Bloomberg Businessweek Weekend-July 25, 2020

our daily radio show. And again, Jason, you know, kind of crises of all sorts this week, COVID nineteen, education, inequality and racism, and running and leading businesses against that backdrop we covered all this week Week nineteen working from home. Unbelievable, it has been that long and while we see sort of maybe a little light at the end of the tunnel,

feels pretty distant at the moment. And one of the conversations, Carol, we certainly got a lot out of was the conversation we had with Bishop t. D. Jake's back with us talking about those dual crises affecting the nation and his strategies for moving forward. Slighting was intensible, Germ coral was intensible, inclusive to be intensible. Plus the virus of course, front and Center, we caught up with a new president of the American Medical Association, Dr Susan Bailey. Talked about so much,

including the state of a vaccine development. But first, let's talk about this week's cover story. It's a great when corporate activism with a cherry on top. We're talking about Ben and Jerry's. It's incredibly compelling, incredibly timely. This is a moment in many ways, Carol that Ben and Jerry's was built for. Jordan Holman, Bloomberg News retail reporter, joined us along with Joel Weber, the editor of the magazine.

Within the last month UM, as Black Lives Matter started getting a ton of attention and the protests took off. You know, the first company that actually was out of the gate with a response and it literally just made all of us go WHOA. That was a really amazing move was Ben and Jerry's. And Ben and Jerry's, you know, it wasn't the first time they've done this. It is actually really part of the company's d na UM, the corporate activism, the social justice This is just almost the

lad chapter of it. And when we saw that, um, Jordan actually was like she was the one that said all that and I was like, Okay, why don't you turn around and write that story for us? And that was uh yeah, and that was we pulled in Thomas Buckley, who knows the Unilever sign of it, But that really became the expression of this. So Jordan's you know this, this company has been, you know, really known for this

from from day one. I think the thing that you you were able to really kind of bring to bear in this is like so many other companies fail when they try and do this. What makes Spin and Jerry's stand out? Yeah, thenn and Jerry's their statement just really hit you know, they said dismantled white supremacy and what we were seeing with other statements because you know, black lives matter and we support the community. But what makes them sing now is that they have a dedicated team

that thinks about these issues every single day. So when a tragic incident like the killing of George Floyd happened, it's not they don't have to scramble to get the resources or to think through the They've educated themselves, they've done the homework. They've connected with partners like Color Change and inp to get the wording right well and what's fascinating to Jordan's is it is in such contrast to so many other franchises, institutions, and companies that really fumbled it.

Absolutely Yes, um, So Ben and Jerry's has for the past few years said we're going to focus on criminal justice reform. We want to understand how structural racism in the US works. And you don't always get that intensity

from other corporations and honing in on that. And one thing that Thomas and I learned from reporting on this is that when they when Ben and Jerry's launches a campaign, there'll spend a year thinking about the topic, UM, thinking about criminal justice, how they can work with partners, how they can communicate that to customers who might not understand what structural racism is or the school to prison pipeline. And so that's why when a statement from them is released,

it really hits and resonates with people. Well, what's interesting, Jordan is, you know, we had a Bishop T. D. Jakes on our show yesterday and one of the things that he said that I really took away and I think Carol did too, was this notion of exactly what you're talking about, this intentionality, and he basically said he was like, look and he was being a hundred percent sirius. He said slavery was intentional, Jim Crow was intentional. Diversity

and inclusion have to be intentional as well. But it's not always easy, I think, to do that. And yet it is. And I that's I'm joking a little bit when I say this. It's baked in in many ways. I mean it's there on the package, it's there in the company. And that goes back to the founders, right. Yeah, So Ben and jerryus has been around since the late seventies and Ben Cohen and Jared greenfelt the founders they've

always spoken up on issues that they think matter. And what's changed, UM is that you know, it's be come more structured this team. So when they want to speak out on if it's climate change or if it's a structural racism like we're talking about, or whatever issue, they're being very intentional about what they want to say and

how they say it. And Um. For this story, we talked to the executive director of Color Change for Sean Robinson, who speaks to corporations all of the time, but he said, what's been and Jerry's apart is that they actually put that energy the time, and he even joked, you know, the flavor behind Black Lives Matter and the things that they care about. Jordan's another element that I want to bring in here is how you know Ben and Jerry's

owned by Uni Leaver. Now Uni Leaver this massive portfolio of companies um and not always as as sort of woke as Ben and Jerry's is, right, Like, this is also the company that does Uncle Ben's rice and jo has skin whitening brands in Asia that it's also trying to figure out what it's going to do what as Unilever as a company learned from you know, having Ben and Jerry's as part of sort of its portfolio. Yeah, this goes back to Jason's earlier point about the founders.

So when Ben and Jerry's was being acquired by Unilever, the founders really fought for that independence over the social mission, that element that even though they're going to be owned by this conglomerate, they're going to still have this independent board to push the issues that they care about. And that's Bloomberg News Retail Report Jordan Holman and Bloomberg Business Week editor Joel Webber talking about the cover story. Carol,

it's a good one. Well, it's a good one. It's also an incredibly deep dive into Ben and Jerry's history, how it fits into the massive company that is Unilever. And in keeping with that, we go from one massive company to another, because coming up next a behemoth in the Brandon packaged food business, how it is pivoting during the pandemic. We'll hear from Mondale's chairman and CEO, Dirk Bandi Putt. It's the latest edition of Business Week Talks.

This is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Jason Kelly from Bloomberg Radio. And today we're bringing you some of the most important, we hope in formative conversations we had on our daily Bloomberg Business Week radio show this week. And Carol, we've been in this for a while now, that's right, Jason, and keeping with that, so to have so many different companies, of course, trying to figure out how to make their way through the pandemic.

We caught up in another edition of Bloomberg Business Week Talks with a company and a CEO that is just huge in the packaged food business. You're talking about brands like Oreos, Cadberry, Trident and Tang, many many more. We caught up at the Mondoles chairman and CEO Dirk vander Putt and talked about how they are seeing rising demand

in general for our category. So what we see is that there is an increase in in home snacking UM and and there's a pronounced change of the consumer eating a lot more in their house, in their homes and so let's in restaurants less on the goal. And we see that effect on our on our business clearly. So they tend to eat more biscuits, they tend to eat more chocolate at home. But then a category like gum or candy, which is more on thego bout in convenience stores and so on, is is affected, and is UH

is negative versus previous year. I have to say, as you've been talking, can I just say Jason and I have been nodding about the chocolate. I mean it's happening, including Oreos and our end and lots of chocolate. Yes. Yes. The other big thing that you see is that, just like you were alluding, consumers want a little bit of normalcy. They want to feel good, safe, UM and and so they snack more, they go a little bit more to

comfort food. M they also go back to the brands they know and love, and you've mentioned a few that we have. So we also see that effect that our our market share and our big brands are are growing quite a bit. Um. The the other one that I wanted to mention about the consumers is that they are being I won't call it driven online. I think what we will see as coming out of this is that this was really the moment that shopping showed the major shift from going to the store to buy more and

more online. And we see for groceries, we see a lot of first times really starting to buy their groceries online. So those were some of the big big things we're seeing as it relates to the consumer. Um. So, when when you think about sort of how you have to respond to that, tell us about your supply chain. Have you had any interruptions there? Have you had to change anything to meet that customer demand but also to meet you know, any of the challenges about getting it to

stores or getting it to people's homes. Yes, yes, Um would say at the moment, things are are better, certainly in the US and in Europe. There's still sometimes a little bit fragile in emerging markets, but overall, I would say we've never really had a major disruption. Sometimes a plant had to shut down for two or three days because our workers couldn't get to the plant, or we had to negotiate with the government that our our plant

could continue to work in some countries. But overall, I would say we've been able to keep our supply chain going largely. We've seen slowdowns, um as we needed to sometimes uh take people out of the plant if there would be somebody that that got infected. Um. So it has been a challenge that is now better, but we are worried as we see, for instance, in the US, the rise of the cases, as as we see it

in the different states happening. If we have a plan there, we will start to see more cases in our plants and that could have an effect on our supply chain. Obviously, So you went exactly where I wanted you to go, which is you know, with these increasing cases and maybe even the potential of a second wave, do you start stockpiling some ingredients in different places and different regions. How do you anticipate it? Now? Having gone through this for

a few months. Yes, we we do UH prepare for stockpiling ingredients because our suppliers could go could have problems too. We we start to look for temporary workers or increase our workforce to make sure that we can keep our supply chain going and our salesforce going. We reinforce all the measures that we have in our plans and in our offices, but we also spend a lot of time with our people talking about how to behave outside of our facilities and how to make sure that that you

stay safe and healthy. Um. And and as it relates to office workers, we are still recommending everybody to work as much from home as they possibly can. And remind us in terms of your workers, UM, how that has gone in terms of holding on the workers, keeping workers. What we're seeing, you know, I think we're at this

very interesting time, um Dirk. Work companies as we head into another earning season are reassessing kind of what they need going forward, and of course it depends on demand going forward, and it depends on the global economy going forward. How do you see that? Yeah, we are lucky in a way that I would say overall our business is UH is doing pretty pretty much. Okay, that we have more variations around the world, and so it depends a

little bit where you are. Our US business is doing very well at this stage, so we've been recruiting and adding workers to our business in the US. But for instance, Latin America at the moment our business is is is suffering a little bit, and there we have to be a lot more careful and and try to get by with the with the minimum amount of workers that we possibly can. So it's not a uniform picture around the world. Um, the US for US looks looks looks very good at

this stage. Um we um. We also have to work quite a lot with our office workers. Um. Working from home gets to you after a while. It's it's it seems great, but sitting in front of screens eight hours a day, day in, day out, and and the blending of your personal life with your professional life, and potentially

having small kids in the home and so on. We we have to make sure that we make make sure that there is also a social contact that people really disconnect uh, that that they do not spend more time than needed in front of their screens and so on and so on, and so then the the number of complaints, of of mental health goes goes up a little bit, so that there are consequences to working from home. We see.

That's Mondaly's chairman and CEO, Dirk vander Put, And there's more of that interview online as well as in the magazine. And I got to say, Jason, the big headline from that company. You kept talking about it throughout the week is how Mondoles is cutting by the number of items that they sell their skews. As the CEO said, that's a pretty big move. It is a big move, and it really shows how, as you said just a few minutes ago, big companies are having to pivot there, having

to adjust to different sorts of demand. And we also love talking about how people are using apparently oreos in cooking. I love that. Speaking of big moves, how about bringing venture capital into the twenty one century. I've been increasingly hopeful about the change in complexity that I've seen in some of the generations that are coming up behind me y Plex Capitals, low Tony is hopeful about the future of diversity and inclusion in the world of VC. Looking

forward to that conversation. This is Woomberg, This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Jason Kelly from Bloomberg Radio. We're bringing some of the most important and informative conversations we had on our daily radio show throughout the week. And Jason, we like to remind everyone that we're having these interviews in real time as the world continued to move and change around us well. And one of the things that we've zeroed in on Carol on this program

throughout the weekend. On this show is diversity and inclusion, but really getting down to brass tacks what needs to happen across various industries. And low Tony over at Plexo Capital, He's got some ideas and he started with us talking about his own personal experience. I think it's a commonplace for someone like myself, black Mail. I grew up in Oakland, California, went to a historically black college in Hampton, came back to go to cal and I got used to being

the only black person in the room. It's just common. So I think that's a common experience Rands, but many of us have. But I've been increasingly hopeful about the change in complexity that I've seen in some of the generations that are coming up behind me, and I believe that we're at a point where we've reached an inflection point where we've been able to shine a light and visibility, and I'm pragmatically optimistic about the prospect moving forward. And

so there are a number of aspects. Is you know better than we do low in terms of the investing landscape to venture capital landscape, sort of where the money comes from, who invests it, and then where it goes. I know you've been working on all aspects of that.

I do wonder if you could tell us a little bit more about what you're doing around the general partner level, because I think you are rightly very focused on that piece of making the investors, not exactly that, not just what Carol described, which is, you know, a bunch of rich white dudes making decisions about where the money goes. Yeah, it's interesting. I was a partner at Google Ventures g V. One of the things we wanted to do was to

get access to more deal flow. So we had this really interesting thesis that when we started to look at some of the smaller earlier firms that were investing at that initial check level, we saw much more diversity than at the larger firms, and so we came up with this thesis that wow, you know, the the indirect path that many black venture capitalists have, like myself, produces really interesting networks and provides a different lens to be able

to evaluate opportunities and entrepreneurs that might not have the same understanding traditionally on sand Road. And so we decided to make investments into these venture funds to get access to their deal flow. And I took that one step further and created Plexo Capital and expanded to not only black gps, but other gps of color and female gps. And really it was an alpha strategy to identify inefficiency

and information and identify opportunities that others were missing. And what I also noticed was that, well, you know, actually this has a much broader implication to the to the vertical ecosystems for black for black entrepreneurs, for people of color that are entrepreneurs, and female entrepreneurs, which is, if we can get capital into the hands of a diverse set of investors, the data tells us that their portfolios

end up being diverse. So if they've got diverse portfolios, those diverse founders are going to hire diverse teams and if there's a successful exit that creates wealth generation for those employees, well, lo and behold, you have a diverse set of execs that are going to write angel checks, likely to diverse entrepreneurs. They'll have the financial stability and comfort maybe to take that risk and start their own company, or maybe some of them will even become venture capitalists themselves.

But more importantly, it starts a wealth creation pattern. And then health is also transferred back successfully to those initial investors, and if they were divers, they go down the wealth creation and then capital is returned to the original limited partners for the investors into those venture funds. And once those limited partners see that positive signal of dollars coming back, they say, Wow, this is working, Let's deploy more capital.

And so that creates this flywheel within that vertical ecosystem. I mean, it's not dissimilar to how we see geographic ecosystems developed outside of Silicon Valley in places like Seattle, New York, and Austin. But in this case it's vertical around black entrepreneurs, female entrepreneurs, or other people of color. So I feel like our our model, even though at the outset the purpose was to deliver alpha and increase returns. It has this additional benefit of being able to help

to accelerate these ecosystems on a vertical basis. And that's Plexo Capital founding managing partner low Tony Carroll. And this is a guy we're going to be going back to him for updates. I know it well. Listen, Jason. He was a partner at Comcast Ventures than g V which was formerly Google Ventures. I mean Alphabet was the anchor investor in his own investment firms. So this is someone who truly understands the VC world. And check out our podcast feed for more of that interview with low Tony.

Bottom line, I like what he said, Jason about creating a flywheel to get more diversity in blacks in the world a VC well coming up next getting into college. It isn't just about good grades, teacher recommendations and great SAT scores. Jason. We know the Varsity Blue scandal revealed so much more. This is the book you have been waiting for to understand everything that went on Melissa Corn unacceptable privilege, deceit, and the making of the college admission scandal.

This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Jason Kelly from Bloomberg Radio. Well, today we're bringing you some of the most important and informative conversations we had on our daily radio show this week. And Carol, this is a story that even with everything going on in the world, Man, you want an update, you know, Jason, I can still remember when this news broke. We were sitting in our studio at seven thirty one Lexington March of last year

and just watching it unfold in front of us. It became the largest college admission scam ever prosecuted by the Department of Justice. Melissa Corn of The Wall Street Journal is co author of Unacceptable Privilege, Deceit and the Making of the College Admission Scandal. We talked with her about the book. We were really blown away by so so

many things. Honestly, the scope, the breath, the sophistication of this scheme that the mastermind, Rick Singer put together, but also what it says about our society and parents obsession with prestige and brand name schools. And it was often really the parents, more so than their teens, who were striving for these particular institutions, and they were the ones

driving driving the whole process. So Melissa take us back, because this was something, as Carol just alluded to, that landed and all of us across the journalistic world, the parental world, especially Carol and I both have juniors in high school, so we pay very close attention to all of these things, as many do. Remind us what operation

Varsity Blues laid bare. Yes, So in March of twenty nineteen, which does seem like forever ago harkens back to a simpler time, UH showed that there was this college admissions counselor, Rick Singer who had managed to find and exploit a few real weaknesses in the selective college admissions process, both in terms of standardized tests where he had paid off test site administrators and a proctor UH to fudge and cheat, fudge scores and cheat and improve the results for a

number of clients. UH. He also found weaknesses in athletic recruiting and these special flocks that are given to recruited athletes in the admissions process, and he arranged to bribe a number of college coaches and UH others who flag individuals as recruited athletes even when they didn't play a sport. And there was nobody checked. That was one of the big things that was really made clear there was that

nobody was checking them a half. Nobody was testing, you know, auditing these applications in any way, because nobody ever thought that a coach would choose somebody who wasn't going to actually help the team. But if the price tag was high enough, clearly they did. It's amazing, Melissa, because I think you know, we've all understood I think safe to say that there's understandings that there are legacies and families that have been at schools and you know, you donations.

You know that things happened, but this was just on a whole other level, right. So we have a whole chapter in the book called the Gray Area, which gets at the legacies of donations, those v I P lists of applicants, and I think everybody knows that that goes on.

This is kind of at the far end of the spectrum and obviously a little bit too far in illegal territory, but it really does highlight some of the existing inequities in the system, and I think it is a good reminder that even those people who aren't doing things like that, or even people who aren't legacies or donating hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars. Many of them have an

edge too. If you're hiring a private s a T tutor or essay coach, or sending your kid to a regional club soccer team that costs ten thousand dollars a year, those are not experiences that every student has. So, Melissa, one of the amazing things about this book, because this is of course the scandal that has been written about and talked about, is you and your co author got some amazing access. You've got to people that basically no

one else has gotten to tell us about. That. Yeah, we were really fortunate in being able to speak to lot of the principal players in this whole story. And I think the part of it was we made clear that they were going to be in the book whether they wanted to or not, and they could help make sure that it was accurate or try to hide from it,

and a lot decided it was better to engage. So, you know, we we can't say who exactly we spoke with, and we make really clear that don't assume that just because there's a scene from one person's point of view that that was the person that we got the information from, of course, as we protect our sources, but we really did try to get inside their heads and explain a little bit about why they engaged with Singer, why Singer was the way he was, why the prosecutors took the

approach they did, um because I think there's nobody is It's really hard for any individual to be painted, you know, black and white, good guy, bad guy here because even the parents who committed felonies ultimately work in some twisted

way trying to help their kids. And that's relatable. What I read a little excerpt I think it was in people um online, and you talk about one Devin Sloan who asked his son to pose for photos in the family pool wearing full water polo gear and didn't really give him a reason why, and the sun did it even though he didn't play the sport like. It's just amazing kind of some of the steps that parents went to and kept their kids in the dark. It really was.

And I think you know with that uh excerpt and that the anecdote was the son Matteo, he was really thoughtful about the whole thing and afterwards and said, you know, I was really mad at my dad. But then I kind of felt bad for him that he thought that he needed to do this to make me successful. Um. You know, this is a teen who would have been just fine on his own, and he would have landed

at a perfectly good school. Um without that extra, all the extra bells and whistles and costumes and poking and things like that. His dad was sentenced to four months in prison, but he got to stay at the school. Correct, Right, He's one of the students who was not kicked out. Every university, every college did it, did their reviews a little bit differently. Um, some expelled or rescinded the admission offers for students, others allowed the student to continue. It

really was case by case at a lot of these places. Well, let's to tell us more about the parents in this case, and we're speaking with most of Korn, reporter at the Wall Street Journal and co author of the new book Unacceptable, Privileged Deceit and the Making of the College admissions Scandal. Tell us about the parents, because what you just said, I think resonated throughout this story. Uh that in many cases, at least, this is I think how I read it

for the parents. This was as much about them as it was about their kids. Absolutely, and we talked a lot about that culture that was really prevalent in some of these pockets of southern California and the Bay Area and New York and that you're kids are a reflection of you. So if your kids are succeeding by certain kind of determined, predetermined measures, you as a parent are there for succeeding. And it's beyond you know, are they

walking and talking when they're supposed to? If are they getting into this particular school, because this particular school is one that you can boast about at a cocktail party. Well, that school that's perfectly good, but perhaps not as well known. You know, nobody wants to hear hear about that over orders. So these parents really did get very caught up in that and in the sense that my kid needs to succeed because it's a way of showing that I am doing a good job as a parent. So what's happened

as a result of this? And I wonder in terms of admissions. I mean, I feel like I have to say I do remember when it broke in our Jason and Imno New York studio and we're just like you know, and especially because there are a lot of names beyond the celebrity names that we knew UM, whether in the

financial community. But I do wonder if, like all colleges kind of went and it was like, okay, you know, like LETTU, you know, a deep dive to find out our process and make sure we're doing it the right way. Like what's what's happened as a result of it. What's maybe gotten better at colleges and universities when it comes

to the admissions process, if anything. Yeah, early on last spring and summer, there were these hints that there was going to be change, and these moments of reflection and introspection and okay, yeah, maybe we should audit our application or if somebody gets in as a recruited athlete, let's make sure they actually joined the team. And you know, a number of schools came out and said they would

do that. California UM actually passed some legislation at the state level that schools needed to be more transparent about things like legacy admissions. But at the end of the day, there wasn't dramatic change. It's not like schools are saying no to donations that happened to come from families that are um, you know, a couple of years off from college,

and I don't see that stopping. The story of Larry Laughlin and her husbands Muggia Newly and their two daughters are helps illustrate just kind of how the athletic recruiting scheme worked very well. UM. The two girls at various points posed on an ERG in their home gym, and the photos were sent to Rick Singer's team and they ended up not being used in the final application. The one of his UM deputies used a different different pictures, but it just showed how easy it was and how

kind of murky. Some of the discussions were about exactly what was happening here, So we we get into it in the book of what their defense was. You know what they say Singer told them was actually going on. And no, it's totally fine. You're giving financial support to the to the crew team. It's fine that they don't play, that they're you know that they're not rollers or cox Swin's. This happens all the time, totally closer versus Yes, I am fully aware I am making a bribe so that

my kids can get into school. Pretending to be an athlete and being an athlete. That's our conversation with the co author of Unacceptable Privilege, Deceit and the Making of the college admission scandal, Melissa Corne. She's a reporter at The Wall Street Journal. Jason, this is a story that, man, we've been talking about so much over the last year, year and a half. As soon as I knew this book existed, I wanted to read it and I wanted to talk to Melissa corn So I'm excited we got

a chance to do that. This is a scandal that will have repercussions for years to come, and especially when you synthesize it, Carol, with everything that's going on in higher education, owing to the pandemic, owing to questions about inequality and racial justice, it is timely to say the least. Well. That wraps up the first hour of the weekend. Additional Bloomberg Business Week from Bloomberg Radio. I'm Jason Kelly and I'm Carol Master. Planning coming up in our next hour,

including where we stand on vaccine research. We'll hear from American Medical Association President Dr Susan Bailey, plus a true voice of reason back with us Bishop TV. Jay c joined us from Dallas, talking about the dual crises facing this name. There's a health crisis, there's a racial justice crisis. He is dealing with them both. I gotta say I was NonStop taking notes on everything he had to say. This is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol

Masser and Jason Kelly from Bloomberg Radio. Hello, I'm Carol Masser and I'm Jason Kelly. Plenty ahead for you in this hour of the weekend edition of Bloomberg Business Week. Carol, We're gonna take you around the world in some ways, or at least across a number of industries, how they

are dealing with all these crises facing us. Yeah. I feel like there's a little bit of a theme in the next sixty minutes about leadership in times of crises, And in keeping with that, we checked in again with Joel Peterson, the former chairman of the board at Jet Blue. Why he says there's a need for more entrepreneurial leadership.

That's exactly right. Also, President Clayton Rose of Bowden College talking about canceling fall sports, but also just getting students back on campus, the implications for learning and the implications for higher education overall, Carol and speak you have implications? What about racism? Jason a voice that you were like, we got to talk to Bishop td. Jake's stopped by again to talk with us. His perspective so thoughtful, so deep,

so understanding. It's a wonderful interview exactly, and especially given where he is. He's in Texas where the virus is raging and they are facing so many big questions. But first, the coronavirus pandemic. It's infecting more than fifteen million people, killed more than six thousand people worldwide since late January when it was first reported. Man, it seems like a long time ago. Well. Dr Susan Bailey, she is the

president of the American Medical Association, newly inaugurated. She joined us to talk about where we stand in the fight against COVID nineteen five. From being very hot in Texas, UM, the coronavirus is a very hot as well. UM. Texas is one of the many hot spots in the country for the virus and UM many of our hospitals UM are full UM. And although we are seeing some little trends that we may be seeing a downward slide in cases which I think is because of the mask mandates

are governor introduced earlier in the month. Well, let's talk about that, Dr Bailey, as a physician and as someone who you and your colleagues have been tracking this so closely. I feel like some local and state and even federal leaders are getting religion maybe a little belatedly on on the mask wearing. What effect will that have? I mean, is this the sort of thing that could really, as they say, sort of arrest this and really changed the trajectory.

Now that it does feel like we're all getting on board with this, UM, wearing a mask should not be a political statement. You know that being said leadership, UH and UM symbolism is very important in society and UM. The American Medical Association, the American Hospital Association of American Nurses Association recently released a statement that we are all in agreement that everyone needs to take the simple steps that we know will stop the spread of the virus

by wearing masks, maintaining physical distancing and washing hands. UM. We agree with the CDC that everybody in the country ought to be wearing a mask. I have to say, any of the experiences and interactions I've had, you know, with the medical community certainly as certainly the New York metro has started to open up and reopen up, you know, UM, hospitals and medical centers for kind of routine procedures. You know, doctors.

Everybody's in masks like there's it's just the way of life, and they understand that that's just the way it has to be to keep everybody safe. Well, I think it's important to remember that back to business doesn't mean business as usual. I believe that we're going to have to observe our mask wearing, physical distancing, and hand washing for the uh indefinite future. UM. We now have good scientific evidence to show that mask wearing does decrease the transmission

of the virus. It protects the wearer, it protects the people that are near the wearer, and UM some have tried to make a controversy or a conspiracy out of changing recommendations over time. You know, nothing could be further

from the truth. And the beginning of the pandemic, we did not realize how much asymptomatic spread there was out there, and we didn't think that wearing a mask would make much difference, and we wanted to make sure that there were masks available for healthcare personnel that we're really getting heavy, heavy exposure to the virus now that we know that the virus is practically everywhere. UM, we do think that masks for everyone are appropriate, even the cloth mask UM

and encourage everybody to wear them. So Dr Bailey talked to us about, well, we'll talk about vaccines in a little while, but I want to talk to you about treatments because I feel like that's one of the things we've been talking a little bit more about this week, Carol and I have on this program is sort of what's out there right now to treat this disease, because we know that a vaccine is months away. Best case. Uh, what are you seeing in terms of treatments that are

working well? Unfortunately, the treatment side of the equation is still very very sparse. UM. Everyone has likely heard of rim dissevere UM anti viral medication, but that's being reserved for patients in the hospital who are extremely ill. UM. It may work a little bit better earlier in the illness, but UM, that's going to be limited by the amount of medication that's available. UM. There's been some reports out of Great Britain that adding a steroid um for severely

ill patients can be very helpful. But other than that, the only treatment that we have really is prevention. Uh. There are a number of drugs and the pipeline monoclonal antibodies and other therapeutics that we hope will um, you know, be able to be used to treat COVID nineteen at earlier stages, but those are all um still in the planning phase right now. And that's President of the American

Medical Association Susan Bailey. Good to catch up with her Carol, new to the job inaugurated remotely as everyone is working from home or certainly not together uh these days, and talk about a big job. Yeah. And what's interesting, Jason, and what's struck with me is how she reminded us that we now know that the virus is everywhere and that the only real treatment we have right now is prevention. So I thought that really was very telling about kind

of our world. She also gave us another line for upcoming T shirt collection. Back to business doesn't mean business as usual, And I feel like that slogan applies to to so many leaders of companies trying to figure their way back through the pandemic. Former Jet Blue chairman of the board Jill Peterson has advice on that as well. He says, be entrepreneurial. Absolutely, opportunities abound even in crisis. This is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol

Masser and Jason Kelly from Bloomberg Radio. We're bringing you some of the most important and informative conversations, thoughtful conversations that we had in our daily radio show throughout the week. A lot of it Jason often deals of course, with the dual crisis when it comes to the virus and also inequalities in our society. A lot of it also related back to leadership that we need at this time. Absolutely, I feel like we are looking to leaders more and more.

We're looking for more information from them. So who better to talk to than former Jet Blue chairman Joel Peterson. Not only has he run some big companies, served on a number of boards, he's also an early stage investor, and so he gave us a peek into his portfolio how his different companies are dealing with it, but also as a leadership expert, how he is giving advice around entrepreneurship.

A lot of leaders are doing really well. We have a portfolio about fifty companies and they're adapting to it. They're reconsidering what is their covenant with their customers, what are the hard things that they haven't done that they need to do, and what ways can they build their business in this time? There are opportunities that are coming to the four. People are learning new ways of doing business. And I think we're actually recovering quite nicely from the

COVID crisis. And so what's what are the learnings that stick, Joel, Like, what are the things that you know, we've sort of learned in these remote working environments, in this zoom world and the distance world that you know, you feel like culturally or even in a day to day setting, are going to remain well. I think we were probably won't be taking trips across the country for a one hour

meeting and more. I think we found that there are a lot of things we can do on Zoom or other of these kinds of programs that are actually quite effective. So I think I think the travel and hospitality industries will come back, but they'll come back relatively slowly. Um. I think we're finding that we missed people I taught of course at Stanford in the spring, and Uh, I used to come out of class on a high. I would I would love me with my students. It was fun.

I would come out this time through a screen and come away saying, how much longer people? I have to do that again? You know? So? So I think we really understand that we need to be around people. Yeah. Absolutely, I think we are getting a little bit of a warped sense of kind of our lives that we are living it so much. The things that we criticize our kids for doing, being so much in front of a screen. We we have to to kind of keep things going. I want to go back to your portfolio fifty companies.

Talk to us a little bit about them, the types of companies, and you said that they're doing well. I am just curious about, as a result of what we are going through in the pandemic, are there some in your portfolio that you're are like, this is going to be a turning point for them, Uh, in terms of maybe demand going forward. Well, you may have heard of the company Franklin Covey. I've been on the board there

for about twenty nine years. It's a training company and they thought for a while that they were going to really have trouble because they do a lot of online or not online, but direct in person training, and they've since converted it over to all online and they're getting higher net promoter scores. They provided a bunch of free materials to schools that they work with and families. You know, people are teaching their kids at home now need materials,

so they just provided it free to them. So they're figuring out new ways to connect with customers. We've got another one that's a robotics packaging company, you know, and and with fulfillment what it is, UH, you're finding that they're being used a lot. They actually build packages around the products so there's no air, there's no seal, there, there's no peanuts. They really create these very efficient so

it's called smart packaging for a green planet. And so they've they've done well, So it really depends each one is different. Another one called Kota Paxi UH has basically given a lot of money to help people through this COVID thing through sales of their product. So interesting. Well, and I have to tell you, Jason, you know, All Birds is in their portfolio. Jason and I are both

fans um birds literally right now. And I have to say, you go to you know I remember, yeah, you go to their store in New York, and I mean it was constantly packed with people buying not just one pair, but usually multiple multiple pairs. How do you decide what you're going to invest in? You know, I'm pretty old fashioned. I'm probably the opposite of Warren Buffett. He always talks about the business plan beats out the people. I invest in people I find great entrepreneurs, and I backed them

and help them great businesses. So to me, I and that's why our portfolio had in all of these different kinds of things. That was the first investor in Bonobos. You may have heard about business um, and it's because there was a couple of students of mine that I loved, and uh, you know, I just figured out how to how to help them get business bill and what is the UM? And and do people you mentioned a couple

of former students, like, how do people find you? I mean I assume you're you were sought after anyways the job, but but how do people get to you? Well? Uh, so we're about a billion dollar series of funds. Were insult Lake. We're on the Internet. I know I have a big network because I've done business on the coast for a long time. So and then I always tell people I've done a lot of favors for people over the years, never expecting anything back, and every once in

a while I get surprised. So that's a source of deals. So, Joel, I want to talk about leadership in the midst of this world we are living in. We got to chat with you a little bit about that when we were talking earlier in this year about your new book, Entrepreneurial Leadership. But this is a real test, I would imagine, and I know you talked to CEOs all across the world. If you can generalize what makes for a good leader

in this topsy turvy world. Well, it's actually, uh, you know, I thought for a while list notion of putting out a book on entrepreneurial leadership was the worst possible timing during this COVID thing, But I actually think that coming out of it, we need entrepreneurial leaders. These are people who really innovate, They create durable change. They're not merely residers. They're not myriad administrators, managers, politicians, you know the kinds

of leaders that you sometimes get in organizations. I think it's gonna be our lead an organization out of this mess without having kind of an entrepreneurial mindset. That's Jeff Blue, former chairman of the Bard Joe Peterson. Check out the full conversation on our podcast feed. Check out his book too, That's Out Entrepreneurial Leadership The Art of Launching new ventures,

inspiring others and running stuff. Great conversation, Jason. We talked to him a little bit too about the airline industry and how he said, you know, flying across country for one hour business being not likely to happen anytime soon. Yeah, we're certainly hearing that more and more business travel is going to be fundamentally changed and may never get back to the level it is. I'll tell you something else that's going to change in the short term, mid term,

and maybe the long term. Higher education. Carol and we put a lot of questions and got some good answers from Voting College president Clayton Rose. He talked to out the school's plans for the fall and what it may mean for the future. Yeah, exactly. This is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Jason Kelly from Bloomberg Radio. Well, today we're bringing some of the most important and informative conversations we had on our daily

Bloomberg Business Week radio show this week. Another busy week, Carol, Yeah, absolutely, and I gotta say we love checking in with colleges and universities because what we're finding is there's no one size fits all when it comes to reopening plans for the fall semester. Boden's College president Clayton Rose joined us along with Bloomberg News Higher Education finance reporter Janet Lauren

to talk about Boon's return to campus. Two overarching goals that we were um working on and it really drove us in the decision making. We're first and foremost the health and safety of our students, faculty, staff, and the neighbors that we have in Brunswick. And then second and very much connected to this, was delivering for our students wherever they were going to be in the world, an excellent,

boteing education in the fall. So those are the two north stars that we anchored ourselves too, and the decisions that we took on the shape of the fall and how we were going to go about UM UH UM coming back in one form or another. We're really driven by those two things. We're returning to campus about of our students, the first year class plus several groups of students UH around the first year class UM UH and then the rest of our students will be off campus.

Virtually all of our classes will be done online. And that UM gets to the second piece, this excellent education piece that I've talked about. UH. We are made an affirmative decision that the best way to deliver an excellent bote and education was to have all of our faculty, all the staff they work with, and frankly, all of our students focused on a single method of delivery, which was in an online version, rather than doing some in person, some in some kind of a hybrid, and some online.

But to have everybody focused in a single direction and to put all of our resources and attention on that single direction. And so far in the work that we've been doing, we're very optimistic about being able to deliver on that second goal while also protecting the health and safety of everyone. So, can you tell us a little bit about what being on camp it's going to look like for you know, mostly the freshman lots of testing, lots of masks, not a lot of social interaction, paint

a picture for us. M Uh, well, absolutely true, and I it um goes about saying that this year on our campus and every other campus will be very different from uh what has historically been UH fall at college and for first year students what you know they've been thinking about and getting geared up for for several years now.

UM not in the US. I think the uh, the experience for our first years and for the others on campus will be both important for them and I'll come back to that in a second, and also UM fun and interesting and engaging in the age of COVID nineteen Uh. First of all, we'll have UM a whole set of safety protocols and you alluded to several of them. Uh. UM. Face masks will be required in all indoor spaces, and then depending on the group's outdoors, UH, there'll be self monitoring,

good hygiene practices, and social distancing. The classrooms will be that we're we are going to use, and we'll have a handful of classes for the first year students that will be taught in person will be designed with safety in mind. Our dining has been completely re engineered to allow us to again manage it in a safe way. All students on campus will have a single room and there'll be a very low density of folks that will

be sharing bathrooms with very particular hygiene and cleaning practices. Uh. So, very different kind of of of sense of the place. But UH we'll be engaging in all kinds of ways to build community, to engage in activities, to have students do a number of the things that they normally do on campus, sometimes in lower density groups and sometimes in different ways. UM. Uh we will, as you said, I

have a very rigorous testing regiment. UM. We will be testing everybody on campus two times a week UM and have a whole protocol established for that. We're working with the Broad Institute in Boston, which is in Cambridge, which has UH developed a fantastic testing program for colleges and universities on the UM in New England and in UH in in the in the lower part of New England. So UM President Rose you Hay talked about doing testing

twice a week. Can you give us a sense of how much that costs and what kind of a burden that add to UM to your budget for the year that you weren't expecting in Europe. Well, the the UH the total cost of he often safety program, which which testing is a significant part but not the only part, is going to be considerable for Boden and for for every other school. The cost of the tests itself, um

are about thirty dollars per test. That's one of the things that the Broad Institute has been able to provide the colleges and universities. It's a very high quality test, very accurate, and that's boding College President Clayton Rose joining us along with Higher Ed Finance reporter Janet Lauren from Bloomberg and Carol. One of the things I've been thinking a lot about is there are very few people more on the front lines when it comes to making big

decisions than college presidents. We hear that over and over again. We get a chance to talk to a lot of them. At the same time, when you think about the front lines of everything that's going on right now, pastors, they are dealing with this very personal and very meaningful level. And Jason, we're talking about TD Jake's and he talked with us about really how to change the course of our history when it comes to racism. One of the takeaways, you know, people just having the courage to talk to

others that are different than all of us. A really meaningful conversation that's coming up. This is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Jason Kelly from Bloomberg Radio, and today we're bringing you some of the most important and informative conversations we had across the week on our daily Bloomberg Business Week radio show. Carol and I have to say it's a great way to wrap up our weekend show. We've been really looking forward to

talking to T. D. Jake's. I mean, as the nation, Jason, as you know, deals with so many different crises, health disparities, the pandemic, inequality, fighting racism. Someone who is a true voice on all of this is Bishop T. D. Jake's. He's chairman of the T. D. Jake's Foundation, pastor of the Potter's House. He's an author and entrepreneur, he's an educator, and he caught up with us to talk about where we stand, ways to move forward, and coping with loss.

I can put it this way. In the last two and a half weeks, I haven't had a go by that I haven't gotten called it something done. Uh So, being a pastor you can get a front low seat at at at the final services. And uh so it is disastrous right now. The numbers are really high. The death rates are escalating. Again, black and brown communities are disproportionate hit and so that trauma from that hit is very strongly a m clergy because there are people that

we know or related to people that we know. And I literally haven't had a day go by that I haven't gotten a phone call like that, and so I don't I mean, this is a tough question to answer, I know, but what do you say to people that, Bishop James, I mean, you're having these conversations every day.

It is what is your message to to them, especially given exactly what you said that disproportionality here, that this is affecting uh you know, black and brown people at a much much higher rate that that is just inarguable at this moment, I think that we cannot rely on our elected officials to make the determinations for our health and well being, given that we're disproportionately affective. We have to be disproportionately careful. And I've been telling people just

too distance them sales. Uh, to use common sense to avoid close gatherings and celebrations. We have a tendency to think that if we know people well, they ought to be safe to be around. But that's not true right now, and it's a new normal, and it's requiring a discipline that we're not used to, but it's necessary in order to keep our well being up. And then I've had several people that have contracted and recovered, so you know, on the good side of it, we are seeing some

recoveries and some success stories. But I think there's a great deal of apprehension in facers right now as it relates to the broadness and of the far reaching effect of this particular pandemic. I do wonder to how you see it, Bishop Jake's, especially since you know Jason and I talk. You know, we're in eighteen nineteen weeks of lockdown. Essentially for the most part, we have been at home almost exclusively, um as our offices have yet to really reopen here in New York City. Uh, it's a slow

move back. But I do wonder are you a little angry that, you know, if there was a lot that we've learned through what happened with the virus on the East coast, that we could not or should should have been smarter as a nation, especially when we know, as you said, those communities that are disproportionately affected. You know that we could have been smarter in slowing the impact, reducing the impact that we're now seeing play out in Texas and other areas, certainly there in the South and

out in the West. I have survived a lot of catastrophes. I was deeply involved with Katrina and a lot of things. It's hard in real time speed to to really aim at at who the fault and word of place anger. Yes, I'm a little angry. So exactly where all the place of anger, I think is another issue. We would have loved have had stronger national leadership on this issue, and even on the state wide level. I think we could have opened up a lot slower than we did. Uh.

But but I couldn't control that. And so in a situation where we can't control the outcomes of the political terrain that we're tracing right now, we have to be the CEO of us and make the kinds of the seasons that are strong and wise for yourself, even as it relates to children going back to school. You your parents are going to have to step in and make five of the seasons, because right now there's so many

mixed messages, nobody knows exactly what to do. So Bishop Jake's I'm so glad we're getting to talk to you, and and it's overdue, in part because you were one of the first folks I thought of, you know, as we started to go through these last couple of months, and when we saw what happened in Minneapolis, and and we saw what that triggered nationally, you were one of the voices that that I want to hear from around all this because I want to understand how you view

what has happened since the killing of George Floyd, the reaction within your community and also the reaction in the broader community across America. You talked to so many people, you know, both in your congregation, but also national leaders, corporate leaders as well, and I wonder what you make of this time we're living in. Uh, it's like reliving a nightmare from the sixties. Being my best all the sixties that I saw this too, and so uh, you know, it's it's the movie I don't want to see again.

But it's happening in real time and speed. The good side of it is more and more people of that are not of color are taking up this issue, and that's a very hardening, encouraging thing to see. UH. There has been some progress made. I call them cosmetic changes in terms of statues being removed. I'm not talking about violently so, but legally so. And I'm also hardened by the fact that there have been uh CEO incorporations who have worked hard to correct some of the situations that existed.

UH as it relates to the Confederate flag and and and and Jebama served and things like that. But those are all cosmetic changes. Are nice, they're important, but they're cosmetic changes. The cancer that we still have still exists. UH. And I think that we have to work very hard, UH to to resolve some of the issues in the

criminal justice system. We have to work very hard to get a national database set up for police officers who have had problem problems and other precincts so that we don't make the mistake of the Catholic Church and moved them from precinct to precincts like they moved them from Paris to Parish. If we listen in history, we would learn quickly that we have to do things differently than

what we've done before. Uh. And I think that there's a lot to be done in terms of the way the laws are as it relates to immunity right now from police officers, and how we correct that sort of thing. That's a deeper cancer issue that needs to be corrected. You have to look at our communities as well, at job opportunities and training and retraining people to create opportunities. Well, that is something Jason and I've had a lot of

conversations around Bishop Jake's about that. Ultimately, these inequalities they start really early on for individuals. It's a poverty issue, you know, and that we've got to figure out how to change that in our system so that everyone truly has the same access to opportunity. And that means, you know, from the minute you're born, and so how do we

how do we really change that. We keep talking about better education, Well, we've spent a lot of money on education, yet here we are, so how do we really tackle that that problem that starts from in many cases from the minute somebody's born, and it depends on where you're born, in the color of your skin. We we've spent a lot of money on education, and we've made some inroads in terms of education, but we've got people that are

educated flipping Hamburgers right now. We've got to create opportunities and we've got to hold our corporations accountable to diversity and inclusion on every level, not just entry level positions. We need people in high ranking positions that are as diverse as our country is. We need that in our government, We need that everywhere so that when we sit down at the table to make decisions and the people who are making decisions look like the people who are going

to have to live with those decisions. And that's just a wise way of leadership and government and going forward. I think we also have to look at how our cities are constructed, because they were not constructed in a way to provide commerce and too. Uh. Certain areas and certain sectors are designed in such a way. The highway is constructed in such a way that it does it creaks down into those that it's been proven statistically, the

low income housing group together does not work. And yet we continue down that path rather than mixed income, housing, and I think some of it is in the economic conshoe. Some of it is an education issue. But you can be educated and you can be wealthy and you can still be shot down by uh police brutality. So it's not all education and it's not all economics. It's it's really a total reform of our system. And I think it's starting to happen. Uh, it just needs to continue

to happen. And I'm worried that the conversation gets sad tracked by the vigilantes who take the message into their own hands and misrepresent the heart of what we're trying to do in our country. They have to be intentional about it. I mean, slavery was intentional, Jim Crow was intentional. Inclusion has to be intentional. It has to be intentional, and it has to be comprehensive. And uh, it's not

just gonna happen organically. We have to be intentional and go out and recruit and recognize that our companies do not reflect our country. And they have to be very very intentional about that. And I think where they are having difficulties working together to find people, they have to work with other organizations. That's Bishop TV Jake's and you

can check out that full conversation on our podcast feed. Jason, this is a voice who has seen so much, and I feel like we come away with such a deeper understanding kind of the problems that we're facing right now and maybe how to get out of it well. And I feel like every time we talk to me sort of twist the prism a little bit and basically helps

us look at things slightly differently. And that advice that you mentioned a few minutes ago really stuck with me of you've got to spend some time talking to people who aren't like you, and I feel like all of us are being reminded of that all the time, whether it's talking with people, whether it's even watching or reading things that you might not normally watch, just to try

and understand people a little bit more. Well. That wraps up the weekend edition of Bloomberg Business Week from Bloomberg Radio. Thanks so much for joining us. I'm Jason Kelly and

I'm Carol mass Or. Be sure to tune into Bloomberg Business Week Radio Live Monday through Friday starting at two pm Wall Street Time, And if you can't catch us live, get our daily Bloomberg Business Week Podcast wherever you get your podcasts, and there you can hear the full conversation, some of which you heard on this show, but some of which you didn't. Were on the air for four

hours every day talking to all sorts of people. You can hear the full conversation with former Jet Blue chairman Joel Peterson, the full conversation with Bishop tv Jakes, and many more. Some great things to listen to over the weekend. You can also watch the show live on YouTube. Just search for Bloomberg Global News. We'll be back right here next week at the same time. This is Bloomberg