Bloomberg Businessweek Weekend - August 14th, 2021

another infrastructure week where something actually got done. It was also a week of mixed markets records for some equity indexes and a consistent flurry of stories on companies that are figuring out what work looks like in the fall and for a growing number got to say it means a delay in getting back to the office. We'll talk more about how work is shifting because of the pandemic. Will do that in our second hour. Coming up though this hour, we've got the CEO of Truly on more

Americans than ever being able to access cannabis. Also an up close look at real estate with the co founder of rom Or Dubos. They're based in New York. They'll about why first time homebuyers are feeling the squeeze as they wait into a red hot housing market. Plus the CEO of Freight Farms on advancements in agricultural technology that

are helping farmers deal with increasingly extreme climates. All of that to come, We begin with a story from Business Week about why Silicon Valleys many Asian Americans still feel like minority. I caught up with Bloomberg business Week editor Joe Weber and Bloomberg Venture Capital reporter pre An. So we've known for a while that Silicon Valley is not great with diversity. And you would assume these companies, you know,

um companies crop up every day here. These a lot of these companies are are not that many decades old. You would assume that they weren't sattled with some of the historical issues that other institutions that have been around

for maybe hundreds of years might be saddled with. But one one key thing that we realized was, you know, in the demographic reports that these companies put out Alphabet, Google's parent companies, Facebook, etcetera, one bright spot always appears to be that Asians account for almost as much of the company as white folks and sometimes more of the population at a company in the US, at least Facebook,

for example, Asian people outnumber they're white peers. UM ever so slightly in the US, And so we looked at that a little deeper and we realized, you know, there is a gap as you move up the ranks at tech companies, and the data shows this, um, there are far fewer Asian folks in leadership compared to their overall representation at the company. UM. So we noticed that gap, and we thought, you know, what is behind that gap.

Let's start asking the questions and talking to people. Yeah, and you know, Joel, I think it is a surprise. You know, we do often cover how tech companies are. We talk with tech company executives. They love to say we've got a lot of diversity and inclusion, and yes, sometimes that is the case, but it's not such a clear picture. It's a lot more complicated. Yeah, and I think that, you know, that was really the thrust of

the story. And what Prea did um I think remarkably well, is like there's the data set of the story, ben't then there's the human one. And so I just wanted to actually like take a moment like these are people who haven't often spoken on the record about sort of the environment that the work environment that they're in and and there were several themes that UMU stuck out I think in the reporting, and and why don't you just talk to us about what some of those were and

what people felt. So one of the things that is most frustrating for Asians in the tech industry is that the racism against them is barely acknowledged. There's this idea. I spoke with someone yesterday who said, thank you for writing this story, because there's been this idea that we shouldn't talk about this because at least we're well represented at these companies. But there are a lot of challenges that come along the ways you're progressing at a tech company.

We spoke with folks who are fairly young in their twenties. As an intern um a woman who moved to San Francisco for an intern ship was told, you know, um, white men here will love to date you. And so for women in the tech industry, there's this double whammy, right of receiving the gendered feedback and also this sort

of feedback that that fetishizes Asian women. The same woman has been told by a manager or by a colleague that, um, you know, you only have succeeded here because someone in leadership has an Asian fetish, and this is someone in their twenties. And this person, you know, has also been told that they lack executive presence, which for someone in their twenties, you know, is this vague kind of coded

feedback on what does that even mean? You've never managed anyone in the first place, um, And when you combine all those things together, it's quite a discouraging outlook. And then when folks reach middle management stage, this vague feedback continues right related to executive presence. And also people are often told, you know, you don't fit the profile of

what we're looking for in this role. And they look at their credential, they look at um, their successes that they've had in their career, they look at their peers and sometimes only differences. They're an Asian American compared to a lot of their white peers, and they're less wondering whether this big feedback had something to do with their performance or their credentials, or is it about their identity. There is one person that I think um is more

dientful than others, which is Ellen Powe. And you know that she became famous for the case that she lost in but it also, um, you know, it speaks to sort of what she was able to accomplish in the legacy her legacy a little bit. So what did you learn from talking with Ellen Powe? Well, one thing I wanted to chat with Ellen Powe about in particular was when she was interim CEO of Reddit. Firstly, why was it interim? Right? Um? Did did the board coming in

decide that she wouldn't be staying on forever? And why it was that? And she says she looks back and wonders the same thing. Why she had that taxed under a title and she let it go at the time. Um. But one of the things that struck me most was looking back on her career. While she was running Reddit, there were all these racist memes, but users would post calling her chairman now or chairman pal after you know

now style memes, um. And and that just seemed really striking right to rebel against the changes she was making with not just any kind of meme, but these like

frankly very racist memes um calling her chairman pal. So that that was something that I think if that happened now, um, perhaps we look at even more than it was covered in the past that was pre and non Bloomberg Venture Capital reporter and Bloomberg Business Week editor Joel Weber coming up, Truly CEO Kim Rivers is back stopping about to talk about earnings and an increasingly smoke in marijuana market in the United States. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week. This

is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Bloomberg Quick Takes Tim Spinovik from Bloomberg Radio. One of the industries we gotta check on this week is the cannabis industry. Thanks to earnings from True Leaf Cannabis, second quarter revenue at the company beating estimates, up seventy eight percent year over year. Profits also a beat, and for more, we checked in with Kim Rivers. She's chairman, president CEO of Quincy, Florida based True Leave Cannabis. Things

are going great. We continue to see, um, you know, the continuation of cannabis really this great American growth story. Um. You know, even in the face of right and or the lack thereof, I guess of of federal federal legalization movement, Um, it continues to be really a state by state story. And in this quarter was no different, with strong demand across all the markets that we operate in and and really a continued positive outlook in the industry. We'll talk

to me about the cannabis regulatory environment. I mean, this is something we have had multiple conversations with many individuals in the industry, and I keep I think, we keep thinking we're gonna get closer and closer to some kind of federal rulings on it in federal oversight, and yet here we are what are the indications, what kind of guidance are you getting from policymakers in d C. Yeah, you know, I think that it's you know, it's fascinating,

and that we came from an environment under a previous administration where we really couldn't get any traction in the Senate at all, right, and we we didn't get get anything to be to to to progress or make it at all to the floor. Now we're in kind of the opposite, the opposite environment where there's a lot of interest and a lot of a lot of willingness to

get something done. And here we have this proposal that is so robust um that that perhaps it's um it may be and this remains to be seen, of course, and I'm talking about you know, Center Schumer's bill. It included thing that we could ever want to address, right with respect to cannabis reform. It you know, I think that the answer likely lies somewhere in the middle, and that this is a process at the federal level, like it is with any large policy policy matters. So I

don't cannabis is no different. And we've swung the pendulum kind of from one end to the other. And and I hope that at the very least, I hope that we can get at least some piece of substance policy legislation passed out of this Congress. I think it would be an absolute shame if if we were to if they were to allow Congress to a join without something significant passing at at the federal level. You know, we

know that the votes are there for state banking. Um, that's fundantly clear, right, And but you know, at this sentence position is that that's that's simply you know, at this point in time, not enough as a standalone piece of legislation. And so from our from our standpoint, and we would be ecstatic with say banking, we would be even more ecstatic. It was if it was safe banking plus some significant element of social justice um in or criminal justice is reformed, but that it needs to be

something right because still on a federal level it's illegal. Well, what guidance do you have on that? And how much did covid derail the movement forward when it comes to either a safe banking act or you know, ending cannabis prohibition. You know, I don't know. I mean, certainly and rightly so COVID is is top of mind for all of us, um in our personal lives and our business lives, and of course for policymakers as well, and that's understandable and inappropriate. Um.

That being said, you know, it was. I don't think ever the plaint the cannabis policymaking is on the schedule that I think that many of us thought that it would be on in that you know, a cent our streamer introduced his his proposal, Um, they went into recess. I believe that it will be revisited in in September. UM at that point, you know, towards the back half of the year. I think there's going to be additional

discussion around it and will decide whether or not. You know, that's the path if there's enough, if there's enough momentum there in terms of a heavier lift, or if instead, um, it should be paired back into something and that may be more palatable for a bipartison, for a pipartisan um, you know, the ability to get passed them from on a bark on a bipartisan basis, which of course we would like to see as well, because the reality is is that when you look at the states and you

look at what's happening at the state level, you know, we just want to license in Georgia for getting operational there. You look at what happened last November with states like Mississippi passing a medical a medical um initiative, you know, Arizona going recreational. I mean at the state level, things are not slowing down, as a matter of fact, they're accelerating. So, you know, I think it's important for folks to realize that the growth of the industry is not tied to

what happens in dc UM really at all. UM. It makes it more difficult from a we just paid eighty million dollars in taxes, for example, under to eight UM. But you know, Indy cats these businesses, but it isn't slowing down demand. Hey, Kim, so talk to us about some of the strategies you guys have been working on. You have been making some acquisitions, you've been expanding where you are operational and that includes Massachusetts also West Virginia. So give us a little bit more insight into, uh,

how growth has been going. Yeah, absolutely, so we you know, we started in Florida and we were in our the market leader, uh you know, significant market leader in Florida with about of the stores and have approximately over of the market here. And that was purposeful and that we really wanted to ensure a couple of things. One that we could actually scale a cannabis company in a market that allowed us to do so, and into we wanted to get our very solid financial footing prior to expanding

into other markets. And so truly has UM certainly a reputation of being the most profitable cannabis business in the US UM and that has allowed us to fuel our growth um internally and really kind of insulated us from the volatility of the capital markets over time. And so however, UM that being said, we started five years ago and really about a team months ago, we made a strategic decision to begin expanding UM in a hub and spoke model across the US, and we did that first by

expanding into the Northeast. As you mentioned, we have operations in Massachusetts. We also have operations in Pennsylvania recently made another acquisition there as well as UM as well as West Virginia in Connecticut. UH, and then UM we we decided that it was time for us to really take a card look at where we wanted to go from there and which other markets were our next moves, and whether or not we wanted to make a bigger a bigger move or continue this UM this sort of you know,

state by state or company by company strategy. And at that point we decided to UH kind of go big, if you will, and UM entered into a deal with Harvest and Health and Recreation. Harvest is the largest player in Arizona. They also have significant presence in Pennsylvania and also operations in Florida. Combined, we will be by far the largest cannabis company in the US. UM. But any available metric UM this quarter on a combined basis, how

do we closed the deal? So the Harvest shareholders voted on the transaction and we're looking to close here as soon and if we if we were combined today, we would have you know, top line seventeen point six million in revenue, hundred two point nine million in in Ebada would be in eleven states, have a hundred and forty stores and over three million score feet of grow. That grow footprint is about fifty larger than any competitor in

the number of stores is north of thirty. So um, we will be the dominant player in the in the space. That was true leaves CEO Kim Rivers. Check out that full conversation. You can find it at Bloomberg dot com. Still ahead on Bloomberg Business Week, from growing and selling cannabis to farming and freight containers. That's coming up next.

This is Bloomberg Broadcasting from the financial capital of the world Bloomberg eleven Rio in New York to Washington, d C. Bloomberg to Boston, Bloomberg one oh six one does San Francisco, Bloomberg nine sixty to the country Sirius xm JEDDO one nine team and around the globe the Bloomberg Business app and Bloomberg Radio dot Com. This is Bloomberg Business Week. So when I got this pitch, I thought our audience,

our Bloomberg audience, might be interested. It's a company that's on a mission to create a global infrastructure for local access to food. So far, they've spread across thirty four countries, foarding on US states and territories, and have created more than six d freight farmers all over the past eight years. Here with what they are doing and how climate change is definitely playing a role in all of this, as

well as Rick Venzera, he's CEO of Freight Farms. Rick tell us a little bit about exactly what you guys have been doing over the past almost ten years here. I think it's actually might be even longer than ten years, right right, yeah? Are our co founders, John Friedman and Brad McNamara came together in to try and address um urban access to food and food deserts with roof top gardens.

They realized pretty quickly that that wasn't a very economical or our practical approach to um to scaling, so in they they founded Freight Farms, and and John came up with this crazy idea too to grow produce inside a used shipping container because he saw that there were many of them around and that if you put led lights in the right environmentals in it and nutrients that you

could grow produce. And and since then we've gone through ten generations of farms, and and uh UM realized that trying to use use shipping containers really wasn't optimized for growing, so developed a lot of patents around UM optimizing growth

and customized shipping containers. So we launched the greenery in and we've gone through several of the evolutions of that to come to the greenery s and in a nutshell, it allows you to grow about two and a half acres of produce in UM an eight by forty ft shipping container, and you can do it with UM less water than traditional agriculture, no soil. It dramatically cuts transportation miles.

Nine of the lettuce in the US comes from fields in Salinas, California, so here on the East Coast, that's having to spend several days and travel thousands of miles to get to uh shelves and grocery stores on the East Coast. Whereas you can grow in our shipping containers UM anywhere in virtually any climate, any time, So we can put those containers right where there's need and deliver you know, hyperlocal sustainable fresh produce UM anywhere where you

have access to power and water. So that's it. And based on that, we're now in in forty nine states and in our thirty fourth country. So UM it's been. It's been, uh just a great turn and uh great to do some thing that's that's um scalable and good for folks around the world. Talk to me about the financial dynamics of what you are doing. UM, the cost

equation of all of this and how that works. Our farms cost a hundred thirty nine thousand dollars, which pretty low cost of access for commercial farming, particularly given it it takes virtually no footprint, and on that investment you can get a payback in about two years. Again thanks to the advances in the technology, you can you can grow that two and a half acres worth of crops

and UM. You know, I've I've been involved in evolving technology that months before in my life, where early stage it looks like how is this ever going to make sense? And then it gets to the point where it kind of makes sense, and then a few years later it leads leads the alternatives and the dullest, So I think not just for us, but for the industry in general, you're seeing that same sort of evolution. I mentioned climate chain in the lead up to this, and we certainly

were talking. Everybody was about the latest report from the u N and talking about UM the impact that certainly humans are having on our climate. Food is one of those things we talk about it, but I don't think we realize how dangerous a situation we could be getting into because of climate change and making it much more difficult to grow the food that the world needs. How do you think about climate change and what you what you folks are doing absolutely critical issue with se of

of the world's freshwater resources go towards agriculture. We've lost about a third of the arable land on Earth over the last forty years for a variety of reasons, including climate change, and and you know, we've all read about a lot of the devastating things that are happening with fresh water levels and just climate conditions generally to grow around the world. So you know, having a solution that doesn't rely on soil, that UM takes memory water and

can grow in an extreme climate is really important. And you know we're going to have to preserve what we can you know, the latest reports. As you have said, we're now at the point where, um, you can't turn back the clock, but at least protect what we have and we need to do that. That's Rick van Zura. He's the CEO of Freight Farms. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week straight ahead. What really is going on in residential and commercial real estate? One hint, not so great

to be a first time home buyer. We'll get an update from the co founder of the boutique real estate law firm Rummer to bas. This is Bloomberg. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Bloomberg Quick Takes. Tim Stinovik from Bloomberg Radio. All right, so real estate is something we'd like to talk about a lot, and we do it and covered a lot here at Bloomberg.

And there are a few stories. Blackstone Real Estate Investment Trust, a caring WPT Industrial Real Estate Investment Trust that was a cash deal value at three point one billion, included debt. You've also had the Biden administration urging state and local governments to move quickly to distribute billions of dollars provided by Congress to help struggling renters and landlords. So there is a lot always going on when it comes to real estate. So someone who's got a front row seat

to it all. Pierre du bas He is co founder managing partner of Rumor Dubas. It is the boutique real estate law firm. It's based in New York City, in Midtown Manhattan. Pierre, good to have you back. How are you, Carol. Great to hear from you. Thanks for having me back on the show. Well, it's great to have you here. How are things going? And I think the last time we talked was maybe I think back in November. UM,

tell me how the world is right now from your perspective. Well, it's a loaded question, but you know, luckily it seems that you know, we we've been in an upper progression and I think that everybody in town, you know, is sitting here saying, you know, is it Alta Varian going to take us a step back? And you know, praying that we don't go back to the you know, shutdowns and you know, love of protocols that we're having you know,

several probably last week spoke in November. Um, ironically enough, you know, even with saying that our real estate market, though, is at record highs. I mean, I'm looking, you know,

I'm a real estate lawyer in Manhattan. I look at our Manhattan market and also the nation's housing market, and they're both the most active and business I've ever seen in my entire career, which is remarkable given you know, how we started off this conversation with worrying about what's going on in the world and taking a step back, is it still so much people running from cities? Like,

how do you explain the activity right now? You know, it's funny because a while back, there was no secret that a lot of people there's somewhat of an exodus of people from New York City, mainly renters, who said, you know, if I can be remote and virtual, why not live in a lower cost living state, have a have a house, have more space, work from home, and I will find a job that's either fully virtual or

you know, predominantly virtual. And that was exactly that was a catalyst for what started driving this robust housing market that we're in. But then, you know, when we're talking present day, that statements kind of counterintuitive to the fact that New York City real estate is doing exceptionally well. So what is you know, what is driving the housing market because it's not the exodus of people from cities. People. People are fling back to Manhattan right now, I mean

our really you're seeing strong trends back. Oh yeah, absolutely. I mean the residential the co op, condo, townhouse market New York City is the most active I've ever seen it, and and it's been that way since the beginning of this year. So you can't even attribute it to pent up demand from I mean, this is not pent up demand. This is a new market. Well that's interesting, Pierre, because is it? Is it because people have money to put

to work? I mean, the pandemic was this really odd thing where some people, a lot of people, if you're in the markets and so on with you ultimately you know, benefited. I hate to use those words, but you know, there was a lot of wealth creation. We talked about it all the time here at Bloomberg, and there was there a lot of wealth creation that people are now putting to work in terms of real estate investments. Yeah. No,

I mean, you're you're you're you're spot on. You know, when you look at the when you references stock market, I think at the depths of March, SMB had dipped down to as low as twenty dred So whoever is in the market made a substantial amount of money in the last year and a half. Um. I read a great stat a month or two ago that the percentage of billionaires in the world in I think, increases roughly somewhere in the twenties in one year, in the middle

of a global pandemic. I mean, that's a that's a staggering statistic, and that is translating to a lot of our demand for New York City real estate because on the high end side, which is where we're seeing the most activity or record levels of activity, that's where the little steepest discounts are in the in the residential market in Manhattan, and people who had obviously made a lot of money in the last year or two are taking advantage of buying at this discount, knowing that it's the

city will undoubtedly come back. It's just you know, they're okay riding out a couple of years. But even to that, you know, I'm seeing now in the last couple of months, the amount of renters coming back is skyrocketed as well, so you know, and that's not driven by you know, the high end you know, purchaser. That's really driven by

people coming back anticipating living here and working here. Again. Yeah, I've seen a lot of fluid just among you know, our movement, I should say, among colleagues who and some buying, but some also renting. And I said to them, so did you get a deal? And they're like, yeah, maybe they took a like not really a deal anymore. It's not like it was six seven, eight months ago. No, the rental market is definitely rebounded significantly. Uh a year ago.

I mean you could have named your price in whatever concession you want. But again, I mean, you know, being based here, you walk around New York City. For those people who haven't been here in a couple of years, it doesn't look like it did, you know, two thousand nineteen and before. But it looks night and day than what I did last summer at this time. So I have a couple of things I wanted to pick your brain about here. First of all, first time home buyers,

are they being completely squeezed out of the market. Yeah, I mean that's a that's a great point to bring up UM, and the answers yes, Um. At the moment, you know, the last week or earlier in July, I should say, I'm sorry, the housing market hit another record level in terms of pricing, and what we're seeing in the marketplace is at roughly of all purchases that have

taken place a summer have been cash purchases. So that is yeah, I mean it's I don't recall over seeing such a significant portion of all deals being on a cash basis. And you know, majority of first time home buyers, you know, I believe the average price was three or fifty three thousand dollars. They're they're not buying any cash, you know, they're putting down five ten percent maximum and

getting a mortgage. And the problem they're encountering is that sellers and you know, markets that are very very hot right now, are not concerning consenting etage contingencies. And you know, banks are becoming have become more conservative in their lending, requiring higher sum higher down payment sums. So the net effect is at first time homebuyers and the millennial generation are being you know, pushed out of the market in most parts of the country. At the moment, you know,

it's interesting to say that about banks too. I mean, because we know money is so cheap right now, right, and we've talked so much about mortgage raids and refinancing, but the banks are being pretty difficult, whether it's on a refinancing or even a first time mortgage, they continue

to be So you're seeing evidence of that. Yeah, I know, I would agree, and you know, in a in a lot of ways, that's good for us because our last housing market boom of you know, two thousand five to two thousand eight was driven by reckless lending standards and

sub prime lending. And when you know, many people speculate, are we sitting here in a housing bubble when you take into account the higher down payment sums that are taking place all over, the amount of cash deals and banks having more stringent, you know, underwriting regularly sations and standards. You know, that would lead you to believe that we're

not in a housing bubble, because it's not. It's this market's not fabricated by something that wasn't real in a sense of subprime lending, where you know, the banks were just giving a mortgage to anybody, anybody in town with no income or verification or anything. So you don't see sloppy deals being done, I know from my perspective, I

I really don't. Um. You know, we have a majority of our clients are in the New York City area, but you know, we've we've represented a number of people who have gone to other parts of the country and I'm not hearing of any you know, any sloppy lending or transactions at all when you look around the country or look around the world, but country specifically. We've talked about Austin being popular in some of these secondary and

tertiary markets. Where do you see a lot of people going and wanting to buy, you know, a lot of forward has obviously been a huge beneficiary of everything that's going on, and that's our a number of reasons. Um. One given how you know, the weather down there, the COVID pandemic and not you know, going to political conversation what they're doing now there. But I don't think the risk was as high there as it was in densely populated cities that you know, it's known that the virus

wasn't as contagious and warmer weather in outdoors. Um. And then also you're looking at it from the perspective of taxes and cost of living, you know, with no state or city income tax in Florida and the lower cost of living, I think that Florida has probably been the biggest beneficiary of this whole pandemic. UM, if I recall correctly, I think Florida had the highest highest number of new residents moved there in I think Texas was number two.

I think yeah, because I know we've talked a lot about increasingly the financial community, you know, moving down there setting up shop. But there does seem to be um, a fairly big migration down there, as you as you point out, hey, listen, just got about seconds left here. There are so many things we talked about trends and things being changed because of the pandemic. Is there any trend because of the pandemic that you think definitely stays

with us longer term? Just quickly? You know, I think that the hybrid structure of remote work in coming into office a few days a week is here to stay. Um. Some of the major investment banks are trying to, you know, force people to come back into the office, and you're seeing that's being pushed back by a majority of major

corporations due to the delta variant. And I think it's inevitable that, you know, a hybrid model will be here to stay, and that's going to impact how our you know, we operate as a society tremendously over the next you know, several years. Hey quick follows. So does that mean in corporations, I mean they are going to cut back on their

commercial real estate Need's just got about twenty seconds. Yeah, I think that, you know, what to what extent they're going to cut back is a question, because even if you're in a hybrid policy, you still need space. And you know, are you going to go on a rotation in terms of offices or you gonna look at it that people are just as productive and revenues, you know, just as good, if not better. I don't need to really downsize my real estate holdings that much. That's a

million dollar question over the next couple of years. That's Pierre de bas he is, co founder and managing partner Rumored Us. And that wraps up the first hour of the weekend edition of Bloomberg Business Week from Bloomberg Radio. I'm Carol Masser heading our next hour with the debate over vaccine mandates intensifying across the country. Restaurants are now back at the center of America's culture war. How hostesses, waiters and bartenders and owners will need to play bouncer

to the unvaccinated. Plus, we go inside the c suite at a pair of publicly traded companies into very different sectors. We'll talk with the chief human resources officer at Carlisle Group, Bruce Lawson. He'll tell us how the firm is putting its money where its mouth is when it comes to employee wellness. Plus Jennifer Weber, she holds the same title

over at Archer Daniels Midland. She'll talk about the future of work at a company that is heavily dependent on in person labor and how the company is trying to close the gap between blue and white collar workers. More. Bloomberg Business Week is coming up next. This is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg Business Week inside from the reporters and editors who bring you America's most trusted business magazine. Plus global business, finance and tech news as it happened. Sloomberg

Business Week with Carol Messer and Bloomberg Quick Takes. Tim Stanovic on Bloomberg Radio. Hi'm Carol Masser My co host Tim Stanovic is off this week. Coming up in our second hour of the weekend edition of Bloomberg Business Week. It is definitely the dog days of summer, pretty hot week this week, and yet we are hearing a lot from companies that are weighing in on what work looks like as students get back to school and workers come

back to the office. With that in mind, we took a deep dive into work in a post pandemic world and one that is still grappling with rising virus cases and hospitalizations again because of the delta variant, getting workers back to the office not so easy. With that in mind, how would you like to get an extra week off this week as well as a wellness stipend and even more, That's exactly what's going on at one of the private equity giants will fill you in. Plus, not every worker

we know can work from home. That's something Archer Daniels Midland knows about big time, as about half of its forty four thousand global employees work in the company's manufacturing facilities. So how are they adapting in a post pandemic world?

And on the menu at restaurants vaccine bouncers, and that is where we begin this hour with the business Week story featured online and on the Bloomberg terminal this week about how restaurants and restaurant owners continue to pivot in our pandemic and post pandemic world, and that has meant becoming creative, innovative, changing menus, and sometimes being cop We got that story from Bloomberg business Week editor Joe Weber and Bloomberg News investigative reporter Polly Moss ends, Well, one

of the biggest things that we heard was just surprise. Restaurants feel not entirely prepared to deal with this, but they're also willing to roll with the punches. They were certainly not resistant to the idea. They just are going to need a little bit of time to acclimate because not only are they going to have to check all of their diners, they're also going to have to check all of their staff. Because the policy applies to their employees as well as to the diners. These owners are

really having to police who's in there. I mean, it's it's it's like checking your ideas when you were seventeen or eighteen. This is what they're doing. Polly, Yeah, absolutely. This is like the ultimate I D check where you'll have to show your ID and then you'll have to show your vaccine card. And just like they do as the ideas, they're going to have to be on the lookout for fakes when it comes to the vaccine cards.

Talk to us about the Excelsior paths and sort of like what the people you talk to, how do they how do they feel about it in practice? So, the good thing about the Excelsi Pass is that it is a pretty thorough app. However, in practice, it is possible to pass the phone in between two diners, you know, two folks that might be going out to dinner together. They in one case, they heard that the hostess and the owner of the restaurant she caught them passing the

app between them. So while the app is certainly Sorrow's it seems to work well, you do run the risk of people just passing the phone between the two of them in order to circumvent that vaccination mandate you talk about. For someone it might be an Asian restaurant. I mean, it's not just you know, policing when it comes to vaccine, but there's also other factors at play that makes it

even more difficult for restaurant owners. Absolutely, it is just one more hurdle that they were going to have to deal with, and they've had eighteen months of hurdles, and some restaurants they're going to be able to afford to offload this responsibility to security guards, but that's not something that's feasible for all restaurants. I love there's a quote from is it Scott Gerber that's in a story, and it says, we've dealt with intoxicated people, irrational people. Uh

and uh. He says our people are skilled at de escalating problems. I mean, yes, that's so true. But it does feel like this takes it, you know, to a whole other level. I think that this definitely does ticket to a whole different level. And you know, we have seen, unfortunately in the past, people do get very violent and very upset with folks who are working the door. That's something that service workers at grocery stores and that retailers dealt with a lot in the early days of the pandemic.

You know, in two instances of security guards were unfortunately even killed over masked mandates that they were attempting to enforce. I do think about how restaurants are doing additional training. Right, we did it after the Me Too movement and as you know, certainly after George Floyd, companies adapting in general

to what's happening in our world. And that's the same thing for restaurant owners, right that you know, probably we have to see them maybe instituting new training for their workers so that they know how to handle these situations. They've got the tools to figure it out. Yeah. Absolutely, And I'm sure they will also be looking to law enforcement in the most extreme of situations, and law enforcement has had to do their own set of training as as they navigate just new an unusual world that we're

living in. Our people thinking that in the restaurant groups in particular, are craving to be in restaurants right now still or are they Is it more of like, uh taking a backseat um to where we were kind of at the beginning of the pandemic. No, I think that people are still craving it. I definitely think that there will still be a market for it. Because it's impotant to understand that in New York City we actually have

a phenomenally high vaccination rate. New York is doing really well in vaccination, and I think that the mayor's office and restaurateurs are hopeful that this will take it to the next level of vaccination rate. So I definitely think that there is still a big market and a big desire to be out and about, and you know, this policy may encourage some people who have been on the fence about vaccination to ultimately get that well. And you know,

I also do wonder. We've talked about this a lot, probably about you know, private sector public sector working together, and it does feel like restaurants have to be a little bit on pins and needles as new mandates come down from officials about how to do things, and then they've got their left kind of figuring it all out. Uh. And I do wonder if there'll be more collaboration to kind of help restaurants through this, especially when it's stricter policy.

I think that's the biggest thing that we heard, both from the security guard companies and from the restaurateurs is just we need more time. We need to figure out how this is going to work. You know, they do need to to get acclimated to this new policy. And I think that there's the shoes that they haven't even thought it yet. They will deal with when the time comes when people are ultimately showing up at their doors

that have to prove that they're vacinating. That's Bloomberg News investigative reporter Polly moss Ends and Bloomberg Business Week editor Chill Weber. Find more at business week dot Com. Coming up. Wouldn't it be nice? Yeah, wouldn't it be nice? Really nice to be given an extra week off this summer just because perhaps even this coming week. Well, if you work at the private equity firm Carlisle Group, that's exactly

what's happening. We'll explain this is Bloomberg is Bloomberg business Week with Carol Masser and Bloomberg Quick Takes Tim Stinovik from Bloomberg Radio. If you haven't to work at the private equity firm Carlisle Group, you are getting an extra week off next week. That's on top of a seven fifty well being stipended. So for more on that and how the company is thinking about the wellness of its employees, let's find out from Bruce Lawson. He is chief human

resources officer over at Carlisle Group. He's on the phone. First of all, I want to get into what you guys are doing your world. Tell us how things have progressed over the past year and a half as you've dealt with the pandemic, you know, getting through it, starting to reopening kind of where where are you right now in terms of your individual firm? So we're, UM, we're doing a great job of managing through things. Our firm has been having record level performances. Are people are working

incredibly hard and completely engaged. UM. But like everybody who's been going through this has been a journey. We UM challenges and things that have come up that we've tried to deal with, and some of those are around our new well being strategy that we've implemented a number of

months ago. UM. But we're we're hanging in there. We'll talk to us about this well being strategy because it's really been very interesting, at least for me as a journalist and for many others to see how companies have opened up in terms of thinking about their employees different like how how is that relationship between Carlisle the employee

or change with Carlyle and its employees. Sure, so, look, I think a lot of this started UM a little bit before the pandemic where UM, you know, with new leadership at Carlisle and our new CEO, Cuson Lee, trying to focus on how do we enhance UM an already very strong culture in the firm UM and really make our human capital strategies in line with all of our other strategies to deliver the right kind of commercial results.

And so we were beginning to talk about a number of things, and then of course, in March of last year, the world began to change and we all went out on on a lockdown for what everybody thought would be two weeks in life could get back to normal UM, but of course that didn't happen UM, and so we began navigating our way through that and one of the key pillars of our human capital strategy that we wanted

to put in place. But what this all happened was sort of a very clear and transparent communication from leadership about what was going on in the world, and the pandemic kind of gave us no choice but to really accelerate that, and so we spent a lot of time just very openly and candidly and honestly communicating with our people about what was going on, even at times when we didn't really know what was going on, so that the new management was watching things and being concerned about things,

and as the pandemic progressed, UM, we all individually got a sense for the increased stress levels that we're going on UM because of your inability to separate from work and just no stop button, and it felt like people were living at work more than they were working from home.

And so we started to focus on a bunch of things around UM, focusing on the well being of our people, because we have a strong belief that if our people are feeling better about themselves, both physically, mentally emotionally, they'll be able to perform better individuals and their teams will function better, and ultimately that will deliver better commercial results

for the firm. And so we started to put together kind of a brief well being approach, which has evolved into a much more formal strategy UM where we're trying to cover essentially the five pillars of well being as as we see them, which are physical, emotional, social, environmental, and financial. And our initial thrust has really been on

the physical and emotional well being of our people. And so we started kind of small by having UM you know, very early on in the pandemic, zoom yoga classes and meditation classes and some some things to just give people a break, and started to do some other things, and then we thought, we got to get more serious about this, because this is this is going to be part of our world going forward, and it's just smart business on

our part. And so we established well Being Advisory Committee across the firm that consists of employees from all different levels, across all of our businesses and all geographies to help advise us on the kinds of things that we think would be most impactful for our people, and one of those was, you know, this inability to separate and have any kind of disconnection from work, and so we started.

We started last year by giving people a day off before the fourth July and before Labor Day and before other holidays, just to extend the break a little bit where everybody was off at the same time, because it seemed to us like that was the only time you

could really disconnected if everybody was was off. And we got such positive feedback from that that that evolved um into us discussing as a leadership team earlier this year, you know, we should just close the place down for a week globally and give everybody a week off where they can really disconnect. And we discussed amongst early leaders globally about the right time to do that and when made the most sense, and we ended up UM with next week in August being the right week to do that.

Their workers are getting an extra week off next week. They've also provided a seven well being stipend for UH Carlisle workers and Bruce, you know, one of the things I was thinking about is, and I think I do wonder how much of this stays with us in terms of permanent, you know, planning for our workers at companies UM. And I do wonder if there's a you know, commercial aspect to why you're doing it, that it that it works, that it makes workers feel better, that it ultimately makes

them feel more productive. What kind of researcher science did you guys maybe tap into before setting your sites on some of these programs. Sure, UM, look, we've we've looked at a bunch of different studies that indicate that if people are physically and emotionally healthier, UM and well that are off, they are engaged more in their life generally. That's not not just in work, but in their personal lives.

And if your people are more energized and have the ability to focus, are feeling better about themselves, they're going to perform better. And when you've got a collection of

better performing individuals, you're going to have better performing teams. UM. One of the measures that we look at to see how people are feeling about some of our efforts is in our recent employee engagement survey that closed in March of this year, and our people said that they were proud to work at Carlisle and would recommend it to a friend, And that to me, says a lot about how they feel about their job. And when they're feeling great about their job, you know, this is a competitive,

intense business. They're gonna be moments where they've really got to push themselves and they're going to be more willing to do that if they're feeling good about UM, how the company is thinking about them as a person, not a cog in a wheel that's that's trying to crank out commerce. That's Bruce Lawson, chief human resources officer over at Carlisle Group. We'll taking off time during the pandemic was impossible for a d M at least for many of its workers because it's a company that we know

is integral to the global food chain. Coming up next, how Archer Daniels Midland, like many other multinationals, are doing a major rethink of how we work. We'll here from one of the company's senior execs. That's coming up next.

This is Bloomberg Broadcasting from the financial capital of the world, Bloomberg eleven Frio in New York to Washington, d C. Bloomberg to Boston, Bloomberg one O six one to San Francisco, Bloomberg nine sixty to the country Sirius XM CHADO one nine and around the globe the Bloomberg Business app and

Bloomberg Radio dot Com. This is Bloomberg Business Week. Well a little over a month ago I checked in with this incredible roundtable of senior executives from a broad swath of industries to talk about how work continues to ship because of the pandemic, and among them was Jennifer Weber. She's senior vice president and chief human Resources officer at Archer Daniels Midland, as you know, a d M and integral part of the global food chain, so they were

crucial during the pandemic. One of the world's largest processors of agricultural commodities, founded over a hundred years ago, and like many companies, taking a hard look at how we work through the pandemic and making shifts to reflect that. So let's bring in Jennifer, who joins us on the phone from Chicago. Jennifer, it is so great to have you back with us. How are you. I am doing well. Carol, it's nice to be back. How are you doing doing well?

Doing well? Your your contributions and your story during that panel really resonated with me. You know, you actually had started at the company during the pandemic, correct, I did. I started in September of right right in the thick

of it and in the heat of the pandemic. So talk to us about you know, you came in and all of a sudden, you guys were dealing with so much and you know, issues that I think as employers we didn't necessarily think a lot about potentially um in terms of our employee base, but all of a sudden we had to, and we were talking about them at the open, whether it was mental wellness or juggling families

and juggling work. Hybrid work. Tell us about the lessons that you guys have learned at a d M and things that are staying with you when it comes to how we work, sure, absolutely well. I think I think that UM a couple of things. One thing is just from a from a background or a context standpoint. At a d M, we have roughly forty employees, and half of them and they're we're very global, So are are in the United States, UM, and half of our workforce

works in our manufacturing facilities. And so, given the nature of the role that we play in the global food supply chain, we had a high percentage of our colleagues around the globe. It UM needed to be in day in and day out, and so and then the balance of our employees are even either in office settings or

lab settings. We have innovation centers around the world. Uh So, so throughout the pandemic, our our our colleagues kept that vital role we play in the global food supply chain moving along at quite a bit of string, right because as you might imagine, we had a number of people who had to go out and quarantine. We monitored and tracked those things very very closely, and and I think

we learned a lot about ourselves. So, so to your first question, what are some of the things that we've learned through this um so, one thing is we I think we gained a lot of confidence as an organization on our ability to deliver on our commitments, deliver on our commitments to customers, to our producers, to our shareholders um and really make uh adjustments. We had to make significant adjustments to the way we conducted our work um uh,

particularly across our office settings uh. And we had to do it in a way that we didn't miss a beat in terms of delivering. I think the other thing that we learned is there was a very healthy um individual by individual, person by person, family by family reassessment of values right. And I would say a discussion about these things more openly. Um. I think for some people there were deep personal impacts that were felt as a result of covid UM and it placed great strain on

their mental health and well being um uh. And then you know, we had we had some colleagues who said, boy, has this been refreshing to reconnect with with family, hunker down with family, shelter in place and um and and do so together through a through an incredible period of uncertainty, and so you know, and then I and then I would say, we we, as an employer step back from this and said, boy, you look at this time, it's

been extremely isolating. UM. We've had we've had parents of young children who have had to balance the demands of UM work commitments along with you know, young children in the home who sometimes their school has been interrupted. So you know, so we we we stepped back from all this and said, Okay, as we think about UM, the ecosystem of support we provide to our colleagues, how is this changing our thinking? Right? And and UM and it's I think it's changed us in indelible and profound ways,

and and and and in many permanent ways. That's been a healthy reset for many, many many companies. That's Jennifer Weber. She's senior vice president and chief human resources officer Archer Daniels Midland and coming up right to continue the conversation with her, digging into working from home fairness. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week, and this is Bloomberg. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Bloomberg Quick Takes,

Tim Stinovik from Bloomberg Radio. So about a month and a half ago, I hosted a panel here at Bloomberg and it was all about how work is shifting. Obviously, the pandemic has impacted so much, and companies in all walks of life, all industries are figuring out what work looks like as workers come back to the office. And on that panel was Jennifer Weber, senior vice president and

chief Human Resources Officer at Archer Daniels Midland. Here's more from our conversation, specifically about working out policies for workers who can work from home and those who cannot. We have discussions about this quite a bit, and it's and it's important that we do so right because we uh, well, one thing, one thing I will say is we we call our employees colleagues for a reason, and that means

that we are all colleagues. Whether you're in a manufacturing facility or an office setting, you're in an innovation lab, you're a you know, you're a you're a PhD and food science, or you are critical um in one of

our milling operations. We are all called colleagues with each other and and in this together, I think what I think, what we what we stepped back and had to do is recognize that UM, this that covid um was creating a high degree of uncertainty for all of us UM and the needs varied and how we meet the needs of our different colleagues varies depending upon where you sit in the organization, and so, you know, so we there were there were many times when we would pause and say, Okay,

given what we know, now, what do we need to adapt to more directly support our manufacturing colleagues more directly support some of our office colleagues. And so just to just to give you some some examples of that, you know, we you know, throughout the course of this our focus has been on keeping our colleagues safe and healthy. And that's both physically and mentally. And so one of the one of the challenges in our manufacturing environments is UM

is communications and the ability. You know, it's not somebody sitting behind a computer where we can reach them with a lot of educational resources and hey, here are you know e a p services that you're eligible for. It's just that's not that's not their day to day life.

And so we needed to come up with other ways to make sure that we were arming our our leadership teams within our operations, that we were reaching our our early colleagues to make sure that they had the information that they needed to know how to access various resources to help them manage through this very very uncertain time.

So that would be one example, UM as it relates to UM other things that can be done, I would say with continued advances in UM manufacturing technologies, UM, but also UM just different ways of thinking about the scheduling

of work. Uh uh So that uh that we're that that in our in our goal of of you know, delivering UM, you know, delivering on the commitments to our customers that we that we manage work in a way, we schedule work in a way and we structure it in a way that allows people to you know, to

manage our work in life. And so you know, we have had to take a step back and some of our manufacturing facilities and say, you know, okay, how what do we do now and how do we help support these plant managers and maybe thinking about new and different ways of of scheduling and the way work can get done. So I think there's going to continue to be more and more pressure on on doing that UM to follow through on a commitment that we have again, and that's

keeping everybody healthy and safe. UM says, it's in mental It sounds tricky, I gotta say. And I was thinking about your job. I think this came up to that. I had mentioned that we saw it after the crisis where the CFO position really changed because they had to figure out how to keep companies financially alive in you know markets that had just you know, seized up. And during the pandemic, you know, HR wasn't just about wait, I gotta change my filing or you know, became crucial

to getting companies through it. How has that job changed forever? Oh gosh? Uh, well, UM, I would say that, Uh. One of the ways is uh in you know, the the investment in the development of our people leaders. Uh, that's always been That's always been a really important focus. But I think this pandemic has placed additional strain and pressure on the role of the people leader to UM to understand to know how to be empathetic and to meet colleagues where they are, given what they are going through,

given the way in which they are internalizing this. And so I think that UM, the role of HR in advising and coaching leaders and making sure that there are approaches to development in place that UM that that that makes sure that leaders understand how important that is. UM. That's taken on I think a new significance and meaning.

I would say, you know, the the from an HR standpoint, even the strategy around how do we make sure that this UM, I would say convergence of both physical and mental health is something that we pay UM far closer attention to. You know, in the past, UM, it may have been enough to say, are we offering the right benefits? Are people? You know, are people taking care of themselves? Um? Uh?

Do they are benefits? Competitive now with with kind of emotional mental health and well being and the role that we know that plays in the in the way in which people are feeling about their walk in life. Important. That was Jennifer Webber, Senior vice president, chief Human Resources Officer at Archer Daniels Midland. Before we go, a Bloomberg Big take this week on the former wife of Jeff Bezos, Mackenzie Scott, and how her money bombs are single handedly

reshaping America. Here's the story from Bloomberg News reporter Sophie Alexander. There were seven hundred eighties six gifts in total, and so that's a lot of people to get in touch with. And she's quite about it, right, yeah. She she basically just posts blog posts with a list of the organizations and says, look at all these organizations, pay attention to them, don't pay attention to me. Here's much how much I spent? But she does not break it down um for each gift.

And so that's what we were trying to do to try to get a sense of what types of organizations she's giving the most money too, all right, And what's really interesting too is that some of these gifts right come to organizations and they actually maybe don't open up the email tell us about that. Well there, I mean, because she's so mysterious, because there's nothing really known about her team. She doesn't have a website, she doesn't have

anything like that. It's really hard to find information about her. So there have been some real scammers, the New York Times reported, who are tricking some people into giving up banking information that they ought not be. But some real recipients are also a little spooked because there's no logo those address there's no nothing in these people that are

working on her behalf. There's not much information on them on the internet either, and so they're turning to their lawyers and even one lawyer said that it's probably a scam. You shouldn't don't open it. Don't open up the email, right, and then it turns out to be real. Yes, all right, So tell us what are some of the trends that you found out in terms of size of gifts, where they're going, and the types of causes that she's going after.

It looks like the biggest gifts are going to colleges and universities, and she's largely giving to HBCUs Hispanic serving institutions, UH two year colleges, technical colleges, and community colleges and they're getting you know, ten million, twenty million, thirty million. The biggest gift we saw was sixty million, and that was to give directly, which gives UM, which is in the Philanthropy and grant making infrastructure section UM. So education

is the big one UM. That's where we found the most money going, and then philanthropy and grant making infrastructure is number two UM and those are places like United Way and really the backbone of the nonprofit industry, and last big chunk was to social assistance groups. So that's like Y M c A, Goodwill, etcetera. Remind me her fortune. How big is it? It's about sixty billion billion at last count. Okay, it's so far, based on your tracking and our team's tracking, UM, at least four point three

billion given in three seventy five grants. That's that's what we think we know so far. Well, we know there's been eight point six total, but because she's not breaking it down, we were only able to find that gift amount for the four point three billions, so we've covered about half of it, which is the most of the accounting to date UM. But a lot of organizations aren't sharing the amounts because they point to her and say, hey, she's not sharing it, so we don't want to share it.

We're gonna take her lead. And others are saying, we're afraid that people are going to see these huge amounts and not want to give it to us anymore. Alright, So, Mackenzie Scott, so, as you said, eight point six billion in total gifts announced in just twelve months. That puts her where in terms of ranking of philanthropy pretty much

number one. I mean, you think of the biggest billionaire philanthropists who are living today, you think of the Gates and French Gates, UM and the Gates Foundation, and Mackenzie Scott has sort of blown them out of the water in the past twelve months. Um. You know, her giving and twelve months is larger than the Gates Foundations and the Ford Foundations annual grants combined. She's really shaking up

the world. What's interesting to you guys found out that for many of these organizations, it's the largest that they've ever gotten. Oh yeah, for for the majority of people who responded to the survey, of the vast majority. The other thing that's kind of cool about it, Sophie is that she seems to follow the news, follow the trends, follow what's going on in the world, and then allocate a gift or money or some giving to kind of what's needed in the world at the time. That's right.

There's not one thing that she's consistently been giving to except for philanthropy and grant making infrastructure aside from that. You know, with her July gifts, those were largely to racial equity groups and then to food banks later that year, and more recently to Asian, American, Pacific and Islander groups as hate crimes across the country spiked. That's Bloomberg News reporter Sophie Alexander, and that wraps up the weekend edition

of Bloomberg Business Week from Bloomberg Radio. Thanks so much for joining us. I'm Carol Masser. Be sure to tune into our Bloomberg Business Week daily show Monday through Friday, starting at two pm Moll Street Time on Bloomberg Radio. You can also watch our daily broadcast on YouTube. Just search Bloomberg Global News and check out our Bloomberg Business Week podcasts. Find that at Bloomberg dot com, Apple, or

wherever you get your podcast. Bloomberg Business Week. The magazine is available on newsstands now, also at Bloomberg dot com and always on the Bloomberg terminal. And you can catch my co host Tim Stenovik on Bloomberg Quick Take AVAILB on Bloomberg dot com, slash Qt, and streaming platforms like Roku, Apple TV, Samsung TV, and Moore. Have a great weekend, everybody. This is Bloomberg