Bloomberg Businessweek Weekend - April 4th, 2020

radio show. And Jason, you know, we kicked off saying it's a new month, new quarter this week, and yet it's a quarter that's going to be all about the health, economic, and market impact of the virus. We talked with leaders from all walks of life, medicine, politics, telecom, and of course the beaten down hospitality and restaurant worlds well, and this week felt different, I think, Carol, in the sense that we started to talk to people more and more

about what's right now, but also what's next. And every single aspect of our lives has been changed and will be changed by this And as you listen to this show, I think you're going to get a sense of that because, as you say, we talked to people in all walks of life, CEOs, retired and roles chefs, and you know, all of their lives are changing, they're trying to adjust, and so getting inside all of these businesses it was actually really really interesting, right, And let's remind everybody, Jason

that these conversations with leaders in their respective fields. It's happening in real time throughout our week as news concerning COVID nineteen and its impact continue to break and shape our daily lives. Let's talk about who we're going to hear from over the next couple of hours. From here, Labor Secretary Robert Reisch. He weighs in on those corporate bailouts. He's got a very hot take. Alan patrick Off, someone who's been in the business of investing in startups, some

names that you know over the past four decades. And Glenn Fogel of booking dot com. And that's just to name a few. Carol. Yeah, and let's just point out Glenn Fogel found out this week that he was tested positive for COVID nineteen, continuing to do his job. So a really timely conversation on so many different levels. First up, though, we caught up with Hans Vestberg. He's the chairman and CEO of Verizon Communications. This week, President Trump held a

call with telecom giants, including Verizon. Of course, we are in a very serious situation in this country and the whole world due to this pandemic, and of course having that in mind, you also understand that the networks becomes more critical for people to communicate and keeping business up. We see a clear surgeon our in our network. We see enormous a lot more of calls and we we have today eight hundred million calls a day, which is twice as much as we would have on the Mother's Day,

which is the biggest day of the year. We have nine billion messages a day, a day that's equal to a New Year's even so we are on peak every day of the week. So that tells you how much haffick. At the same time, I see totally new patterns. I have fifty percent growth in DPN access. That's basically when when you work from home co operation, that's fifty percent up. And you see over hundred percent growth gaming in the

network at the moment. So all that at the same time, you know, as people are moving around in the country in a different way. So but the networks are keeping up well. I would say it's very robust. We have I have to say the engineers and the and how we have built on networks over the years. It's really proven to be the right thing to do. Right now, the networks and holding up well. But the data data

can give a use as the change of behavior. We see that handovers between radio cells has gone down with twenty nine percent nationwide. That means that people are moving so much less today compared to just a week ago. And if you take a place like New York Metro, it's down fifty that people are moving between one cell

and another radio sells to another. So we can see that the behavior changing, the uses of the network is is dramatically changing in these times, and we understand the important us to keep the network's up and in good health. You know both, Jason, I do hope this. You sound good, So I'm hoping you are. Your family is doing okay. Your employees, how are your employees doing with all of this? That's a very good question. Our our mission is very clear.

Number one, safe and healthy. Our hundred thirty five thousand and police worldwide majority In the US, I would say I have some hundred fifteen thousand people of them working from home, and we we swapped that in less than two weeks. We swapped works were never done from home before, So that's that's one category. Then of course I have so vital infrastructures. I need to have certain all my

technicians out in the field. I actually manage and maintain the networks, and of course that's we'll only do for critical things. But you know, we need to keep up the first responders networks, the hospitals. We need more moved capacity, so I have a crew of that's actually out there. And then of course I also have some stores open for just critical deliveries. So they're doing fine. But of course we're impacted as any on the company or in

this pandemic. And I just want to do a shout out to you guys, because you guys have implemented a virus leave of absence policy. Anybody who gets the virus eligible up to twenty six weeks, So what you're doing and everyone who had a job before the virus cause the shutdown, they're going to continue to do. So is

that correct? Correct? In the crisis like this, Uh, the responsibility of companies are are enormous, and of course I feel that then, but we reassure all our employees if they cannot work and they can work from home, and they cannot work, we reassure them about their payments and the salaries, and that's saying goes if they're impacted if

they need to stay home with children. But we'll also understand that some of our employees at work, not working in an office and coming home, we are actually giving them tasks as well, and so we have an exchange of work so you actually have something to do, because it's also very very dull to be home and not have ending to do, so we we do that at the same time. And that's Frison chairman and CEO, Hans Vestberg and Carol. We caught up with Hans earlier this

year under very different circumstances. We were talking about big sporting events, we were talking about five GM, we were talking about the streaming wors. Obviously his business dramatically changed, and as you said earlier in the show, he was with the president at least telephonically, trying to understand what they need to do from an infrastructure perspective. Well Verising one of the companies that has seen a surge in internet traffic all right, you're listening to Bloomberg business Week.

Coming up the CEO of Booking dot Com on how the coronavirus has impacted the travel sector. It's a business story for them, but it's also a personal story for the CEO of Booking dot Com. This is Bloomberg. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Jason Kelly from Bloomberg Radio, and today we're reading some of our favorite, we think the most important and informative conversations we had on our daily Bloomberg Business Week radio show

about the coronavirus it's impact across all businesses. This week, one of those important conversations, Jason was our chat with Glenn Fogel. He's the CEO of Booking Holdings and Booking dot Com, home to some well known brands Priceline, as I mentioned, Booking dot Com, Open Table and more. But let's remind everybody that this was also a personal story because Glenn found out that he was tested positive for COVID nineteen just this week. Well, thanks for having me,

and I feel fine. I've been very, very fortunate that I had the most mildest of symptoms and recovered very very well. In between the time I was tested last Thursday at the time I actually got the result tonights ago, all the symptoms resolved, so I am perfectly fine physically, of course, emotionally, you know, I just feel so bad for people who have not been as fortunate as I have been. And I know how hard it is. I

read it about it, I hear about it. I have friends, I know others who are not having an easier time with this as I did. Well, we want to talk about the the end markets, obviously, Glenn, but tell us about how your company is dealing with this in a world where I mean travel has just essentially stopped, traveling, entertainment have come to a screeching halt. What does it look like on the ground to you. Well, look, it's been very tough. Even though, as you point out correctly,

a lot of travel is stop. The fact is there's a huge number of customers who had set up plans

that needed to have their issues addressed. We were dealing with four hundred thousand contacts a day and just booking dot Com alone, dealing with people who are scared, frustrated, concerned that they need to get their money back, and that's an issue when you have people who bought something a few months in advance and now all of a sudden, maybe they're losing their job, they're concerned about their health,

and they're trying to talk to us as quick as possibly. Hey, something's changed, I need can you help me get my money back? And it's it's it's hard, and it's hard on our customer service. People are hearing these things and we're doing everything we can to help people because in these situations, contracts do allow people to get their money back in many cases, and it's something that are people

are working all the time. It's it's hard on everyone, though, Well, what about you know this the stimulus programs and packages that are coming out of Washington, Glen, do you feel like, um, your voice and your industry is being heard pretty clearly and you're getting the assistance that you think is that should be should be coming your way. Well, listen, it's just so great that the government has stepped up and made an initial uh start to helping the economy. And

it's not just the travel industries. Everybody, but travel has been hurt more than anybody, and the airlines, the hotels, everybody. When you have zero revenue. That's really really bad. So this is a good start, and I thank the President, I thank the Treasury Secretary, I think Senator Schumer and Speaker Pelosi, everybody for coming together and doing what was absolutely necessary. But I think we all recognize that's just

a start. That's not going to be enough. This crisis is going to go on for too long, and we know during that time period we're gonna need additional stimulus, gonna need additional assistance, not just in the US but around the world. So what does the industry look like when we get on the other side of this. You know, we've been asking this question of so many people. You know, how will the coronavirus pandemic change the world? I mean, you know what will be the most important in your view?

You know underappreciate way that the world will be different when we get on the other side. Well, the first thing is not going to be like you switch, uh, you know, you just switch right, not how it happens. What's gonna happen is we're gonna have domestic travel come back. First. People feel better about traveling domestically, and I'm certainly sure you're gonna start traveling by car more than planes to start off. Then you'll start seeing more and more people

flying domestically internationally. It's going to take some time, and the reason is you're gonna have countries that are still gonna be has and to want to have a reimportation of the virus that they've already done a good job of stamping it out, and they're gonna put on a lot of checks. You're gonna see fever checks in all airports that are gonna try and catch if anybody's coming

through who may be infected. And certain certain jurisdictions, they're gonna ask you to download an app to track where you are because they want to know if you've come from another country, and if you turn sick, they want to know who have you been close to so they can then alert other people. So people may have to give up so in their privacy if they want to go to certain countries who are going to be a little more hesitant about letting people into their countries. So

things will be different. But the thing that won't be different people are still gonna want to travel. I know that people have always want to travel. They always will. We just have to get past this virus. And what about in the world of sort of entertainment and and sort of people meeting with each other over meals and restaurants and things like that, only got about forty five seconds left. How does that change, Glenn? Just are are sort of more intimate day to day lives. Yeah, look

at the beginning, there's gonna be distancing, no doubt. And they're gonna say I don't want to go to a big crowded concert. For example, if he said I don't want to be packed in with a bunch of people. I want to have some space, that's gonna be just natural. But people's human nature does not change. And I know this because I know how many people after nine eleven, on the September twelve people said they're never going to get on another plane ever. And you know something, a

few months they got back on planes. The same thing is going to happen here. People are gonna go back, they're gonna travel, they're going to go to open table, and they're gonna get reservations dining. We're going to all be good again after we get past this virus, which will happen. I gotta say, I can't wait to travel and I can't go wait. I can't wait to go out to a restaurant. So Glenn, we wish you so well and thank you so much for finding time for us to stay healthy and uh we hope your team

does well through this. Uh. In addition, Glen Fogo, President, chief executive officer at Booking Holdings, I should put out Jason that their company's brand CEO has decided to forego their salaries. Their board of directors voluntarily declined to accept hash retainer payments. They've been cutting expenses and spending, so they've been really retrenching to get through this crisis. And that's Glenn Fogel. He is the CEO of Booking Holdings and Booking dot Com and again someone who we have

gotten to know over the past couple of years. That business obviously so core for a lot of our listeners in terms of going on trips, whether it's business or personal. That industry has effectively shut down, and so how do you alter how do you change course in a business like that? So glad we could catch up with Glenn. You're listening to Bloomberg business Week coming up a conversation with David Mussifer, the chairman and managing partner of Advent

International also lead director of Lulu Lemon. A great chat that you had with him looking forward to that. 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 on our daily radio show about the coronavirus this week, and Jason, we really did try to reach out to leaders in all fields because, as we know, everything's been

impacted by the virus. Well, and this is a guy I really wanted to hear from, David Mussafar. I've gotten to know him over the past few years. He's the chairman managing partner of Advent International, and if you remember, I wrote a story for Bloomberg Business Week magazine did a long form conversation with him and the CEO of Lulu Lemon back in December. It was a different world, but I wanted to catch up with David to understand what he was seeing both as an investor and as

a director of a very high profile company. Check it out well, David, let me start by asking you, first of all, how are you like what's it like for you personally, family wise, just sort of as a human being here? Well, I mean, firstly, that's the first question that we share with everybody, which is firstly, just how are you doing? Because this, the physical element of this is unlike anything we've ever dealt with before, and so thank you for asking. Personally, I'm I'm doing well, and

actually i'm I'm quarantined here in outside of Boston. So we're in the suburbs in Boston, and I've got uh four tunity twenty year old kids, and three of them are actually here with us. So, um, it's been in the face of some really difficult times, some unique elements of being with your family. And how how is it uh feeling and looking there on the ground in Boston. I mean, I know you're outside the city, but I know you're in touch with a lot of people. You're

very active from a civic perspective. You know. I feel like different cities and different parts of the country are at a different moment here, and you know, we're recording on March thirty one, and it's a it's changing daily. But what does it feel like in and around Boston right now? Well, I mean, I think it's probably equivalent to the major your metro areas. If you think about obviously New York, which is so such the epicenter right now, ben Boston is behalf of stuff behind and right there.

So there's a lot of fear and concern that I think exists here in London, in Paris, certainly, Madrid, and you know, so many of our major metropolitan areas today and Boston. You know, we have terrific medical care here in the city. But I think everybody is certainly mindful of the time and where we sit today at near the you know, the peak of this crisis. And so let's talk about the firm and your portfolio companies. And I guess I'd start with the firm. How do you

everybody started learning these lessons? We are certainly day to day. How do you run the firm at a time like this remotely? This is such a people intensive business in many ways relationship intensive. Well, I mean, Jason, the one thing, you know, we have offices in uh Shanghai and Hong Kong, so badly we we had a little preview of of how we were going to need to manage remotely, and so we were prepared and and uh set up for remote access once you know, we got to that point.

And I think one of the lessons we actually distributed this the very first day of our UM you know that when we went to Remote Work worldwide, we shared a lessons learned memo that we had asked our team in Asia to prepare and it was both you know, pointers serious points, light hearted elements, but the key theme that we heard loud and clear was the need to over communicate the need for video because as humans, we take so much of our cues from facial express that

you actually can can't get over the phone like we're doing right now. And so, you know, those were some elements that we realized early on, we're going to be really important to make sure that we were prepared to do that. And so is that a situation David, where I mean you sort of have to invest in some infrastructure that maybe you would normally have or does all

of this does all of that already exists for you? Well, I think the you know, the critical infrastructure that allows you to have access to you know, your data as well as to have systems that you can use remotely were the access points. But I think, like everybody you know, they're spending much more time in a video conversations and so literally you know, just using WebEx and Zoom and a host of other resources like that have become the

critical link. And that's David must For, the chairman, managing partner of Advent International and also the lead director of Lulu, Lemon and Carol. You know, I love the private equity guys in part because they have all these inputs right right, And I think talking to the private equity folks, the venture capitalists mean because they all have portfolios of companies that often are in different field. It's great to get a feeling of how those companies are doing, especially at

such a stress time like we are in today. And that's just a part of the conversation I had with David Mussaf for he talked more about what they are doing from a charitable perspective through their companies. That entire conversation, it's almost thirty minutes long. You'll want to dig into it. It is our Business Week Extra podcast this week. Check that out on your feet. You're listening to Bloomberg business

Week coming out. We hear from Stanley McCrystal, a retired four star Army general about how cities can better fight the coronavirus. He's helping lead the fight in Boston war footing. Indeed, this is Bloomberg. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Jason Kell from Bloomberg Radio, and today we're bringing you some of the most important, we hope informative conversations we had on our daily Bloomberg Business Week

radio show. Carol all about the coronavirus this week. But as we settle into this new normal, obviously one of the things we're asking is what's happening now, but also looking ahead. That's right, Jason and we have the opportunity to catch up with retired four star Army General Stanley McCrystal. He has been tasked with leading Boston's emergency response to the coronavirus pandemic. We talked with him about how he's helping out the city and just got some ideas about

leadership in this really troubled and stressed time. What we are trying to do is to help organizations bring together wider groups of stakeholders and collaborate better to the chief synergy.

So if you take that model, Mayor Walsh and Boston asked us if we could help them change from a normal mode of operations first into a crisis response mode to the COVID nineteam, which brings in more people communicating on a daily basis, in a keystone form that they have every morning, which brings them together, and then also help prepare them for longer term for not just this crisis, but the crisis after next. And so what does that look like general in terms of what is the shift?

Give us an example of what that shift entails, either in terms of the personnel, in terms of the pace, in terms of the assignments. Sure, mostly in a crisis, one of the key things you have to do is going to shared understanding of common contextual appreciation for what the situation is. And then you have to align on the strategy so that you can execute things that actually makes sense. So one of the things we find is you bring people together on a moral, more frequent basis.

What mayor Walls does is bringing them all together for an hour every morning. It's all virtual. Everybody's brought in and he gets updates from all different players, police, fire Department, help part players, and so everyone gets a common understanding and then they solve problems right on that call. It's a video call, and they start doing it. They capture the lessons of those and then they put that out every day as an update, and so even more people

can get that sense of understanding. General mc crystell. You know last June, you last year in June, you and I talked at the Bloomberg Breakaway Summit and we talked about leadership lessons that you've learned along the way and what CEOs can do to be more effective leaders in

today's environment. You know, what advice can you give to today's political and corporate leaders because, as you know, a lot of criticism has been levied at our political leadership out of Washington, and I'm not looking to point fingers here, but you know, what have we learned that can be constructive about what mistakes were made early on and what can be applied now to get this under control. First off, thank you for speaking of getting Carol, who was pleasure

to see last year. I guess think about the threat we've got now, We've got a MORPHOUSH viral in them that is frightening, that's the pandemic COVID nineteen. But we've also got the uncertainty of an economic shutdown of the economy, at least temporarily, so so people are assaulted from multiple directions. Nobody really knows how to defeat a pandemic on their own, and of course we feel helpless when the economy changes so suddenly. So I think the first thing leaders have

got to do is be straight with us. Get in front of us and tell us what is known. Give us the data and and very candid terms. People can take that and you will build credibility over time, even when the treat changes. His data is updated, it's okay if you come back and say, okay, I think people need to understand what the situation is. Then the second is give people a sense of commitment. Think of Winston Churchill in summer of nineteen forty when he told the

British people we will never surrender. He couldn't promise quick victory at that point everybody knew it was very very difficult to head. But what he communicated was absolute idea that we're in this together and we'll come out of it together as we will this crisis. Well, I think inspirations follows as well. Yeah, it's such an interesting point.

General with Crystal because it feels like there there has been a turn, and I wonder if you agree with this over the last week or so, maybe even the last few days, that people are starting maybe to embrace that notion of shared sacrifice, individual responsibility. You know, it's sort of attaching themselves to this notion of Okay, what

can I do? And part of what we can do it sounds like his nothing like stay at home, like don't go anywhere, um, but but there is a sense building And maybe I'm just being overly optimistic that people are are kind of reading that right. Well, I think that's right. I think the American people desperately want that. You know, we really haven't asked the American people to

go to war it's World War two. Ever since that, we've always done limited and even after Non eleven, there was this brief period when we talked about we were all in this together, and then it kind of felt like pretty soon we weren't. So I think there's a hunger in the American people to do that. But it's going to take the idea that we're not fighting fifty separate state fights against COVID team, We're fighting a national fight. And it's not a national fight, it's a global fight.

I think the American people will respond dramatically if the leadership asked them to. Yeah. I think that's a really good point. I do wonder too. You know, we keep talking about jenal McCrystal about kind of longer term impacted this. How do you think the coronavirus pandemic ultimately will change the world, you know, and specifically when we come out of this, what's the most important, in your view underappreciated

way that the world will be different. Well, I'm going to throw two scenarios to the First is when societies are under pressure, sometime they unify, they come out stronger, and sometimes they fragment, like Irac did after two thousand three of the Balkans did in the So what I'm going to describe is the positive is not a guarantee. It's if we make it happen. But what I think happens is the pandemic stresses us. It reminds us that we are connected. It reminds us that global supply chains,

personal relationships, everything are connected. And so we don't win alone. We don't even win in small groups. We don't even win as single entities or nations. We win more broadly than that, and if we have an appreciation for that, several things happen. One we start to think a little bit more broadly about problems like global warming, like income and equality and other things that dog society, and then I think our way of working is going to be different.

It was sort of a shock to a lot of organizations and people that have to work from home, But now we're only a couple of weeks into it, really and a lot of people are fine. Didn't that they can stay connected. They've got to learn some new techniques,

they can do something. So I think businesses are going to migrate to a new normal that's sort of a hybrid from where we used to be, because we won't do away with offices entirely, but we're going to do a lot more connected, which is actually going to open up our ability. It is going to widen our reaches individuals and organizations, and the most agile, the most aggressively networked organizations, whether their military organizations or businesses or governments,

are going to come out really well well. And it's so interesting you say that you went exactly where I wanted to go. Next general with Crystal, which is you know, now in the private sector, you're working with a lot of companies, you advise CEOs and many others. And I do wonder, even though some similarities exist between government leaders and corporate leaders, you know, businesses ultimately have different stakeholders

and employees and customers and whatnot. What are the lessons that may be a CEO and learned that might be slightly different from a military leader or a government leader. Sure, government leaders and military leaders can wrap themselves in the flag and cause and motivate people that way. Business leaders it's more difficult. You can talk about the goal of

the company. But reality, business leaders had a big advantage because the pressures of the marketplace can both cause you to make dramatic turns and it can allow you to

make dramatic turns. Because if you've got a company that's just making money year over year and you go to the boarder or stakeholders and say we want to change dramatically, you may not get automatic support, but a very competitive environment, then suddenly the CEO is not only allowed, but he's or she's expected to make that kind of significant change.

And that's pretty liberating. Absolutely, and you know, I do wonder when you looked at the situation in Boston's spacifically and just when you look at the situation around the country, really around the world. I mean, does any of this feel um, I don't know, a little bit overwhelming and just a reminder that there are certain systems we've got to have in place. I mean, the military has to do it all the time, right, They're constantly probably asking

themselves what if, what if? And we've got to have the backup systems. And I really do feel like this crisis has revealed to us how many backup systems we didn't have in our society. I think that's right, Carol. Uh. But but there's a danger. We learned this in the military. If you try to plan for contingencies, you never get it exactly right because that the risk that comes up

is always a bit different. But it doesn't mean planning for contingencies, doesn't it value that's retired four star Army General Stanley McCrystal, who is leading the fight against the virus in Boston. So great to catch up with him, Jason, you know, at a Bloomberg Live event last yearne I caught up with him to talk about leadership when you're really stressed and when you have your own personal crisis.

He's had to deal with that. Now he's helping the city of Boston deal with the virus pandemic and just trying to, you know, get some ideas about how best to lead in these times. And uh, I thought it was really great to just catch up with him. Well and the military metaphors they work here, and you understand that a lot of the ways that people fight real hot wars that is actually happening day to day when

it comes to the coronavirus. Well, that wraps up the first hour of the weekend edition of Bloomberg Business Week from Bloomberg Radio. I'm Jason Kelley and I'm Carol mass are plenty coming up in our next hour, we'll hear from former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, provocative thoughts and writings from him about the bail out for companies. Yeah, it was interesting. After we did this conversation, I was telling my family about and they're like, interesting, Oh, mob, weigh

and end really interesting conversation. There also Alan patrickof Love catching up with him four decades in the venture capital business, what he's seeing when it comes to investing in Also, he is a political animal. He had some thoughts on that, and Danielle Bleu, one of the best known chefs out there fighting a different sort of battle on behalf of the restaurant industry. This is Bloomberg. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week from Bloomberg Radio. Hello, I'm Carol Masser and

I've Jason Kelly. Today we're bringing you some of the most important, we hope informative conversations we had on our daily Bloomberg Business Week radio show that runs two to six pm Wall Street Time every weekday. Obviously all about the coronavirus, but Carol, we hope taking it a level deeper, understanding where we are now and where we may be going. That's right, Jason. So many of our conversations we're talking about what our world is like when we get on

the other side of the virus. And we actually talked about that with Alan patrick Off, an early venture capitalist. He helped build and grows such companies as a O L Office Depot, Apple Computer. We caught up with him. He also is a big Democratic fundraisers, so we talked politics with him as well, and form Secretary Robert Reich. We talked with him. Yeah, I loved catching up with him.

He had some bold ideas, as he often does. But first up, the restaurant industry been hit incredibly hard, effectively shut down by the coronavirus. We spoke about the situation with the world famous chef that is Danielle Blue. Well, Uh, it was an experience we didn't have a plan for. As we decided within twenty four hours to shut all our restaurants and to furlom entire staff. And of course it's devastating because um, we think we have to do it.

We do the right thing. And I was one of the first to close UM together with the BERNARDA and Danny Meyer. We were we we didn't talk to each other, but we made the same decision the same day to shut all operation within the Friday, the thirteen of March, and and then following that weekend week of course everybody had to close after that. UM, we try to think of possibility of continuing to uh produce food while keeping

some staff. And I felt that New York was such um a danger exposing all our stuff to try to do that. I didn't have the courage to do that. And uh does not mean we will not do it soon as New York gets a little bit better, for sure, but um, you know it's it's terrible not only for me but for everyone in our industree for having to you know, have all their staff on unemployment and people

who have been with us for twenty five years. We have been through thin and take uh and and really will they's We have a lot of hope because we are doing things such as we did a charity called and in An with Daniel Bullet Foundation where we raise money for our our staff. And today we had our first meetings for distribution and we really already helped fifty people today, but uh, fifty of our stuff. That's not all,

but at least it's the immediate need. And for the one we're really in our ships and I need to start to pay some bills of medicals or family or food. And we continue to raise money and we continue to support them. Of course, we also are trying to make

sure that we um we have the right support. So we had a call with the President on last Sunday with Thomas Keller, Gen George, myself and both Gang Park and someone a connection through both Gang a gentleman was able to get us um A for a conversation with the President and and of course we talked about a lot of things, from the insurance situation, which is a big one right now, the business interruption. The insurance are kind of denying everything at this point. Yeah, let's talk

about that if we can. Danielle, I want to pardon me for jumping in, but that is critical I think at this point, I know you've been working very hard on this insurance issue. Tell us what's going on, because you have some insurance companies, as I understand it, who aren't saying, who are essentially saying this basically doesn't qualify what's happening and what needs to happen. Well, we have

a form with a with a law firm. We have formed an association called we Are Big and Big is for Business Interruption Group and we w E R BIG b I G dot org is explaining a little bit what we are trying to do and a lot of a lot of rest rater and chaff already all over the country as describing to we are Big because we feel that together we can have a voice big enough that there will be some real um ancentive for the government to work with the insurance and for the entrance

to work with us, right right, And what from what I understand the lawsuit is about. You guys have said you know that says insurance companies are are wrongfully denying business interruption coverage for all businesses in the US and your in and supporting federal subsidies for insurers that pay business interruption losses caused by the coronavirus. In your conversation with the president, were you guys able to talk about this?

And I wonder if there's any support for that out of the government very much, and the government are looking very deeply and carefully into that. Absolutely, the President was really concerned as well. Um, it was very open to to look at it and to really understand closely. I think he has all his legal support there too to advise him on our claims and what we are looking for.

But uh, it's uh, it is um, there is a technicality who should protect us in the language of insurance, and I think that technicality has to be taken, uh to quote I guess, and that's Chef Danielle Blue. We had a hint of what he might say from our amazing Kate Crater, she follows the food world. She knows all these guys incredibly well. And I have to say he was very candid, very on point. I felt like Carol in terms of what has to happen next, and it does feel like he knows he's in a position,

speaking of leadership, to lead well. Speaking of that, he and some other well known chefs were talking with the President over the past week or so, and we also heard the President talk about the restaurant industry, so they're looking for some more assistance from the government as well. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week. Coming up a conversation with longtime venture capitalist and democratic fundraiser Alan patrick Off,

the founder and managing director of grey Croft. 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, all of it related to COVID nineteen Jason, but it was talking about where we are in the world today, but also starting to look about what happens when we get

out of the pandemic and what does our world look like? Well, and this is where it helps to talk to people who can give you some perspective. And no one has that like Alan patrick Off forty years as a venture capitalist now the founder and managing director at Greycroft. Check it out. Well, listen, it's very obvious. This is I think, I don't know how you go anything less than devastating

to certainly small growing businesses. Uh. You know, to the companies that are larger, the ibms, the Microsofts of the world, they can withstandard Apple people with great ball and sheets and lots of cash on hand, they will be you know, they'll whether it's fine. The real challenges to the smaller companies, even small below the venture capital level, the local businesses with small shops and small whether they're industrial type companies

or or retail or consumer service, they're all being severely affected. Uh. And you know, and that's going to be here for the next thirty days. I mean, this peak point we keep hearing the first it was April ninth, and it was April fifteenth, and April and now we don't know when the data is where it's been a peak, but I think we're in for a difficult kind time going forward. And so Alan, what does that mean for you? Know? You you mentioned that the big firms are are resilient.

Tell us more about smaller companies because you know they have less wiggle room. You know, some of them don't have those fortress balance sheets that big come ben ease do. What's the mood among you know, the smaller companies that we know you're in touch with, well, yeah, which is my area focus. There's no question smaller companies are in a very disadvantageous position. Unless they have a very strong cash position, uh and not a lot of debts, UH,

they are going to be under severe pressure. And even if they have cash, if you don't have enough cash on hand for six to twelve months at least, UH, you're gonna have real concerns and an environment where raising money is going to be harder than it's been and it's never easy. I think that you're you have already seen immediately uh significant layoffs, and I think you're going

to continue to see that. I would expect the unemployment figures are going to increase dramatically, UH, and I think we're gonna be seeing that for the next couple of weeks so we get to a level point in the business world. Forget about leveling off of the flattening off of the virus curve. I think the uh problem in business layoffs it's just not people are doing gradually. They're not all acting fast. But frankly, the secrets is staying alive here is to take quick action and to not

to contemplate and study the problem too long. I think that one has to get a visit in a financial shape very quickly, and which means cutting your expenses and realistically reassessing what your revenue expectations can be in this environment, and you know which customers you have are going to survive, who is going to pay you, and managing your cash. What does that mean for your portfolio companies? I mean you're invested in gaming, fintech, healthcare, software, publishing. I mean

you're in so many different areas healthcare. Um, what does it mean for your portfolio companies? What are you saying to them? UM? What are your expectations in terms of their survival? We're across the board, as you just said. I mean, clearly, if you're in the right areas to health care, you're okay. If you have any kind of service that's performed from the home. Uh you mentioned a gaming where a company called Scope lead another one called Dots.

Both of those are game companies that people pay on play online. They're doing very well in this environment. We have a to home delivery grocery companies, one called Thrive Markets, which is kind of a uh better less coarsely thry whole foods. And then we have another company called Box which is doing bulk delivery, which is a even cheaper cosco. So those companies are doing well and are hiring people

and can't meet meet up with the demand. We have companies that are dealing with special aspects of the public market, building portfolios on online. They're doing very well. So I think it really is uh selective. And you're in a retail store chain, you've got a lot of problems. Fortunately, we don't have too many companies that are in the retail area. Most of our companies are in e commerce that are selling merchandise, and so far those seem to

be holding up. But everybody has got to look to take a new look at their budget for this year and say, realistically, you know, I can't just expect that what I call a cascade of miracles, which is everything is gonna be all right, and everything's gonna turn out well, and and I think you've got to prepare for, you know, a really severe thunderstorm and perhaps a hurricane. Alan Joynes is on the phone from the Hampton's where I trust, Uh a lot of people are Alan, what's it like

out there? Well, it's not, uh times square, but I think people are following the rules and staying secluded. And I think that, uh, you know, we're in my home and very tight and not having it is and not visiting anyone else, so we're like everyone else is following the rules. There are living a number of cars on the road, and there are are the only people that are open the restaurants which have take out at night and at a drug store. But other than that, everything

is shut down. And that's Alan Patchcraft, the founder and managing director at gray Croft, so much more than that title might tell you, Carol. Of course I loved getting into politics with him, because you know, he's the sort of person who can refer to Joe Biden as Joe and mean it right. I mean, he knows these guys so well. He knows the political landscape, and he also knows what this may portend for Let's not forget this

is a presidential election year. You're listening to Bloomberg business Week. Coming up, we're going to take a look at the team that's looking at ways to save the world. We're talking about finding a cure against the virus. We'll chat with Columbia professor Alejandro Chevez. Recently, that team was the cover of Bloomberg business Week magazine. This is a hopeful interview and this is Bloomberg. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Jason Kelly from Bloomberg Radio.

And today we're bring you some of the most important, we hope informative conversations we had on our daily Bloomberg business Week radio show, all about the coronavirus, of course, and we know, Carol, this is at its core a medical crisis, correct and medical teams, healthcare teams around the country, around the world are all racing to find a cure. Alejandro Chavaz is one of those folks, part of the race. He's an assistant professor of pathology and biology at Columbia University.

He is part of a team. As we said earlier, that's looking at ways to save the world. Listen to our conversation. Yeah, so, I think basically there's a lot of interest to see if we can develop some sort of therapeutic against COVID nineteen. Uh, there's several different teams involved, kind of the whole school you'll becoming mobilized and really trying to see what we can do. The core part of the group that was featured in Bloomberg are trying

to develop several things. One or antibodies against the virus that would prevent the virus and enable to infect cells. And then two other three other teams are actually all looking for drugs that could prevent the virus either replicating

um or for being infectious. And so that's kind of like what's going on, um from the kind of Bloomberg piece, right, And so Alex, you know, from the perspective of people who aren't nearly as smart as you are, help us understand what's different um about this and what those differences

mean in terms of how you attack the problem. Yeah. So, uh, not all viruses are the same, you know, just like people, and so they all have little differences, and the differences between viruses can be quite large, UM, and so you can't take us something that works on flu, and I'll actually assume it's gonna work for this virus. And in fact, a lot of drugs that work on flu work on

processes that this virus doesn't even use. So, you know, recingle virus has a little way that they like to get into cells, replicat inside the cells, and get out of the cells. And it turns out that in the case of coronavirus is we don't really have an approved therapy that we know for sure works on them. UM In general, they tend to just cause the common cold,

and so there wasn't a huge incentive to discover a therapy. Obviously, two decades ago we had stars, and then you know, several years ago we had mers, and that should have been a wake up call that maybe this is a problem, but it obviously wasn't, and now we're kind of stuck with the current problem we have. Well, and we did feel like a theme today is that we did hear from a lot of different UM members of the healthcare or drug community about what they're working on. And I

do feel like there's many things going on. What's the most promising what's the quickest, What are the most long lasting in terms of us getting the virus under control and managing it so that we can go back to living our lives safely and not worrying that every time the coronavirus comes back that we're going to go into this lockdown state. Yeah, so I think the longest treatment that, if we make it work, would probably the best is vaccines.

You know, nothing beats vaccines. Vaccines has transformed the reason why we're probably alive today is vaccines UM. And so if you really could find a vaccine that was broadly active against coronaviruses, that would be amazing because they're incredibly safe, you can deliver them very easily. Um. Outside of that, I think the next sort of thing you're hoping for some sort of broad molecule that maybe inhibits some aspect of how the virus copies itself, or some aspect of

how the virus kind of processes its proteins. UM. But really I think vaccines are very much going to be a great solution. But as far as an immediate solution to someone that is sick already, then the thing that's probably most likely is an existing drug that we're gonna try to see if we can make it work for this virus people get lucky or it's there's some people trying to take anybody's from those who have already mounted the expense against the virus and transferred to those who

haven't had the opportunity to do that and that and that. Okay, could that be a really big tool in in fighting this Yeah, I mean that's the way they used to treat the theory back in the day, the way we actually treat like snake venom poisoning nowadays. Actually that you actually take animals and you infect them with the venom and then you take their anybodies and you can give it to people. Um. So it's tried and true. They've been doing that for like a long time, so work

it would be effective. And it's interesting because we did talk to a researcher down at Johns Hopkins who's working on that project, as I'm sure you're aware of, Alex, So help us understand the sort of collaboration here and also this sense of urgency and what it ultimately means and how the work gets done, because you know, I think the story was relatively clear about the idea and you've alluded to this that you're trying to cram literally years of work into a much much shorter period. What

what what's the given take there? Yeah, I think the thing that's been amazing about this whole opportunity is really barriers and walls have really come down. I mean, I've never seen people so agreeable, so happy to work together, so open sharing information, which has been amazing. I think it's it's transformative for us. We all push things forward. Also administratively, I think people would get the origin see and so they're all jumping to do what they can. Um.

But there's some aspect of you. You have to do good science right. We don't want to hurry in Russia sloppy solution because that doesn't help anyone. And if we get it wrong, that could really be detrimental because once you know, once things become dogma, they're very hard to break, right, So once someone thinks that this is a solution, it's gonna be tough too if we find out later that it's not to get people to move away from it. So I think we're being uh quick moving, but also prudent.

That's Alejandro Chavez, a sistant professor of Pathology and Biology at Columbia University, part of a team. They were recently featured on the cover of the magazine business Week magazine. They truly are looking at ways to save the world. And Jason, this is certainly a medical story, a healthcare crisis, and everyone around the world is trying to figure out how do we stop the virus. I really enjoyed that conversation. He's someone we are definitely going to keep in touch with.

You're listening to Bloomberg business Week coming up former US Labor Secretary Robert Reich. He's always got a hot take, and today he's talking about corporate pailouts. 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 in our

daily radio show about the virus this week. And we did this, of course, Jason, as the news continued to unfold, right and we were so eager and excited to catch up with former Labor Secretary Robert Rice. She's now a professor at u C. Berkeley, but still keeping a very close eye on politics and policy. He's got a new book out, and he has a take specifically right now about corporate bailouts. Well, we need all of the taxpayer money we possibly have right now for individuals. That bill

that was signed into law. Uh, it provides per person just a one time payment. Now, I don't know how many people listening to this program can get by for very long on. The typical American earns about US thousand dollars a week and has expenditures that are just about that much per week, but is not going to extend nearly far enough in this pandemic, which is estimated to be uh two months, three months, possibly even four months.

On the other hand, we agreed or at least provided in that bill for five hundred billion dollars of bailouts two very big companies, including airlines and Boeing and a lot of other big companies and industries. Well, here's the issue. I think we should have learned this in the big bank bail out of two thousand eight. Uh. These companies have been in bankruptcy many times before. They know how to use the bankruptcy laws to get to reorganize their debts.

It's not as if they have no collateral. They have a lot of assets. I mean, the airlines have planes and landing slots. They're going to be worth a lot to the economy is back on track. The ships, the cruise ships of the hotel industry. I mean you talk about assets, these organizations, these corporations have very very large assets, and yet individuals have a great need right now. So I say, rather than bail out companies, let's bail out

of people. If there is going to be a fourth co coronavirus relief bill coming up, and it looks like there will be, let's focus it on people rather than on corporations. Well, and I want to talk to you about that fourth bill because it's going to include some infrastructure. I really want to get your thoughts on that, Bob. But before we get to that, I do want to ask you because I think this speaks exactly to what

you write about in your book. I mean, clearly, part of what's going on here is the system is set up to do exactly what you described as the wrong thing in many ways, which is companies have an inordinate amount of power and influence in Washington to get that half a trillion dollars right exactly and that's that's the problem. Now.

You would have thought in times of national disaster emergency, certainly in wartime all of those old power relationships suspended and companies stand and the government understands that we've got to make the first priority human beings and safety. But this time around we didn't quite get there. Now, there are some things in the bill that are good, unemployment insurance six dollars over and above the unemployment people are

eligible for. That's a step in the right direction. But if there is a fourth bill, let's just not worry about big companies. Let's worry about small businesses and individuals and families. They're the ones that need the help. Well. And you know what's interesting, because we've been having this conversation, um Bob with a lot of our guests here and and some say, well, you can't let these companies go down.

You know they this is who could have guessed this black swan right, Nobody could have been prepared for it. I mean, what do you say to them? And and and and these folks will also say, you know, these companies employ a lot of workers. So by taking care of these companies were taking care of the workers. Um, what's your response, Well, the companies are letting off workers

right and left. In fact, this week, big companies are laying off probably several million additional American workers in addition to those who were laid off last week and the week before. So what is the point of taking care of big companies that will exist? I mean these come, United Airlines isn't going anywhere. American Airlines isn't going anywhere. These companies are three or four or five months from

now as still going to be there. It's the height of folly to think that these companies can't take care of them those and again, just if we're talking about the airlines, every major airline has gone through bankruptcy over the past twenty years at least once in order to rearrange its debts, and its creditors know how they do it, and its creditors are willing to let them do it because of all the assets they have. These companies are contracted.

There are a bunch of contracts, they are a bunch of executives top executives, and they are some big investors. But none of those requires or deserves a bailout, particularly at a time when so many individuals and so many families are being such are being hit hard hits, so hard hits. This is a health emergency. Not only do we want to get income income support to people and families, we want to get healthcare support to people and families who need it. And we ought to we ought to

do it immediately. How much do you worry about the essentially sort of fracturing of the healthcare uh system? You know, based on the stresses that you're seeing there. Oh, I'm very worried about it, as we all should be, because all the reports we're getting from all over the country is that our health care system is already at capacity,

if not over capacity. In places like New York, we're finding a hospitals just can't deal with all of the people who need desperately a need help of ventilators, and I see us uh and even people inside the hospital, nurses, orderly doctors that can't find the protective equipment that they need. Uh. We'll find that the entire health care system is flooded to way, way beyond its capacity within the next two

or three weeks. I think the big question for the future is whether, having experienced all this, Americans change their minds about whether healthcare ought to be organized as now is largely as a for profit corporate venture, or whether we do need to think about a different kind of healthcare system. Well, and that's what I was curious about. You know what what you see how the coronavirus pandemic

will ultimately change our world? You know? You know how you know, once we get emerged from the immediate crisis, what's the most important and your view under you see a way that the world um will be different. Well, if you look at how wars have changed public attitudes in the United States, and I'm thinking particularly of the Second World War, America was able to accept certain kinds of changes that really the country didn't want to accept before. Look,

and that's true also the Great Depression. It's because of the Great Depression that we were able to institutional and social security, something that we uh would not have have had the political and social capacity for accepting. Uh. The same thing with medicare after the Second World War in nineteen Medicare was again something that although it's very popular now as is social security, at that time, we accepted it because we felt like we were all in this together.

We had emerged from not only the World War two but also the Korean War and the Cold War. We were still in the clod War. We were all in it together. I think that after this pandemic, it is possible now I'm I hope, I'm not looking at it through two rosy colored glasses, but I think it is possible that we may understand that, at least with regard to minimum safety nets and minimum healthcare, we need to do much more for our country and each other than

we are doing now. We can't ever afford to find ourselves so unprepared and so uh with so lacking in the basics. The richest country in the world can't even make sure that all of its people are safe. That makes no sense. And will this, Bob, do you think in the short term, or if there is a different administration come next January, will it change the way certain governmental entities, including maybe the one that that you oversaw, will it change the way they operate given what we've

seen in this crisis. Well, let me say this, It's hard to know obviously what what's going to change and what's not going to change, But I think Americans as a whole are gaining a deeper appreciation of how important government is and when government does not really function as it should most of the time, for most of us,

it's just an irritation. Now it's a matter of life and death, and I think that changes the calculation, It changes the stakes, and people emerging Americans emerging from this may say, we may say to ourselves, now, again there's no guarantee, but we may say to ourselves, you know, we really do have to have a government that works well, that functions well. We cannot have leadership and people in

responsible positions that don't know what they're doing. We've got to have a public health system that is the best in the world. Why not? And that's former Labor Secretary Robert Reich. Really excited to catch up with him, and not surprisingly, Carroll, he has some very specific opinions, but also some solutions. I really appreciated that about what we might be thinking about next, because let's be honest, the stimulus,

the government, your action, it ain't over. And that wraps up the weekend edition of Bloomberg Business Week from Bloomberg Radio. Thanks so much for joining us. I'm Jason Kelly and I'm Carol mass Or be sort of tune into Bloomberg Business Week Radio Live Monday through Friday, starting at two pm Wall Street Time, and you can't catch us live, get our daily podcast wherever you download your podcast. You

can also watch the show live on YouTube. Just search for Bloomberg Global News and get the latest edition of the magazine on newstands now. We'll be back next week at the same time. This is Bloomberg