Bloomberg Businessweek Weekend-November 28, 2020

with COVID for months to come. With that in mind, coming up this hour, how to make sure COVID nineteen never happens again. We're gonna head to the Bloomberg New Economy Forum check in with the CEO of Maderna, the CEO of Welcome Leaf, and the chief epidemiologist at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Also bringing transparency to the childcare and daycare markets with the co founder

and CEO of Upfront Plus. We are in worse shape right now than we were in March because we are now not heading into the summer where everybody was expecting that things would get better. The CEO of Travago on the travel industry being back where we were in this ring. We begin though, with what was one of the most read stories on the Bloomberg reported for Bloomberg Business Week about something that we were all trying to get back in this spring. You know, you were trying to do this.

It wasn't easy. And now, even though there's more than ever before, guess what, there's still not enough out there for the US. We're talking about lysol and how we just can't get enough of it. Let's get more from Bloomberg News team leader for US Healthcare Drew Armstrong and Bloomberg Business Week editor Joe Weber. When you didn't see it, you know, immediately hoarded it and it was one of

the great hoarding items. Um And you know, back then, there were a couple of stories like that that I was really interested in, and you know, one was three m you know, how do you make how do you make more? In masks? Yesterday? And we did that one as a cover story, and the Lightshol one just stuck with me because I was like, boy, I'm really curious

how you make more lysol? And Drew Armstrong actually happened to have that same kind of urge and came back with a fully realized story that is one of my favorite. It's from sort of pandemic times, Drew, how do you make more Lisolf? So yeah, I started asking that question UM earlier this year, you know, for exactly the same reason you guys, because I couldn't find it anywhere. And you know this company that makes a record UM then Keyser it's a London company. They're a big consumer conglomerate.

But one of the things you find from UM reading about this is that you know, they're in this massive company with huge resources, but you know, they have this relatively thin, delicate supply chain that's stretched all over the US and all over the world. And when the pandemic

really you know, did two things. One just put their demand through the roof for this product, but to you know, just absolutely upset all of the kind of global trade and even the U. S trade and you know, all the kind of things that you need to make stuff in a factory in the world that we live in.

It it really jumbled their world. And so they were they were great about opening the door and telling us, you know how they did everything from like flying seven forty seven full of chemicals from Europe to the US as they can make more whites and lightsol spray um. At one point, they were starting to run out of ethanol,

which is one of the main ingredients of lisol. So it happened that Americans weren't driving as much because they were all staying home, and ethanol the important gasoline additive. So they retooled a ethanol plant in Nebraska and makes ethanol for gasoline and just shipped plane cars with these, you know, thirty thousand gallons tanks of ethanol to their

factory in New Jersey. It's just fascinating to hear about all the things that they did in order to, you know, keep this stuff flowing and still have not been at all. This is one of those stories, man, you know, you could just sit down and talk about for a long time because it's just interesting facets something we take for granted, right, but you really dug into kind of the nuts and bolts of it. Tell Us though, and I have to say, on our planning call this morning, we were all getting

into it. Tell us about Mr Lysol and Flushing Meadows. Sure. So there is a guy at a record called Joe Robino. He has been he has worked on Lifesol for thirty five some years through its previous owners. He's a microbiologist. Um, you know, there's a there's a little red banner on the lysol can which says kills nine nine percent of germs. And you know that's that's comproms. Everyone has to look

at the chloroxy is. Everybody makes the same claim. But they were actually the first people to do the research

to show that. And one of the things that they did, um in the early days of this product back in the in the very early sorry I did really to the product, but back in kind of his early on in his career in the early nineties, they would do stuff like coat a toy ball with a harmless virus and put it into a daycare and they go around swabbing everything to figure out, you know, where did this virus go. Um, they did the same thing in hotel

rooms with people who had cold. They're really tried to understand the microbiology aspects of what their products could kill. And one of the things that they studied was, you know, just how you know, if you have basically a plateful of you know, germ to microbes, you know, viruses or bacteria,

how much does it actually kill? And you know, he was talking to me as he was explaining as one of many conversations we had, he said, well, we had a you know, a three log or four log or even a five log reduction, and what that actually means is nine point nine. Um. The marketing folks took a look at that and they said, people love the idea of we gotta put this on the camp um and that's kind of the history of where that number comes

from and disinfecting. UM. If they were the first to make it, now everybody, everybody does it actually does a lot more than that. But you know, there is a tremendous amount of research quotes, scientific and consumer that goes on behind these products. UM to figure it out. You mentioned Flushing Meadows, my favorite place in this whole story. They light Bulb makes a toilet bowl cleaner, and um. You know, if you make a toilet ball cleaner, you're

always changing and tweaking your product. You're introducing new you know, formulations, things like that. You have to test it and if you sell your toilet bowl cleaner around the world, you have to test it in toilets around the world. They have a room. It's Room A one five four in Montvale, New Jersey, and there's a hundred four toilets brought in

from around the world. There's a UK road, there's a European Union row, there's an American row of toilets, there's an Indian row of toilets, and they have a back room where they actually replicate the water conditions from around the world to match those places. That was definitely an inside look at Lysol from, of course, Bloomberg News team leader for US Healthcare Drew Armstrong and Bloomberg Business Week

editor Joel Webber. Check out that story and more in the current issue of Bloomberg Business Week magazine on newsstands online, and oh ways, on the Bloomberg terminal coming up. Americans clamoring for lysol, you just heard about that, and the world clamoring for a vaccine and a year that we hope we never see again. Some thoughts on how we get there. That's coming up next on Bloomberg Business Week. This is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg Business Week with Garrol

Masser from Bloomberg Radio. We're bringing you some of the recent highlights from our daily radio broadcast and podcast. In a week where we got an update from Astra Zeneca and the University of Oxford on their vaccine. Now, the race for a vaccine was part of a discussion that I moderated from our recent Bloomberg New Economy form a panel that really looked at how the world can ensure that we never ever have another catastrophe like COVID nineteam.

That panel was with Stefan Bonsell's chief executive officer at Maderna, Regina Dugan, CEO at Welcome Leap, and Dr Woo Zoo, chief epidemiologist at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. We began by hearing from Aderna's CEO on their vaccine.

We announced that the first of face free study as the study of Fluty Father and Pice fronts so the most ninety five percent if because see but the piece that makes me I'm most more excited is the fact that of the eleven people with severe disease, they were all on claus table, were none on the vaccine. And so if you think about it, what does that mean.

I mean that once we get the final data, we should be able to see if this is confirmed that if you get all vaccine we have a ninety five percentation. So having you know this is and if you get disease, you will have mild symptoms, I mean, do not have

severe disease. And as we know, has really been a big impact in terms of hospitalization for a patient during the worst I see you for passion during the world's death and on the impact it has had, but only a human life, of course, but on the mental health, on the economy. We think this could be a game changer. And so what we're doing now is getting the final data all locked up, submitting these two regulatory agencies around the world, and hopefully I hope getting the vaccine approven

the emergency use before the end of a year. We're making as much product as week and then we said we will have before the end of twenty million. Does is ready to ship as soon as we have regulatory report, all right, So that's certainly some upbeat news. Dr who I want to bring you in to this conversation. When you and I spoke over the weekend, I believe you were in shin Jong or had been in shin Jong.

China has done and I think most would argue that as among the biggest, the most developed country, you guys have done a good job in terms of containing the virus. But even so there continues to be breakouts. Where are we in China when it comes to COVID nineteen. I just come back from a sin John. Now back to the Beijing. We are just controlled another outbreak in Kashka shinjian Wi Autonomous Region. The epidemic has started in the letter of October and brought under control in the November.

In the China, I think, what do we did is to have very stronger civilians and peaked control the epidemic as a war. So go back to the earlier respond to the initial outbreak in Oha. Most of the people suspected China delayed or does not responded very quickly. Actually, I give you two examples. We did a very bold decision. For example, when the outbreak first the notice by doctors, that's a last December twenty seven, and the national expert arrived in the Wuhan. They made a decision to close

the seafood market. At that time they were only forty cases and the seven of them had examposure to a seafood market. Make that decision is a tough and the national expert and the local expert as different opening and the local or expert has gone against to achieve that decision. Another decision, it's a shut down Wahi's city. The decision was made in the general at that time, we'll only have about a five cases that is made had determined the scale of the over the ninety out of the

hole China. The twot that he made, I think is the best of the philosophy. Prepare for the War's the scenario that's on at the principle. So we are responded to the COVID nine team very quickly. We're quite to remove all the right virus from the community to clean the up that makes society is say so now, China, I think it's the best to the zero local transmission. Now, oh boy, Riggin, I want you to come in on

this too. What are you hearing from your network about kind of where we are in this process and in this cycle in terms of dealing with the virus. Well, I want to calibrate for a moment, because remember the normal time to go from an outbreak to a vaccine is something like five to ten years. So this achievement here is remarkable, unprecedented. The team at Maderna goes from virus sequence to first dosing in humans in sixty three days, and as Stefan is fond of saying, that's an advance

a decade in the making. In fact, I remember a decade ago when m RNA based vaccines were first proposed and the critics said there was no evidence to suggest it would work, and others said, there is no evidence to suggest it won't. We should try and if we are successful, it would matter. And here we are today, in fact it matters. So I think what we're hearing now is how do we begin to work on the next pieces? So how do we shorten the clinical trial?

How do we begin to get manufacturing underway so that we can couple the early warning with a rapid response. And there's still much more to do there. In my view, this is the spot Nick moment of our generation, right and in the same way that sput Nick inspired a space age, so to might this pandemic inspire a health age? Lots to do. I want to continue this conversation because now I want to kind of look forward a quick poll and a reminder to everybody who's watching the pull

that's out there. We'd love to hear your response. The question we're asking, what are the lessons from Asia's successful response to COVID nineteen. Some individual freedom must be sacrificed for the public good. That's answer A answer B Early lockdowns, reduced overall economic impact, answers C more investment in digital health infrastructure, including contact tracing and d face coverings work. So having said that, we'll look for those responses. So let me ask you, how do we make sure this

never ever happens again? Bloomberg New Economy said, there is no greater challenge for our global leaders and figuring out how to make sure this never happens again. Stefan, can we do this? Do we now have the playbook? I think we've learned a lot, And as Regina said, I mean, first what has been done this year by scientists alln the world and the collaboration we have seen. He's unprecedented in some of the spe but we've learned a lot

as well. And I think that too that mentions where we should invest aggressively across the world in public private partnership to reduce the time to get to a vacuum, because as we know, you know, public measures are extremely important and right now, wearing a mask and social distancing are critical treatment are very important to take people in the hospital, but to really get back to normal, we need to vaccinate people. And as we know, the world

is focusing on that vaccine. That was Stefan Bouncel's CEO at Maderna, Regina Dugan, chief executive officer at Welcome Leap, and Dr who Zoo, chief epidemiologist at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention at the recent Bloomberg New Economy Forum. Coming up, the race to a vaccine made transparent out of necessity. Coming up next, We've got an entrepreneur and the CEO of Upfront who is looking to bring transparency to a market that touches many Americans and

their kids. That's coming up next on Bloomberg Business Week. This is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg Business Week with Garrol Masser from Bloomberg Radio. Well, American parents with children under the age of five check us out there spending more than forty two billion dollars for early childcare and education such as preschool programs. Now that from the progressive think tank Economic Policy Institute. Danta Levin Robinson. She's co founder

and CEO of Upfront. She's working to bring more transparency to the childcare and daycare market and then perhaps many more industries in the future. And like so many entrepreneurs, creating her business, while it came from a personal experience, I had a baby. F peek of the New York City Week. Has been quite a year for me, you know, between starting the company and having a baby in the middle of it, you know, in the pandemic was just another extra twist, you know that I did not anticipate.

But if you actually remember hearing the stories about the hospital separating the couple, we were the first couple separated by SINAI wow, that that must have been tough. Yeah, it must have been a little tough though, right, Oh yeah, no, it was pretty devastating, you know because nobody, especially those of us who are pregnants that l A you know, nobody was expecting this to happen, you know, around March.

But we did the best we can. And if anything, you know, the fact that I run a company that works with parents so closely, and now that I'm a parent myself, it really does you know, I always understood our users, but now that I actually I am a parent myself, it really does regonate. Well, all right, So talked about about this so many people who create companies, and I think i've um, you know, said this a million times. I bet you've told this a million times.

But it's often when somebody goes out to start a company, it's often a personal story. We talked to the CEO of Compass Pathways. It was a company that went public this year. It was a personal story that got them going on their business. What's your story that again, you've probably told a million times, but what's the story that got you to to to create upfront? Yeah, it's a personal story. So it actually wasn't with daycare sauce typically,

but with weddings. So when I was engaged, I met with the florists, look through all the pretty photos, and then at the end of the hour got the pricing sheet and realized that she was never in my budget. And I remember being so frusted that I just wasted my time meeting someone that I should have never been considering, and started the speed got planted of like why didn't I know that? Why is this pricing hidden? Why is this information? Why do I get every single piece of

information except what it costs? You know, And we're talking about a wedding here. You know, these are some big price tags. So really, you know, sort of the second thought came in of huh, you know, these prices are up there. People have used these businesses before, but nobody has really ever given that data a destination. So that's really what Upfront is about, and we really start with

the philosophy the prices should be public information. You know, the parents that we talked to, the engage couples that we talked to. Budget is one of the top variables, you know, one of the top dimensions of how you make your decisions. Yet we're acting like it doesn't exist and it's not part of the conversation to begin with.

So you know, we're collecting real numbers. Yeah. I think it's kind of interesting and kind of ironic to some extent that we kind of kicked off our show talking about we went to a press conference with President Trump is about drug pricing and just you know, we've heard, we've all seen the stories about the lack of transparency of why one country pays this, why one other country pays this, you know, for the exact same drug, And it sounds like you're trying to bring that as well

when it comes to daycare and childcare absolutely and you know, to us, daycarees is just the beginning, you know, and eventually we'd like to grow into weddings and funerals and private education. There's really no shortage of industries that operate this way, and we see no reason why that's the case. So is it essentially, um just the idea of no different from we travago on you know, travel platforms or you want to do you want to do something, so give me the options and I can look at them

all exactly. I mean, consumers these days are so educated and anyone you talk to, you know, especially with daycares for example, location and costs are the pretty much the decision factors of how you choose a daycare. Yeah, you can't search for half of that conversation. So to us it makes absolutely no sense. You know. That's how you end up with people like me meeting enough force that

they can't afford. I do wonder, Dana, as you look into this and you talk about, let's start with the childcare and daycare market, what have you found out in terms of the wide range of pricing and how can some greater transparency maybe reduce these costs costs for individuals, because we know for family this is often a big line item. Oh it's it's not just a big line item. It's often the second largest line item after housing. And

I think not enough attention is given to that. I mean, in New York State alone, you're spending about of your average house the income. And that's just by the Economic Policy Institute, and according to our database, it's even higher. In New York City, the average cost is around twenty two d a month for a daycare. So these are crazy numbers, right, and to us, you know, pricing transparence

you really represents one. You know, we're actually just saving you the time, time and a frustration, you know, going down this path, doing the work, going in these in person tours, which are now riskier than ever. Um, but we're also trying to let you discover some options you might not have known. We're around you. Thousands of parents are already searching, comparing, doing exactly what we designed the

company to do. And we're hearing, you know, anecdotally, that daycares are actually doing just fine because people let the kids out of the house. So it's actually very funny, you know, everyone assumed that, Oh, nobody's going to send their kid back to daycare. That's not what we've heard. Everyone's working from home. They want the kid out. That's Dana Levin Robinson. She's got founder and CEO of Upfront,

looking to bring more transparency to the daycare market. What it's like to create a business in a COVID nineteen world. You are listening to Bloomberg Business Week. Speaking of transparency, we got a lot of that once again from the ce of Travago. We got his expectations for whether two will next be the year of travel. This is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg Business Week with Garrol Mazer from Bloomberg Radio.

We're bringing you some of our favorite interviews from the past week on our daily radio show and podcast, and that includes a friend of the show someone we've reached out to several times during the pandemic. Axel Heifer is

CEO of the online travel platform Travago. Now, this week, the airline industry's main trade group came out and they said they expect losses to balloon further in one Now, you know, most business travel is down dramatically, and for Travago CEO and his team, well, they find themselves in a very familiar and unfortunate spot were we are basically back where at least in Europe, we are back where we were in April, whereas the US is still doing a bit better, but but obviously UM in that shape

as well well. So what does that mean for you guys? And I know you have a global workforce. Um, you guys have been dealing with this from day one? Is does it feel like it was as it was back in April? For you guys? Have you made some adjusted justments or even just adjustments in your expectations about kind of how long it takes for the travel industry to

get back to normal. Yeah, as a business, I think we are we are in much better shape because there is much more visibility what the next twelve months will look like. Um. We we have significant progress and vaccine development UM. The testing has become much much faster and and cheaper UM. And and we are almost one year in the pandemic and also have some data that we

can rely on. So UM, we are quite positive for for our sustainable recovery starting really in early next summer UM, for our employees, and and I guess for for all of us Um. However, I think it's it's we are in worse shape right now than we were in March because we are now um, not not heading into the summer where everybody was expecting that things would get better, but we are adding into the winter where everybody is expecting, like in a normal flu waves, that things will get worse.

So the emotional stress on our employees um is is greater than it has been in the first lockdown. I've had a lot of conversations with leaders about that. Specifically. We know it's a global health pandemic, but health covers so much right at your physical health as well as your mental health. So what are you doing to help out your employees? Yeah? So, um there there's there's only so much you can do. I mean, we are obviously trying to be very transparent, UM. So we've got very

frequent all hands, everybody can ask any kind of question. UM. We've brought forward our strategy process for next year, UM, so that now everybody can prepare for next year and is looking forward. And I think that that is um. That is from psychological aspective, the most important thing that you have something to look forward to and that you have hope that things are getting better rather focusing too much on the present, which can be in particularly in

Europe right now, will be quite depressing. Well, and it's interesting, you know, Um, from what I understand, you are among the group that really think that we've got to as a member, you, as a member of the travel industry, have to kind of remind everybody that it's not art to push everybody back to to think about traveling, that we've got to be smart about kind of where we are so that we can get this under control. Absolutely so. So I think there there are basically two things that

are really really important. One is to um to manage the number of infections and for that obviously traveling is not good and and any kind of social contact is not good, and that's that's where most of the European countries currently are in. But it's equally important also to give some hope and something to look forward to. And there we as a business look forward to the summer, which is obviously our peak season, and are they're quite confident.

But I think it's also important for for the society overall to be able to look forward to something, to a significant improvement, and for that the last two weeks and particularly I think I've been good in particularly with the with the news about vaccines. Yeah, let's talk about that, because it's something we've seen, certainly when it comes to the travel industry, specifically the hospitality industry, we see stocks

moves specifically on that news. Having said that, as soon as we get the news, you know, about two weeks ago from Fightser initially and Fightser did file with US regulators for an emergency use authorization of its COVID nineteen vaccine, But as soon as we got the news from Fiser and Maderna quickly. Also were many stories that followed that said, hey, we got to slow down, there's logistics, there's getting it

out there. Um, there's just a lot of questions too about the efficacy or or how long lasting that efficacy is. I mean, there's still a lot of questions. We got about a minute, then we'll come back and talk more. How do you see in terms of the vaccine, Yes, so so the I think it's it was clear clear for quite some time that there would be vaccines available. The positive news to us is that the the effectiveness is much greater than than what a lot of people

had hoped for. Having said that, the likelihood that it will have a real impact on the first half of the year, I think it's quite quite small, UM, given that it will take some time and it will first focus obviously on the high risk groups. So accel. When we get on the other side of this, what do you think travel will look like? I think you said, you know, maybe when we get into some of the early sea summer season next year that we start to

kind of feel a little bit more more normal. But what will that normal be like when it comes to the travel industry? Will it be a little bit different? I do think it will be different. UM. So the first thing that we've seen this year, and I do expect the same for next year, is that there was a very very strong trend towards local travel, and a lot of people will still not be comfortable to go very far UM with the experiences that quarantine requirements and

being imposed on a very short notice this year. UM. On the other hand, I do think there will be some difference because all the governments globally will have had one year of experience, and UM will probably have a better regime in place to allow for some international travel. UM. The least recovered segment. We do expect to be into continental travel. I mean that that will recover probably not

next year but the year after. Interesting and is that I mean you look lot of leisure travel, but leisure business business. Is that something that's a few years off to getting back to normal. Yeah. On business, I think there's there's a very different discussion. I mean the the on business. We don't expect that business travel will go

back to where it was coming from. And the key reason is that, UM we are all shifting a lot more towards remote work, and when you do remote work, you do accept that you can be very productive without being in the same room. And that also has an implication on how many business meetings and how many business trips you need to do, both internally within your company

but also externally. So UM I do expect the business travel recovery to follow a similar pattern then in the last couple of crisis, but not to reach the same level that we've seen before. They structural change when it comes to visibility. I think you guys have said that you anticipate I think maybe your CFO had said that you're going to be down about this year in terms of revenue compared to that's pretty much. That's it, right,

It feels about it feels about rate unfortunately. I mean therefore, for the remainder of the year, you cannot really expect that much. I'm Europe is pretty much UM and a complete stands still UM. In the southern hemisphere there there is some summer activity and also quite something quite strong summer activity, and the US I think is somewhere in between.

With the rising and factions. It's it will be a bit up to the reaction of the government how to how to control the situation and what that will that mean for the travel activity. But yeah, we don't expect any any significant business for the remain of the year. So when you say local travel and which is what you were already seeing, I knew We've talked about that

before and you expect more of that. Is there anything that in particular, again, like the type of trips I know we've talked with lots of individuals to about, you know, things like hiking in parks, like you know, places where people felt spread out. We're certainly in demand. Is it that type of traveling that you think continues to be

in demand? Absolutely? So for the summer. What we've seen this year is that whenever the situation was under control and and and there was a general sentiment that is safe to travel, the first trips that that really picked up. We're nature destinations, so that the coast or the mountains, and and trips where that you would typically classify as

as vacations to relax rather than cultural trips. UM. On the other hand, we we do think that in the second half of next year there will also be some return off city trips where you're more focused on activity, going to the museum, to the opera, or just going to nice restaurants. But for summer um it it's clear that that and I think this yearly or next year the need might be even greater because we will come

out of a longer difficult situation to just get arrest. Yeah, that pent up demand, man, I can't even wait to take a trip. Um Talk to me. I want to switch gears a little bit, but talk to me about the Google European Union antitrust case, because you guys have been involved and you have been part of the group of tech companies who have written to the EU competition chief and talked about Google and that how they favor their own services in web searches. Talked to us a

little bit about that and your concerns here. Yeah, absolutely, I think I think it's a very interesting topic with the European Commissioner has looked into various practices of some

of these mega platforms for quite some time. But from my perspective, what has changed over the last that's only the last year, but but but for sure over the last two to three years, is that there seems to be now general consensus even globally amongst pretty much all the tech companies that UM, these mega platforms are getting too powerful and and that they are leveraging their control over certain stages in the overall value chain to to

then dominate UM subsequent activities and subsequent products and UM. If you if you look at Google specifically UM in the European Union, they have more than market share in general search and UM. They expand their value add of the over all ecosystem by adding more and more products that are displayed in a favorable way UM versus competing products. And for us specifically, that has been the hotel search product, I mean hotels. Hotel price comparison is something that was

innovated by by Travago and invented by us UM. But over the last couple of years, the visibility of the competing products has been increased quite significantly. UM. And if you just compare how our ads on Google are displayed and how the Google tell Finder is displayed, you can see that it is factor six or seven times bigger and much more appealing in the display. And UM that that is that is I think very tangible example. UM how how they are really leveraging their control over one

UM one product into another. That's actual heat for CEO of the online travel platform Travago. That wraps up the first hour of the weekend edition to Bloomberg Business Week

from Bloomberg Radio. I'm Carol Masser. More ahead in our next hour, including the global pandemic, giving a boost to the fifteen minutes City plus line stop, maybe venture capitalist Susan Lyne on the COVID trends that will leave their mark, and doubling down on toys during the shutdown with Mattel's President, and finally art imitating life in the new HBO drama series Industry. That's all coming up on Bloomberg Business Week. This is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg Business Week with Pierrol

Masser from Bloomberg Radio. Hi, I'm Carol mass are coming up in our second hour of the weekend edition of Bloomberg Business Week. Highlights from our daily radio show and podcast, including stories in the magazine and some of our favorite interviews. That includes this hour venture capitalist and former president of ABC Entertainment Susan Lyne on the venture capital scene, tale of two cities during the pandemic. Also another business that

gets a boost during COVID nineteen. We talked toys with Mattel's president and to London bankers skip out on finance to create a new HBO drama series, Industry Let's Get Things. Star did this hour with a recent story in the magazine that coincided with the Bloomberg New Economy Forum. The forum, which I mentioned last hour, is all about building a better future and the global cooperation needed to do it.

That includes building stronger cities and keeping with that, Bloomberg City Lab reporter Laura Bliss explored what's known as the fifteen Minutes City. Here's more from Laura and Bloomberg Business Week editor Jill Weber. It really fulfills sort of the urbanization pillar that of any f um, there's several pillar

pillars and that's that's what this one falls in. And it's this idea that I think has really become um uh caught on with urban planners in certain cities around the world that what if you could live in a in a city where everything that you needed in your daily daily life, from your job, to your kids school, to where you get your groceries, etcetera, etcetera, was basically

in a fifteen minute radius of your front door. Um. And once you do that, you know, you don't have commute, so you don't have cars, and it's can sort of totally transform uh quality of life as well. And that idea is when that boy, it sounds really appealing to me at least, Um and Laura, I'm curious, how is this taking shape around the world. Yeah, thank you guys so much for having me um and just smiling listening to you praise the article. Joel, So thank you so

much for that. Um, it was really fun to work on. So this is, you know, a fifteen minute city as you've been describing it, right, I mean, it's it's really not a totally new idea, right, I mean I think we can think back to how cities were laid out before the twentieth century brought us the automobile and zoning code, which you know, divided up our cities into different kinds of zones and you know, put a lot of residential neighborhoods pretty far away from commercial districts and you know,

shopping districts and so forth. You know, in the past, what you could walk to was was what was around you, right UM. And so in some ways this is an idea to sort of return to that time. UM. And there our cities like Paris, you know, Barcelona, Milan, European cities that sort of he a little bit closer to that older model that UM have actually been working on

this for for some time. UM. And also here in the US, Portland, Oregon is one example of the city that's really been working on what it calls complete neighborhoods where you have your shopping, your library, your health services, your daycare, your your school, you know, within a fifteen to twenty minute walk or bike rider or transit trip. UM. So yeah, and I think it's really kind of taken off this year, partly because of the pandemic which which I'd be happy to talk about more. Well, and let's

talk about that. I have to say it sounds utopian. I think you say that it is utopian in many ways in your story, but in because of the pandemic. Yeah, use that as a backdrop and how we are thinking about this kind of concept for basically urban living and maybe not just urban living um, but even kind of smaller cities or more modern cities. That's right, I mean

it is. It is a pretty significant departure from that the recent past, where you know, certainly here in the United States, I think we can we can also relate to that the model, or at least outside of New York, right, almost any kind of trick you're you're getting in your car, and you know, I think the average actually like US trip is something like ten miles um, you know, whether you're going to work or or just to grocery shop

or whatever it may be. So this is a really different kind of idea for for that model of city. And indeed it is pretty utopian when you think of how far cities will have to go and like how many you know, decades of infrastructure investment that really will have to be unearthed to create cities that are more

in this kind of European walkable model. So I want to bring up you know, you say utopia, and that also makes me think of the flip side, which is like for every you know, urban planning that had great intentions that also can often lead behind um um disadvantaged communities. And I'm wondering how, how how that conversation is happening, um as you know, cities wrestled with this trend. Yeah, absolutely, I mean I think the two main criticisms here are

exactly what you're pointing, Fugele. I mean, if you have a deminute city, and that means you know, you can walk or bike to your favorite cafe, your favorite library, maybe even a coworking space whatever it may be, within you know, a really short distance of your home. Well, the question is who who is actually staffing? Um? You know those those nice cafes and grocery stores and so forth. Um are those people who are living in your neighborhood?

And what if you live in a fairly high income neighborhood, Um, how how likely is that that you know everyone who's going to be kind of staffing and bolstering the economy in this kind of micro cosmic city that we're talking about, Um,

are are actually able to live in that area? And so the question is then, you know, it is the fifteen minutes city kind of neglecting to think about transit systems, right that actually do succeed in moving people, moving commuters across large distances and cities and actually supply a really essential service in that respect. So how how does that How has the idea of fifteen minute city rustle with the realities of climate and climate change. Yeah, it's a

really good question. Um, I mean I think I do think it. That's that question becomes especially interesting disc year during the pandemic, as we see cities all over the world grapple with this exact question of how are we going to keep our you know, sidewalk dining uh and like slow streets. Uh. They're I'm referring to how a lot of cities in the US have actually shut down, uh, you know, street street states for chrs to make way for fikes and pedestrians and perhaps increasingly all of this

making way for the global cities of the future. That's Laura Bliss, reporter for Bloomberg City Lab along with Bloomberg Business editor Jill Weber, Well, innovation, Well, it's happening in our global cities, so too in our world at large. That from venture capitalist and former president of ABC Entertainment Susan Lyne. She's coming up next. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week and this is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg Business

Week with GARYL. Masser from Bloomberg Radio. This week we welcome back venture capitalist Susan Line, whose professional background includes publishing, multimedia and of course venture capital. She's former president of ABC Entertainment, ran Martha Stewart, Omni Media, oversaw a o L dot Com, also Movie Phone. She also, of course today is president of the company she founded, BBG Ventures, and she, like the rest of us, saw a world

like no other this past spring. Like a lot of other parts of the the finance industry, the VC ecosystem went um went quiet for a couple of months, I would say, from mid March to let's call it May. UM with most funds, most people who were either LPs and funds or who were directly investing in companies um uh. Everybody went internal and and essentially spend time looking at their portfolios um making sure that that the companies they were backing, We're gonna have enough capital to get through

the worst of this. I think everybody, including BBG Ventures, spend time with each of our portfolio companies UM, and the message was pretty clear. Put together a plan that assumes you are not going to be able to raise any capital for the rest of the year. UM. And a lot of companies ended up well, everyone ended up

cutting their their projections for the year. A lot of companies ended up doing risks of varying sizes UM and Uh, actually the investing really came back I won't say completely, but uh but quite strongly UM in the late spring,

and it's been going strongly ever since. Well do you feel like that doesn't mean there aren't companies that have been deeply impacted by this, and we can talk about that well and forgive me, Yeah, continue along that because I am wondering how what's happened, you know, does either impact you know, your thoughts on some of maybe your investments, or just it's just companies that just aren't going to make it through. UM. There are definitely companies that are

not going to make it through. Yeah, no question about that. But uh, it's it's really sort of a tale to sit right. There are some companies that have had incredible tail winds as a result of of UH the pandemic UM, and some of those are you know, fairly obvious. At tech has been a huge arena UM. Certainly companies that were enabling telehealth. UM. We have a mental health startup that has been UH certainly accelerated by by UH by covid UM not for positive reasons, but but certainly the

services are are needed now more than ever. UM. And anybody who was involved in UH in work from home. Right, So if if you were enabling companies to continue working because you were doing teleconferencing or anything to do with UH, with virtual teams, UM, those companies have done extraordinarily well. UM. And certainly some aspects of e commerce continued to be very strong. UM. And I'm leaving out Amazon and the

the obvious b mus here but UH. But certainly UM people have taken advantage in larger numbers of the ability to order online than to get things delivered. And we were talking about you know what companies you know, and how this whole environment, Susan maybe changes things longer term, and you talked about a talent of two cities. You

were talking about telemedicine, you were talking about e commerce. Yeah, so, UM, I think one of the most interesting things to come out of all of this is how quickly people adopted new behaviors, right, So, I think we we sometimes assume that the change is slow, that that people have sort of ingrained habits and it's going to take a decade for any real movement to take place. But there were several really interesting things you could point to that that

occurred over the past six eight months. UM. One was definitely the acceptance of telehealth. So last year, I think about eleven percent of of people had tried telehealth. By June or July of this year, it was up to forty six percent of all consumers. And uh, now we're hearing that of those people who who were were adopting telehealth during this period planned to keep using it after COVID, so they discovered that they could actually get a lot

done safe time, maybe saved some money by using telehealth. UM. Another area where we saw real change is UM was in brand loyalties. So seven or seven percent of consumers are using new channels to shop and they're buying new brands. Now some of that was uh was actually forced by the fact that maybe their their favorite brand was was

not available. But again they are saying when you you survey them now, they say they're going to stick with this new buying behavior of post covid um and that opens up a ton of opportunity for you know, new consumer product companies to really um, really innovate. Well, so, then how much do you think we heard that we held the Bloomberg New Economy for him last week and each day was a different vertical and on the vertical

that was climate. Alan Job of UNI Lever was on and he talked about jen zennials, which wasn't a term I had hurt yet, and he basically said, listen, if you have a brand, you know it's not gen X, gen y millennials. Do you need to think about Gen zennials the ones that are going to be your future consumers for decades to come, and they care about things like your impact on the environment. They are going to determine how they shop based on who you are as

a brand. And I do feel like I don't know that something is really changing, and I know I look at things like that. I know my seventeen year old definitely looks at things like that, and I do wonder how that shapes what you guys do in terms of investing and how you look at the world. Absolutely accurate, and it has, uh, it has become a real focus

for us. You know, we've had we've had a focus on gen Z for a couple of years now, largely because I've been through enough generational shifts to know that when uh, new generation becomes the dominant consumer, um, they want their own brands. Man, that is so true. Just ask my seventeen year old daughter and avid consumer. They think differently about brands that Susan Lyne, founder and president

of BBG Ventures. All right, coming up, speaking of new ventures, the seventy five year old toymaker mattel It recently launched a new platform. We get details from mattel president Richard Dixon. That's coming up next on Bloomberg Business Week. This is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg Business Week with Garrol Masser from Bloomberg Radio. We'll check it out. Decorations are going up, yep. The holidays are here. And one company that's synonymous with the holidays,

it's Mattel. It is now in its seventy five year. It recently launched a new platform called Mattel Creations. Mattel President and chief operating Officer Richard Dixon dropped by to talk about it virtually, of course, and to talk toys which check this out, are being snapped up big time

in the COVID shutdown. The good news, as we try and find it in today's you know, uh, challenging times, is that families are obviously spending a lot more time together result to obviously, you know, the pandemic, and in fact it's reinforced the importance of play and toys. Um, you know, the whole toy industry has continued to search. We had a great third quarter overall in the industry, and we're incredibly proud of Mattel's performance, which outpaced actually

the overall market. We've been gaining share and ultimately really obviously responding to our consumers and providing the right toys and the right assets, if you will, to occupy during these challenging times at home. What have you seen in terms of trends in terms of the types of purchases people are buying from. From my understanding, people were buying barbies, they were buying hot wheels. What what were people buying?

Were there any interesting trends that you noticed in the buying? Yeah, well, certainly. Again, as I mentioned, the whole industry was up. Almost all categories posted growth and within the Within the industry, of course, as I mentioned, Mattel is leading and in our portfolio, we've just had, you know, enormous success with of course, categories like dolls. You know, Barbie has had an incredible

run for the year. Uh, you know, great great increases, terrific new product reflecting obviously diversity and inclusivity, great new toys. The game's piece of our business has also been incredibly successful, you know, obviously families spending time at home using games as a way to occupy their time. You know, the number one card game in the United States. I love you, you know, can I just say love it? Love it? Love it? Right? We love hearing that, and many many

other people do love you. You know. In fact, um Uno is going to be celebrating it's fiftieth year, if you can imagine that next year, which we've got a lot of excitement and new new product coming. To keep those new fans going, we play kind of a hubo un version at the beach. My brother has created a version that's just ramped up and it's just a riot. We played for hours. So, um, that's good to hear

fifty fifty years. So I do wonder, Richard, do you anticipate that the trends that you're seeing, Because I'm thinking about the holidays and I'm thinking it's been a rough year, and you know, I wanted to be a good holiday season. I'm not going to be around a lot of family, um, And I do wonder what you anticipate for the holiday season. Well, I'll tell you, um that the toy shopping, as we see at the outlook for the fourth quarters is strong.

In fact, toy shopping has already been planned earlier than last year. And with the um you know, surge with online and e commerce, the ability to shop early is more enticing than ever. Uh. You know, our research shows almost shoppers planned to start holiday shopping even even just before November. And obviously we're already in November, and with everything that's going on with the pandemic, some families are actually planning on making these holidays, you know, truly extra

special for their kids. It's it's been a really challenging year. Uh four kids in many in many aspects, and I think parents are recognizing, you know that the simple rewards of toys and and fun. So there's there's a lot of uh I think excitement around the industry and certainly in the Mattel portfolio for the fourth quarter. Have you well, what's your supply chain been like during this process? You know,

it's an asset for Mattel. You know, we we have an incredible group of dedicated people and facilities around the world that have been working tires lee certainly under the current you know, restrictions that have been in place in verous different places, but ultimately working to supply the demand. You know, given that there's been such a great surge uh in the industry and in particular for our brands and toys, our supply chain has been working incredibly well.

And as you know, in any business, it's about execution, and our execution has been really, really terrific. It's been a great year of excellence in performance driven metrics for the company. So in any kind of so, I found that fascinating your supply chain, like so any of the manufacturing that was needed to be done, Um, I'm assuming a lot of it happens outside the United States. None

of that stopped. Well, you know, we certainly had gaps, but if you look at when the timing of the most restrictions based on where our facilities were, primarily in Asia, that really took place um at the end of last year and in fact the beginning of this year, if you were called January in February, and and in terms of production, the slow side of our business where we really ramp up in production is UH in UH in the start of the second half, where restrictions were lifted

and we were able to resume much of the workforce and UH and working patterns. And that's a reminder of how COVID differentiated when it came to businesses. Some were definitely hurt during the pandemic, others actually got a boost. That's Mattel President and CEO Richard Dixon. Well, from creating toys that kids love to creating content that we adults want. We check in with the creators behind a new HBO drama series. It's right up the alley of our Bloomberg audience,

straight ahead on Bloomberg Business Week. This is Bloomberg, This is Bloomberg. Business Week with Carol Masser from Bloomberg Radio. We're gonna wrap up this week with something that seems just about perfect for a Bloomberg Business Week listeners. It's about a new apart series set in a fictional investment bank in London. It was released on HBO earlier this month. Created by two former British bankers, it's pilot was directed and executive produced by Lena Dunham. It is called Industry

and Full Transparency. The Bloomberg Terminal Well, it's got a recurring role in this series. We headed to the UK to check in with Mickey Down and Conrad k writers, co creators and executive producers of the new series. We met at university where we did like basically nothing. I mean, we were supposed to be there to work and we

we just made each other laugh quite a lot. We worked a little bit by the end and you know, we got You got to the end and you're doing the finals and you think, well, I need to get a job because everyone needs to have one. And you look around and particularly everyone had a job in banking assumed. So it was a mixture of fear and peer pressure

that pushed us into that world. Um and Conrad's fathers and banking as well, so maybe there's a little bit familiable pressure, but we know after yeah, you come out and you have that pressure and then you you just I mean I would speak personally. After about a year, I realized I was very ill suited to it, but

I sort of liked the world. They're like this sort of the weird, the sort of the paraphernalia of the place, and Conrads had been there for morng Stannard for three years when I started trying to pull them out of it and say, come on, let's right together. And the first thing we wrote together actually was a banking based script which was more of a cathartic exercise for us, and it was a very good at all, but it sort of wasn't an opportunity for us to see if

we could write together. And then we sort of put that aside for a bit, and then we were doing some other staff we were developing other TV shows, and then we met this producer called Jane Tranter, who's the head of the company Bad Wolf, who made industry actually said, you know, have you ever thought about writing something said in the World and Finance, because obviously you guys were in there. We said, yeah, we have and it wasn't

very we wasn't very good at all. She said, well, have you thought about writing from the respective of the perspective of the people right at the bottom, which is you guys? And thought, okay, well, actually that's probably a better idea than a derivative version of Wall Street, which is what we were trying to do before. And that was sort of what unlocked the whole thing for us.

I mean, like, we wanted to write at that time, we were we were much younger, so we wanted to write of mid mid twenties relationship show, characters driven relationship show, and it was it was a way of doing that, but said in an ecosystem in the world that we could we we thought we could render very authentically. I don't get into those relationships, but I'm curious, Um, Conrad, did you not like the world of banking as much

as Mickey didn't? Um? I struggled with it, really, I mean, I was the thing about that thing about the industry is you're you're kind of you, You're you're forced. Especially basically I was doing a kind of like a role between research and sales at an American in pescent bank, and then I was forcing into American exity sales um and I what I realized very quickly is that I had to basically pick up the phone and speak to people about stocks that they'd been they've owned for like

ten fifty and twenty years. I'm supposed to tell them something new and interesting and give them a bit of edge to invest in these stocks. And then you you know, they had a sound academic knowledge and I basically was just reading a research and I'm parking to them, and I felt super out of my depth, and I felt super uncomfortable calling them because I was like, you know, even though I had a very good um research department above me, I just felt I felt I felt very insecure.

It was like, so it's one of those things that you have to imagine calling up an expert and telling them preclaiming that you have an edge on something that they know everything about, and then just trying to bluff your way through. I just, I don't know, I felt very uncomfortable doing it. So I wasn't very good at it,

and probably that's probably why I got fired. But what's really fascinating, and I've been reading about this about the series as well, is that you know, you really have a diverse cast and when I think, forgive me, um, but most people would agree that when I think about the financial community, certainly here in the United States, it doesn't feel very diverse and nicky. It feels like, you know,

is that how it is in London. It's weird. Actually, it's sort of a mixture because we we wanted to write from a sort of unexpected advantage points the show, and obviously that's what led us to writing from through the device of the people coming out into it for the first time, you know, the grads, But we also just wanted it wasn't very cynical. We wanted the great characters that you wouldn't have, you said, expected in that world, where that's the way, that's the way, and that would

be that would be the most interesting that shared. I mean like, I worked a really sort of quite blue blooded, very old investment bank in lots of the European firm and my my, my, my sort of direct line manager was a black French women. So I felt like and you know, there were there was a long one was diversity, and I think these places that get credit for and contracting, well,

I mean like trading flows or they are. I mean, you know, they sell themselves as meritocracies, and you know, we can pick whether that's true or not as to the cow's going to have come home. But I think they are quite international places, so you do get a quite diverse range of people. So one thing I wanted to get into with you guys is how much all right,

let me take a step back. I've talked with the creators and the folks behind Billions, and they really tapped into the financial community, talked with hedge fund guys and and individuals to really kind of put as much reality into the show. So how much of your own kind of world? How often do you, you know, call up somebody within the financial community and it'say, I need a couple of stories just so that you can, you know,

you could include it in the series. And I just wonder, Conrad, let me start with you, how much of that may be kind of made its way on screen? No, I mean,

I mean obviously quite a lot. I mean, between me and Mickey, we have i'd say four years in the industry ourselves, so a lot of the ways people talk to each other and you know, certain cadences of the language and and the jargon was very very important to us, like I mean, me and Mickey big fans of any kind of films that feel a bit inside baseball, and so so as to come to you know, having experienced the world, to not do a version of it that

felt very specific and very authentic would have just been to do a disservice. Um. So we felt confident writing the way people speak to each other and the way traders talk to sales people sells. These people thought to traders.

But then in terms of the actual storylines, obviously, you know, there were their aspects of it which we we brought to ourselves, but in terms of the kind of the wider making sure every things checked out, I mean, we know we have a very big episode in episode for where are, one of our lead characters makes a mistake around a um a sort of you know, a dollar she has she's running a long dollar stiling position into

into non farm payrolls. And you know, that was stuff that we didn't feel very comfortable modeling or even beating

out in terms of stories. So we had a couple of consultants, Yeah, exactly right, and we had a. We had a consultantly worked in UM Foreign Exchange of JP Morgan and Morgan's family who sort of worked on the show with us, who was a former managing director there and he basically, you know, just you know, it was very important to us to not only get the story beats right between her covering her trading error with like back office and stuff like that, but also making sure

that when we were doing all the price action on the bluebook screens, that the director happened to be filming on the day, that all of the price action was modeled correctly, and that the you know, the guys who are working on all the graphics on our on our side from a production point of view, knew exactly what they were doing because Linda gets parted up with us.

But we were really you know, we were Adam and that whatever wherever the camera was on the floor on the day was picking up stuff to start really incredible to the trading floor, and that all just came from me and Nicky working very closely with her consultants. Had been an industry for twenty years, right, full disclosure. The Bloomberg terminal does UM maybe not the storing role, but we think it's a storing role in the series. But but listen, no, you know, Mickey, this is so true.

Like we talk about it when we watch something that's you know, a drama on the financial industry, like oh man, they got that so wrong, or they're like they were spot on. I mean, getting the authenticity into it. It really makes a difference at Mickey and telling the story absolutely. I mean it was a watchword for us the entire time. We just kept saying, we want to be as authentic, authentic,

authentic as possible, you know. I mean, like one of the things me and Conrad said when we were trying to sort of work out with a bit or star of the show was at one point you said, and we wanted it to feel like if you just brought a camera into a training floor, which I think might have been slightly less interesting what we've come up with.

But I mean in terms of like, I mean, it's because obviously we've got amazing from Bloomberg to give us all their their equipment, and like we we had amazing consultants. But you know, me and Conrad now the business for ten years, maybe seven years, and we needed to speak to people who have been in it now. So we actually did also speak to we have we've got lots of peers and friends from university that is still in it.

And then we also we spec to people, you know, we spec to sort of first second year analysts at places to see actually what is um? What is the attitude to it through it now? Like who's what kind of person is going into finance? What is the what are they hoping to get from it? Is that? So are the smartists brains from university going to it or are they going to tech or what are what sort of Yeah, what is the what are the attitudes towards

and what is it? And the people who are not in it, um, what is their attitude to you when you decide, when you decide when you say you're going into it? So like we need we did. We didn't really sort of have to speak the sort of gen Z recruit. The main reason we wrote it actually was

nothing to do with finance. It was to do with the five characters and of we are the inception for the show, And it sounds like a bit of the cliche, but it was always about it was a character drama before it was a workplace drama and was about the

five people who are entering this world. And the only reason this shows to us was interesting and maybe probably to the an average view would be interesting, is it was it was about an outside of lens on a very insidery exclusive world and the world that people think they know that we we've literally picked five characters in the outset is follow that from some were sunburnt of an outsider, either on a socio economic level, or agenda level, or a racial level. And that was the only reason

that it became interesting. Just another example of art imitating life. That's Mickey down and carrade k, writer's co creators and executive producers of the new HBO drama series Industry. And that wraps up the weekend edition to Bloomberg Business Week from Bloomberg Radio. Thinks so much for joining us on Carol Masser. Be sure to tune in daily to Bloomberg Business Week Monday through Friday, starting at two pm Wall

Street Time on Bloomberg Radio. You can also hear more of our Bloomberg Business Week conversations download them at bloom dot com, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also watch us on YouTube just search Bloomberg global news, and be sure to check out our Bloomberg Business Week Extra podcast. It's with Dan Bloomenthal. He's the director of Asian Studies at the American Enterprise Institute. He's got a new book. It's called The China Nightmare, The

Grand Ambitions of a Decaying State. That book kicks off with this sentence. The geopolitics of the twenty one century will be defined by an intensifying strategic rivalry between the People's Republic of China and the United States over the future of the world order. Some great weekend reading Bloomberg Business Week. It's available on newsstands, now, online and on the Bloomberg Have a safe weekend, everyone, Happy Holidays. This is Bloomberg