big banks, the
Speaker 1: big firms are upping kind of salaries for some of
Speaker 1: their you know, starting junior bankers whatever, you know, we
Speaker 1: just see that happening. Well, well, when Jenny, will we
Speaker 1: start to see this payoff if there is this talent
Speaker 1: war and we know this talent war is happening, when
Speaker 1: will we are to see the moves that Jane Fraser's
Speaker 1: making in terms of poaching talent and perhaps just as important,
Speaker 1: retaining talent. Yeah, so that's the big, big question, I
Speaker 1: think facing all of the efforts that they're making. They've
Speaker 1: already started to have some successes. There's been some big
Speaker 1: names that have left Goldman, Sacks, JP, Morgan, Google and
Speaker 1: joined Jane Um and her big journey UM. And I
Speaker 1: think it's not just talent, you know, it's also this
Speaker 1: whole energy that she's trying to bring to the turnaround
Speaker 1: there Um and really just trying to set them apart
Speaker 1: and set them on this path towards um. Excellence is
Speaker 1: the word that they like to use, um, which is
Speaker 1: all you know, to be fair, they are. She did
Speaker 1: work for Mackenzie. She did work for Mackenzie said sorry,
Speaker 1: love you Mackenzie. But you know, she's definitely I mean,
Speaker 1: she has that consultant brain and and the kind of
Speaker 1: see a lot of that Mackenzie touch um and the
Speaker 1: strategy rest that she's partake error that she's kind of
Speaker 1: venturing out on. So she's you know, focused on wealth.
Speaker 1: She talks a lot about prioritizing high return businesses de
Speaker 1: prioritizing the low return businesses. That's Mackenzie, let's talk about it.
Speaker 1: I remember very early on my career when uh, Sandy
Speaker 1: Wild was at City right and he bought Smith Barney.
Speaker 1: He was making this financial supermarket company, and I remember
Speaker 1: under the red umbrella and like doing the whole thing,
Speaker 1: doing a stand up. But what's interesting is wealth management, right,
Speaker 1: they lost Smith Barney eventually were sold it off. Is
Speaker 1: that an area they've got to be a bigger player,
Speaker 1: And so Jane certainly thinks so, and I think, um,
Speaker 1: you know, if you look at some of the big
Speaker 1: success stories on Wall Street of the last decade, it
Speaker 1: was wealth management shops. Morgan Stanley bought Smith Barney and
Speaker 1: has since turned it into this powerhouse UM and so
Speaker 1: I think, you know, it's definitely a high returning business.
Speaker 1: City has long um you know, punched under their weight there,
Speaker 1: and so it's kind of an easy one where they
Speaker 1: already have a little bit of scale. They just got
Speaker 1: to invest in and get it a little bit um
Speaker 1: bigger um internally or do they have to acquire or
Speaker 1: can they acquires or anything out there. They're a little
Speaker 1: bit hamstrung right now. They've um, you know, last year
Speaker 1: they had the O c C and the FED ding
Speaker 1: them for some long standing issues with their internal control holes,
Speaker 1: and so they're really limited in the amount of em
Speaker 1: and activity that they can do because of that. UM.
Speaker 1: Everything has to be run by their regulators. So I
Speaker 1: think they're you know, really focused on an organic growth
Speaker 1: strategy with this UM and yeah, wealth management everybody is
Speaker 1: making lots of money there. That was Bloomberg News Finance
Speaker 1: reporter Jenny Seraine on her Business Week cover story on
Speaker 1: Cities Woman in Charge. Jane Fraser, you're listening to Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Business Week coming up a little bit of everything, some skiing,
Speaker 1: some shopping, and a very handsome and talented actor and
Speaker 1: author Outlander star Sam Hugh and stops by. He's a
Speaker 1: philanthropist too, and he has really encouraging other people to
Speaker 1: challenge themselves and as he does it, he's raising a
Speaker 1: lot of money. For looking to him a few times, Carol,
Speaker 1: Actually this will be my second time. I've watched him
Speaker 1: a lot in the streaming series, but have been watching
Speaker 1: his progression, especially in social media, because he really is
Speaker 1: reaching out in a lot of different ways to the
Speaker 1: world at large. A really incredible career. It's a great interview. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was definitely a fun conversation. This is Bloomberg. This
Speaker 1: is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Bloomberg Quick Takes.
Speaker 1: Tim Stinovik from Bloomberg Radio. Follow him on social media
Speaker 1: and you'll see the many facets of our next guest actor. Yes,
Speaker 1: for certain, in the wildly popular streaming series Outlander, many
Speaker 1: people are watching Tim. He's also an author set to
Speaker 1: release a follow up to the New York Times bestseller
Speaker 1: clan Lands, Whiskey Warfare and a Scottish Adventure like no other.
Speaker 1: His new book is entitled The Clan Lands Almanac. He
Speaker 1: also has new TV and film projects on the horizon.
Speaker 1: He's got his own line of whiskey. I've sampled it.
Speaker 1: It's pretty darn good. Even his own charity. Sam Human
Speaker 1: joined us in studio to talk about how he's managing
Speaker 1: all of that in the midst of a pandemic and
Speaker 1: coming out of a pandemic. Yeah, I mean, I think
Speaker 1: it's obviously impacted everyone, but business wise, more than anything,
Speaker 1: it's delayed a lot of imports and exports, especially that whiskey.
Speaker 1: Did it complicate things? Oh? Absolutely, yeah. I mean I
Speaker 1: think you've maybe seen the pictures of you know, the
Speaker 1: the container ships outside Long Beach, Um, I think it's
Speaker 1: about forty of them out there at the momentum. Things
Speaker 1: are just really slow, you know. Globally, it's it's been tough.
Speaker 1: You know, we've been challenged with the cork for our
Speaker 1: stoppers and the bottles, you know, trying to get access
Speaker 1: to that right, yeah, exactly, or just even getting a
Speaker 1: container to to transport our whiskey across from from the UK.
Speaker 1: So yeah, it's been challenging. What changes did you have
Speaker 1: to make as a result of these challenges. Did you
Speaker 1: have to raise prices, did you have to change material
Speaker 1: or just be patient? I think that's pretty much. Yeah.
Speaker 1: You know, people were waiting for our next release. We
Speaker 1: released last year and then this is our biggest release. Um,
Speaker 1: we wanted it to be out in time obviously the
Speaker 1: holiday season, but um, it's finally here. We are actually
Speaker 1: only delayed a couple of weeks, so we're pretty fortunate.
Speaker 1: How much fun are you having with this and it's
Speaker 1: doing and tell us about like taking it around in
Speaker 1: and introducing it to people. Yeah, so I'm really proud.
Speaker 1: Obviously self financed, self realized. You know, we designed everything,
Speaker 1: every every aspect of the finance. You've strapped it all yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: so we haven't any investors. We've we've done it all ourselves.
Speaker 1: And um, as I said, yes, our second round, we've
Speaker 1: we want about seven double gold medals from various awards.
Speaker 1: I'm just really proud of it. It's my it's my baby.
Speaker 1: Can you talk about why you bootstrapped it and chose
Speaker 1: not to bring on outside investors? Did you not want
Speaker 1: to dilute the equity? I think so, you know, I mean, firstly,
Speaker 1: it is a small, limited batch release, you know, it's
Speaker 1: it's hard to get our hands on enough of the products,
Speaker 1: so we didn't need finance at the first. But then also, um,
Speaker 1: you know, just to retain, to retain the rights, to
Speaker 1: retain the majority share or control of it. And as
Speaker 1: I said, it is a passion project. So I really
Speaker 1: didn't want to give anything away. There may be a
Speaker 1: time when we do look at find people looking at
Speaker 1: the door. We we yes, we have. We've definitely had
Speaker 1: conversations and you know, there will be a point where
Speaker 1: we want to really upscale and and and increase. And
Speaker 1: I think at that point investor would really help us
Speaker 1: because it's interesting in the marketplace. Uh, you know, it's
Speaker 1: a crowded marketplace. But when you can create a brand
Speaker 1: um that somehow has some interesting distinction to it, and
Speaker 1: I think this one is safe to say it does
Speaker 1: also taste good. Um, you can really move ahead. What's
Speaker 1: the been the response that you're hearing? And as you
Speaker 1: because you're meeting with people in New York and elsewhere. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: so we were now available in I mean, I think
Speaker 1: about forty states. We're working on the rest of them,
Speaker 1: and we're working on Canada as well, and Europe. Um,
Speaker 1: it's it's a whiskey that I wanted people to be accessible. Um,
Speaker 1: you know a lot of people don't haven't tried whiskey,
Speaker 1: or don't know much about Scotch whiskey. This is a blend.
Speaker 1: There wasn't really a premium blend out there that I
Speaker 1: felt was comparable to like the Asian blends out there,
Speaker 1: which are really phenomenal. Um, So we wanted to create
Speaker 1: something like that modern but also you know, with a
Speaker 1: nod to our heritage. So we've got some great Molt
Speaker 1: whiskey in here. We did want to talk to you
Speaker 1: a little bit about what's it like on the set,
Speaker 1: because it looks like you guys have just an incredible
Speaker 1: group of people. It is. Yeah, we've been obviously on
Speaker 1: this show now almost I think about eight years, where
Speaker 1: in our sixth season is about to come out, um
Speaker 1: and it really it's where this sort of real core
Speaker 1: ensemble of actors and um, it's it's been good. I
Speaker 1: mean this was the hardest year definitely, you know, with
Speaker 1: with obviously COVID situation, but also we were shooting in winter.
Speaker 1: Um it was tough. I mean it was it was
Speaker 1: really difficult. But um, a really strong season and I
Speaker 1: think that's what brings you, gets you through something like that.
Speaker 1: You know, your your sort of friendship and your bonds
Speaker 1: and with the crew as well, you know, it's like
Speaker 1: one big family. What are the COVID protocols and how
Speaker 1: is it different this season then it was in previous
Speaker 1: seasons before. We were talking about COVID each and every day. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know we So I worked on a movie as
Speaker 1: well during COVID. UM movie called Text for You. Um.
Speaker 1: Also Men and Kilts shows. We're one of the first
Speaker 1: shows to shoot in the UK with the COVID protocols.
Speaker 1: Um for outline. It was difficult, different and difficult because
Speaker 1: it's such a big show. You know, we have so
Speaker 1: many extras were out out in Scotland, so it did
Speaker 1: delay us by a number of months. But um, the protocols,
Speaker 1: you know, everyone was tested every day. We actually had
Speaker 1: a testing center in the production offices which was amazing.
Speaker 1: They could do a rapid test, so you get tested
Speaker 1: every morning. We had bubbles, Um, you did have bubbles, right,
Speaker 1: This is what we heard from when we were talking.
Speaker 1: Stuff came back so basically different. Uh, depending on sort
Speaker 1: of your your level of what your function is in
Speaker 1: on set, you would then be in allocated a certain
Speaker 1: bubblio when you drink whiskey on on the set, are
Speaker 1: you drinking real whiskey? Um? Absolutely, of course all the time.
Speaker 1: Wait a minute, you and I were talking, we were
Speaker 1: talking around the table here about your brand, Assassinac. So
Speaker 1: is there more to come? You expand this? Yeah, you
Speaker 1: put me on the spot. Yeah, well you know, well absolutely,
Speaker 1: you know our tagline is unique Spirits. Uh so we
Speaker 1: are looking, you know, around the world for you know,
Speaker 1: unique opportunities and um, really just shining the spotlight on
Speaker 1: you know, great producers and collaborating with other people. So um.
Speaker 1: But you know, see, the whiskey is ours our main party,
Speaker 1: it's our first spirit and we really want to establish
Speaker 1: that and let that grow as well. One last one
Speaker 1: on the on the spirits, in the spirits the industry
Speaker 1: right now. Oh, I mean there's just you know, I
Speaker 1: mean the explosion of tequila obviously is really interesting. I've
Speaker 1: spent a lot of time over in in actually in
Speaker 1: Tequila Town, which is a really fun place. Um. But
Speaker 1: you know, even look in the UK, I mean, Gin
Speaker 1: is really big. It's it's kind of almost overpopulated now Um,
Speaker 1: but yeah, I'm really interested in just like these small producers.
Speaker 1: I mean, Mescal is just fascinating, you know, and it's
Speaker 1: hard to for them to upscale. So UM, I'd love
Speaker 1: to go to well Hacker and spend a bit of
Speaker 1: time there. How long do you think you might hold
Speaker 1: on to the brand before maybe something, you know, we
Speaker 1: talked about people being interested, and we know, um, certainly
Speaker 1: some of the bigger bands are always looking for um,
Speaker 1: new players, new entries. Do you think that the the
Speaker 1: end game is that ultimately becomes part of somebody's portfolio? Um? I,
Speaker 1: to be honest, I don't know. Something. It's obviously very
Speaker 1: close to my heart. It's quite poured so much to
Speaker 1: myself into this, so I want to retain it. Um.
Speaker 1: But who knows in the future where that could go.
Speaker 1: That's award winning actor in New York Times, bestselling author,
Speaker 1: entrepreneur and philanthropist Sam Human. He does it all. He
Speaker 1: does do it all, and it's really pretty impressive. And
Speaker 1: I always think about when someone is an actor or
Speaker 1: you know, in the entertainment business and they start to
Speaker 1: branch out, how do they make decisions right about kind
Speaker 1: of where they put their efforts Because I'm guessing people
Speaker 1: are probably calling all the time. Time is a finite resource.
Speaker 1: I'm learning that all the time still still to come
Speaker 1: on Bloomberg Business Week, Ready or not. The holiday shopping
Speaker 1: season it's upon us, and supply chain concerns are only
Speaker 1: adding to stress levels. We'll hear from the President of
Speaker 1: the International Council of Shopping Centers, Tom McGee. This is
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Broadcasting from the financial capital of the World, Bloomberg
Speaker 1: blom Frio in New York to Washington, d C. Bloomberg
Speaker 1: to Boston, Bloomberg one oh six one, to 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: President Joe Biden wants to break a logjam at U
Speaker 1: s Ports and stave off a holiday season of shortages
Speaker 1: and delays. It remarks this past week, the President announcing
Speaker 1: the Port of Los Angeles would begin operating twenty four
Speaker 1: hours a day and seven days a week. My only question,
Speaker 1: and Tim your only question, was like, why weren't we
Speaker 1: doing this weeks ago? Because We've been talking about supply
Speaker 1: chain problems for months. Yeah, and they're able to actually
Speaker 1: work so much more efficiently in those off hours. So
Speaker 1: why now. Anyway, he did call the movie a quote
Speaker 1: big first step as US imports reach record highs. The
Speaker 1: good news Carol, though, is that retailers say they're stocked,
Speaker 1: at least for now. We talked about the sales outlook
Speaker 1: in the critical months ahead with the President of the
Speaker 1: International Council of Shopping Centers Tom McGee. Were hastening nearly
Speaker 1: nine year over year growth and holiday sales from from UM.
Speaker 1: You know, I think all the conditions that have led
Speaker 1: to strong retail sales during the course of this year,
Speaker 1: whether it's a lot of fiscal stimulus, high personal savings rates,
Speaker 1: you know, a strong job market, will all be the
Speaker 1: same factors that contribute to strong holiday sales. They think
Speaker 1: the consumer is back, they're willing to spend, but supply
Speaker 1: chain issues, you know, it could be the X factor
Speaker 1: that could impact. It's interest that you say about consumer back,
Speaker 1: because we've we've talked about some sentiment indicators being down.
Speaker 1: When you say nine growth and holiday sales year over year,
Speaker 1: is that because there's going to be higher prices, Like,
Speaker 1: what are we talking about? What is that metric really measure? Well, certainly,
Speaker 1: there's certainly there's been inflation from one year to the next,
Speaker 1: but it's really driven more based upon you know, volume growth,
Speaker 1: you know, and it's and that was based upon a
Speaker 1: fairly strong holiday season. Although retail sales were down over
Speaker 1: the coast and most of the year last year, holiday
Speaker 1: sales actually increased you over year as a lot of
Speaker 1: people leaned into holiday spending. You know, overall, for one,
Speaker 1: we were forecasting eleven and a half percent you know,
Speaker 1: retail sales growth. Again, a lot of was was way down. UM.
Speaker 1: So you know, I think it's a it's it's broad based.
Speaker 1: You know, we're expecting about five percent growth and physical
Speaker 1: stories growth in e commerce, um, and a lot of
Speaker 1: growth in and things like food and beverage as well
Speaker 1: as people to eat out. I'm really glad you you
Speaker 1: brought that up, Tom, because you know, if we were
Speaker 1: doing this, if we're having this conversation two years ago
Speaker 1: in twenty nineteen, I think we'd be talking a lot
Speaker 1: about experiences. Last year, the conversation was all about actual
Speaker 1: physical things because people, you know, we're still there was
Speaker 1: no vaccine, we were still kind of stuck inside to
Speaker 1: a certain extent. What is the mix this year with
Speaker 1: people buying people gift certificates to restaurants, gift certificates to
Speaker 1: experiences versus buying physical things, especially if you can't get
Speaker 1: your hands on some of those physical things. Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think there's I mean, I think the the you
Speaker 1: know predominances as people will be focused upon buying physical things, um,
Speaker 1: you know, outside of the traditional going out to eat
Speaker 1: an entertainment that you know upticks in the holiday season,
Speaker 1: and we think this will up to significantly this year.
Speaker 1: But I do think there'll be an increase in gift certificates. Look,
Speaker 1: I think that there is if we have the supply
Speaker 1: chain challenges that we think we may experience, I think
Speaker 1: you will see people continue to buy and spend, but
Speaker 1: they might buy and spend non gift certificates to allow
Speaker 1: the person that they're buying the gift for to be
Speaker 1: able to choose what they want. In two, so you
Speaker 1: may see a lingering impact of kind of a positive
Speaker 1: spending um in in in the holiday impact positively impact
Speaker 1: retailers in the early part of two with people routeemed
Speaker 1: gifts certificate. Tom Um. One of the things I've also
Speaker 1: wondered about. I know we talked a bit about supply chains,
Speaker 1: but I have been curious about the real estate market
Speaker 1: when it comes to shopping centers. And I know it's
Speaker 1: been a story that's been around for a while. Um,
Speaker 1: what are you seeing on that front when it comes
Speaker 1: to vacancies and stores? Well, you know, I think there's
Speaker 1: an increasing level of optimism. Obviously, the industry was at
Speaker 1: the epicenter of you know, the pandemic and and you
Speaker 1: know was significantly impacted by all the health and safety
Speaker 1: measures that took place. But the level of optimism in
Speaker 1: the industry, and honestly the level of leasing activity, uh
Speaker 1: is really at its highest level in my you know,
Speaker 1: in my tenure as the as the head of i
Speaker 1: C s C the Lab. We had a group of
Speaker 1: industry leaders together in Boston just a few weeks ago,
Speaker 1: and there was a great deal of optimism amongst the group. Um,
Speaker 1: a lot of new store openings. Actually, store openings exceeds
Speaker 1: store closings this year by three to one. A year
Speaker 1: today obviously was a different story, but you're starting to
Speaker 1: see a real releasing of a lot of that space
Speaker 1: take place. And you know, we just did a study
Speaker 1: with Place to AI that looks at you know, looks
Speaker 1: at analytics of consumer behavior and really, um, you know,
Speaker 1: foot traffic is generally speaking, both in the open air
Speaker 1: segment um and also in the mall segment back to
Speaker 1: pre pandemic levels levels. So you're starting to see a
Speaker 1: real emergence at this. And that's not to say that
Speaker 1: there aren't challenged properties. You know, the US is a
Speaker 1: big country, um, and you know the challenges in the
Speaker 1: mall sector in particular, which gets a lot of attention.
Speaker 1: That's Tom McGee, president of the International Council of Shopping Centers.
Speaker 1: You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week coming up. Who's ready
Speaker 1: to hit the slopes? Tim Stanovick, I'm always ready. I
Speaker 1: mean I'm the type of I would go to the
Speaker 1: Southern Hemisphere in the summer. I could see that. I
Speaker 1: could see that we go from holiday shopping to planning
Speaker 1: your next big winter trip and it's gonna involve skiing.
Speaker 1: Look at our annual ski section and some industry insights
Speaker 1: from the incoming CEO at VIL Resorts. This is Bloomberg.
Speaker 1: You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Quick Takes. Tim Stinovik from Bloomberg Radio. It's that time, Tim,
Speaker 1: We're approaching the holiday season, many of us starting to
Speaker 1: actually think about taking the next big trip. I'm certainly
Speaker 1: always thinking about it. And you know, Carol, we often
Speaker 1: dispatch our Bloomberg team to seek out the most beautiful
Speaker 1: beaches and remote island. Paradise is for some reason, though
Speaker 1: we're not part of that. Yeah, they get that. All
Speaker 1: the good games. Well, this week they're hitting the slopes everywhere,
Speaker 1: from Aspen to the Alps. They do. Indeed, our Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Pursuits editor Chris Rouse are joining us now with a
Speaker 1: look at our annual ski issue. And Chris, let's start
Speaker 1: with the cover of Pursuits this week. It's in Big Sky, Montana.
Speaker 1: Sounds like some some big changes happening there. First of all,
Speaker 1: you one, you can join. You can join our team anytime.
Speaker 1: Make my life. We're in and too. If you guys
Speaker 1: are just planning your holiday travel now, it's probably too late.
Speaker 1: We're down with Chris. If you want to go skiing
Speaker 1: sometime in January, February or March. Um. We have everything
Speaker 1: that you need to know about for the section in
Speaker 1: our section this week. And yeah, our opening package is
Speaker 1: about Big by Big Sky in Montana, which is not
Speaker 1: a place I've ever gone skiing because it has always
Speaker 1: been sort of seems so like rugged and off peace
Speaker 1: and I like a little bit of fanciness when I ski.
Speaker 1: But now they've added a bunch of new lifts, h
Speaker 1: like really modern lists, like the fastest big person chair
Speaker 1: in the North in North America. And they're adding two big, new, fancy,
Speaker 1: posh very comfortable hotels. So it's part of a whole
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty million dollar ten year renovation project and
Speaker 1: now we're beginning to really see the fruits of that
Speaker 1: transition in Big Sky. It's amazing. I mean, Big Sky
Speaker 1: is a special place in my heart. It's probably where
Speaker 1: I took the best ski trip of my life and
Speaker 1: it was sometimes last fifteen years. And you're right, it
Speaker 1: is rugged. You know, we did some off piece skiing
Speaker 1: that required avalanche beacons at probes and you know, signing
Speaker 1: in with ski patrol at the top of the big cooler.
Speaker 1: Does it really felt rugged? I mean it really felt
Speaker 1: like you were in the American West. Uh, does it
Speaker 1: lose any of that, if it becomes more like Veil,
Speaker 1: if it becomes more like Aspen. So that's you know,
Speaker 1: that's the big challenge for boying resorts to who are
Speaker 1: the people that own Big Guy and their their effort
Speaker 1: is to try to make it like an American version
Speaker 1: of the Alps. So like, if you go skiing in
Speaker 1: the Alps in France and Italy and Switzerland, do you
Speaker 1: have no lack of difficult to rain off piece stuff
Speaker 1: that's you know, going to be the best day of
Speaker 1: your life, but also make you hate your life. Um.
Speaker 1: But also you know there's there's wonderful on slope experiences
Speaker 1: where you can stop in and get a glass of
Speaker 1: wine and um some Boofsburg and Eon and you know,
Speaker 1: go to a great operate key place with a beautiful
Speaker 1: view and and so that's what they're trying to get at.
Speaker 1: They're trying to get at. Okay, you can still do
Speaker 1: the really crazy terrain, you can still take the tram
Speaker 1: up to Loan Peak um or go off piece. But
Speaker 1: at the end of the day you can have a
Speaker 1: little bit more comfort, you know, because because twenty years
Speaker 1: ago Big s Guy didn't even have a grocery store
Speaker 1: for like stock up your condo. It really has come
Speaker 1: a long way. Yeah, it sounds like Chris, I mean
Speaker 1: based on the story. It's not about only you know,
Speaker 1: improving the ski um accommodations and everything that's there, but
Speaker 1: it's like building really a community around it. Right. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So in people lived in the unincorporated region of Big
Speaker 1: Sky and now it's it's more than three thousands. Uh,
Speaker 1: skier growth has you know, it's grown forty six and
Speaker 1: skier visits in the past five years. So just a
Speaker 1: lot more people are going. And not only the hotels
Speaker 1: that a lot more residential is being built, so condos,
Speaker 1: and that could be everything from a big, fancy condo
Speaker 1: to something more uh, you know, more normal, you know,
Speaker 1: multiple only in a building. Um. So they're trying to
Speaker 1: get you know, just kind of all different kinds of
Speaker 1: people to come. All right, let's talk a little bit
Speaker 1: about hotels and lodging outside of Big Sky because part
Speaker 1: of the Pursuit section this week includes an update to
Speaker 1: hotels and ski areas around the world, including Switzerland, Japan, Canada, France,
Speaker 1: and in the US including Aspen and Veil. Pick out
Speaker 1: a couple of your favorites from this Chris. Yeah. So um.
Speaker 1: You know, the big dream ski place for me and
Speaker 1: for a lot of people is nose Ecco in Japan,
Speaker 1: and because the powder is supposed to be more magical
Speaker 1: there than anywhere else, they call it yeah uh, you know.
Speaker 1: They just in the past few years I started getting
Speaker 1: really luxurious hotels, which of course that pursuits is you
Speaker 1: know what we love um And there is a new
Speaker 1: Ritz Carlton Reserve there which is I think it would
Speaker 1: be really exciting for a lot of our um, a
Speaker 1: lot of our readers. Also, there's a new Club Med
Speaker 1: in Quebec, and and we have lately in pursues them
Speaker 1: very pro club Med because a lot of us have
Speaker 1: had children recently and your perspective changes. So we've gone
Speaker 1: from being like, oh, that's all inclusive resorts that sounds
Speaker 1: kind of tacky, to like, oh my god, they'll take
Speaker 1: your child for a day, okay, perfect. So we're excited
Speaker 1: about that one in Quebec. And then an app and
Speaker 1: you know, there's not really a lot of turnover really
Speaker 1: in Acid usually with the hotels. Over the past few years,
Speaker 1: there have been with a with a new w uh,
Speaker 1: there's a Viewline resort in snowmass which is a Marriott
Speaker 1: autograph collection. And then there's a hotel in Veil called
Speaker 1: The Hype, which is right by the Eagle Bond gondola.
Speaker 1: So you know, there's a lot of you know, fun
Speaker 1: new things to try in the US too. Well, you
Speaker 1: mentioned Veil, and I feel like when it comes to
Speaker 1: ski resorts, we can't, uh, we've got to talk about
Speaker 1: what's going there. Uh. And they're one of the you know,
Speaker 1: publicly held ski resorts. So let's talk about Vail because
Speaker 1: they've got a new operator taking over and I love
Speaker 1: the story. It's entitled the City Kid takes Over at Vail.
Speaker 1: So tell us about Kirsten Lynch. So Kirsten Lynch on
Speaker 1: November one is going to become the CEO of Mail,
Speaker 1: which really for the past few years has been hearing
Speaker 1: the conversation in American skiing and uh has really, by
Speaker 1: by acquiring other resorts, has really actually sort of dominated
Speaker 1: American skiing. UM. And she was she hasn't working at
Speaker 1: Bail for a long time, and she was she was
Speaker 1: in marketing and actually she created their app, the epics Mix.
Speaker 1: The epic Mix app which is helps you track your runs,
Speaker 1: can show you where you know what trails are groom,
Speaker 1: what trails are crowded. It's like a real live, you know,
Speaker 1: ski map for you, which is actually useful. You don't
Speaker 1: feel like pull out the how the condition of the paper,
Speaker 1: of grooming report, or you know, at the end of
Speaker 1: the day try to remember how many runs you did.
Speaker 1: So she's had all these sort of clever innovations while
Speaker 1: she was working in marketing at Mail and now she's
Speaker 1: taking over UM and she's actually the first woman's CEO
Speaker 1: of of any of these ski resorts, and actually among
Speaker 1: the few in any kind of hospitality organization in America.
Speaker 1: So just to date myself a little bit, I lived
Speaker 1: in Vail for a few years after college, more than
Speaker 1: three years, and we didn't have the Epic mix app
Speaker 1: Back then we had iPhones. I didn't have an iPhone.
Speaker 1: They were they were they when they first came out.
Speaker 1: A BlackBerry person. I did have a BlackBerry at the time, didn't.
Speaker 1: But one thing we did when I lived in Vail,
Speaker 1: and I would do with my friends Chris, is after
Speaker 1: working all day, we would get grab our skis, our
Speaker 1: telemark gear and we actually ski uphill. And it's increasingly
Speaker 1: become something that a lot more people are doing these days,
Speaker 1: and in fact, we were doing it for free, it
Speaker 1: was just allowed. But resorts all over the country are
Speaker 1: starting to charge for uphilling. Yeah, so uphilling is the
Speaker 1: semi masochistic part of trapping on your putting some Chris.
Speaker 1: You got to earn your turns, which skins are things
Speaker 1: that you put on your skis that help you walk
Speaker 1: uphill and your skis and you get these special detachable
Speaker 1: bindings and basically you walk to the top of the
Speaker 1: mountain and you ski down, which means that at the
Speaker 1: beginning of the pandemic, when lifts were closed, you could
Speaker 1: go up onto the mountains and ski on your own,
Speaker 1: basically on the mountain to yourself, or you can go
Speaker 1: before the lists open, which of course serious skiers like
Speaker 1: you really want to do. And because it actually has
Speaker 1: become such a thing over the past two years and
Speaker 1: really really grown, some of the resorts have started charging
Speaker 1: a small amount for tickets. You know, it could be
Speaker 1: uh twenty dollars for a day, it could be ninety
Speaker 1: dollars for a whole season. And basically what the goal
Speaker 1: with the charging is is to get you to sign
Speaker 1: a liability waiver because they want you to. They need
Speaker 1: you to like sign a way that you won't sue
Speaker 1: them if something happened. Um, and they just want to
Speaker 1: regulate it a little bit more. But it's become really
Speaker 1: a big thing. And I grew up in New England.
Speaker 1: I wasn't fancy like you said. I didn't go live
Speaker 1: in veil for three years. But we weren't doing it
Speaker 1: in a fancy way. Trust come on, you were jumping
Speaker 1: from helicopters. We know you're among friends, you can share.
Speaker 1: I was what they refer to, you know, locally, as
Speaker 1: a dirt back. What I want to know is why
Speaker 1: would you go uphill so much? Well? We did it because,
Speaker 1: well for a few reasons. One, you can do it
Speaker 1: to access terrain that you can't access on a lift.
Speaker 1: But the reason we did is because we would be
Speaker 1: working all day and we could go uphill when the
Speaker 1: lifts were closed. So we'd go uphill for an hour
Speaker 1: a couple of hours and then go have a beer
Speaker 1: and a burger. It sounds like it was a great workout.
Speaker 1: It was. It is a great workout. You're doing it
Speaker 1: at eight thousand. It's not easy, Yeah, earning your turns
Speaker 1: it means something, right, Um, hey listen. Also in the magazine,
Speaker 1: you guys talk about the gear that you need to
Speaker 1: do this. It sounds like there's a lot of stuff
Speaker 1: out there. Yeah, yes, exactly. So you know you you
Speaker 1: need skins for the bottom your skis, you need special bindings,
Speaker 1: there are there are boots that are designed for it
Speaker 1: by Dina Fits, which actually Formula one engineer. It's helped design. Uh,
Speaker 1: there are this I didn't really know actually because I'm
Speaker 1: not super familiar with the snowboard version of this, but
Speaker 1: split boards. Um, you can get a snowboard that actually
Speaker 1: splits into two so so you can walk up the
Speaker 1: hill on two ease and then clips back together and
Speaker 1: uh and then you carve down, which which blew my mind.
Speaker 1: But obviously people have known about this for a long time. Chris,
Speaker 1: Thank you so much. Bloomberg BURSUWS editor Chris Rouser with
Speaker 1: a look at our annual ski special, and that wraps
Speaker 1: up the weekend edition of Bloomberg Business Week from Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for joining us. I'm Carol Masser and
Speaker 1: I'm Tim Stanovak. Be sure to tune into our Bloomberg
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Speaker 1: a great weekend day safe everyone. This is Bloomberg h