tv Charlie Rose PBS September 15, 2015 12:00am-1:01am PDT
12:00 am
>> rose: welcome to the program. we begin this evening with the question, will joe biden get in the presidential race. we talk to john dickerson, john heilemann and mark halperin. >> the part that is pulling him towards it, the fact that beau wanted him to run and wanted him to run all along. the fact of getting back up off the mat and soothing yourself through work and through a mission. those are very strong in him. the place that's pulling him back is the family. and he is an old school, a friend of his, very close friend of his for many years said to me in this piece i wrote said he's an old school, old-fashioned patriarch. he believes his fundamental doubt he is-- duty is to take care of his family. he looks at his wife, he looks at his sister. he looks at his now widowed daughter-in-law and grandchildren and he is not sure that even though they will say to him, it's okay if you run, he's not sure
12:01 am
that they are actually ready to go through what it would mean to go through. and if i think if he ends up saying no, the main reason will be because he felt that his main duty was to take care of them rather than pursue his political ambitions. >> rose: we continue with pattie sellers of "fortune" magazine talking about the 50 most powerful women in american business. >> to me it's also very much about humanizing these women who were not born leaders. >> rose: yes. >> they had to make their way up and they have their insecurities and their vulnerabilities. and we like to show that. and we like them to be role models for young women on the way up because we hear from young women that they are very confused about how to navigate their careers. >> rose: we con lewd this evening with logan green and john zim, co-founders of lyft, the challenger to uber. >> people i have done done it for limos, black cars as a car service. so we had to forge a lot of
12:02 am
new ground with regulations, creating regulatory environment where you could use your personal vehicle. and we've also differed on the experience we've created. the first tag line of the company was your friend with a car. and part of that is creating an equality between driver and passenger. because long-term we want every driver on the road that is safe and gone through our background check process to be a lyft driver. and so when you're on your way going somewhere, you could actually earn money and get someone elsewhere they need to go. most powerful women, and looking at lyft when we continue. >> rose: funding for "charlie rose" has been provided by: american express. >> rose: additional funding provided by:
12:03 am
>> and by bloomberg, a provider of multimedia news and information services worldwide. captioning sponsored by rose communications from our studios in new york city, this is charlie rose. >> rose: we begin this evening with the 2016 presidential race. speculation has been growing around the potential candidacy of vice president e biden. in an emotional interview with on late night with stephen colbert last thursday he questioned whether he has the energy to run. >> i don't think any man or woman should run for president unless, number one, they know exactly why they would want to be president. two, they can look at the folks out there and say i promise you you have my whole heart, my whole soul, my energy and my passion to do this. and, and i would be lying if
12:04 am
i said that i knew i was there. >> rose: joining me is john heilemann of bloomberg politics and host ofings with request all due respect ". he reported today the vice president met with a major campaign finance year during his trip to new york. swoining me is mark halperin, from san francisco john dickerson, the host of cbs's face face,-- the nation and head of political unit at cbs news. i'm pleased to have all of them at this program. let me begin with joe biden. the significance of the fact that you reported that he met with a well-known bundler for barack obama who is supporting hillary clinton. >> yes, well, robert wolf, former c.e.o. of ubs americas, a huge bundler for o decided no the to goomeone with hillary clinton in 200 will, raised a lot of money for obama an became personally close to obama in a which that almost no one
12:05 am
else in the business community has. >> rose: and a golfing buddy. >> and a golfing buddy. he is nominally for secretary clintonton. he has in the raised any money or signed up to be a meggar bundlering. so if you have thinking of defecters, me would be someone you what want to talk to. the vice president met with him on secret on friday, not on his public schedule for about 90 minutes. the way i would describe it is the beginning of a courtship. you know, vase president bideis to the asking donors to sign up with him yet because he doesn't know if he is going to run yet. but he's starting to lay the ground work for that conversation. and this is an audacious move by biden in some ways. he's to the been out public leigh himself. his campaign is talking to a lot of donors, he himself has done a little bit of that. but to go and do this and that, they wanted to keep it quiet and that didn't happen because of me. but they-- for him to go and-- he's also been very careful about not riling up the clintons.
12:06 am
for him to go and pete with a gold-plated donor. >> unsuccessful in that. >> a gold plated donor on hillary chrn ton's side, it's a move to a different kind of posture, a little more audacity be his part and shows that although he has not yet decided, he is moving in the direction of yes. and not in the direction of no. he may still end up at no but right now the momentum is towards yes. >> rose: mark, do you agree with that? >> i agree that he's doing a lot of things because he's got his eye on the clock. and while i think this is still a personal decision and not a political decision, i still think he doesn't need to do fear leigh as much to raise money and build his organization as a normal candidate does. there is no doubt that the people around joe biden have said to him there are certain things we need to do, certain things you need to do if this is going to be even plausible and he moved in that direction. >> where is the clock? >> well, as john reports, it's later than some people think. there's a debate in the middle of next month, the first democratic debate.
12:07 am
i don't think he needs to be in that. this is a campaign about saying i need to be ready if the democratic party needs me. if i can prove to people that i'm a better alternative than hillary clinton or person-year sanders, the party can turn to me even though i have got then late, even though i haven't spent as many hours an days in new hampshire. you think about joe biden when he first got elected to the senate. and faced a very similar decision. which is can i go be a united states-- freshman unites states senator after i have dealt with a horrible tragedy of losing loved ones in a way that, obviously is wrenching. he faces the same decision now. then he had been elected to the senate but he thought about maybe not taking office. >> one one thing i have been told by people close to him and you heard it in another part of that colbert interview is his sense of identity going back to what mark said about after his wife and daughter died, his sense of identity is-- is built in part on what he said is getting up. which he talked about with colbert. the fact that when you are
12:08 am
in such state of grief that his mother and his father, he gave two different expressions that they both had about the duty to get up and soldier on. and that that is a part of the biden identity. that is a part of what beau bidens with about and it's what beau biden was asking him to do when he said dad, when i'm gone, i want to make sure you're okay. one way-- it has been described to me a way in which bow biden and the sadness of his death are holding him back but they are also compelling him in a way. and that is a part of this emotional picture as well. and if you were trying too sort of keep the flame alive of beau biden, you would soldier on in the face of that grief and so i think there's a push and a pull on the emotional side here. >> it's totally true. and there are two things to build on what mark and john both said. what the vice president believes now, he talked about this in the colbert thing too. he thinks that he has a rational that he can explain for why he wants to be president and why he would be a better president than
12:09 am
hillary clinton in a way she can never do. he thinks he would be better at the job and he thinks he can explain it in a way that people will find real. and that people will understand in a way she's incapable of doing. that's one thing that is true. >> rose: and what is that explanation. >> well, he thinks that he is still joe biden. he is the fighter for the middle class, for the working class in america, rebuilding the middle class of the american economy. and that he can talk about that in an authentic way that she can't. he also thinks that this moment is unique in that-- in that the craving for authenticity that we always have in our politics is particularly acute right now. and both he and the people around him look at the donald trump phenomenon and they say, donald trump has gotten this far by basically telling it like it is. that not only talks,-- speaks to one of biden's strengths but also the fact that trump can get away paging what other people think of as mistakes, that there is so much craving for authenticity that there is a greater tolerance for screwups. and as we know the vice
12:10 am
president sometimes puts his foot in his mouth. they see that as also a sign of the moment and the opening. on the emotional side that john was just talking about, it is a push and a pull. and i actually think at this point the part that is pulling him towards it, the fact that beau wanted him to run and wanted him to run all along, the fact of getting back up off the mat and soothing yourself through work and through a mission, those are very strong in him. the place that's pulling him back is the family. and he is an old school, a friend of his, very close friend of his for many years said to me in this piece i wrote, said he is an old school, old-fashioned patriarch. he believes his fundamentals duty is to take care of his family. he lacks at his wife. he looks at his sister. he looks at his now widowed daughter-in-law, his grandchildren. and he is not sure that even though they will say to him it's okay if you run, he's not sure that they are actually ready to go through what it would mean to go through.
12:11 am
and if i think if he ends up saying no, the main reason will be because he felt that his main duty was to take care of them rather than pursue his political ambitions. >> i want to talk about two things. what is the risk if he goes and loses. >> well, he would have run three times and lost. and he's a proud guy. and i don't think as an incumbent vice president you want to find yourself in that position. you know, he doesn't know what he's going to do. so it's hard for us to know, impossible for us to know. but i think the reality is none of us would be surprised if he ran. and i don't think any of us would be surprised if he didn't run. if he runs he's an underdog. there is no doubt about it. but he's also significantly better positioned than he was in '88, and he's significantly better positioned than he was in 2008. so his best chance to be president of the unites states states-- and i think that his vision of how to do it-- is not normal. in the past it is how much could i raise. could i raise as much, could
12:12 am
i raise enough. he doesn't really have to think in those terms. i think he is confident on the debate stage based on his performance in 2008. if he can get on the stage, if he can have enough of an organization to take advantage of the doubts about hill re clinton, that he can win. but i think-- i know, i don't know how much this is a calculation of his. but i know a lot of people who care about him do not want him to run, halfheartedly an in a distracted way and lose. and there's a lot of people who care about him in the white house who feel that for all of hillary clinton's vulnerability, she's still significantly stronger than he would be. and are worried about the trauma of soldiering on, standing up, fighting forward, running, and then potentially not doing well at all. >> rose: so john dickerson-- go ahead, john. >> just to pick up on what mark is saying. i horde a version of the same thing. which is, and biden, from the people i talked to is very well aware of this, the old line is your best day is the day before you announce. but there is another kind of sharper, painful part of the
12:13 am
conversation that could take place if this became a campaign in earnest. which is right now he is at the top of his game. if he were to not run for all the reasons that john outlined and mark as well, then he leaves the field, everybody wants more from joe biden. and he ends on a real high note. what i have heard from people inside the white house who have worked with him who really like him is that once you get to a conversation about whether he would be a great president, it starts to get pretty ugly and pretty hard pretty fast. and that if the campaign doesn't go as he would like, then it kind of ends on a bit of a sour note. and there, because they have his interest at heart, at least as they have explained it to me, that's why they worry about him actually launching in a full-fledged campaign. >> rose: which brings me to my question which is it a doable deal. can joe biden, and what are the odds that joe biden if he is all in, if he is all in, can win the nomination. >> well, now you're at-- there's a little bit of a bank shot quality to this, right.
12:14 am
if mark and i and i believe john, if we all accept the notion that he gets in quite late now, maybe he waits until early november, he's not going to build an iowa operation where he's going to go and the key with bernie sanders and hillary clinton in iowa. he's not probably going to be able to build a new hampshire operation. what they're focused on is south carolina. and they're focused on a scenario that looks like bernie sanders beats hillary clinton in iowa, beats her in new hampshire in one or the other or both. wounds her sufficiently in those first two contests that then you come to south carolina and biden is waiting. and a wounded clinton and a sanders who is not particularly cut out for well suited for the demographics of south carolina, they roll down there. and biden is the waiting alternative. and you know, scenario where she lost or was severely wounded in the first three contests, now you have-- now you really have a path for swro biden to go on and win the nomination there say little bit of a bank shot
12:15 am
quality. she goes on and wins iowa, the wol wol thing is out the window. >> what happened to hillary clinton,. >> she chose to get in this race as the e-mail scandal is mushrooming. she could have dealt with the e-mail scandal in a more efficient or effective way. that has dogged her throughout. and even though the polls are kind of mixed on whether voters think that should be an issue or how big a factor it is for them. she has-- she has got herself so yolked up in that and raising questions about her elect ability. her authenticity, her truthfulness, and the two other things that are happening concurrent with that, one is none of us expected person-year sanders to be the performer that he has been and i mean that in the best of ways of the. his connection to voters, his ability to speak in an honest way, in a heartfelt way and the mood of the country where whatever your views of the clintons and the bushes and or any
12:16 am
individual members of the family, a real disdain for the notion that the country would be left as a bush and a clinton for the major nominees when he had want change i think she is still the most likely president of the united states because the republican race is still unsettled and we don't know who will emerge there. but her connection to this notion of that she is an historic figure, a qualified figure, an exciting figure has all been overwhelmed by the other factors that i said. >> and the e-mail scandal managing it, and as poorly as it's been managed, in a year where authenticity is what everybody is talking about, has forced her on an almost daily basis or certainly her campaign, to engage in a series of inauthentic acts. a variety of explanations that don't feel like you're getting the full story. and as pelter-- said on face the nation, the most authentic thing was she didn't want to have to answer why she had this separate e-mail system that
12:17 am
is her you then particular view, it is just the authentic view was not sustainable. and so she has had the actual problem with the e-mail and what people have decided to think about that. then she's had the fact that everything that is done outside of that looks like a stratege murx to distract from the e-mail story even if it's not. and finally there is no breathing room for her to launch a big speech about college afford able that might get people excited in a way that speech or a speech on the same top sick getting people excited with bernie sandiers. >> rose: is it possible that the e-mail scan dal will get worse? >> or likely. >> well, if it is true that the server has not been wiped as "the washington post" reports, that in fact there is more recoveriable on that server than it first seemed, first she said basically it's been-- we got the im press that it had been completely almost destroyed. if, in fact, all those 30,000 e-mails were deleted
12:18 am
are accessible in some way by investigators, i think that is an avenue for things to get worse. >> this is an important question. so does anybody know the answer as to whether-- who has possession of the server and whether the server has been a, wiped or b simply delated. >> well, the f.b.i. has it. but they're not doing a political investigation or journalistic investigation. they're doing a security investigation. so they're more interested in the question of whether classified information or secret information got into the wrong hands. it's possible that congress will come after the server in it turns out that they learn that there is data on there. and that could be a big problem for her. i think if the f.b.i. determines that there was a breach on her system, i think that potentially makes it worse. i think some of the issues involving her staff could potentially make it worse. the release of more of these e-mails coming out month by month could make it worse. and finally this congressional system next month. you know, her history has been when she's gone up to capitol hill, republicans have completely misplayed their hand in the moment and in the aftermath.
12:19 am
and she's come away victorious. her team is confident she'll do that again. i'm not so sure this time if i understand the way the committee is preparing, if i understand the way they're going to try to stage manage this, that may be a really bad day for her rather than what her campaign hopes which is it is a climactic day where she stuffs them and ends their ability politically to continue to ask her questions. >> rose: last word. >> a big question we had around this table months ago was what did she learn from her race in 2008? how different will the race be that she runs now in 2016. and unfortunately for her, many of the things that were bad about her campaign in 2007 have replayed themselves in 2015. many of the even -- >> even different team. >> different team, ultimately in politics the strength of your campaign always comes back to the strength of the candidate. the strengths and the weaknesses are the candidate's strengths and weaknesses reflected in the
12:20 am
organization around them. you think back to that campaign and how she ran in 2007, the problems the democratic voters had with her. the passion that she did not inspire. the sense that she was constantly calculating and try and lating. the sense that she was operating as if she were the inevitable nominee and not someone who was having to work for every vote. many of those things have replayed themselves now. you know, last week when you saw these stories about people in her campaign saying she will now project humor and awe then 'tisity. and stories about her campaign talking about focus groups that convinced her she had to apologize for the e-mail. those were very reminiscent to me of the end of 2007 wheshe went out and announced her campaign to reporters she was going on a likability tour of iowa. like who announces they are going on a likability tour. you know, that rings of a hallowness and phoniness. again, she may turn out to be a great candidate. she was a great candidate in the spring of 2008 and she may get there now. but there's so many things
12:21 am
red ol ent of that campaign last time. and this goes mark made, you know. there are obviously a lot of democratic voters who worry in various ways about the e-mail thing, whether it will hurt her in the general election, maybe on the questions of her honesty and trust worthiness. but a lot are not worried about that at all but are not feeling the enthusiasm that you see on the sapders side for hill rae clinton. >> one last thing in the abv/"washington post" poll that came out today. a few months ago 71% of democratic leading female voters in july said they expected to vote for clinton. that number is now down to 42%. that's 30 points among democratic leaning women. that is a core of hillary clinton's constituency and that is an alarm bell for her candidacy. >> rose: that was the historic theme of her campaign. making history, thank you, john. >> thank you. >> thank you, john. >> and thank you, mark. >> thank you, charlie. >> we'll be right back. stay with us.
12:22 am
>> rose: when "fortune" magazine first pub published its list of the most powerful women in business in 1998 there were only two female c.e.o.s in the fortune 500. the women on this area's list of the most powerful 50 women range from cap pains-- captains of industry like mary barro of general motors, and apple's new head of retail. joining me now is pattie sellers. assistant managing editor for "fortune" magazine and the executive director of live content for parent company-- she is of haved in the most powerful women project since the beginning. i'm pleased to have her here back at this table. welcome. >> thanks, charlie. this has become a kind of institution, hasn't it? >> this is like what we used to think of as a fortune 500. >> well, it is now believe it or not, it's fortune's biggest brand. > the most powerful womenl is, and the reason it is because we produce this special issue each year. we have a lot of digital
12:23 am
content. and we have six events each year. and at a time when print is declining, events are a very good thing for media companies to be in. >> rose: you do one event a year or four. >> we do six events a year. we do our big most powerful women summit which you came to with warren buffett a few years ago, i remember. an that's in the fall. >> rose: he comes every year. >> he does come every area. and he will be with us in october but we have most powerful women international, in london, in hong kong am we have the most powerful women, because there was so much demand in younger women. >> rose: for the next generation of young women. >> we started that last year and it was a huge hit. so it's become, you know, little did we realize when we started this in 19989 that we were beginning a movement. but we were the first to market and now everybody is copying us. >> rose: so other than the list and the event, what is it about? >> well, it is-- it's about
12:24 am
celebrating women leaders. it's about informing the business community about women leaders who they might want to recruit, put on their boards, and to me, it's also very much about humanizing these women who were not born leaders. they had to make their way up in-- and they have their insecurities and their vulnerabilities. and we like to show that. and we like them to be role models for young women on the way up because we hear from young women that they are very confused about how to navigate their careers. and these women can be role models. >> rose: is there a con ken-- consensus or is it too broad a brush to say here are the ways in which women c.e.o.s are different than male c.e.o.s? >> it is a broad-brush. but there is a lot of truth to that. women do tend to be more collaborative. women's brains are structured differently.
12:25 am
>> rose: how are women's brains structured differently? >> they are-- i'm not a near scientist but there is a connector between the hemispheres of the brain, you're going to get me in trouble here, that is different in men and women. and it allows women to both think of multiple things and have multiple concerns at the same time. and it allows-- it encourages women to be more both empathetic and collaborative. >> rose: yeah. i means that's -- >> it's nature and nurture. >> rose: yes, indeed. that's why sometimes men, they will say about men, i would like to see their female side, whatever that means. >> yeah, i means that's true. and you know, a c.e.o. that we were just talking about, tim cook, i think, is very, you know, one of the reasons that apple that he is so successful is that he has a lot of empathy and he has great collaborative skills.
12:26 am
>> rose: absolutely does. because of all the people that were surrounding steve, yeah, steve, of which he was sort of the hand-picked by steve to succeed him. but all the people stayed. >> yeah. absolutely. >> rose: and significantly number of overs have stayed there because of what he has been able to do. i was just out there because we're doing a "60 minutes" piece. and it's quite amazing. as to how that company continues to look to the future, continues to refine its product base. >> it is amazing. and we have the first story here, the first exclusive interview with angela aaron. >> rose: i love her. >> who tim cook hired. who would have imagined that the c.e.o. of burburry would go to apple and head their retail business which is the most profitable retail business on earth. highest margin retail business. but it actually, you know,
12:27 am
it had a few failures of leadership. and tim cook was very creative in thinking of hiring a retail luxury star to come in and remake that business. >> rose: so it was an inspired choice. >> it was an inspired choice. >> rose: but not an obvious choice. >> not an obvious choice. and in fact this wonderful story that my colleague jen reingold did talks about when angela aarons want to apple, met tim cook for the first time, she said to him, i'm not a techie. and he said i don't-- i don't need you to be a techie. we have plenty of techies here. i'm a techie. what we need is a real leader. and we need a culture carrier. which is what she is really all about. >> rose: well, i mean, the new apple watch has a
12:28 am
fashion component to it. >> it does. it does. but i think johnnie was the organize straitser of that recent hermese deal. >> rose: the watch band and the connections. >> yeah. >> rose: mary barra, this is an interesting story for me. and of someone who came to power and immediately faced a crisis not of her making. an has almost had to deal with one shock after another. calling on, you know, every leadership skill, every capacity to communicate she has. >> and she's done a fantastic job at gm. and she is our new number one this year. she displaced guinea remeti, the c.e.o. of ibm who has been number one on the list ever since she became-- guinea became c.e.o. of ibm in late 2012.
12:29 am
she has been number one on the list for the last couple of years. she is doing a big transformation of ibm that involves sacrificing some revenues. she's had many, many quarters, many quarters of revenue declines. and mary barra has not had an easy time. and not gotten the stock up. but she's done a better job with the stock than-- it is doing better, gm stock is doing better than ibm. and we looked very closely at the stock performance under these leaders. mary barra is in a way, charlie, sort of a classic female c.e.o. appointment because the history of big time female ceos is to take the job when the company's on the brink. it's happened so many t before. it happened when ann mulcahy took over xerox when it was on the merge of bankruptcy.
12:30 am
and she saved that company and you know, carly fiorina who was our first number one on the list in 1998. she was head of hewlett packard. will, actually when we put her on the list in 1998, she was in charge. biggest division at lucent technologies at a time when telecom was really hot. and lose ent had just had the -- lucent had just had the biggest ipo in u.s. history at the time, which was a $3 billion ipo which is small time now. but carly was-- carly was this very prominent telecom executive, unknown to the world until, frackly, we put her at number one. we put her on the cover. she got recruited to be the krew of hewlett packards the following summer. but that was a company in dire need. >> then they had a boardroom struggle. >> they had a boardroom
12:31 am
struggle and she, you know, she has taken a lot of flack for her leadership of hewlett packard and having followed carly, i have to say, i agree that she was not a successful c.e.o. there. >> rose: first of all there is donald trump making the case and then andrew ross sorkin had a column of this. >> he did. he did. and carly, it's so interesting. because i went, i remember going to lucent in the summer of 1998 when there had been one-story written about carly fiorina in a publication called "investors business daily". and i was going out there because i heard about this woman who was supposedly very charismatic and very strong and she was 44 years ol at the time. and i remember her walking in the room that day. and quite honestly, i was dazzled. i was dazzled. she had-- she had a charisma. she had a command about her. and she was-- she was a very,
12:32 am
very good marketer. and then when she went to hewlett packard and she waged a very long, many, many month proxy fight for compac, big acquisition, and fighting certain shareholders who didn't want the deal done, she went on a-- she went on a nationwide campaign talking to investors, trying to sell them this deal. and looking back on it, it's so interesting. we saw what a good campaigner she was then. >> rose: for what she is doing now. >> yeah. >> rose: what is the story on ruth parit. >> so i did a story about google women past and present. and at the time feetured ruth porat the former cfo of morgan stanley without left in may to become the new cfo of google. and now she's not only the chief financial officer of google, she's the chief
12:33 am
financial officer of alphabet, the parent company too. and she spent her whole career at google, i mean at morgan stanley. but she wanted a change. and she is just so smart and a huge asset for google at a time when they had lost a lot of very prominent women. i mean you know sheryl sandberg went to facebook, morrisa myer went to take the c.e.o. job at yahoo!. megan smith left google last year to become the chief technology officer of the unites states. so in terms of female talent, ruth porat is a big win. your friend jong mack, the former c.e.o. of morgan stanley played a role in getting ruth to-- to google. >> rose: to google. >> uh-huh. >> rose: the interesting thing too is a bunch of issues involve women of
12:34 am
which one is income don't know what thelem is solution is. the problem is even greater than we thought. and in this issue and on-line we have a chart shows all the bureau of labor statistics, job categories. there are about more than a hundred. and you know, guess how many, i don't know if you have seen it yet but guess how many jobs there are where women make at least as much as men out of a hundred. >> rose: how many. >> two. >> rose: i thought it would be below five. >> two. yeah. so the problem is, i mean, the problem is even worse than we thought. and you know, the counterargument to it is well, women drop out. women take time off to raise their families, then they come back. but the real problem is, and a lot of companies are working on this google is working on this, women do
12:35 am
tend to be judged and evaluated by the powers that be, an usually the powers that be are male. they tend to be judged-- more harshly by a narrower band of acceptable behavior than men are. >> rose: but because they're in law schools, and a lot in business schools is increasing number of women. >> more women than men graduating. >> rose: exactly. one last question, this is a quiz for you, a quiz am one of the stars of these conferences is warren buffett. >> yes. >> rose: he's a big star. >> he is a star. he's our highest rated speaker every year, charlie. >> rose: and so why do you think women love warren so much? >> i want your answer too. and you and i both know warren well. i think-- i think people love warren because he is without ar at this fis and -- art fis and he still lives in the same house that he lived in in the 1960s.
12:36 am
and he shows the signs of a true genius, which is he explains very, very complicated things in the most simple, understandable ways. what is your theory? >> rose: women love warren so much because warren loves women so much. that's the reason. >> that is true, touche. you got it. >> rose: pattie sellers. back in a moment. stay with us. loss an green and john zimmer is here, the c.e.o. and president of lyft. they founded ride sharing company in 2012 to establish a radically different concept of personal transportation. lyft is available in 65 cities throughout the u.s. and has more than 100,000 drivers. the on demand transportation revolution is upending conventional views of car ownership, what it means to be an employee and even the future of cities. i'm pleased to have logan
12:37 am
green and john zimmer at this table. welcome. >> thank you. >> rose: so my first question is give us a sense of why you think timesharing, the sharing economy has taken off. >> well, i think it's what happens with economic activity in general. we find efficiencies and better ways of doing things. and so specific to our industry, we have an asset that has become the second highest house hold expense in the united states for the average american household. >> rose: transportation. >> people spend more on their car than they do on food. that's crazy. that doesn't seem right. and the car is utilized four percent of its life so we have this incredible opportunity to get cars out of parking spots, to get empty seats filled, and that is why there is this new economic activity. >> rose: and transportation, therefore needs to be more efficient, more economical, and more what else.
12:38 am
>> sustainable for the environment. >> rose: yeah. >> sustainable. >> there's also been a shift in attitude. pwc recently did a report on the sharing economy. and it showed that shall did --. >> rose: pricewaterhouse. >> pricewaterhouse. they now, consumers now trust peer review feedback more than they trust government regulation. and that's a major shift over the last decade. so in lyft when you get out of the ride you rate the driver one to five stars. and the driver rates the passenger. and that's the core element that we use to maintain quality. >> what happens is the drivers rating of the passenger. >> the driver's rating of the passenger is then, you know, averaged out. and so when each passenger opens up the app and requests a lift, any driver getting that request sees that passenger's rating so if a passenger-- . >> rose: so they can decide to or not to take it. >> exactly. >> rose: what is the economic model. >> the economic model is we
12:39 am
charge for rides based on time and distance. and at the ends of the ride the passenger pays for it automatically charges their credit card. 80% of that goes to the driver. and 20% goes to lyft. >> rose: and were you modelled after obviously uber in any way? >> no. so we started the company originally doing carpooling back in 2007. and when we started lyft, it was evolving this idea into a mobile world. >> when we started, no one else had done rides on demand in personal vehicles. people had done it for limos. black cars, as a car service. so we had to forge a lot of new ground with regulations, creating regulatory environment where you could use your personal vehicle. and we've also differed on the experience we've created. the first tag line of the company was your friend with a car. and part of that is creating
12:40 am
an equality between driver and passenger because long-term we want every driver on the road, that is safe and gone through our background check process, to be a lyft driver. so when you're on your way going somewhere, you could actually earn money and get someone elsewhere they need to go. >> rose: was there a technology breakthrough that enabled you to do this? >> the mobile phone. the phone is what enabled this whole bismts the fact that every consumer, and potential passenger when they step outside on the sidewalk has a phone in their pocket to request a ride with. and that every driver, you know, taking a ride in a car has a phone. and that sort of pervasiveness of this mobile network made lyft possible. >> rose: who are your drivers? >> so there are all types of drivers. but 80% of our drivers drive for less than 20 hours a week. so most drivers either have a full-time job or are looking for a full-time job. and use lyft to make ends
12:41 am
meet or save a little bit for something extra on the side. so in l.a. about half of our drivers work in a creative industry. so you have actors, writers, musicians, pursuing their dreams and using, fitting lyft in when it fits with their schedule to pay the bills. >> rose: the whole phenomenon used to be waiting on tables. >> exactly. in l.a. it's the new waiting table. >> rose: is to drive for lyft. >> yeah. >> rose: there is also 25% of lyft drivers own their own business. and use lyft, again, as this way to pursue their dreams in starting their own business. so there were two women, actually wins-- twins in san francisco, pam and wendy who were lyft drivers. and their dream was to open a south african restaurant. and so they started driving for lyft, started earning money to put a down payment on what they needed for this restaurant. ended up opening up the restaurant and their first customers were their early lyft passengers. >> rose: was this your dream to create your own company?
12:42 am
>> yes. >> rose: and you? >> my dream was to change the way we get around cities. and to create an alternative to owning a car. and i think creating a company --. >> rose: is that a more worthy ambition than he had. >> no, no, not at all. i think we both came at this motivated by impact. and creating a huge company to change the way that the world works and the way that people travel is one of the best ways to accomplish that. >> rose: ubber's value is i think the last time i looked, was about $50 billion is that correct? >> yes. >> . >> rose: what does that say? >> it is as that this a huge industry and a huge opportunity. so in the u.s. consumers spend over $2.25 trillion dollars every year, that's u.s. only, on transportation. and the majority of that is spent on owning and operating a car. now we are going through one of the biggest shifts in the model of ownership where today most of that $2
12:43 am
trillion is spent on buying this two-ton hunk of metal. and it sits in your driveway, you know, under the hot sun. it's not used most of the time. but we're shifting to a world of transportation as a service. where you don't need to own the asset. you don't need to own the car to get the service of getting from point a to point b. you can open the app. >> rose: where else is this sharing economy going to go to? >> it's having major impacts on quite a few industries. so air b & b is having a massive impact on housing and travel. finance, it's having, the sharing economy is having a major impact on finance, company like lending club that changed the way people are getting loans. >> rose: which also had a huge ipo. >> yeah, it's very great business. >> rose: what else? >> i mean everything from dog sitters, to food, the sharing economy is changing, you know, all of the major
12:44 am
industries. and even you know some nichee industries. >> rose: where do you want to take lyft? >> so our vision as logan mentioned, to create the alternative to car ownership. so in that world, in our cities, people do not own cars. in that world there are no parking lots in the city there are no sparking spots. in the u.s. there are four parking spots for every car. there are almost a billion parking spots. it's completely unnecessary. so we want to open up our cities and at the same time bring people together. people are riding around in l.a., there is about 1.1 people per car so people are riding around alone angry in traffic. our ideal is that people come together, traffic goes away, and cities are better places to live. >> rose: has the economic model changed since you've been in business? >> at the beginning it-- it hasn't really changed. there's always been 80% 20% split. at the beginning it was donation based.
12:45 am
is the way we started the platform. >> rose: how many people will be in this business. you've got uber and lift. is there-- lyft, is it going to be a two horse race, will other people find ease of entry or you have both passed the point, so you become avis and hertz and that whole-- the use of transportation metaphor. >> i think again it's-- in the u.s. there's going to be similar to like a verizon at&t type opportunity, where you have two places that you can get a ride within three minutes. the way lyft is different is we focus on the experience. and simply we treat people better. and so-- . >> rose: how do you treat them better. >> so with drivers, specifically drivers-- . >> rose: the choice of drivers. >> the drivers themselves feel, believe that 80% of drivers say they prefer to drive with lyft than any other service. and so drivers are getting treated better by the company. and they're also getting treated better by the
12:46 am
passengers because of the type of community dime thake we've created. and how they're treated better by the company, they're actually able to get tips on the app. our main competitor doesn't allow that. secondly, they, because a lot of passengers you know, sit in the frontseat or treat them as an equal, they much prefer being treated that way. i think a good example of this is starbucks. starbucks, someone is selling a commodity of coffee. but starbucks has created an experience where the company invests and treats their baristas incredibly well. and in turn the baristas treat their customers well. >> rose: where does ride sharing work well overseas? >> so there are a number of really large companies overseas that are in this business. there there is one in china and it works incredibly well in china. the numbers are stragger-- staggers. >> rose: i would imagine. >> so lyft is doing a million rides a week here in the u.s. in china they're doing about 3 million every day.
12:47 am
so the scale is out of control. >> rose: 3 a million a week versus sus 3 million every day. >> the company in china is called dd, they are very successful, backed by ten cent and alibaba. each continent or large countries have their own sort of local player. so in india there is ola. and a lot of southeast asia-- . >> rose: do you have your eyes on an international market? >> lyft will go internationally eventually. ass international players. and our real focus now and where we are spending most of our energy is going deep in the u.s. and broadening the use cases for lyft. >> rose: what does that mean, use cases. >> most people take their first looift, you know, when they are going out to different. they have had a couple of drinks age needs a ride only home or are going to the airport. but then what happens is they realize hey this is much more convenient way to get to work. and instead of driving,
12:48 am
circling for, paying for parking, i'm just going to hop in a lyft in the morning, pay five bucks and get to work, it's faster and more convenient. and so to make lyft a better service for that commuter use case, we launched a new service called lyft line. and with lyft line, will you get matched with other passengers who are taking that same trip. and it's 50% less. >> rose: yeah. and how is that working? >>. >> it's working incredibly well. so it's now the majority of rides that we do in san francisco and new york. >> rose: so what is going to do to the taxi industry and the limousine industry? >> so it's forcing those industries to evolve. those cities have existed for a long time in a world without competition. and the service levels have deteriorated in those industries because of that lack of competition. and so it's forcing them to invest in technology. and improve their level of service. >> rose: can cities and municipalities around the country restrict what you
12:49 am
can do? >> there have been attempts, of course. but i think that these services are so popular among consumers that there is, you know, staying power. but also you know we are responsible in the way we run our business. when we got started, we set up what we, you know, sought as the most strict criteria for background checks and driving record checks that we had seen in any transportation business pryer. and so when regulators said hey, we want to create a new rule or we don't want you to operate. we said can we create those new rulesing to. here is what you require for existing industries and here is what you are doing above and beyond your current requirements. >> so that works out all right? >> rose: in the long run. there's some back and forth -- there is back and forth along the way. >> rose: did you have issues here in new york? >> you know, recently, you know, the mayor tried to put a cap on the number of vehicles. with the rational being that
12:50 am
it would help reduce traffic. >> rose: and the argument was made that he was committed to the taxi industry because they had supported him. >> right. the interesting thing is that everything that logan and i have been working since 2007 with our first, is to eliminate and reduce traffic so that's actually, you know, what we're fighting for. and we're excited about demonstrating that to people like the mayor of new york. >> rose: but do you want to be in any other businesses because of what you have learned here? want to make to expand. transportation less and less expensive. so that people can afford to use lyft for every trip imaginable so with lyft line it's now cheaper to take lyft line for every single trip in san francisco or new york than owning a car. and that's a huge, huge change so people who are signing up for lyft, we recently did a survey and
12:51 am
about 45% of lyft users say they either got rid of their car or are thinking of getting rid of their car because of lyft. >> rose: and how often do you have a relationship in which say somebody's a commuter to new york and they say look, i want a car that will take me to my office every morning, at 70 clock and bring me back every night at 7:00. >> no, so that's-- . >> rose: is that a typical customer. >> yeah, that's extremely common. and one of the the sort of core pieces of our technology is understanding exactly when and where each request is going to come from so that there is a car positioned and available so that when you wake up in the morning. >> rose: but that's what your software gives you, that is what your technology gives you. >> exactly. >> rose: did the notion too, it's clear, that the international market is so huge. i mean obviously a lot of the expansion of uber has
12:52 am
come overseas. and it was very aggressive by travis. is that-- is there a negative to that? >> so i think you know when you look at the market share that uber has internationally. >> rose: which is? >> it's very, very small. >> rose: right. >> usually single digits in most of these countries, is there a march latcher-- much larger domestic companies in this business. ub certificate actually not doing very well naturally. >> rose: demographics. >> yeah. >> rose: who takes you? who uses lyft? >> yeah, so we call it like the mill enjuly optimist. >> rose: right. >> and so but that's extended now to a pretty broad age range. skewed slightly female on the passenger side. and on the drivers side over 30% of drivers are women. and in a traditional driver industry that number has been historically 1%. >> rose: your average driver
12:53 am
makes how much a week. >> depends on the city. it's about a thousand dollars a week. >> rose: a week. >> and san francisco is different, more or less. >> san francisco is high. san francisco and new york are high, compared to the average. >> rose: and do you see that, i mean what do you see changing about the user experience. >> i think again to logan's point about these use cases, so you know you mentioned taxies before. our sights have been set much broader than that. on really changing car culture so that logan just had kids am i'm about to have my first daughter. i don't think we'll-- they will drive. i don't think that they will own a car. and so the experience will evolve as you add, you know, one use case after another to the point where it's strange to own a car. and it's strange to park. >> rose: what's the partnership with starbucks? >> the partnership with
12:54 am
starbucks is one around providing transportation to their partners which is their baristas. we'll also have a presence in their app and potentially in their store going forward. >> rose: so you can do what? i mean the app in the store will allow you, it will be connected to their web site or connected to their app? >> to their app so that you can get, as you take lyft, you earn stars. >> i see. >> rose: and you get coffee. >> right. >> rose: and you know how carriers so much about how he treats, how starbucks treats the baristas. one of the tough problems they were trying to solve is how do you get in to open up a starbucks at 4 a.m. when public transit is probably not running. so lyft can come in and be the solution. lyft is like an express sort of bus from door-to-door that can help get the bar as into every starbucks.
12:55 am
12:56 am
1:00 am
this is "nightly buness report" with tyler mathisen and sue herera. too close to call? the factors the federal reserve weighs as it prepares to make what could be a historic addition on interest rates. your higher money, how higher interest rates may impact your long-term investments. college calculus. is a degree really worth the price of admission? new data helps students ants that question, all that and more tonight on "nightly business report" for month, september 14th. good evening, everyone. welcome. i'm sharon epperson in tonight for sue herera. >> and welcome from me, i'm tyler mathisen. is it really halfway across
114 Views
IN COLLECTIONS
KQED (PBS) Television Archive The Chin Grimes TV News Archive Television Archive News Search ServiceUploaded by TV Archive on