Bloomberg Businessweek Weekend - April 18th, 2020

daily radio show. And Jason, for many of us, I was counting, it's either week four or five or more potentially of sheltering in place, meeting, working from home alone or with our entire family, a disruption of our normal way of life as we figure out a new normal. And we saw that playing out politically in the business world and certainly in the financial markets. Well, and it does feel like I'm so glad you brought that up, because it feels like it is creeping into every conversation

right like the novelty has worn off. Everybody has settled into some sort of routine as best they can, and now the question becomes, where do we go from here? We pose that question to a lot of different folks, CEOs, investors, how they're handling it and maybe what they see around the corner. As we start to see some glimmer of hopes. Let's talk about who we talked to. One of the folks that we talked to was someone who runs a small business. It's publicly held, but I bet it's very

familiar to a lot of folks in our audience. It's the Party City. And we talked with the CEO, Brad Weston, on how his business. I gotta say they are struggling big time. They're also adapting and trying to reach more of their consumer base who are used to kind of going into their stores now online. We also talked with someone who has a number of different fascinating windows into this. We're talking about Sue Decker. She's the former president of Yahoo.

That's probably how you know her name. But she's got a newer company. It's called Rafter. They work in the higher education space. But also keep in mind she's on the board of Berkshire Hathaway and the board of Costco. What was great about her, she's at the intersection, as you said, of so much as a result of her background and her past positions and her current positions. And she also gave us a little bit of optimism about

the future. So looking forward to uh hearing more of what she had to say, also the founder of Tom's Shoes. This whole one for one never more important than it is now. First up, though, let's go inside the magazine. This week, we spoke with Business Week editor Joel Webber and Bloomberg Market's own Mike Reagan. There's not really a textbook definition to say, Okay, this is what a bull market or a bear market is. But the sort of rule of thumb that everyone uses is obviously, once you

drop from a peak, you're in a bear market. But a lot of people think that if a bull market can then be defined as a gain from that low. So we have seen that, we've seen the SMP up more than from it's it's low in more on March.

The problem is that the worst bear markets in history are famous for having episodes where the market rebounds significantly more than say, it happened during the financial crisis at the end of two thousand and eight and in the early two thousand nine, but ultimately the low as yet to come. Um Historically, if you look how long it takes for the SMP to find that bottom, to find that low point in a bear market, it usually takes

a long time. Something like three hundred and seventy trading days on average, recording some numbers trunched by my colleague Cameron Christ. So obviously there's a lot of disparity in that. UM. Look at say the crash of nineteen nine, the bottom wasn't uh found until ninety two UM. In the two thousand and eight nine example, you know, the market peaked in two thousand and seven, that the low wasn't found

until two thousand and nine UM. And if you go all the way back to seven, that was the shortest time it took to reach a low. It was something like seventy four trading days. So if you look at this episode, that low we reached in March was only about twenty three days after the last record in the sp So historically it would just be unprecedented to see

that low reached in such a short amount of time. Alright, So Joel Weber also with this editor of the magazine, and we are reminded so often that the markets are not uh the economy. How did you approach this story? I think the backdrop for everything for a lot of

people here is obviously the unemployment numbers. But you know, here in the middle of all this obviously, the markets trying to figure out what to make of it, and the numbers that Mike um has in this story, you're just staggering to you know, go from this like highest high to lowest low and just like a matter of days really, um. And and I what I see when I look at it all is the markets trying to figure out what it all means. And um, you know, it really wants it to be over the other thing.

And I think we're seeing that even today. Um, it's just desperately wanting to like get around the corner. And I'm not so sure that that, you know. And that's part of what Mike has in the story is like I'm not so sure. Um, you know that's gonna be. Um, what we what we get to loose through? Because the other thing that's happening here, obviously is that traders know

you do not fight the Fed. Yeah, and that's where you know, as much as I just cited a bunch of historical precedents, it's very difficult in this current situation to really go back and compare to anything in history because it's so unique, it's so unlike anything we've seen in history. Um. And the response from the Federal Reserve and the government that quick massive, do whatever it takes.

Response from both the Fed and Congress is is completely unprecedented in the history of you know, economic cycles that the markets had to work through before. But when you have that much support from the Fed, when you know, sort of suppressing interest rates, buying up all sorts of assets to keep that liquidity flowing, it's very hard to put a hundred person faith into those historical precedents because of this, uh, you know, unprecedented response that we're saying.

But you know that said, there's just a lot of bad news. Is that we sought the work through. Um, it's it's really hard to imagine this market continuing on this sort of shape recovery that it's in. And that's Bloomberg markets. Mike Reagan and Business Week editor Joel Weber. You know, the markets, they have been a key piece to all of this, and yet we keep trying to synthesize or maybe rectify, justify what the markets are doing

versus what we see in the real world. Well, it's you know, you take a look at what stocks have done, Jason, they bounced more. Mike writes from that marche Low and our conversations even with our market guest, right, is it a new bull market? Are we still in a bear market? We're trying to figure out, Mike says, you know, hold on, everybody, be careful about your enthusiasm about the equity markets, because we have a long way to go to recovery. You're

listening to Bloomberg Business Week. Coming up, we're going to catch up with the CEO of Party City. A long history he has in the retail business. He compares it to pass crises and helps us understand what retail may look like going forward. This is Bloomberg. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Jason Kelly from Bloomberg Radio. Today we're bringing you some of the most important, we hope informative conversations we had this week on our

daily radio show, Bloomberg Business Week. It runs every weekday afternoon, all about the coronavirus, of course, and looking around the corner maybe to what happens next Carol and of course Jason. These conversations with leaders in their respective fields, all of it happening in real time. And Jason one of the individuals that we caught up with was Brad Weston, the CEO of Party City. Now keep in mind it's a small business, but it's publicly held. It's taken a beating

this year. Certainly it's share price has and so has its business. And we talked with the CEO about how do you reach customers in environment where they're so used to coming to its stores now they are reaching aggressively online. So you know, one of the fun things is about party City is is our purpose as a brand is to be in the joy business. And and we create

joy by making it easy to create unforgettable memories. And we're neque uniquely differentiated really to partner with consumers who want to create customized and personalized celebrations and parties that make life milestones and special occasions amazing. And you know, we see it as our job to make, uh, make party heroes out of everyone, and and lots of ways that we're doing that as we speak, both from our stores and our website that we can talk some more about. Yeah,

so let's talk about that. How do you make that shift? Because I feel, you know, candidly, when I think of party City, I mostly think of, like, all right, we're having a kids party or we're having, you know, a big celebration. Let's head on over and you sort of go nuts in the store, and you know you're having a good time. And as you say, you're, you know, like you're in the joy business. If someone showing up

like they're throwing a party, it's fun, it's cool. Um, how do you ensure both logistically and and I guess from a field perspective that that you can translate that into an an online or a non retail type scenario. Yeah, great question. Uh, you know, And as a brand, our goal is to provide the utility to consumers in need

a ways only Party City can really credibly deliver. And obviously we want to do that without overtly seeking credit or or appearing opportunistic despite being a part Our goal throughout this time is to continue to make it easy to share joyful moments of togetherness. And we believe you should never miss a chance to celebrate life's moments, whether big or small. And and you know we can do

that in in unique ways of of togetherness. There's really two important ways that Party City is making that possible for consumers to do just that. One is around our operation sations we have been fortunate to continue to provide nationwide delivery as well as introduce curbside pickup in some of our markets. We're continuing to roll that out UH and only in markets where local and state governments allow that.

At this point, our goal is to make this service available in every one of our stores as circumstances permit. And then additionally UH markets we're you know, we're trying to expand to additional markets for curbside pickup and expanded same day delivery capabilities UH, and more of those will

become available UH next week. Kind of the second is our ability to bring unexpected joy to people's lives in this unique time, and if you go on Party city dot com you'll find a few ways that we're doing that. One is fund program. We have Adventure in a Box. So in response to social distancing and in the quarantine requirements UH parties seeing me, we activated themed adventure and a box ser Bible Kiss for families, which are a blast.

We really wanted to provide that in a convenient and safe way to social distancing fatigue that we all know it's happening, and boredom that is happening. UH. And so Some of those boxes are things like movie night to family game Night. We've continued to expand those curated selections over this past month. We've also added a section called

Gifts of Joy and they should think about it. Our family friends, the loved ones who are you know, in in shelter in place situations, we often think about how could we put a little joy in their lives, even

if it isn't a party, right. You know, it's interesting that you say that because we've had already, um, one birthday at home, another one coming up, and another one coming up, so we have really thought about, Okay, what are kind of thoughtful gifts first of all of what families can do together while we're home, and then also thought about, you know, silly things, whether it's the balloons we can blow up or something. Just because we can't go out, we can't do a lot of things we

might normally do. So I do feel like I understand where you're coming from. I am curious, Brad though, you know how much of a business impact have you taken as a result of this, because I know we've been in and out of your stores, whether it was Halloween or a party or something. Um, but obviously we're not doing that. I mean, how tricky is it for you?

I mean you're publicly held, I know your stock has gone below I think a buck which has made the New York Stock Exchange, you know, reach out to you guys in terms of you know, being able to have your listing on the exchange. UM, just from a business perspective,

how tricky is it right now? Well? I think you know, really all all of retail is in an interesting UH situation, whether you're open or you're not open, and the challenges of liquidity and ensuring you that you have the right levels of cash to support the business in the short term and the long term is is really the responsibility

of management UH to to navigate it. I also think as as you think about the overall retail industry, you can imagine that the retail industry leaders are eager to assist in discussions with government and public health officials on on how to responsibly run open stores and then reopen stores that are closed. I think the retailers who get a lot of press UH these days and our forefront and the conversation that are those deemed essential who are open and are you know, are are they're the ones

being talked about. But as you know, many of the nation's large retailers are closed, uh, and there are the voice has been largely unheard, however, uh, you know, on BAB with all of them, we're eager to do the

right thing for consumers at the right time. And as we move forward this group of retailers, that group of retailers that I just mentioned that our clothes will be focused on reopening in compliance with public health officials, and we'll be ready to demonstrate the proper protocols to assist governors and in local government officials and understanding the state of alreadiness to encourage the ease of restrictions when they're appropriate.

And that's broad West in the CEO of Party City, and I thought what was interesting one of the things that he said, Jason, He talked about the responsibility of management to make sure that you have the financial liquidity you need at all times. And that's really relevant considering all of the stimulus packages and kind of bailout assistance that a lot of businesses large and small need right

now because of the virus. Absolutely, and you know, on a lighter note, but an important note, I love the idea that he said, You know, their business is to bring people joy and to sort of enable joy, and I feel like we need a little dose of that every now and again, maybe more than a little toast and maybe more than every eight now and again. You're listening to Bloomberg because week coming up. A friend of

the show, Stephan Seeli, joins us. He's working at Bridge Park Advisors now used to be working for President Obama in the US Department of Commerce. This is Bloomberg. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Jason Kelly from Bloomberg Radio. We're bringing you some of the most important and informative conversations that we had throughout the

week on our daily radio show. Of course, Oliver Jason relates back to the virus and all of it happening in real time, getting reaction from leaders in all walks of life. Well and one person I know. We were both really looking forward to catching up with Stephan Seeley. He's a managing partner over at Bridge Park Advisor's longtime fixture on Wall Street. Worked at Bank of America as a vice chairman for a number of years, but he also worked in the government. He was the under Secretary

of Commerce for International Trade under President Obama. Wide ranging Guy, wide ranging conversation, Check it out. We have seen a crisis unfold that has both been catastrophe thick and incredibly fast. And what I find, um most um interesting about it is that crisis was in fact self engineered, UH, as we shut down our economy um to save lots. So does it make it any worse or any better because of that? Well, UM, potentially, Carol, it means that the

recovery may be as swift as the decline. As you know, a lot of the commentators you've had a you know, UM your show and Bloomberg generally have talked about this VU and L shaped recovery. UM. But implicit in that question is because it was self engineered, is there at least some visibility to a equally quick recovery. I guess it's my view that, UM, that so called V shaped recovery, at least in the economy may be challenging, um uh, which is different than what you might what you might

see in the markets, which make faster. And you know, last week, I think um, you saw one of the strongest weeks in the equity market since Boy Night the nineteen mid nineteen seventies for a whole host of different reasons. But I think the economy is going to be somewhat slower to rebound. And so Stephan, you're talking to CEOs all the time. You know, your history on on Wall Street goes back a long ways advising you know some of the most influential decision makers out there. What are

they saying to you? What if you can generalize, because obviously you're gonna have a different view depending on what business you're in, But if you're a CEO, what are you thinking right now? Well, first of all, Jason Um, I think there is no playbook. So we've never seen an economic crisis like this coupled with a health crisis. So every anybody that thinks they have some clairvoyance here, I think is UM being somewhat misleading? Um. I think

everybody is very focused on um. When we are going to be able to term to some level of the new normal, and is it going to be fast enough that there's not going to be mass closures of businesses and people will have jobs to return to. And if it is fast enough, is the consumer going to start

spending again? Because, as you guys know, seventy percent of the US economy is directly to the consumer, and folks are going to be very focused on one, UM, what has this How has this impacted the consumer both financially, financially but also psychically in terms of their willingness and interest in spending money. When we talk about reopening the world and reopening the economy again, if somebody says to well, Stephan, when do you think we're going to reopen? How do

you think it's going to play out, what do you say? Well, I'd say a couple of things. One is it's going to be gradual, so there's not going to be an on off switch where all of a sudden Marabola dick. Two, we're all back at work the next day because we're either the federal government of the states have said so, I think you will see a phased reopening UM, both

in terms of geographies and in terms of industries. And I think the interesting question, UM is, both at the federal level and at the state level, what sort of either guidance or um restrictions are going to be placed on folks when that reopening happens, Whether it's going to be wearing masks, whether it's going to be certain social distancing UM regulations, whether office office protocols are going to

be different. And you know, we saw that, Carol. You know, we forget, but we all used to go into airports without screening and without security provisions. We all used to go into offices in New York City without checking in first. You know, there may be certain regimes now that are just different post COVID nineteen. Stefaniely, I want to ask

you about trade with the virus as a backdrop. I do wonder how what's going on and what we saw with kind of the breakdown of apply chains again as a result of the virus coming on top of the breakdown of supply chains off of the U. S. China trade war. Is there some lasting impact as a result of all of this. I mean, Carol, you're already seeing a relatively severe contraction in global trade across virtually all regions around the world and across almost every economic sector UM.

And that's obviously because of the damp and economic environment that we are you know, seeing now globally. And that's Bridge Park Advisors and former Undersecretary of Commerce Stephen Selig joining US he tells it like it is, and you know he's talking to C E O. S, but he's also talking to people all over the world. He's a

big thinker in a lot of ways. Carol, Well, he's another one who understands the intersection of business, trade, markets and politics, which is why we love reaching out to him because he really brings everything that's going on in the world together and comes up with some really interesting and smart conclusions. All Right, you're listening to Bloomberg bus Week. Coming out, we check in with Sue Decker. She's the former president of Yahoo, on the board of Berkshire Hathaway

as well as Costco. She's also got a social networking platform that works with colleges talk about in the news. It's called Rafter that's coming up next. This is Bloomberg. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Jason Kelly from Bloomberg Radio. So today we're bringing you some of the most important and we hope informative conversations we had throughout the week on our daily Bloomberg Business Week radio show. Jason, we had the opportunity to catch

up with Sue Deck. Are really another person who is at the intersection of so much. She's former president of Yahoo. She's on the boards of Berkshire Hathaway, on Costco, on Vox, of Veil Resorts, on so many different companies. But let's keep in mind she started a new social networking platform. It's called Rafter, and it's really tackling some of the

challenges that are facing higher education. Yes, it's it's in a really challenge time in many ways for many people all over the world right now, and I think universities and students in particular are facing a reality that no one really anticipated. You have to commend the universities for how quickly they were able to get people and students home and faculty transition to online learning UH in such

a short amount of time. But I think it's been a lot of triage and weekly, daily emergency meetings trying to figure out how to make that work. Most of them are that I speak with our focused the first time getting through the spring semester, spring quarter, depending on how they organize themselves, and then the next focus is how they handled the summer and UM and will be finding out in May how many people are enrolling and sending checks in that's going to be important. And then

for the next phase will be during the fall. Do they do they need a plan B that is starting school online again UM, and many of them are talking about that right now. So, Sue, you tell us a little bit about what what are some of the specific programs that or or some of the outreach that you've done with universities as a result or colleges as a

result of the virus. What kinds of things are going on? Sure, well, we we announced in mid March that we would offer our platform and our our solutions for free for the rest of this academic year, recognizing that these schools are having to handle things that they've never planned on handling before and so having once you move online, it's more difficult to create a sense of community, to have a platform where people can find events, can connect with one another,

can keep up the groups that they had in physical form on campus in an electronic form. So since that time, we had a lot of incoming. We've been hosting a webinar once a week with UM, roughly twenty universities on it. Last week we had two different ones UM primarily focused on how they're going to handle orientation coming up sometimes sometimes many of them in the summer are having to

figure out an online way to orient parents and students. UH. And as well if the faculty, faculty has three needs. When they have to broadcast their lectures, which Zoom and Zoom equivalence can do, they also have to have a learning management system of electronically students can submit as finements and grades and there are systems like Canvas and blackboard

that do that. And they also the third part is what raft or does, which is a communication um and an event hub so that one tap access the students can find their Zoom links to get into their classes, or they can find their lecture notes for tomorrow. Then the professor can set up a group or raft so they can have easy access to the students for online office hours things like that. So, um, those are the kinds of things we've been offering to support the community.

You know, it's funny, Sue, in part just serendipitously, I was connected with the dean of a of a journalism school UH and I was saying to her, you know, it feels like University Higher Ed is going to be radically changed by this. And her response is interesting, and she said she said yes and no. She said yes obviously based on a lot of the technology that that

you and your folks are are working on. But she said, on the other side, you know, we also have to appreciate that higher education is about convening students and sort of taking them through in a very personal way a really critical stage of their life, and so much of that happens in person, and so much of the community has to be, or at least traditionally has been in person. How do you sort of synthesize and rectify all of

that as we look at this very uncertain future. Yeah, well, I was to say, that makes total sense to me. I think when we when I started rafter, it was based on the experience I saw my daughter having when she started university. She's now graduated, but um, it was it was because of how I saw it the communication happening on campuses, that I felt there could be a much more authenticated network where like a Slack but for universities or next door. For universities, it's private, it's curated.

Everybody on it is at your school. You can discover things that it makes students feel like they belong and it's a more welcoming experience. So our product was designed as an online adjunct for an offline experience, and I think the offline experience is fantastic. UM. It's hard to

know how long this will go. Some people I talk to think this is accelerating a trend toward online learning where only three percent of online learning three percent of curriculum was delivered online in the past, and some people think it'll move much more quickly to that UM than it otherwise would have. But I don't, I don't know.

I don't have a crystal ball on that front. I think our our products sort of work to support physical communities, UM, but I think it becomes even harder to connect and stay feeling like a part of that membership if you're if you're away from your physical community. So I gotta ask you, you you know what I mean. It's like you start your career on Wall Street, you you know, had a career at at Yahoo, you serve on the boards

of Berkshire, Hathaway and and cost Go as well. I mean, if there is one person who is sort of seeing the world very holistically right now and seeing all sorts of consumer behavior changing, it's you what jumps out at you as you sort of go through your day, and I can only imagine the emails and conversations that that you're having. What's surprising you right now? Well, I think it's uh surprising in some ways that we've all gotten

used to this new normal. I think about three weeks ago, most people I talked too felt like their world was upside down, Like there was almost this um feeling of dizziness from one headline after another being so consequential and changing everything that we know in our world, like sports stopping and school stopping and people going home. And I think now, you know, I think people are like, yeah, I can do this. I don't really want to do it forever, but I could, you know, I could, I

could live like this. And I think as part of that, back to the prior conversation of accelerating changes that were already underway, I think the idea of um home delivery

of groceries for exact ample. You know, I'm on the board of Costco and we have a two day delivery that we do internally in an instant delivery that instant Art helps with, and uh, you know, I think all over people, I think we'll have a little more sensitivity to doing things like shaking hands in the future, and they have a greater demand for things being delivered just

a higher level of dermophobia for a while. So I think there's certain trends that may not have been underway for that reason, but I think that they're likely to accelerate, and I think you can see that in the numbers of everything that you look at. I mean, I'm on the board of Costco of course, which has been indispensable for people during this period. And then as well Veiled Resorts, which I just set to shut down a month early UM in a in a business that's already seasonal. So

you know, there's an extreme. Different companies are obviously being hit in different ways, but does everybody Does every company now have to have the virus playbook? Like is this just part of our society now in terms of fighting viruses as a you know, I don't know, is that part of it? I think I think having an online playbook is critical for your employees UM and also for your customers in certain circumstances where your customers can be online.

They can't really do that for availed resorts, but certainly for the employees. Is there needs to be an online playbook. And I think our government, I mean, this was this is an unprecedented situation, and no one was really ready.

Everybody's pointing fingers and looking backward about whether we could have been or should have been, but the fact is we weren't, and I think it's very unlikely in the next ten years that we won't be very ready with testing and the ability to UM handle tracing contact tracing

in a very different way. A friend of mine from Singapore, she sends me the daily reports and it's like unbelievable how they run that place, just daily reports, emails the entire city and knowing exactly where each case came from. We're nowhere near that so UM and you know, it has to work within our freedoms and our in our government, which is obviously very different from Singapore. But I think all governments around the world of major UM nations will

be much more prepared and take it seriously. And Bill Bill Gates, many people had said that this was going to come. That's rafter. Co founder and CEO Sue Decker UM great to catch up with her because she has seen so much understands the online world and it's impact that it's having certainly on education, and even further, what I thought too is Jason. She gave us some optimism about what happens in terms of life after the virus, and she reminded that humans are social animals to a

lot of things will ultimately come back. Yeah, no, she and she has a fascinating window into the world of higher education, which I feel like is one area we've been very focused on, and rightly from a personal perspective, we've got a vested interest in it. But we also know that lots of our listeners do as well. They're thinking about their kids, they're thinking about their alma mater, they're thinking about what that looks like on the other side,

and it's an ever changing landscape to be sure. Well. That wraps up the first hour of the weekend edition of Bloomberg Business Week from Bloomberg Radio. I'm Jason Kelly and I'm Carol mass Or plenty. Coming up in our next hour, we're gonna hear Jason from Tom's founder, Blake mccowsky. He's such an interesting individual. I love this company. I love their mission. They continue to do things to help others,

including those impacted by the virus. Well, and he's got a big new idea and it's all about sort of taking care of yourself. We talk a lot about wellness, So what is going to be the impact on that business? How are we going to think about ourselves differently in the midst of this, But also on the other side. Another person who's thinking about that, Trek Bicycle president John Burke. He's been on this program before. It was good to catch up with him because we talked a little bit

of politics. Right. He's got a new book at it's called Sixteen Simple Solutions to Save America. So you look forward to hearing what he has to say about that. And then Bloomberg's own Sarah Fryar. This was a big week for her. Her new book coming out, giving us the inside story of Instagram. It's called No Filter, The Inside Story of Instagram, appropriately titled, But man, I love all of the people that she talked to so many and she gave us incredible insight a out Facebook's acquisition

of Instagram and why Mark Zuckerberg became so jealous. Yeah, Zuckerberg, Kardashian and a wind Tour, They're all in the book. This is Bloomberg. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Jason Kelly from Bloomberg Radio. We're bringing you some of the most important and informative conversations we

had throughout the week. Another busy week, Jason, on so many different fronts as we figured out where we are in terms of the virus and what the impact will be ultimately and how do we get out of it. It's not an easy process. Basically, We've all got to be patient, absolutely, And the other big question is what are we doing throughout this? You know, what are we doing maybe to change our lives, change the lives of others.

And someone who has thought a ton about that we know it is Tom's Shoes founder Blake mccowsky has got a new company as well, and he's just one of those people you want to hear from in a time like this because he's got the perspective and he's got that vibe about him that makes you think, huh, maybe there's something good that could come out of all of this. Yeah. So I was actually down in Baja on a seven days silent the Pasina Meditation retreats when the current outbreak happens.

So literally I went into silence with the world being quite normal. Uh. And then eight days later came out in the world it totally changed and rather than fly back home to Jackson Hold, Wi I live, I actually uh called my ex wife and and got her and my kids to fly down to BA and we decided to hunker down here for the unforeseeable future, until until

it's safe to come home. So it's UM, it's good for the kids that can be outside and a lot we can say, you know, very god to social distancing and um and you know, being in the sun and it's kind of nice. So we feel very blessed to be down here, but doing a lot of work down here every day, helping those in our different communities that

we live and work in, uh, and staying connected. So what was that moment, like take us back to that moment where you know, obviously things were brewing a little bit, but you had no idea, no sense of like the depth of depth of it. What was your first thought, Well, it's crazy because I had been in New York the week before because we launched this new company made for that I know we're going to talk about that I've

been working on for the past couple of years. We launched it by in New York on I think the launch date was on March fourth, So I was in New York. I was on the on the floor the stock has change on the fifth and six, doing some interviews. Um, and then I left and then went to the meditation retreat on March six. So you know, there was some there was some turbulence stuff going on in the in

the stock market. Disney stock was going down and cruise ships something like that, but nothing about you know, a pandemic and uh. And so I left. When I came back, I went to the Laredo Airport, was a tiny little airport, and BA to fly to l A and then l A go back home, and people were wearing masks, and I was like whoa. And I need checked my phone

or email and anything in eight days. And so I immediately got online and saw just this barrage of text messages and emails asking how it's okay and where I was and what I was doing. And I was like wow. And then I started reading news and and it was just it was a very surreal experience. I think, how different, uh, you know, just in a week, and how much I missed in a week. Frankly from a news perspective and from a you know, from the spread of the virus.

So well, well that's very giving a lot of perspectives. Well, that's so true. This virus, you know, Blake is something that moved so quickly, right, and the numbers just went from Okay, this isn't something that we're dealing with to all of a sudden, yet we are dealing with it. Um, really quickly, tell us about though, your employees and everyone you know who are working around the world on various projects. UM,

what's what's been the direct impact on them and your team? Well, it's expected everyone, um, you know kind of the same way. I mean, you know, everyone is pretty much sheltered and staying at home. UM. You know, whether they're one of our eight workers and you know world Ethiopia on the Tom's Shoes front. Um, all of our employees were made For based in l a UM and so they've been

sheltered and staying at home. Luckily, our distribution center where we send out the wellness kits each month our members, um, they they are still operating. So we are still operating getting people signed up for Made For and UH, and we're finding that people are really valuing having some structure and some stuff that they can control and their well being during the time when so much is out of

their control. So we're actually seeing the business of Made for you know growing, you know, quite rapidly since we launched it just six weeks ago. The world is changing all around us. I mean, we were speaking with someone, a psychologist from Johns Hopkins who was who was essentially saying she was saying, the thing that maybe we're not thinking enough about is self care and self care as a way to help those around us. That's means to be at the core of what you're doing here, tell

us more about it. Yeah. So, so I spent two years working with scientists from uh University Labs at Stanford, Harvard, and other top universities around the country, really trying to understand how do we teach people the habits and practices will have the greatest impact on their life that they

can sustain and increase their well being. I've gone through a slight ballots of mild depression myself a couple of years ago and really started to ask myself, what are the things that I'm not doing the others who are thriving and fourishing are doing and how can I make those changes? And I found that, you know, the information was quite simple, but actually learning and sustaining these habits that I'm most highly affective people are doing every day

is quite hard. And so myself and my partner, Pat Dossons, who is a Navy seal for nine years serving in the military, and we got together and we started working with these different scientists on really teaching people these practices.

And what's so interesting is we worked on this for two years and we developed this ten month program where every month we teach you one new habit and practice and it's completely analog, and it's always done in your home alone, and so is what's fascinating is that the whole program was built around you getting this box once a month, and in the box there's a tool that we designed to help you learn the new habit and practice.

Tell me a little bit about how you how you came to what you would focus on and how it would work. And I love the idea of picking one thing because I feel like, you know, we all create this huge list and then it's like we get nothing done, and we get nothing. I don't know it's not helpful to us. Well, that's exactly what we set out actually originally to find twelve things that science could prove would

have a meaningful effect on your well being. And after a year's worth of research with working with scientists from Stanford and Harvard, we actually found that there are only ten things that science could really back up um and so that's why we decided to focus on ten things. Why we chose one a month is exactly what you

just said. There's all this information on how we can really take control of our personal well being has been out there forever, but the reason why so few people actually do it is they're bombarded with all that what you know, you hear it in a podcast or you hear it by reading a book, and you don't ever take the time to actually learn the new practice or habits.

And that's Blake mccowsky, founder of Tom's, founder of Made for and like we said, just someone you want to hear in a time like this, and I feel like that maybe one are the themes of this show, Carol. You know, us sort of going back our findings of people who give us some sort of comfort, but maybe more importantly, some perspective at a time like this, because at the end of the day, we are going to get through this. We're making our way, and the question becomes,

what are we gonna do that's gonna be different? And I've got to say I love some of the initiatives that are coming out from the private sector. We keep hearing from them from so many of our different guests about what they are doing. Not only are they running their companies, taking care of their employees, taking care of their own family, but they're thinking about how do we help the greater society that's impacted by the virus. That's

exactly what we got from Blake. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week. Coming up, Bloomberg Sara Fryer on our new book It's called No Filter, The Inside Story of Instagram. There are so many juicy tippets in this one. This is your quarantine read for sure. This is Bloomberg. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Jason Kelly from Bloomberg Radio. Today we'll bring you some of the most important and informative conversations we've had on our

daily radio show this week. Bloomberg Business Week every day two to six pm Wall Street Time all about the coronavirus. Of course, these were conversations that we had in real time. To keep that in mind as you're listening. Well, we spoke with Bloomberg News technology reporters Sarah Fryer. We've been following her work on her new book. It came out

this week. It's all about Instagram, and it's called No Filter, The Inside Story of Instagram, and we caught up with her to talk about the process, what she wrote about, what inspired her, and some of the interesting stories that she revealed in doing her reporting. I feel good that this story is finally out. I think the Instagram story is one of the most unknown stories in business. I learned so much in the process of reporting it out that I'm excited to people to hear. So what did

you learn? So? I learned, uh, the tactics that Instagram had for building its tremendous cultural impact and working within Facebook. Instagram was acquired by Facebook in and and as business reporters, we generally kind of just let the story end there

with a nice victory um. But the story really began there, in my opinion, and you know, the bulk of my book happens after the founders are working within Facebook and trying to grow their product while grappling with Facebook's move fast and break things mentality, and trying to build its its cultural cachet, comporting with celebrities, and trying to determine

what should become popular in shaping our behavior. So, Sarah, I feel like, in a story like this, and in a narrative that's so sort of complicated and multifaceted and has so many big characters in it, there must have been some conversations that you had over the course of this book where you thought, Okay, so this things start sort of clicking into into place here. What were some

of those key conversations. I really I had a bunch of conversations with with people with employees who had worked on at the end of the founder's tenure at Facebook, the analytics of growth, determinations about how Facebook would be cannibalized by Instagrams continuing success, and I was just, you know, before that was public, I was quite shocked that Facebook would feel threatened by instagram success because in my mind, Instagram was the future of Facebook, Like, this was the

company and this is the product that was really going to be the solution to the negative feelings that that public, the public had and regulators had about Facebook, and so the fact that they were willing to sacrifice them with instagram success in order to hold on to Facebook's dominance was really surprising to me. And the other the other conversations that were quite um surprising to me were with the people on the partnerships and community teams that Instagram.

When we think about Facebook and Twitter, I mean those So I really tried to be utual. They don't try to get too involved in what becomes popular. Who wins and who loses on Facebook is not really their concerns, um. But Instagram has already always had and I didn't realize that they all always had the editorial strategy for Instagram, promoting certain people, making certain people famous, deciding um, what celebrities to listen to and cater to, even in the

design of their products. And that was really eye opening for me because considering how much Instagram has changed not just our behavior on our phones, but the way that we operate in society and what we consider relevant and what we consider interesting. Um, it was really uh fascinating to see how they picked the scales of of who want and loss on their platforms well, and not just what, but who right like, who we consider interesting, and who

we consider relevant. I think has largely been defined by Instagram. Sarah absolutely, and and there's the direct editorial decisions that

they've made that at Instagram. Account on Instagram has more followers than any Kardashian, for example, and they constantly put accounts on there that get boosted and become famous because of their involvement on the On the broader scale, the way that Instagram has been designed has dramatically shaped our our society because there's no re sharing of posts on Instagram.

Everything that is in your feet is something you have created, which makes it the perfect personal branding tool in this economic engine of of marketing, which you know, we know them as influencers, the people who get paid to post about what products are using and what they like, and even just regular people who are using Instagram to build the version of themselves that they want people to know. That's Bloomberg Surifier. She writes on the technology space for

us here at Bloomberg News. And she's been really busy over the last past year or so, and she's got her new book out. It came out this week. It's called No Filter, The Inside Story of Instagram, and I love what you keep saying, Jason. It's a great read while we're all sheltering at home right now. Absolutely, and social media never been more important to many of us, and Instagram this really is. You know, people away say, oh,

this is the inside story. This really is the inside story in a lot of ways, because it's not just about the founding. It's maybe more importantly what happened after Instagram got bought by Ace Book, because it became even more of a juggernaut. It completely upended that company and really the way we think about social media. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week. Coming up Trek Bicycle president John Burke. He talks about staying fit, keeping your supply chain in place,

taking care of employees, and even has some advice around politics. Yeah, it's all that's saving America. This is Bloomberg. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Jason Kelly from Bloomberg Radio. We're bringing you some of the most important and informative conversations we had throughout the week on our daily radio show. So much going on once again this week. Of course, all of it relating back to the virus, and all of it happening in real time, Jason,

as the news just kept on coming. That's absolutely true. So we're happy to catch up with John Burke. He's the president over at Trek Bikes. Obviously, we talked to him about staying fit in quarantine, what he's doing for his employees, what he's hearing from customers. But amid all the US he's thinking some big thoughts about politics. He's got a new book, Sixteen Simple Solutions to Save America. I've been at Trek for thirty six years now, and I've seen a lot of different things, and I've never

seen anything with the impact of the virus. I mean, these are un precedented times, and so as a as a company, one of the things we're really focused on our customers. We've got five thousand small businesses around the globe and we're trying to figure out everything we can do to help those customers survive and help them get

through this crisis. These are your retailers, These are retailers. Well, tell us about some of the things that you've had to you know, some of the stories that you're hearing from them some of the steps that you've had to do to help them get through this, you know, I mean it's a mixed bag. I mean some you know. One of the things that's good about being in the bike business right now is bikes are good for social distancing, they're good for the environment, they're good for people's health.

And you're seeing a lot of people riding bikes, not just in certain cities in the US, but all over the US and all over the world. So there's actually, believe it or not, a mini bike boom going on in certain markets. In other markets, they're just closed. So we're having to deal with the mixed bag. But one of the things we're doing is an example, is we're putting out a whole bunch of information as to how bicycles can run a safe play with both their employees

and their customers. We're also helping people out with how can you help getting government assistance? Here, we set up a hotline within the business here. The other thing we're doing is, you know, we send out content on here's six ways that you can make it through the crisis. We're doing everything we can to help those retailers manage their businesses, and so John tell us about what this outbreak is like in how this virus is affecting your local community and that means in terms of you taking

action for your employees. Well, you know, as as soon as the virus broke, we we got you know, the senior staff together here and we said what are priorities And we came up with six six priorities and number one was this safety for our employees and our customers. And that's something we're super serious about. So we're having everybody worked from home. We have a small manufacturing group that works at the office. Um, I'm still working at

the office just because I like being here. And when you come in, you get your temperature taken, you get asked a bunch of questions. But we're doing everything we can on a safety side here and we're doing everything we can to make sure employees are in a good space. I mean, I'm just curious what your perspective is too, as you look at what's going on on the coast, whether it's West coast you know, or the East coast.

Certainly big markets for you guys, Um, you know, at the magnitude of cases and shutdown, are you anticipating you know, something along those levels, or I'm just curious how you see it. Well, you know, we you know, you take a look Michigan for example, I mean, our business in Michigan is down. And if you take a look at the bike business, April is Christmas and the bike business, and you're taking a look at big markets for a trek that are just shut down. And if you go

to Europe, you're looking at you know, a shutdown. But um, you know, thankfully there's you know a few other positive things going on just because of the popularity of the bike. And we believe my whole message to the team here is we're going to use this as our finest hour. We are rethinking everything about the business. It's a whole new world and when we get on the other side of this, we're going to be stronger than we've ever been before. That's what we're focused on. That's so interesting.

So tell us give us an example of something that that you're rethinking. Are we talking supply chain, are we talking sort of retail relationships, like maybe all of the above, Like, give us an example of something there. You know, we're talking everything, but I'll take you to one place which is just digital. Um. Most of our bikes are sold through retailers, and people walk into a store and they

buy the store. Well, in this world, a lot of people home delivery, So our whole website has changed to you know, you can get on the website, you can buy the bike, you can get that bike delivered at your house. Um. That might sound like an easy thing, but to pull that off, I think we pulled that off in less than a week. We're pulling it off

really well. And it's all those sorts of things that we're doing, whether it's working with the customer on the website, our supply chain, the way we're dealing with marketing, where our sales people are focused. Um, this is a new world and uh, we're adapting to it. So, John, tell us a little bit about this book that you wrote,

Sixteen Simple Solutions is to Save America. Um. Timely, uh and thoughtful considering it is an election year and I do feel like right now we are seeing some leaders step up to the plate and some really disappoint You know, after the two thousand and sixteen election, I said to myself, I was really kind of disappointed with the whole political process, and I said, if no one runs for the presidency who is competent or who has a plan, that I

do it myself. And so I spent the last two years of writing a book which would be my plan for the American people. And I got to the end and I decided not to run. But I decided, you know what, this is a really good plan, and I'm going to share it with the American people. In the first chapter, and there's sixteen on sixteen nonpartisan solutions to save America. The first chapter is demand a high performance government. And I think we um. I think we deserve better

as a people. And I think COVID nineteen is a perfect example of good government matters. And I think we've forgotten that as a people. And right now we're paying the price for poor leadership, and we're paying the price

for poor government. And what have you seen is this has has played out because we've been talking about this a ton, uh John, as you can imagine, especially sort of sitting here where we are in the Tri state area and seeing mayors and governors, you know, candidly regardless of your politics, sort of step to the step to the front. I mean this unprecedented. I think by all accounts. You know, even conference call that Weed saw earlier, It really you know, brings that to mind, Carol, and similar

things going on on the West coast too. And I'm guessing around you as as well, John, Um, what have you what have you learned about leadership or what are some of the things that you've seen that dovetail with what you're writing about. Yeah, I think a key here is, you know, Jim Collins, great business author, defines a level of five leader and he says it's a it's a combination of will and humility. And humility is putting the

team first and not putting yourself first. And humility is being a learn it all, not a know it all. And I think the problem we have with this administration is we have just where they know it all. And if you take a look January, the first case of coronavirus happened in South Korea, and it happened in the United States on exactly the same day. If you take a look at where we are now, if you take a look at South Korea, they've had less than two deaths.

In the United States, it's over ten thousand. Our country is shut down. There's is not and worth spending two trillion dollars in the first group of funding to try and get our economy back. That's the price of poor

government is we missed this thing at the start. Even though you had people like Bill Gates, you had people like George W. Bush, you had Barack Obama, you had people talking about the potential of a pandemic, and for sure you had the CIA, you had other intelligence agencies telling the White House this is what could happen in January, and it was ignored. And that's Trek Bike's president, John Burke joining us from Wisconsin talking about his book Carol,

which was fascinating. I mean, he really goes deep on what he thinks needs to be done. It's not his first book. He wrote a book about his dad. We had talked about that with him last year. Um, and he's a businessperson. He's dealing with this as a manager. I feel like he's one of those modern business people because he thinks about his company, obviously, but he thinks about his family has been so involved in the truck

bicycle business. It's multigenerational. But he also thinks about his employees. They have a very distinct culture. We've read the book about the culture of that company, and I think he's trying to apply some of those softer, more thoughtful ideas in terms of what he does for his business to the broader society at large. And that's why I love catching up with him. And that wraps up the weekend

edition of Bloomberg Business Week from Bloomberg Radio. But before we go, a couple of stories you want to tell you about that you can find at Bloomberg dot com online and on the Bloomberg terminal. One is about virtual Zoom nightclubs people are paying Jason real money to get into them. It's in the Pursuit section this week. Yeah, I'm headed to a club right after this, right after we're done, I'm going to get all doll that I'm

not I'm not gonna do. Also, the cover story, Wow, what an amazing and deeply reported story about Carnival Cruise Lines, its role in the coronavirus, its reaction maybe lack thereof, and everything that was happening on the boats and back at headquarters. Well, it's all about what it knew when it knew it, and what it did or did do when it came to the coronavirus. So a really detailed story and it's a must read. Thanks so much for joining us. Everybody, have a safe weekend. I'm Carol Masser

and I'm Jason Kelly. Be sure to tune into us every day. Are Bloomberg Business Week radio show Monday through Friday, starting at two pm time, And if you can't catch us live, we'll get our daily podcast wherever you download your podcast. You can also watch our show live on YouTube. Just search for Bloomberg Global News. You can get this week's edition of the magazine. It's on newsstands now, and we'll be back right here next week at the same time. This is Bloomberg