Bloomberg Businessweek Weekend - December 3rd, 2021

edition of Bloomberg Business Week. It was a volatile week for markets, thanks in large part too uncertainty over the emergence of a new COVID nineteen variant, Amikron, which were still trying to figure out how to pronounce. I think we figured out it. Got it. I talked to our our our Greek colleague. We got it now, Sair Lulu.

Also Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell taking a hawkish tone before Congress, vowing to keep inflation in check and saying Carol that FEDE officials should consider tapering asset purchases even faster than anticipated, setting a stage for potential interest rate hikes next year. But as you always remind me, interest rates they're low. We need perspective. Everyone exactly the other thing is, and this had our attention. He said, it's time to retire the word transitory when it comes to

rising prices. That trend we are seeing in nearly every sector of our economy, and several of our guests on this program have plenty to say about that tim We're coming up in this broadcast, We're gonna hear from a pair of e commerce experts from different sides of the aisle. Shopify president Harley Finkelstein tells us how his company is outpacing the broader retail sector with the holiday shopping season already underway, and talk about timing. Wall Street Journal tech

columnist Christopher Mims. He's got a new book out about exactly how we get all of the stuff that we have and why the global retail industry is at a tipping point. Plus, the Bloomberg fifty is back. It's our annual look at the people and ideas that defined global business, entertainment, finance, politics, science and technology. I love this list. All of that

to come. We begin with a story in this week's economics section, supply chain carnage creating opportunities, yes, opportunities for companies willing to take a chance on random goods, from cheese to used cars and maybe even pumpkin seeds think of it as storage wars on steroids. Bloomberg Business we contributor Jeff Wise wrote the story and he joined us

along with the editor of the magazine, Joel Weber. Jeff tells us his piece came from his coverage of the Ever given that, of course, was the monster cargo ship that clogged up the Suez Canal back in March. Nobody really knew what was on that ship. You know, there was something like twenty containers and there were there were various reports like um, it had been reported that there was a life sized train of Source rex that was

heading for a mini golf course in England. UM, but like nice little details like that, but nobody really knew what the bulk of it was. And there was this young guy Uh in the UK who um was more talkative than most of these these these salvage buyers, and he UM kind of became like sort of an internet instant media star over in the UK. He was on the local news and everything talking about what he had,

what he had. He had taken about twenty containers off the ship and was trying to, you know, figure out what to do with it. Um he had actually ten containers five tons or something of raw cabbage that had been picked by farmers in China putting these containers and was destined for Europe. And then of course it was stuck for four months the heat and has liquefied that had turned into goop. And so this is a guy who, um you know, became the centerpiece of my of my

article for Business Week. Um. You know, he can both turn around stuff that has some value left in it, um, or he can take stuff that's absolutely toxic or dangerous or whatever it has to be disposed of. Um. So he can he whatever it is, he kind of uses his cleverness and his connections to find out the best thing to do with it. And how is it that you know in that uh you know, these could be

mystery bucks? Is is it? Don't the companies that trans transport these containers know exactly what's in every container For the most part, yes, um can. Each container has a manifest and it's sealed and so there's there's not susi any tampering, But there's shenanigans that go on and and sometimes the manifest is vague. In the case of the one that I wrote about in the story, it's just said household goods Brancket car and there was what that meant.

Does anybody's guess like what what what value do its on to that? It's like a complete, you know, random gas. Um. But he was telling me sometimes this wasn't in the article, but there's a trade where people basically because you cost

money to dispose of stuff, especially dangerous stuff. So what they'll sometimes do is they'll they'll bundle up you know correctly, um, say, plastic recycling in the front of a container, and then behind that it's like either just junk or garbage or something hazardous, and then then you ship it, you know, to Asia or to Africa, and then it's you know, effectively you're disposing of it. The same day I was there,

he showed me the car. He had a load of tires that had been illegally shipped off and had been sent back, and so he was going to dispose of that. So I understand why someone might not claim twenty containers full of what was formerly known as cabbage, But why why would something like that car not get claimed? Like how how frequently does stuff just not get claimed at

the port? He is not a detective. His job is just to figure out what to do with this stuff, and he like the quicker he can do it, the better. So yeah, my instinct is the same as yours. I'm like, how do you? But he that that's not his approach, so he doesn't know, like he has no idea what happens. This guy could have died. He could have just like looked at the storage charges and been, um, I don't want to deal with this anymore. But this is a

real problem. You know, the containers sit there and whatever is in it is not gaining any value, and and the the costs are mounting. I actually wound up I was I was over in the UK a couple of stories, and I wind up sharing a cab with a woman whose son was in the furniture importation business, and she was telling me he was looking at he might go bankrupt because there's such a shortage of truck drivers because of Rexit. All their truck drivers left, and they have

a real problem. They just can't move stuff, and the longer it sits, the big worst. That was Bloomberg Business Week contributor Jeff Wise, along with Business We Get It or Joel Webber with an inside look at what happens when supply chains, well, they go haywire, and while not everything we order arrives on time, we still really do

expect them to. Coming up next, we're going to explore how consumer demand for that instant gratification is transforming global commerce and displacing millions of workers at the same time. Wall Street Journal tech columnist Christopher MIM's details his new book, and it gives us a firsthand account of the pandemic's immediate impact on trade. In the early days, you're listening to Bloomberg Business Week. This is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg

Business Week with Carol Messer and Bloomberg Quick Takes. Tim Stinovik from Bloomberg Radio. All right, not a day, not an hour, seems to go on without us talking about the global supply chain. It certainly came up a lot this past week on Capitol Hill between lawmakers and Fed Chief J. Powell. Shortages and delays persisting even as the

federal government works to ease these pain points. Our next guest started writing a book before the COVID lockdown that revealed how our supply chain could be brought to its knees, and his trip to Southeast Asia in early twenty ended up coinciding with the onset of the deadliest pandemic we've seen in more than a century. Well Street Journal technology columnist Christopher Mims recently released this book, Arriving Today from

Factory to Front Door. While everything has changed about how and what we buy, the process was already in motion once COVID nineteen came around, and the crisis did little to change consumer expectations of convenience. It's solidified demand for services that could provide the instant gratification that many of us have come to know and rely upon. Mims said, had to understand the rapidly advancing technologies that are changing the way goods are transported and despicing workers in ways

we've never seen before. And it was all sparked by his interest in the world e commerce king. It really came from witnessing the transformation in terms of automation and uh, you know, other types of technology that was happening in supply chains because of Amazon, and I just thought, okay, you know, if e commerce is going to become the dominant way that we buy things, this is going to be huge for millions of American workers and for every single one of us, because you know, we're all consumers.

So I wanted to understand how those supply chains worked because it was clear that they were undergoing a transformation unprecedented since the invention of the shipping container. It's safe to say that we all just expect stuff to show up at our door. We don't really think about the process. We've gotten so removed from it for many of us. There are a lot of workers that are the backbone of our supply chains, but for many of us were

removed from it. Right, Yeah, we're so removed from it, and we're even more removed from it than we used to be because of globalization, the supply chains are longer than ever. So when they get this up to we kind of throw up our hands and we're like, what's going on? We talked about when you started to write this book before the pandemic, So just take us back to that time in January when you were exploring supply

chains in Asia. What what What did you end up uh finding out, especially as the pandemic began to ravage the globe. Well, what I witnessed was really the supply chain disruptions and the congestion that we're seeing now. So you know, I was standing on the key side in Vietnam when goods are being loaded, just as the World Health Organization announced that there was you know, an issue in Wuhan, China um and then you know, it was inadvertent on my part that the book coincided with the pandemic.

But you know, as I sort of followed the journey of those goods all the way to the US, I ended up, you know in places like you know fed Exhortation Facility talking to the head of automation at fed X about how what used to be the holiday peak was now every single day and that they were anticipating that when the holidays did, they would have what they

called peak on top of peak. So you had this system that was really sized for you know, maybe a holiday peak that was then having to do that holiday peak just as part of its normal uh line of business.

You know, I also wrote along with a UPS driver you know, who told me that you know, she was really keeping her her everybody on her roots supplied with you know, everything from the goods to homeschool their kids, to you know, food and other things that they were ordering they were being delivered through UPS and that every day she was as busy as she would normally be during the holidays, but of course this was you know,

nowhere near the holidays. So the entire system now has had to expand to accommodate what used to be its maximum capacity. Hey, Chris, I too have written along with a UPS driver talk about being impressive, and they have technology and data to make sure that, you know, they are aware of everything they do, how long it takes,

and keeping track of it. It blew my mind. Um Having said that, So when you look at all the work that you did and really understand ending the nitty gritty details, the technology, the logistics, the people behind our global supply chain, do you clearly understand the mess that we're in today? Yeah? I think I do. I mean fundamentally, this gets to the heart of you know, the most important macroeconomic indicators which drive everything, you know, the entire

stock market. Like the reason that we're having inflation that the FED cannot deal with right now is we're having a supply shock. The reason we're having a supply shock is that we're having congestion in the supply chain, and part of that congestion is due to the labor crisis. We don't have enough people to drive the trucks to

move all the containers out of all these ports. So you know, Marisks chairman just said they had more than eighty ships waiting on average eighteen days at ports all over the world, but in particular on the West Coast.

So the shocks and the bottlenecks that every one of these junctures in the supply chain, I think are key to understand because these uh, seemingly small things are what are driving ultimately, you know, inflation, and I think a lot of investors fears that this new coronavirus will you know,

hurt the economy and hurt the stock market. Chris, do you think that the era of just in time when it comes to the way that companies think about getting us our goods, the era of globalization, do we see any permanent shifts or changes to those things as a result of the pandemic and what we've learned. I mean, I think you're seeing a lot of smaller manufacturers and retailers are having a stockpile more goods. So in that way, you know, this era of lean everything is over for

a lot of retailers. UM and you know, the biggest ones that are reporting that the supply chain is starting to clear for them, like Target and Walmart. They're the ones who order well in advance. So in some ways, I think, you know, just in time, you know, is disappearing. That said, you know, as soon as this supply chain backlog clears, it could be as early as the next summer um. You know, I think people will return to that because, of course it just drives more returns on everything,

returns on capital. Nobody wants to have a bunch of goods tied up in inventory if they can avoid it, right, But you think about those balance sheets and how they would change. You know, It's funny I grew up with I guess you would say kind of depression era parents are parents who grew up with families that you know, had to deal with the depression. And we always had a utility room that was stock full of so much stuff. But I think they remember, you know, when there were

lean times and you couldn't get stuff. And I do wonder the impact that this will have on all of us going forward, or perhaps our families going forward, and we meet companies as you just talked about, you know, going forward so absolutely. I think people are at every note of the supply chain, which by the way, includes us, includes our individual households. You know, people are being forced to stockpile more goods and um, yeah, those depressionary mentalities,

they don't go away. That was Wall Street Journal technology columnist Christopher Mims. He breaks down the wide world of supply chains in his new book, Arriving Today from Factory at the Front Door. Why everything has changed about how and what we buy. It's about logistics, it's about technology. More importantly, it's about the people being affected by these changes to the global business landscape. Millions of workers will be showed when the burden as we moved towards a

fully automated system. I think what's notable to Carol is is the consumer expectation side of this. We've all become accustomed to getting things so quickly, regardless of where they come from. What's interesting, and I think about this in the pandemic, right, we learned so much about how a vaccine is made right because we've been living it in real time, and every data point, every research study, every vaccination that comes out, we've learned about it. The same

thing for the global supply chain. We just expect stuff to be there, and now we're like, well, wait a minute, what's that process of you know, from start to finish? And we're learning so much more about how complicated it is and really truly how global it is. As most

people say, you can't go back still ahead. On Bloomberg Business Week, a dispatch from the epicenter of the Amicron variant of COVID nineteen South Africa and executive from de Beers explains how the world's largest diamond company is adapting to the new threat and what it means for the

company's bottom line. This is Bloomberg on casting from the financial capital of the world Bloomberg eleven Frio 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 Chado one nine team, and around the globe the Bloomberg Business app and Bloomberg Radio dot Com. This is Bloomberg Business Week. Like most companies involved in the retail space, to Beers has had to pivot and

adjust to change in consumer taste and trends. During the pandemic and the world's biggest diamond company now has a new challenge to deal with. The latest COVID variant has taken root in Southern Africa, where many of its key minds are located. We were fortunate enough to catch up with Pat Dombi, VP and a head of corporate affairs and government relations at the Beers Group of Companies, just as word that the omicron strain had begun to circle

the globe. Pat joined us well in transit from South Africa to neighboring Botswana, telling us that regional travel restrictions were unlikely to hinder business as usual. It's one of the important aspects of the success of our partnership with the South African government and the books on a Government. It's interesting because they both supported at the same time. They obviously they have a very good working relationship, particularly when it comes to the border, because a lot of

us come from both countries, like myself. UM so UM the the importance of adaptability. I think that the private sectors with government are working together. UM. And for us as a business, as you write fully say, kill it, it's been having to really figure out how to be adaptable UM and how do we refine and be agile UM in this market? UM. But I think we've done it, UM, And I think that whole focus is really UM focusing

on our employees UM. And of course the communities in which we operate are really critical, and that's also very important to our partnerships with with the government. And then of course, you know, demonstrating the importance of managing covid UM with them. Tell us about the business right now, do you guys have all the workers that you need to do what you need to do. How has the

relationship with consumers changed as a result of the pandemic UM? Sure, Carol, Well, it's interesting because we're actually pretty excited we had UM. You know, the beginning was a little bit tough for everyone UM in but UM based on our adaptability and being able to refine and and look at what it meant to continue our business, we ended with a pretty

good year UM in and now going into the holiday season. UM. You know, we're looking at some of the days that's been coming out, like sources UM DAN going Diamond Research and data UM that are reporting that US jewelry sales advanced to standing from January through May. UM tolpening about thirty two billions. So that's up UM by about twenties three billion in the same period pre the pandemic UM.

So that tells us tells us a few things. It tells us that American consumers want to celebrate licening in each other a little differently. I think he said that a little bit earlier in the program UM, and they have a real strong love more importantly for diamonds, especially

at this time of the year. Help me understand and help help our audience understand where your job comes in when it comes to transparency and sustainability and and helping consumers understand that the diamond that they are buying is one they can feel good about. It's one that was mind sustainably, it was mind in a conflict freeway, and it wasn't mind using labor practices that, for lack of

a better term, aren't appropriate. Well, thank you for that question, because it really is paramount to everything we do UM, and it's something that as a as a person from Botswana UM that I'm really proud of our company. UM. You know, we definitely believe in sustainability and we've invested heavily in innovation and technology as a link to that. Um, we've created a sustainable framework which we call Building Forever, and it says exactly what it means. It's at the

heart of what we do. Tim and I talked about this a lot, whether it's wife or friends that he knows that aren't necessarily into diamonds. Um, it's just different. I look at my daughter, I look at you know, different individuals that maybe aren't into jewelry that like my mom was, or even myself. Off is it translating and and reaching the newer, younger consumer A very good question. UM, Well,

what we're seeing is that through our insight research. UM, we're seeing a generational shift, as you rightfully point up, Um, with consumers, particularly young consumers. You're right, Um, what's really important for them is the provenance, which is constantly evolving. That was Pat Dombay, VP and head of Corporate Affairs and Government Relations at the de Beers Group of Companies.

For more of the company's sustainability framework and commitment to ethical sourcing of diamonds, check out our podcast feed for our full conversation. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week. Coming up next, the Bloomberg Fifty is unveiled. We're going to break down the list of people and ideas that defined global business over the past year. This is Bloomberg. You're listening to Bloomberg business Week with Carol Messer and Bloomberg

Quick Takes Tim Stinovik from Bloomberg Radio. It's the most wonderful time of the year, and it's not just because of the holidays. It's also the fifth installment of Bloomberg Business Week's Bloomberg Fifty. It's a list of fifty people and trends that deserve recognition in business, entertainment, finance, politics, science and tech. Him For where else are you going to find Britney Spears, the CEOs of Ford and CVS, and even the meme stock Ted Lasso is on there too.

Here with a look at how it all comes together. Who made the list this year is Bloomberg Business Week editor Joel Weber. Also Bloomberg Business Week Features editor Brett Vegan. Joel, I want to start with you. We know Brett is the Bloomberg fifty Maven, but give us some background on the issue and really how it got started. So we long wanted to do an issue that kind of looks back at the most important people of the year, and and we've been doing this. This is the fifth annual

year that we've done, a fifth annual issue. And one of the things that I think really distinguishes our list is the idea that we obsess around data and that every person or idea that makes it on the list has some distinguished metric from the year that makes them interesting. Uh. And that's different, Like you could put Warren Buffett on a list like this almost any given year as a

very important person in business. But we really hone in on a tangible thing from the year that really distinguishes someone. And once you've been on the list, you can't be on it again. So the other thing that I think the list affords is this real amazing sense of discovery. We're always looking for up and comers who are breaking through, and you know, because business is ever changing, there's never

a dearth of options. And this list starts as this massive spreadsheet and just gets narrowed down until we get the most impactful fifty people. Uh. And that that comes together in this amazing issue. So, Brett, how how early do you start working on this list in the year? Because I know that there's emails that go out and you really tapped the network that is Bloomberg. I mean, are you already thinking about too soon? Okay, I'm sorry.

It starts pretty early. I mean, basically we started at the end of the second quarter because at that point you have a pretty good sense of sort of what's happened in the first half of the year, and you there are some sort of no brainers at that point. So they get on sort of what i'd call like the they're sort of v I P. They get into sort of very early special access to this. But we you know, we really canvass reporters all across the world.

I mean, um, you know, in in Asia and Europe, in Middle East, Africa and the America's and you know, the jewels point. We're looking for the people that had the most impact in their field. There's a lot of people that have impact, but we want to make sure we're really getting you know, the CEOs of the companies that had the most impressive I p O s or made the most impressive acquisitions, or the people in entertainment who had really sort of the the absolute biggest years.

And and then we also look for serendipity, you know, we look for people as well, said that you may not have heard of, and then we can like to combine that with people that you may have heard of but maybe you don't know why they'd make the list in that particular year. I always wonder if there's a year like where it's really tough to like you're like, oh my god, there's so many really good people and you've got to just make some cuts. It's I mean,

every every single time. And part of what we're trying to do here is is look at a mix too. Obviously finance less is Bloomberg pretty easy to figure out who were some some important people in the finance world. Ditto business, but we also try and you know, reach out look at science and entertainment, uh, and really have this feeling like when you look across the list, it's we mean business in many, many, many different senses. So

can you tell us who didn't make the list? Well, I think there are a couple of things that are because and like I just got to give you an idea of my my thinking behind this question, Jold Brett, because I kind of imagine the smoke filled room, right, yeah, exactly what happened? Get back, you know, where Brett and I are sitting around maybe. So we have two things that you're like fighting for your person to get on, right. We have a couple of things that we do to

account for that. One is a thing that we call the usual suspects, and that accounts for the Warren Buffets or the Jeff Bezos is, which you can basically do those those people almost any given year. Right. Um. We also have the Alumps page because there are people who have fantastic years who we've featured before and you know, obviously it's like if we come back and do the same people again and again, then the list gets static and it's not fun. So but we still think that

those people are worth honoring. And then the other near and dear one is what we call ones to watch, which are maybe they haven't had a huge breakthrough. Oftentimes they're a little bit younger. And there are people that we think either next year or in years to come could be people that cracked the regular Bloomberg fifty list. And like someone I mean, i'll just give you an example, like someone link Latitia James, Right, she was not on the list this year because she was on the list

last year. We don't repeat, but I would say probably seven or eight people pitched her, you know, as as being in the list. So someone like that who's running for governor of New York, who publishes this hundred and sixty eight page bombshell report, you would think, yeah, should be on the list, but was already on. So he put her in the alump section. And and it makes sense though, because he was I think perhaps a lot

more impactful to more people than her. And I guess we should actually talk about some of the people on on the list. You know, Albert Borla I was the one that came to mind CEO of Fighter and and you know, you would have maybe thought that he was on last year's list, except this was the year that they actually started to deliver it and basically created the biggest success in the history of of pharma. So and I think last year's list was was very covid Centrick.

We had a lot of amazing people, We had a lot of group entries because of that, and and this year we I think we tried to focus a little bit more on people. And I will segue more into the list right now because one of the other things we try and do. But I think it's just really fun. It's always make room for an inanimate object like chicken sandwich. Well, you know the poplines. Chicken sandwich did crack it in in twenty nineteen. Last year we had this spack which

proved as relevant this year as last year. We're just ahead of the time. Perhaps we helped make this back to this back Brett, what was this year's object? Not the chicken sandwich this year, but we did, um, the meme stock. Actually, you couldn't get a chicken sandwich or some change. Plenty of meme stocks, that's right, plenty of memes stocks. Um. Actually, you know, if you look at the fifty that Robin Hood put on their restricted list, there was a hundred fifty billion dollars worth of market

cap created early in the year in January. Um, you know, based on these memes stocks. So we were trying to figure out exactly, you know, what to do here? Should we put game Stop on the list? But am seeing the list companies on the list who did nothing. They didn't do anything right, So then we said, why don't we ask Matt Levin what he wants to do? And Matt Livin said, sure, I'll be happy to write a

piece for you. But the meme stock in the Aaron meme stocks, and you know, Matt really like focuses in here on I guess it's stead of the psychology of community really in the psychology of belonging and the way in which, um, the meme stock was something that people were sitting at home in the pandemic without being able to really go out. And there's a community of people and they were having fun and they were buying the stot and some people just like the stock and they

bought it for that reason. But Matt talks a lot about community and value and um, it's it's really like a wonderful piece and really really sort of makes you think about this in a different light. We'll speak about community. There was a community of junior bankers over Goldman Sacks that also made the list. Yeah, so mostly anonymous. We ended up getting the name of one of the Bloomberg

News broke that earlier in the year. But what they rallied for, uh ended up becoming this galvanizing force on Wall Street, not only at at Goldman, but you know, just across across UM the whole community and has led to some changes and funny enough, and we did a cover story to this effect earlier in the year. Uh, they didn't ask for more money, but that's basically what they got. Wall Street brought out the money canon to

sort of, uh, make make amends a little bit more. Yeah, and they also looked at things like, maybe you don't have to work all weekend, maybe you can have one day sort of kind of off. Um. But yeah, I mean the Jul's point that this power point presentation that went viral in March um led to new you know, based pays at a lot of these companies. But the other thing that it did is it just sort of

bought attention to sort the mental health problems that were occurring. Uh. They were sort of a self self diagnosis of of mental health conditions that were going on. And at least we at least that Wassode brought to light and it was was given it to do. Do you do you think there will be perhaps permanent effects of of these junior bankers, not just within finance, but in other industries

as well. I think it's entirely possible that they started a really important conversation in um an area or field that that conversation just hadn't really been happening in so I think it's the beginning, you know, I don't. I will have to see where it goes, but I certainly think that that's possible. There's a prominent CEO female CEO two that you guys brought recognition to and we're talking

about Karen lynch Over at CBS. So this was a really interesting one because at the beginning of the year she got this job and we were immediately interested in it because of the role that pharmacies we're going to have uh in the distribution of vaccines, at least especially here in the US. Highest ranking female executive in the US when she took over, and this was the part that shocked me. C Yes, fifth largest public company by sales, so this is a huge company and what I thought

was really interesting. We did a Q and A with her. That was another thing that we did. An issue is start to play with some different formats um and Angelica Levito did the interview with her and revealed to me was sort of where she wants to take CVS. You would think of it as a pharmacy maybe in the context of the vaccine distribution. It is her her goal and her vision strategy is to become much more of the center of your of your healthcare universe. All right,

we're gonna have to leave it there. We know we're gonna get more from you guys a little bit later on our thanks to Bloomberg Business we editor Joe Webber and Business Week Features editor Bret Vegan. That wraps up the first hour of the weekend edition of Bloomberg Business Week from Bloomberg Radio, I'm Carol Masser and I'm Tim Stunebeck.

Ahead in our next hour, the president of Shopify on a hot start to the holiday shopping season, the VP of Cadillac discussing the next stage of the luxury brand's ev transformation, and the CEO of Build a Bear Workshop on why there's more room to run after a record quarter and a worring share price. Plus, we're gonna have more of this year's Bloomberg fifty. We're going to finally get to Brittany. I can't wait. We're gonna put that

here this year. In perspective, 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, Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Bloomberg Quick Takes Tim Stinovic on Bloomberg Radio. Hi, I'm Carol Masser and I'm Tim stob Plenty ahead in our second hour of the weekend edition of Bloomberg Business Week, including an American luxury car brands

place in the electric vehicle revolution. We're talking about Cadillac, and a small cap toymaker is rewarding shareholders on the heels of a blowout earnings report. Build a Bear Workshops CEO Sharon Price John on what's next for a company who shares are up about four percent here today, talk about a rally, talk about a lot of bears. Plus

more from our annual Bloomberg Fifty List. This week's issue of Bloomberg Business Week magazine dedicated to the individuals and ideas that have defined First Up this hour, an e commerce power player has a strong start to the holiday shopping season. Shopify came out earlier this week with data saying that it's merchant sales from Black Friday through Cyber Monday hit a record six point three billion dollars. That represents increase compared with the same period a year earlier.

But what's interesting, tim is those figures contrast with some of the broader retail trends that we've seen so far in the early portion of the holiday shopping season. We caught up with Shopify president Harley Finkelstein and asked him how the cloud based commerce platform was able to overcome and otherwise lackluster weekend from consumers. I think what you were seeing is that Shopify merchants really outpaced the industry frankly, these astonishing rates, and they committed to do so through

the entire weekend. We know the consumer spending has stayed strong, but I don't think BFCM was simply just a measure of consumer confidence. It seems like it was also a barometer for consumer interest in supporting independent brands and entrepreneurs, and we think that that support is stronger than ever

for the entire weekend. So from Friday to Monday, we saw but six point three billion sold sales on shop plants ab growth as you mentioned, uh, and about forty seven million consumers made a purchase from a Shopify merchant during the weekend. The other thing that's really interesting is that average cart size was up from about ninety dollars to about a hundred dollars globally. And when you look

at you know where those sales were coming from. Of course, we had the big names that we always talked about here, uh you know, companies like All Birds and Bombas and and uh Jim Shark and Brooklyn. But we also saw some new names emerged the Nugget for example, our place for example, and then some traditional retailers that you shopify

like Lego, Mentel, Spanks, Dockers. But I really, you know, relative to the numbers that you were mentioning earlier from the industry industry, why it feels like this is a tale of two different retail worlds. On one side, you have traditional big box stores, but then you have to act to consumer. Well, let me just remind our listeners of those numbers from Adobe. So US shoppers spent ten

point seven billion dollars on Cyber Monday. That's, according to Adobe, less than the ten point eight billion dollars a year earlier, and that missed Adobe's estimate of eleven point three billion dollars. So hardly it sounds like the analysis that you're providing is it's it's because it's a different type of shopping happening. You're saying that that Shopify retailers that use the shopped by platform outperformed the industry, and and that's why you

see the diconomy and the divergence. With the data from Adobe, that's exactly right. Yeah, I think you know, when for Adobe's first only looking at US where Shopify as a global platform, we have more than one point seven million stores across a hundred seventy five countries. But what we really did see is that consumers unequivocally voted with their walllet's this this past four day weekend to buy from independent retailers and their favorite brands. And you know, some

of these brands have now become really incumbent. If you look at companies like Figs or All Birds. These are stores that started on Shopify just a couple of years ago and now they publicly traded companies. And so I think you're going to see more of this happening where the future retail really does belong to these independent director consumer brands as opposed to the big box retailers in

some cases that aren't really adding any real value. Yeah, it's it's an interesting you know, we talked about innovation as you know, Um, Harley so much in so many different industries, certainly in technology. We've seen it in retail in a big way. Um. What does that mean? Then? You think, for the major retailers that are out there versus many of those that are on your platform, is there something more significant going on in terms of the

retail trends? Well, okay, you know, I've been a student of retail and commerce for you know, for the majority of my life, um, and I think one of the major changes that have happened here is that a lot of the retailers that were reselling other people's products simply weren't justifying their profit margin. So you know, I'm sitting here right now in Canada wearing my favorite T shirt,

which James Purse, which is a Shopify store. Years ago I was able to buy in James Purson T shirt at Barney's, for example, and I never did And the reason was I didn't feel that I was getting any better experience and it was certainly more expensive buying from Barney's, Whereas when I go to James first dot com powered by Shopify, I get a much better experience. I know, that the money that I am I'm paying for is a vote with my wallets that I want more of

those brands to exist in the world. I think that the other the other thing is that the big box retailers, for a very long time, they had an unfair advantage because they had distribution. And the reason that we were able to we were going to these big box stores

is because they were in our cities. But the Internet has completely democratized distributions so that today I can be sitting anywhere in the world and for I can set up a store on Shopify and I can sell online, I can sell offline, I can sell on TikTok or Spotify or Instagram, and I can I can be default global within a matter of minutes. That's where technology is

driving this, this really incredible innovation in commerce. How do you make sure that these companies, as they grow, don't graduate from Shopify's platform and they're able to keep using it. It's a great question that this the challenge of being able to make it really easy for any brand or any entrepreneur business to get started on Shopify and then when they get to some sort of scale, they continue to grow. That is really what shop would make Shopify

quite unique. So for example, you know, when you're just getting started, you may just simply want to set up a very simple online store and sell to to consumers. But as you grow, you begin to wanting to sell across a variety of different places channels. I mentioned Instagram and Facebook, but but also you want to sell across new channels that are emerged. We announced a partnership to each skill with Spotify, so artists on Spotify can open

online stores on Shopify and sell merchandise. That was Shopify President Harley Finkelstein. And we should note that this past week, after our conversation with Harley, a group of five educational publishers suede Shopify. The group includes Pierson Education and McGraw hill.

It's filed for copyright and trademark infringement. Just as we were putting our broadcast to bed shop if I had declined to comment on the specifics of the lawsuit, saying that it takes actions against web stores that violate its policies. You're listening to Bloomberg business Week. Coming up next, one of America's premiere luxury brands is racing into the EV market. The question is how fast can it shift gears? This is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer

and Bloomberg Quick takes Tim Stenovan from Bloomberg Radio. So check out the EV market. We've got Tesla now ranked as the world's most valuable car company by far Rivian, sporting the second highest market cap among US car makers,

despite Tim having generated no sales revenue as of yet. Meantime, General Motors plans to double its revenue by as it looks to ultimately convert to an all e V lineup, and CEO Mary Barra recently said that she expects GM to catch up to Tesla in electric vehicle sales by as soon as twent Those efforts include GM's iconic luxury brand. We're talking about Cadillac now, you might recall. Back in September, GM open reservations for its cattle Lyric electric suv, and

after just ten minutes they are gone. To find out what sets the first of its kind model apart, what the future holds for its gas powered engines, and how Cadillac is navigating supply chain constraints and labor shortages in a competitive car market, we spoke with the Brand's vice president Rory Harvey. I think there's lots of different data sources. I'm sure that you have access to many of them that you know extrapolate what is going to happen with

eb adoption. And from our perspective, we think now that the time is right absolutely to put up on the accelerated panel. We have a great portfolio today of icicles, but we think now is the time to compliment that would switching to EV. So I'm going to ask a different question that why does it Why is it going to take to thirty? Why not sooner? Especially when you've got you know, a company like Tesla that has definitely at this point is out front and center and has

the first mover advantage. They're now ranked as the world's most valuable car company by far. You've got Riving supporting this second highest market cap among US car makers despite having no sales revenue yet. I mean, that's a topic for another conversation. So I'm just curious, you know, why not try and do it sooner rather than later? Is

it logistically it's just got to take this amount of time. No, I think it's a it's balancing basically what we need to do what we need to do in terms of market opportunity with our ice vehicles, what we need to do in terms of evs. So as an example, if you looked at the Lyric, which will be the first EV in terms of luxury crossover from Cadillac, we pulled that forward by nine months, So we brought that forward and accelerated it to the back end of March in two.

That will be followed by the Celestique, which will be an ultra luxury brand. And indeed, you know, without giving the time in a way of all of the product portfolio, if you look at GM across the board, we will have thirty products by twenty five that are EV variants, with about sixty of those sold in the US. So there is a fairly aggressive introduction of the evs moving forward.

I guess the thirty time scale is, you know, the period of time when we will be selling the last ICE vehicles from the Cadillac perspective, but we will certainly be in the market much earlier than that complementing our ice vehicle cells with evy vehicles. You know, Tim and I talk for a lot about wanting our next car to be an electric vehicle. Uh, Tim lives in the city. I lived just outside the city. In the urban environment, you do wonder about, Okay, how the heck am I

going to charge this puppy? How much of your timing also is thinking about the bigger, broader infrastructure problems that I feel like we've been talking about for a few years that in order for ev S to really come, you need to have the EV support network to be there as well, especially when it comes to charging. You're absolutely right, Carol, I mean, that's that's fundamental. And if you look at some of the metropolitan areas, you know

there's a big push in terms of infrastructure. If you look at some of the legislation and some of the activities that the states are putting in place, you know, the momentum is really starting to build. But it's a it's a fundamental issue in terms of being able to

facilitate demand with customer convenience. And from that point of view, you know, there's a number of things that we're doing, whether it be working with our dealer partners to put charging stations in place that we made an announcement the week before last in terms of that, whether it be are mobile app which basically gives customers the ability to be able to determine where to charge, which charges are

up and running, minimum downtime, et cetera. But it is one of the challenges that the industry places in terms of ensuring, particularly in some of those densely populated areas, that the infrastructure is there. So again, that's part of the reason that at the moment we have the need to be able to satisfy customers from a nice vehicle perspective, but also from an ev perspective. Hey, Rory, is you know when it comes to battery charging stations, how much

of it is the private sector responsibility? How much is it public sector? Is it a little bit of both? I think it's a it's a little bit of both, you know. I think it's uh, it's down to the incentives that are available. It's down to the distribution. It's down to private companies because there's a business opportunity, it's down to public I think this one is a team effort in terms of putting the infrastructure in place. Or you know, I'm thinking about GM and they're all in

on electric vehicles. Cadillac obviously a key part of that component. Um, I am curious about in the transitioning, especially at a time where we're talking so much about supple f chains. Are you guys able at this point to get all the raw materials, the minerals and things that you need to easily and continue to make this transition and keep

to your timeline. Yes, so I guess there's a there's a couple of parts for that, So I will I'll answer at first in terms of relating to semi conductors, which is one of the challenges that the closal automotive industry is is facing today. So you know that has been a challenge throughout the course of one and it's still a challenge today. Having said that, I would say that you know, we are seeing a better flow of

chips now. There's been a terrific amount of work that has been done with the supply chain, indeed getting more involved and deeper into the supply chain to be able to secure the right level of supply of chips and moves in board. Um. It is going to continue into two. But as an example, if you looked at North America and our plants in North America, we've got the majority of them for general motors back up and running and Indeed, as of Monday of this week, every single Cadillac plant

in North America is now operational. So that step one in terms of getting inventories to cover so that we can fulfill what is very strong customer demand at the moment um. So we're looking forward to some stability coming during the course of two there Then in addition in terms of you know, the materials that are required going

forward in terms of batteries. Um. Again, we've made some recent announcements in terms of some of the ventures and infrastructures that we're putting in place to ensure that we can secure the right levels of supply to enable and support the transition as we need to. And at this particular point in time, there is absolutely no delays to

our EV platforms in terms of rollout schedule. Indeed, I mentioned earlier that we're looking to pull the Lyric ahead by nine months versus the original plan, so we will start producing that vehicle in March of two. It's interesting what you know as we moved through this ship. What is it that I guess isn't the major risk to it progressing as you hope when you look at you know your timeline and as you said you moved it up for the lyric. But what is the biggest risk

to all of this? Yeah, I think you know one of the challenges that you've got. I'm not sure if I describe it as a risk. Is the pace of change and the rate of adoption, the rate of infrastructure, the range anxiety customers, ability to be able to charge, etcetera. So I think as a number of elements that pieced together in terms of the jigsaw, and I wouldn't say that it's a risk overrule in terms of the change.

I would say it's a time and impact in terms of how aggressive is the adoption rate of ev is going to be UM So I think it's more in terms of a question as to when rather than if. That was Cadillact place President Rory Harvey, your next car

an electric one, I think so. And we talk about infrastructure, especially in the city, right plugging in that's the thing, Carol, and I got flak for this people who have I've talked about this before on our on our program because I've said it's difficult for people who live in cities who park on streets, which is a lot of people. People who live in apartment buildings who don't have garages like me, Like, where would we charge it? No, it's a really good point, Like you have to figure that out.

It's so rare in New York City to walk down the street actually see a place where you can charge your car. We have a couple in my neighborhood in Brooklyn, but they're always being used. We gotta figure that one out. Still to come on Bloomberg Business Week, Build a Bear Workshop. It's a small cap company that just posted a record breaking third quarter performance. It's stock on a tear. We're

gonna speak with your Sharon Price. John. 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 oh six one to San Francisco, Bloomberg nine sixty to the country Sirius XM Chado one nine team, and around the globe the Bloomberg Business app and Bloomberg Radio dot Com. This is Bloomberg Business Week. If you're looking for an ap performer in the stock market, check

out Shares and build a Bear Workshop. That stocked him up in the area of around this year This past week, the company reported record revenues of more than nine million dollars in the third quarter. They also authorized a million dollars worth of share buybacks. All this as builder Bear prepares to celebrate its twenty fifth anniversary in the new year.

Sharon Price John has been the firm's president and CEO since had previously racked up two decades worth of experience in marketing and product development with the likes of Hasbro, Mattel, and Stride Right, and now she's got the specialty retailer of customized stuffed animals soaring to new heights in the midst of the busy holiday season. Sharon joined us from the New York Stock Exchange to discuss the company's digitization plans.

And it's a banner quarterly results. As you mentioned, we declared special dividend and the authorized dot by that program, but also raised the annual guidance and um, you know it's really we're we're looking at a revenue number that's the best in about a decade. As well as that pretext income that I was speaking of. Um, that's sevest in our corporate history for the first the third quarter, and the first three quarters of the year. One thing I just wanted to ask you, Sharon, is is why

the buyback, Why the special dividend? Is that the best way to use some your cash on hand? Well, it's one way to use our cash on hand. We have a robust capital plan UM, and a portion of that we felt with these record earnings is just a great opportunity for us two directly and immediately return some of that value to our shareholders. Of course, the stock buy back UM has a much different purpose. UH. It's more of a recognition of the board noting and believing in

the future of the company UM. But we also outlined some strategic objectives and opportunities for the future and how we're investing, and that's inclusive of continued and acceleration of our digital transformation as well as the evolution of our retail footprints and the way we go to market and continue to push into UH more robust approach to omni channel.

I know that people don't always recognize the Bill to Bear as an online retailer, but as with many through the Co Good experience, we really did lean heavily into e commerce. We had already been on that road from a strategic perspective for a number of years. How much of your business is e commerce versus store? Well, you know, but Build the Bears now, which is important to understand. Build Bears now multi generational. So we're coming up on

our twenty fifth year. Don't let that make you feel old. We've just been around for a while. And that's okay because not only do parents of kids and want parents now want to take their kids, they actually want to experience Build the Bear again. And some of that is our collectibles product like Pokemon or Harry Potter, and they go online. So our business just a few years ago was more in the four or five percent range of total sales, and now it's up to And what's the goal.

How high do you want to get that? Well, we're really the key is to grow total revenue. And because e commerce for us is on par from a profitability perspective to the rest of our revenue in stores, we just want to be there the way guts want to interact with us. If they want to go online and purchase, they can do that. If they like to come in store and have that very special retail tainment experience that

we're famous for, they can do that too. Hey, you gotta ask you, um, which we ask every leader of an institution or organization or company supply chain issues, how rough is it for you guys? Yeah, you know, we like so many toy industry people, we do source from Southeast Asia and it has been a challenge and um, you know, we're we're juggling containers and products and reprioritizing on a regular basis. We did make a special note that we believe we have a robust are a really

strong inventory position for the remainder of the holiday season. Um, we feel like that we have done our projections appropriately and really importantly, particularly for that special experience in memory

that people want to make in our stores. We actually have enough bear builders, which would be our sales associate, um, to make sure, to the best of our ability, that everybody has that that great build a Bear moment that Sharon Price, John president and CEO of Build a Bear Workshop, she says, Hey, they're gonna be able to satisfy demand this holiday season. It's interesting too. I love these like kind of traditional kids toy shops or traditional retailers that

are diversifying. I mean, they've got an entertainment division that just released its first live action production as part of Hallmark's Christmas movie lineup. I've got to say we had a ton of stuffies growing up. It was something that my daughter really really loved. But it's interesting, daughter, are you gonna like I'm not gonna blow up your spot, but you had I have to say I liked it. I like Deddy had some old ones, a little collection,

and then she inherited them. Um. But it is interesting to see how they are more interactive in their stores. And she talked a lot about the adult component of their business. It's not just about kids, Tim, It's not I know, I know everybody needs to stuff I'm blushing for everybody on radio. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week. Coming up, we turn our attention back to our cover story in the Bloomberg Fifty. We'll dig deeper into our

list of the year's most influential people and ideas. This is where we get to talk about Brittany, right, Brittany and Beamstocks. And that's right, We're getting to it in just a moment. This is Bloomberg. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Bloomberg Quick Takes. Tim Stinovik from Bloomberg Radio. So, the newest issue of Bloomberg business Week commemorates the fifth year of the Bloomberg fifty.

It's our annual look at those in business, entertainment, finance, politics, science and technology whose accomplishments deserves some recognition. To highlight a few more of the standouts, we welcome back the editor of the magazine, Joe Weber, along with Business Week Features editor Brett began. Well, let's acknowledge an honoree that really stood out to me on the list, somebody who really risked everything at a crucial moment in US history that was really at the start of the year. Eugene

good Men. So this was one that, um, really when Brett and I started the conversations, we just it was like almost was on the list from from the get go, right, um, because here was this person in the middle of this the quagmire of January six as you were trying to

understand even what was happening. But in the aftermath we learned that there were some heroes, and Eugene Goodman, one of the Capital security officers who actually saved probably saved lives because of his actions in terms of distracting and leading away some of the insurgents, which saved valuable time for the people who were inside and were able to actually secure some doors and perhaps you know again, saved lives.

So Eugene Goodman has been utterly quiet about all of this. UM. We reached out multiple times to try and talk to him about the day and the events and the aftermath, because keep in mind there there then multiple Capital Police Office serves who have actually taken their own lives in the months since UM and he was quiet and did not want to participate. And one of the things that we also learned is that Bloomberg News had people there on the ground who were covering this, Billy House being

one of them. Billy had also not talking about that day, So we used this as a way of talking about Eugene Goodman, but also Billy's experience not only covering the events of that day and and you know, being Congress a reporter for years now, but also the role that

the Capitol Police officers play in the daily coverage. UM. And he has these nice little sides about how he talks to these guys for years, right, and you almost just take them for granted until all of a sudden, they're actually there to do their jobs and protect you, And so I thought it was just an encapsulation of these quiet American heroes. Um at obviously one of the

darkest hours of our nation's history. Yeah, I mean you think about hero and you really that video, I you know, is chilling, and every time I see it, I feel like those of us who just saw the video outside for a long time, and then once we saw that video inside, you lized, Okay, this was a whole other thing. And Billy actually didn't even know about that because he

was there on the ground kind of living it. So, you know, he doesn't even really remember when he saw that the video of of Goodman um that went viral, right, But but that was the you know, for him to be on the other side of the building and living his own version of it. That was what we tried to weave all together that we want to talk at bit more about some of the kind of non business types.

How hard is it or is it easier to put this list or do you have a lot more names that come in when it comes to the people that are kind of the non traditional business kind of Wall Street people we cover here at Bloomberg. I think it's a it's all about that mix. You want to have people that you expect and then some unexpected ones. So so Eugene Goodman maybe doesn't have much to do about business and the traditional sense, except how could you do this list and not honor someone like that one of

the most important, I think moments of the year. But how do you how do you think about putting that mix together so we have the right balance of business and and sort of curiosity. Yeah, I think you want there to be a sense of discovery, right, I mean, any any good magazine issue you've opened up, and things should feel familiar and other things should not feel familiar.

And do you say I didn't know about that? And we think about that with entertainment, right, I mean, that's not the thing that we sort of covered, sort we covered business of entertainment, but entertainers not always the thing that we cover. So you know, someone like I look at like someone less like Jia ling Um, not a household name at all, certainly outside of China, but her movie High Mom is the highest grossing film ever for

a female director. She supplanted Patty Jenkins Wonder Woman this year. I don't think most people know that, probably because the film didn't do much outside of China, but it's it's a it was a massive, massive hit in the country. Um So someone like that, yeah, we want to put something like that on the list. But the thing that I really look for, I think, especially in entertainment, is

what's the larger story that's being told here? Right? So someone like Olivia at Rigo, Yes, massive successes here, but the cool thing about her is she became immediately famous everywhere in the world at the same time him, almost instantaneously. That is a new model. You know, even people like her that came out of the sort of Disney factory.

We can talk about maybe you know, Britney Spears or something like that, but she came out of Disney and but didn't tour, puts out this this single driver's license, and she was immediately as popular in the Philippines as she was here. And that's what streaming and basically social media can do now. So we also look for people who were there's sort of a story behind the story.

So let's talk about Britney Spears, because as we have been talking about, when it comes to this list, you'd be hard pressed to find another list that included diverse characters such as CEOs and meme stocks and Britney Spirits. How did she make the list? It's kind of like, how could she not honestly just just a huge, huge fan trying to find a way to put her on

the list. I mean no, I mean, okay, wait, let me we all we all know that what happened with when it came to write the battle that she's waged with her father. But I think it's notable that she was a household name twenty years ago and now she's back in the spotlight for something completely different. Yeah, I mean, they're the Free Brittany movement has had gotten a lot of attention. You know, these were this was a group of supporters that both outside of the courthouse she's having

these hearings and also especially online. Um was getting a lot of attention. There was a Time Near Times documentary about this. I got a lot of attention as well. And you know, I'm not even sure that I was really paying attention to this whole sag until I started to read about this stuff, and then he started to pay attention. You think, oh my god, like this this is a crazy this is a business story because for years she is making millions of dollars for the managers

of the conservatorship. And she goes to testifying court in June saying that, um, you know, basically she doesn't have a passport, she's not allowed to remove an I U D. I mean, really incredible things. And that was in June, and and you know, basically in August the courts basically he says that her father asked to sort of step down. He does so in September, and by November the conservatorship is dissolved. It sounds like it's not a business story,

but it really is. Well it's also I mean, we play so much into media content, like you think about the role of social media or these films that were done. I have to say I binged a bunch over Thanksgiving on all this Brittany stuff, having seen snippets of it, and it was pretty powerful and and as a society we all kind of had to ask some questions about

what was going on. Yeah, and in addition to that, I mean there's there's several politicians now we're saying, hey, we really need to look at the laws on this, because this is this is kind of crazy. So I think that's an example of just something that has impact. You might not associate it immediately as a business story, and yet there are there are millions of dollars that are wrapped up in something like this, and think about

what this visibility this brings to this style of of cases. So, um, I just think it's it was a really uh to Tim's point, you know, she could have been on this list twenty years ago. But like, also, there's a reason in a zeit guys moment that happened here. Um, and

and this was an example of it. And I'll segue from that into another one also has to deal with some court cases earlier this year, the the n C double A basically had to step out of this business of telling athletes college athletes that they couldn't make money off of their name, image likeness. These n I L deals now are huge because it allows, you know, college athletes who previously wouldn't have been able to profit, to actually make money off of themselves. And and it was

really interesting. Brett and I spent a lot of time trying to find the right way to frame this one, and we landed on an athlete named Page Becker's Who's Page Becker's page backers a k A. Page Buckets, UM pages at shooting guard at the University Connecticut, which obviously is trend out along line of very successful UM college basketball players Dianna Tarassi Brand Stewart. But she came along

at the right time. She's a superstar, she has a massive social media following, she's super cool, she's just awesome UM and she is among the more high profile athletes in college right now are taking advantage of these name, image and likeness deals. So on Monday, Bloomberg News UM earliest Week reported that she signed a big deal with Gatorade. UM that's her first major sponsor and that she's the

first athlete that Gatorade has ever sponsored in college. But the even sort of cooler deal that she has is with UM this company called stock x, which is this online street where marketplace, and the deal with stock x is going to allow her to do a lot of branded collaboration, so there could be Page Becker's T shirts

or really more importantly maybe Page Becker's sneakers. And the reason that she wanted this deal is that it's going to allow her to get some real hard data So when she enters the w n B a presumably three years from now, and the brands come to her and say, well, you know, female athletes that they don't really generate the same sales at the men do, She'll say, actually, of their seats right here, you go, take a look, I can sell shoes. And so this was really kind of

like a political act for her. She was very intentional intentions or intentional about making sure that, um, she had a deal that was going to allow her to sort of go to the major brands once she graduated and say, look I can I can sell shoes, so don't don't ask for dis And this all goes back to her having just this rabid social following, you know, like more than a million followers between TikTok and Twitter and whatnot.

So it just does speak to like the ability of a person and a person who wouldn't have otherwise been been able to crack our Bloomberg fifty list to kind of take control of her own future a little bit. And I found that just totally totally empowering. Well, guys, amazing work is always when it comes to this list. Thank you so much for your time and of course for your efforts on it. I know it is a

lot of work. A double dose of Joe Webber and Brett began helping us break down the Bloomberg fifty one. All right, that's gonna wrap up our weekend edition of Bloomberg Business Week from Bloomberg Radio. Thanks so much for joining us, Carol Masser and I'm Tim stant. Be sure to tune into Bloomberg Business Week Monday through Friday. It starts at two pm Wall 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 podcast. You can find it at Bloomberg dot com, Apple, or wherever you get your podcast. Bloomberg Business Week available on newsstands now at Bloomberg dot com, at business week dot com, and always on the Bloomberg terminal. You can also see me on Bloomberg Quick Take available at Bloomberg dot com, slash qt, and streaming platforms like Roku, Apple TV,

Samsung TV, and more. Have a great weekend. Stay safe everyone. This is Bloomberg