EVs, Meta, Metal, And Supply Chain (Podcast)

as we said, the great state of Ohio. UM, they're gonna pump out more electric vehicles and traditional gas fueled autos, including I hope the seventh generation Mustang. I'm slightly obsessed with the current GT five hundred UM, but they're gonna create more than just horsepower jobs. And I think Ford is now the biggest employing the most auto workers of any car maker in America. Let's bring in Kumar Galholtro to talk about this. He is the president of Ford Blue,

which is their internal combustion business. Kumar, thanks so much for joining us talk to me about the the size and scope of Ford's employee employees. Good morning, Matt, thanks for having me. Yeah, we are as you said, We're the largest our lootto worker employer in the country. And that's not an accident. You know, this is a choice we made as a company, and we're gonna add to it. We're gonna add sixty jobs to that. Uh and uh. Those are going to be in three states, in Michigan

and the great State of Ohio and in Missouri. All right, what do we know about I'm gonna be needling you for details, Kumar on the new seventh generation Mustang. I um fell in love with Gen five and I have really been convinced. Actually, Alan mollally showed me my first pictures of the sixth generation Mustang UM which was which was wonderful. And now we're expecting a new one. Is it still going to use the coyote, the famous five lead V eight famous half I need you were gonna

ask that, Matt. I can't. I can't give you those details yet, but I'd love to come back and talk detailed on the must Thang, just like you. One of my favorite vehicles ever, the most iconic vehicles we've ever made. All Right, so you're at your factory in Ohio. Do you have chips at your factory in Ohio? Give us the update on this whole chips situation, because cars now use a lot of chips, don't they. Yeah, like, uh, you know a vehicle like the F one fifty can

has have as many as chips in it. Yes, we have chips in Ohio. The Ohio factories running. The first quarter was not great. As you know, it's been improving and uh, I expect second half of this year to be substantially better than the first half, but it's still very volatile. You know, the Shanghai shutdown through in a volatility. I'm really glad that Shanghai is coming out of lockdown and a lot of our suppliers they're regatting production. Uh So second half fully expect to be better than than

the first half. How is we know that the supply chain and the chip shortages is coming along, is limping along, and we hope it comes to an end as soon as possible. But there's also a labor shortage. We saw I think yesterday there are eleven point four million job openings in America, which is crazy. How are you doing in terms of attracting talent? We're doing actually quite well. You know, we've made announcements in Kentucky, Tennessee. We're building

those plants and starting that process there. Uh, and today we're announcing we're going at jobs and what else we're doing is to your point, it's not just about creating the jobs. It's about the employee experience. So at the moment, we have three thousand temporary employees in our workforce. We are converting all of them this June this month to

permanent Ford employees. So what that does is while all of those three thousand employees will get a raise, Secondly, all the employees will start getting full health coverage on day one, so that's gonna be really important. And we're also committing to investing a billion dollars over the next five years in improving the employee experience at our factory. So this is not about you know, tooling and etcetera.

That's the separate two point seven billion dollars. Were investing this billion dollars over the next five years throughout our entire industrial base, all the factories, just upgrading the employee experience. Better access to healthy food, better break rooms, more security and parking lots, better lighting in parking lots, more EV chargers.

So I think a combination of all that, uh, and just the pure pride people have in working for Ford and building these awesome vehicles is what helps us attract of the workforce. So com I'm I'm guessing you know car nuts like Matt and you you cruise down the street in your Ford Mustang. Part of the thrill is the roar of the engine. What happens when you guys got huge part, huge part of this part. What happens when when you guys go electric? How are you? How's

the industry thinking about that? Well, in an early indication I think is the Mustang macke where we created the sound inside the vehicle, so you can pick mode that you drive that vehicle and you know, let's say you pick unbridled, and it provides this sensation of the sound that becomes part of the experience. And you know, going in, everybody was wondering how that's going to play out. The

customers love it, They absolutely love it. So that's just one idea, and we're playing around with other ideas how we would replicate that experience. I actually got to test drive the Macky and I loved it. Paul was just asked me before the show, how can I never get to test drive any of the cars. I'm gonna hook you up with my point person out here, Mary Beth

Child's is great at at giving me cars. She got me in last week Afford f two fifty Tremor with Godzilla under the hood, a seven point three leader V eight unbelievable, Kumar, Um, are you ever gonna put a supercharger on that? Baby? I can't say, Matt, but these are fantastic ideas. Let me check that back to the power train team. You go back to Farley's office. I know he wants to do it too, and uh yeah,

it's just an amazing engine. It's basically unkillable. This this motor. Um, It's just so stout and sturdy, and the towing capacity is amazing for a gas engine. Plus the two fifty with the Tremor package on it, it is just a monster. Um alright, Kumar, it's been great talking to you. Thanks so much for joining us. Always great to get forward executives coming from Ohio. You know, typically I talked to the him in Deer Dearborn or in ann Arbor is the worst. But um, when they come from Ohio, it

just makes me very happy. Now we are fortunate enough to have Emily Chang here in the studio. Typically she's on the left coast Um, usually interviewing Cheryl Sandberg. Right. I feel like you've probably interviewed Cheryl Sanderberg more than any other journalist. Interviewed her a few times yesterday, including yesterday an exclusive interview. I will also point out, which is a big deal in the in the news biz.

This is to me like a huge story. If if a man of this stature were to step down after creating a company like this, we would do wall to wall coverage. Right. Um, she is without a doubt the most powerful and most well known female executive in business. And you know, I would say she is not just one of the most powerful and influential business leader, business women, business leaders in the world. She is just one of the most powerful people in business totally. She took a

company that was like friends to and made Uh. They had twenty seven billion dollars in AD sales in one three month period. That's just shocking. And Facebook has one of the fattest margins in the world of business. Like all of the money they bring in for sales they put in their pockets. Right, It's made Mark Zuckerberg one of the richest people in the world. Cheryl Sandberg probably

also incredibly wealthy, Yes, definitely. Also, it has touched the lives of three billion people directly right that used the platform. I just think it's an amazing story. Why is she leaving, Well, I'll tell you what she says. She says it's time. She's been there for fourteen years. She thought it would be five. She wants to spend more time with her family. She's getting married this summer. She has five kids now. She wants to spend more time on philanthropy, she wants

to spend more time on her women's advocacy. And I do think what's happening with Roe versus Wade right now. I think she potentially wants to get more active there and now as the time. However, um, I think if you think about the pivot to the metaverse, whether it's a good idea or not, whether Facebook can capitalize it or not on it or not, she would have had to come up with a whole different business model or a reconstitution of Facebook's business model for the metaverse. And

maybe she just didn't want to write a whole new chapter. Um, maybe she was just done and wanted to do other things. I also think that she's probably been looking for an exit for several years. And because Facebook was facing controversy after controversy after controversy, and she was often the face of those controversies or felt responsibility to clean up the mess. Um, she couldn't believe and there was never a good time. Yes,

let's talk about that for a moment. Because so she wants to now step down from Facebook and do more good. Can she redeem herself? Is she going to heaven? Because Facebook is potentially one of the worst things to happen to humanity, you know, I mean, it's just made the

world a worst place. Yes. And I think if if Cheryl Sandberg has any failures, she did not admit to the negative consequences that you know, Facebook has has clearly clearly created and and and of course there there could have been you know, decisions that she wanted Mark to make make that he refused to make. Sure, let's allow

her that possibility. Um. But also there's no question that she does bear responsibility for the negative consequences of Facebook, and also that she was not able to repair Facebook's relationship with Washington, repair Facebook's image, and of course that then comes down to her own reputation. But can we just say that she created one of the most incredible, whether we like it or not, business models in history, not just once but twice. She did it at Google,

she did it at Facebook. She wrote a transformational book that I know not everyone agrees with that was very powerful for many women, and not just women but men and women and business. And so I don't know if she's going to heaven or any of us going to heaven, but I think we do have to celebrate what she has created. Do you think she has a future in politics.

I think elected office would be tough. I think it would be tough for her to win an election, and you put it everything together, the good and the bad, it's a challenge. I think appointed office maybe, And you know, maybe the more distance she puts between herself and Facebook, people start to see the good things again. And you know, I don't know if she really wants to. I do think that Cheryl is she's very ambitious. She wrote not just one but two books while she was at Facebook.

She's strategic, she's smart, like I'm sure she has a plan um and but you're right, she doesn't have to. She doesn't have to, but I think she she is someone who I just from my personal interactions with her, she wants to work right, she wants to be contributing um and I don't think she will be happy just you know, quote unquote doing philanthropy, though I think that that's very important work. I think that she will want to do more and see how she can use her

voice as a force for good in the future. The Bloomberg rich Go Functions says she has two point three billion dollars. I'm gonna say that's lowballing you. Our data is the best, rich Go, It's the best. Yeah, it is the definitive data. Let's say she's rich. Okay, Like I think that's a lot of money. That's a lot of money, all right, Emily Chang, thank you so much

for joining us in our studio here at folks. Uh. There's really not many journals I would say, maybe not any who are as in touch with the business of Silicon Valley than Emily Chang is from her perch on the West Coast. We appreciate getting a few minutes of your time. Matt and I often like to talk about supply channel ofttimes you talk about it on a global scale, getting two ships into ports and the railroads running in

the trucks and all that kind of stuff. But Iday, I drove back and forth to South Jersey yesterday on the New Jersey Turnpike and there it is just lined with UH warehouses and fulfilment centers and Amazon Prime trucks all over the place, and early makes you think about that last mile of getting stuff to stores and then stores to consumers. It is just an incredible business. Brian Kinsella joins us. He's just senior VP of Product Management

at Manhattan Associates. That's a NASTAC traded company. M A n H is the ticker on your Bloomberg terminal there. Brian talked to us about kind of what retailers have been doing over the past two two and a half years as it relates to getting products to consumers. It's not just people coming into stores. It's been e commerce, it's been omni channel. What are some of the big changes that you and your clients have been dealing with. Yeah,

good morning, I'm glad to be with you. Um So, yeah, it's been Uh, it's been a fun last couple of years. I mean, I think a couple of things. One. Um, if you think about the experience you have as a consumer, your expectations have really changed. When you order something now, you know it's not okay for it to come in five to seven days. You expect it in two days. And you expect to be able to reserve something online and do a curbside pick up in a couple of hours.

And those things may seem a little bit simple and basic, but from a logistics and supply chain point of view, there's a lot in the background that makes that happen. So Um, it's really about speed to customer. Predictability and visibility of that delivery experience is what the data will show you will drive up your net promoter score UM and drive loyalty amongst your customers. I got a curveball for you. I got one out of left field here

kind of it's related. Are you going to heaven? No? Okay? Um, Brian, Uh. You know, a couple of years ago, we were talking about the idea of drones delivering stuff and I thought it sounded ridiculous. I've heard there our pilot programs. Is that kind of thing really going to happen? You know, I think that we're in experimentation mode on a lot

of different things. That's everything from from drone delivery, which is you know, obviously nascent, to robotics in the warehouse, which is further along UM and is showing some real productivity improvements, especially in a tight labor environment. UM. But if you look at you know what's happening at a macro level, employment in the warehousing and the transportation sectors

has never been higher. So this is still UM you know, primarily a people driven process, both on the last mile and delivery side as well as those big warehouses that you drive by. The vast majority of that activity is powered by people today. So the last mile is your area of specific expertise. What UM is the unique selling point of Manhattan Associates, What's what's your you know, elevator pitch. Well,

you know what we really do is UM. You know, we think about the totality of the stomer experience when it comes to fulfilment. So when you go online to that website, you want to know what's in that local store? When can I pick it up? Can I get the same dat delivery? Can I get a next day delivery? If I'm going to have a shift to me, how long is it going to take if I add more three or three more items to that basket? How does that change my delivery experience in terms of timing and

so forth. Um So, pulling all that together, as you might imagine, there's a lot of real time data that needs to be consolidated together. Um you've got to also avoid mistakes like not offering to send you a pair of socks across town, you know, for free during the you know, for the same day delivery. So really being smart about that assortment and figuring out how to do all of this profitably. So over the course of the last few years, it's really been focused about customer experience

and delivering those types of fulfilment experiences. But we've also got to look at how do we generate bottom line results from more and more of the activity that's going

through these complex fulfilment channels. Brian, you mentioned one of the key ingredients for that last mild delivery of packages, and we've all seen the trucks cruising around town, you know, dropping that pair of socks off the people that they just have to have Today talk to us about the labor situation because we know there's a labor shortage for most industries out there. And I'm I'm guessing that's also true kind of in your business as well as you

work with your clients. Yeah. Absolutely, And you know, before the packages get on the back of those trucks, they go through in most cases large complex distribution centers and fulfillment centers. And you know, one of the things that has been driving UM, you know, more use of automation, be it next gen automation like robotics or your classic

automation is frankly the labor shortage in the labor situation. UM. You know that said, One of the things that companies can do and that we work with them on is UM really creating a better experience for the associates in the warehouse. You know, we've built some gamification technology so that UM they're real time rewards that get built into

the work day, both monetary and otherwise. UM that you know, really makes it more of a modern experience orients for the younger generation as they come into some of those jobs as well. In terms of UM normalization. I mean you you you said, I think half joking that it was been a fun couple of years. I'm sure it's probably you've been the hardest two years of your career. Um,

when when do we get back to normal here? Well, Um, you know, I think that it's uh, it's a matter of the things are changing on both sides of the equation. So obviously there's the supply disruption and I know you guys have covered that extensively. Um, But that the consumer continues to change. You know, that they want different ways to take delivery of products, to pay for things, contactless payments, um, you know, paying with crypto in the store. All of

that stuff continues to go along. So I don't think, and I guess it's a bit cliche, but that the reality is the you know what normal looks like is going to be ongoing change and evolution. And I think especially for a lot of you know companies that we deal with, you know, they're they're chasing in some cases, and we're trying to outcompete the legs of Amazon, and we know their philosophy about continued evolution and and grow

to the customer experience. So I think it's going to be you know, this pace that we've experienced the last two to three years, I think is what we can expect going forward in terms of continued investment in supply chain, in technology UM, and improving the end customer delivery experience. You mentioned Amazon dot Com and You're and obviously they're the ones that have been driving this revolution in retail over the last decades. Plural are are are the traditional retailers.

How does a MoMA keep up with that? Yeah, it's a great question. We see two things. One, for the non mom pops, you know, you're much larger companies UM, they're building I T organizations and development shops to rival Amazon, or to attempt to rival Amazon and really build out a fair amount of it themselves. Now we work with a lot of those guys behind the scenes too, but

the end customer experience they're trying to control. For the smaller companies, it's really about cleverly stitching together you know, some SASS solutions and cloud based technology providers to be able to deliver those types of experiences. You're also seeing some third party logistics providers really focusing on UM serving that market the book that you're describing and essentially delivering an Amazon like experience as a service. It sounds like

there's no going back. Brian cain sell, A, Senior VP of Product Management in Manhattan, associates again that companies publicly traded on the NASTAC M A and H is the ticker UH for your Bloomberg terminal. The world is going continues to go e commerce, omni channel. We're gonna online, pick it up the store, all that kind of good stuff. Retail is changing. June is Pride month, and a month

when we're focusing on equality issues here at Bloomberg. Today we bringing Mary Ellen is Candarian CEO and president of Women's World Banking, also author of a new book, Nothing Mike Grow, about a billion women making finance work for women. Marianne, thanks so much for joining us. I love to start off just by getting your reaction to the news that Cheryl S. Sandberg is stepping down from her CEO post at Facebook. How did you what did you read into that? Well?

I have to say I hadn't heard that the stock was up on the news until just listening to the program right before we started talking. So that was interesting, very very very interesting signal there. Um. You know, she was really such a face for this movement of lean in and and you know, negotiating for what right salaries

and everything everything to deserve. I know, a lot of folks felt like, you know, there was a classic line I've heard many women say, you know, sort of if I lean in any further, I'm going to fall flat

on my faith. And UM, I think that a lot of that sentiment really, um, you know, hit home during during COVID, when all of the you know, sort of the third shift, all of the additional responsibilities that that women often take at home in addition to working really um just ramped up to ridiculous levels as the kids were homeschooled and people were trying to work from home and there was just, you know, so much being being juggled. So I don't know, I feel like the messages maybe

moved on a bit and that hasn't necessarily updated. Um for all that we've learned, and a lot happens that happens, right, I mean it was at the time, I think it was really important, and it certainly was fascinating, and um, she did an undeniably great job at creating a powerhouse business. I mean, if you look at Facebook, um stock, yes, it's up today three percent, and reaction were stepping down but you know, at one point she was responsible for

boosting the stock like one thousand two. Um, she made twenty seven billion dollars in one quarter and advertising revenue. I mean she just she leaned way the heck in. And it's easier, Marian when you have two point three billion dollars, you know, to get childcare. Yes, what about what about a normal the normal women of America post COVID and you know even in less developed nations. How, um, how are we doing in terms of creating a solid

financial foundation for for women. Well, you know, the work that we do at Women's World Banking is very focused on on the emerging markets and and we've seen some actually really exciting developments in that. Um, you know, the rush to digital moving so many government and private sector you know, in addition to financial services, online has just really you know, sort of driven change for women at a pace that, um, you know, we could only have

imagined a few years ago. So we're actually pretty excited about all of the smartphones that have gotten into women's hands. You know, UM India made their first uh COVID relief payments payable only two women and only through digital accounts. UM India is also the country with the largest gender gap in smartphone ownership. And so you saw like within three weeks of that first um, that first lockdown, twenty

five million new digital accounts opened, primarily by women. So you know, sometimes it does take a crisis to just go through social norms and restrictive um cultural issues that may all hold women back. But you know, in a crisis, no way where you're going to not take advantage of that government relief payment during such a scary time. So you now have all of these women with those mobile money accounts, the challenge will be let's keep them in

the system. Let's make sure we continue to serve them, and as they start to come back into the into the workforce, you know, even more importantly thirty seconds Mary Allan, in the US, how are the banks doing in terms of serving women? You know, I still feel in the U S we we have a little bit of that sort of pink product um phenomenon where you take a product that maybe working for men, you know, put some nice marketing around it, but you don't really look into

what's the need? What are women really missing, not understanding, not really wanting, not that you're not listening to them and and really taking a woman centered focus um on your product design. I think there's a there's a great stuff that's happening. You're seeing some really interesting fintech and tech enabled solutions that are focused on women, but I think the banks specifically still have a way to go. All right, Mary Ellen, great stuff. Thanks for coming on.

We really appreciate getting your thoughts. Mary Ellen is can Day and CEO and president of Women's World Banking. New book out entitled Nothing Micro About a Billion Women Making finance work for Women. Thanks for listening to the Bloomberg Markets podcast. You can subscribe and listen to interviews with Apple Podcasts or whatever podcast platform you prefer. I'm Matt Miller. I'm on Twitter at Matt Miller, three pen On Fall

Sweeney I'm on Twitter at pt Sweeney. Before the podcast, you can always catch us worldwide at Bloomberg Radio