Pivot · Apr 19, 2019

Uber's IPO and, more importantly, Game of Thrones

Automatic transcript of the end of the episode, from 25:46. Speakers are labeled by software and may contain errors. Highlighted passages are Scott’s predictions.

Scott Galloway · 25:46 Illusionist trick is at the end of the day, Erskine Bowles and, Rhee Hastings, I think sort of the last vestiges of anything resembling a conscience has left the board. And so it's Yep. Kara Swisher · 25:58 Yeah. Had heard they were the ones that were really drumming it into Mark in terms of Scott Galloway · 26:03 progress. Yeah. Well, Ken Chenal is on the board. He's a very principled, high character person. Hopefully he's in there. But at the end of the day, the only... There's only one thing the board can do in a two class shareholder company. And the only thing they can do is all hold hands. Kara Swisher · 26:16 Nothing. Scott Galloway · 26:17 I'll sit around the fire, hold hands and agree and send him a letter publicly saying, you need to resign your CEO. I agree. Never. But otherwise they're not a board. They're an advisory board. I've served on two class shareholder companies. We kind of show up and suggest and hope and beg that the CEO does stuff, but you don't really have any power. Kara Swisher · 26:36 You don't stop your feet? Scott Galloway · 26:37 Ugh, because I'm Why so Kara Swisher · 26:41 don't you stamp your feet? What do wanna be on that board? What is that, 25,000 a year or whatever the hell the board Boards pay lot more came than out know that, a 100. I know. Scott Galloway · 26:49 Been asked about company Kara Swisher · 26:52 I told you the one I was at, they called me if I wanted to be interested was the one who owns Scott Galloway · 26:56 Taco Bell. And why didn't you go on the board? Kara Swisher · 26:58 Because I don't eat Taco Bell. Why would I go on a board if food I think is awful? Like come on. They wanted a digitally oriented person. I just... It's a waste of my time, and I don't wanna be on that particular board, and I just... I think it'd be just difficult. I just recently was asked to be on a board of a media organization that I like a lot, so I may I may... It's an advisory kind of thing. I don't mind those things. I just rant. But I'm not a good, I'd be a terrible board member. I would sneak around and find out what was actually going on, and then I'd do a big reveal in a board meeting. Scott Galloway · 27:30 You'd be the journalist? Kara Swisher · 27:32 So you say, actually That's according to my the journalist Scott Galloway · 27:35 on the board. Yeah. That's probably not who you want. Kara Swisher · 27:39 I'd love to be on the Facebook board. If he asked me, I would say, yes. I don't care about con... Yes, ma'am. That's what I — Predictions segment begins — Scott Galloway · 27:45 would say. That doesn't instill a lot of trust and and security in the boardroom. So my win, Hubert Joly, the CEO of Best Buy is stepping He took over as CEO of Best Buy in 2012. And what do you think the prospects were for Best Buy in 2012? Kara Swisher · 28:02 Shitty. Shitty... Down shitty avenue. Scott Galloway · 28:05 Literally, except worse than that. And he... Yeah. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. And he invested... He said, we're not gonna worry about short term problems to make long term investments. So the first thing he did was he said, we're gonna match every price. And you couldn't walk into a Best Buy without a smartphone, without a blue shirt running up to you and saying, we'll match that price. So they immediately got rid of this whole showrooming phenomenon, which was supposed to be kind of the night king to retail where everyone was going into retail establishments and then going home and buying it on Amazon. He immediately gutted that by saying, we will match any price you can pull up on your phone. And speaking of blue shirts, while everyone was investing in artificial intelligence, he did the gangster move and he zigged while everyone was zagging and invested in organic intelligence and charted a career path for people, assistant managers and managers. And when you go into a Best Buy, the mood, the optimism, the expertise, the the domain knowledge of blue shirts is really outstanding, and it gives you reason to go into stores because care people no longer go into stores for products. They go in for people. Best Buy's... They... Kara Swisher · 29:13 Yes. I agree. I was store the Scott Galloway · 29:15 other day. Best Buy is wonderful. It's a it's a really fun it's a really fun experience. Were the first or one of the first other than Home Depot and Walmart maybe to look at their stores, not as liabilities, but as assets and created an infrastructure where they turn these 550, Best Buy stores... Actually, I think I got that wrong. There's more than that. They turned all their stores into flexible warehouses. And if you live in Delray Beach and order a flat screen TV from Best Buy, you get it faster than you order it from Amazon because they fulfill it fulfill it out of the Boca Raton Best Buy store. But this guy has really... I mean, he has stared down. There's a great white shark off the shore, and he he, you know, he jumped into the water and and punched that shark in the nose. And in addition, his Mhmm. Punched it. His six Kara Swisher · 30:03 How many sharks? What? Scott Galloway · 30:04 Roy Scheider Jaws. Under... One hugely underrated actor. Anyways Kara Swisher · 30:09 I get it. I get I get that's what you're supposed to do, you should not get this. You didn't jump at bottom Scott Galloway · 30:14 my head. Stay out of the water. There's no there's no Yes. Kara Swisher · 30:18 Exactly. It's my policy. Scott Galloway · 30:19 Going back to his successor, a woman named... Think I'm gonna get... I hope I'm not gonna wrong. Corey Corey Berry, I think her name is. And she's about to become not only one of the 4% of, the 23 CEOs of the S and P five hundred. There's only 4% female CEOs in the S and P five hundred. She's gonna be the youngest CEO in the S and P. So kudos to the board. Oh, I think that's for one moment. Incredibly impressive. She's the CFO there. But, you know, just kudos to Best Buy. Great company, fantastic CEO. You know, they... When when they cut, you know, when they cut onions, onion onions cry. They were not afraid of Amazon, and they took them on full force, and they won. The youngest CEO of S and P five hundred now, another female. Kara Swisher · 31:07 There's been a lot of interesting dynamic female CEOs recently. Helena Folkes at Hudson Bay. A lot of them are in commerce, Katrina at Citrus Fix. There's been a lot Scott Galloway · 31:18 of them. So anyways, my winner is Huberajo Lee and Best Buy. Great company, great CEO, great tenure. Well done. Kara Swisher · 31:25 Alright. Alright. Fail? Fail? I'm gonna go with YouTube. The burning of Notre Dame, by the way. Sad, sad place. But the links that they put in the info about it were about nine eleven attacks under the Notre Dame fire videos. Scott Galloway · 31:39 So say more, what happened? I heard about it, but I don't understand So what Kara Swisher · 31:42 you flagged them. Oh, misinformation, it just was, first of all, misinformation about Notre Dame spread very quickly on social media, but like whatever. That happens every day of the week and twice on Sunday. But you know, they flagged videos, they mistakenly as nine eleven conspiracy. You know, whatever. They said they made their tool for battling misinformation married what they called the wrong call. And so so they had... They linked it to to to nine eleven. And then they said in a statement, we are deeply saddened by the ongoing fire at the Notre Dame Cathedral. These panels are triggered algorithmically, and our systems sometimes make the wrong call. We were disabling these panels for livestreams related to the fire. So I got to do this on everything. Like like, oh, oh, oops. Like that kind of thing. Scott Galloway · 32:31 What is it? The question I have, and I'm asking this to learn not to not to answer, but was in a... Sounds like within... I was really hit. When I when I saw when I saw on my Amazon show that Notre Dame was on fire, it actually emotionally kinda shook me. Mhmm. And I'm trying to figure out why... And and the response has been... There's been this overwhelmingly positive, empathetic, wonderful response globally on this. And I'm trying to figure out what is it about the Notre Dame that has... It evoked so much... Nobody... My understanding is nobody was hurt. Is that right? Kara Swisher · 33:05 Well, one firefighter and two police officer were injured, but incredibly, no one was killed. Look. Everybody either wants to go to Paris or did as a college student. Scott Galloway · 33:12 You know Kara Swisher · 33:12 what I mean? Everyone... And that is this... That is what you... You think of the Eiffel Tower, which is more about modern France. Right? In the modernist square. You And think about Notre Dame. It's right in the middle Scott Galloway · 33:21 of the Kara Swisher · 33:22 Hille Des Sicterians on the left and right bank. Right? And so I think everyone has a has a either a hope or dream or has a memory of going there. Right? One or the other. And so... And it's, you know, it's beautiful. It's lasted for so long. It just doesn't... It changes and it doesn't change. It's a scene for so many iconic photographs of Paris and stuff. I think everyone has a relationship with Paris in some way. Right? Everybody in the world. It's like New York. Everyone has a relationship with New York City. And so, you know, there's very few iconic things in this world. I would say the Golden Gate Bridge is one. You know, not the Twin Towers, but I felt that it was terrible what happened to the Twin Towers, but I think more the the Empire State Building in New York or the Christman Building in London, probably parliament I guess, you know what I mean? Maybe the Buckingham Palace, you know, all over the world, the Taj Mahal, the Great Wall. You circle the world and pick 10 to 12 things that everybody thinks about. Right? So that's to me what's what's going on. Like that you have the relationship with these iconic. Scott Galloway · 34:24 I like you more right now than I've ever liked you. That was gangster. That was almost poetic. Wait. Let me... Hold on. The Notre Dame is all of our hopes and dreams. We... I'm gonna donate the first $10,000 to have that inscribed somewhere on the on the Notre Dame. That was poetic. Kara Swisher · 34:41 I... They're not gonna have inscriptions. They're not that... The French are classy people. They're not gonna have... Like here, would totally be... Scott Galloway · 34:47 Don't like the arch in Saint Louis? Did you see... Water Stadium in LA? Come on. Kara Swisher · 34:52 Good god. Scott Galloway · 34:53 We have some masterpieces. Kara Swisher · 34:55 Yeah. Scott Galloway · 34:55 So my loser... So look, I think the unicorn class... God, I sound just mine just sucks compared to yours. The unicorn class, I think is a big loser this year for all the excitement and all the analysts who will come on and talk about disruption and use word like network effects. I think that... And this is a prediction. I think when we look at 2019 in retrospect, all of the unicorns that have gone public will have lost more market cap than they've gained. I think that their IPO prices combined... Their their market cap combined will be greater on the day of their IPOs and will be twelve months on. I think the unicorn class is gonna lose in in '19. Kara Swisher · 35:30 Alright. That's a good one. That's a great one. Scott Galloway · 35:32 Oh, I hate that. Never mind. Me use more amorphous words. Kara Swisher · 35:36 No. I love that. Yep. Yep. So talk now now to me about Scott Galloway · 35:43 Yeah, that's a reduction. And it indicates a larger issue here. And that is, and hopefully representative Nadler's comments are adding to this drip, drip, drip that starts to become something real. But I think we have a small group of companies that have basically cut off the oxygen from almost everyone else. And even unicorns are having a tough time getting out. You know, I mean, you'd realize if Amazon or Facebook announced... Put out any sort of press release talking about using the word pins or boards, they could basically they could basically screw the the Pinterest IPO. Kara Swisher · 36:12 Yes. Of course. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. But, you know, Amazon's tried different things and hasn't been successful just because they tried... Look. Lots of companies say the things. Scott Galloway · 36:19 I don't... No. I like it. Don't know. But Amazon Amazon can now perform Jedi mind tricks and just basically start killing a company by just thinking ill of it and putting out press releases. They could absolutely they could take... More likely Facebook. But if Facebook announced an initiative with Instagram that involves some sort of pins or boards, I don't think Pinterest gets out. Kara Swisher · 36:40 Ugh. They have had a record of failure when they do that, just so you know. They've had like... They've tried to do all kinds of like copycats of a lot of things. The only one that worked was Instagram, and that's because of Kevin's system in my estimation. Scott Galloway · 36:52 It's gonna be interesting. Kara Swisher · 36:53 And creative and interesting person. And we'll see we'll see where it goes. We'll see where it goes. So my prediction is that code is gonna be amazing. That's my prediction. I've just... We just announced Stacey Abrams is coming to talk about Fair Fight. Scott Galloway · 37:05 Good for you. Kara Swisher · 37:06 I know. Thank... I got... Oh, I got a big one I can't say right now, but I got one that you're gonna love. You're gonna be so excited to be there for this particular Scott Galloway · 37:13 interview. Harrington coming? That's the only person I wanna meet. Kara Swisher · 37:16 No. Why wouldn't I, like, hug him? Like, why would I have a face off? Think of someone I'd face off with. Like, there's a lot. But, you know, it's gonna be good. It's gonna be a mano a mano interesting Scott Galloway · 37:25 You should interview him just for just to be... Because he's like four foot ten. He's tiny. He was on Kara Swisher · 37:30 I've met him. Scott Galloway · 37:31 He was on Saturday Night Live, I'm like, oh my god. He looks like my paper boy. The guy is so... He's not the king of the North. Kara Swisher · 37:37 He's tiny. I did an event. I did a lot. I was very close to Richard Plepler. So whenever they had premieres, we used to do premieres here in Silicon Valley and the geeks loved it. As I told you, they came dressed up. They'd bring the iron throne, which I'm certain is made of plastic. And they... It was some knives, you know, taped on it. And people would sit and take pictures. But one year we did it, and they brought in George RR Martin and then the two creators of the show. I forget their names. And I did an estate stage interview with them, which was great. And they also brought all the cast members. He was one of them. Scott Galloway · 38:10 Brought Cersei. No, I'm not Cersei. Danaris. I'm sorry. Kara Swisher · 38:13 Brought Oh god. Scott Galloway · 38:13 Bite my tongue. Kara Swisher · 38:14 No, not Cersei. Daenerys. Right? They're right. They brought her. They brought I don't know. They were all looking good. They're all good looking people. But they sat there and they came to the thing and it was a very exciting thing. But he wasn't that small. He was like small the way actors are small. Well the Scott Galloway · 38:28 screens are horizontal. So yeah, Tom Cruise and whatever he is, Five Nine, they're the stars. And Tom Selleck was never a movie star because he was too tall. But anyways He's a little tall. Another big prediction I can't resist and this is important. Kara Swisher · 38:39 Isn't? Scott Galloway · 38:40 This is important. Kara Swisher · 38:41 Alright. Last one. Scott Galloway · 38:42 Don't say this lightly because it has impact on society and it's a controversial statement. But Jaime Lann... The Lannister is going to kill Cersei. You heard it here, Kara. I choose heroin. I choose heroin. I am doing nothing but Game of Thrones for the next literally, like Kara Swisher · 38:58 the book. Scott Galloway · 38:58 Five weeks. Do not call me. Do not bother me. Winter is coming. Winter is coming. Kara Swisher · 39:06 Oh my god. Scott Galloway · 39:07 Oh, it's a movie. Kara Swisher · 39:08 Show. My... You'll be on Joy. To the next five... Oh my god. Well, it's it's ending. Let Let me give you some information. Just like all things in life, it's ending. That will be that, and then you can watch endless reruns of it. And then be like, why did I ever watch it? It's so Scott Galloway · 39:22 confusing and vital. It's ridiculous. Vitamin water, marijuana, and game of thrones. Such a man. Let me check out. I am ready to go. Take me, God. I'm waiting. Kara Swisher · 39:31 Okay. Scott Galloway · 39:32 Thank you, Carol. — Predictions segment ends — Kara Swisher · 39:33 Alright. Thank you, Scott. It's time to go. What else are you doing this week? What are you doing this week? Scott Galloway · 39:37 I'm super excited, man. Kara Swisher · 39:38 I'm doing a lot of casting town, Scott Galloway · 39:40 and we're gonna do a bunch of New York stuff. We're gonna go see the new... What's it called? The octagon or hexagon over in Hudson Yards? Kara Swisher · 39:47 Oh, Hudson Yards? Scott Galloway · 39:48 Yeah. Yeah. And I wanna... Yeah. We're probably gonna go see a play and be tourists in our own town. Kara Swisher · 39:52 So Do you like Hudson Yards? My girlfriend works Scott Galloway · 39:54 I think Hudson Yards is Kara Swisher · 39:55 Hates it. Scott Galloway · 39:56 Is Sits it. I don't quite understand Hudson Yards. I think it's just so far out there. Kara Swisher · 40:00 I love it. Scott Galloway · 40:01 Look. It took vision. I really like Dan Docterff and all the people that made that happen. I think it's Mhmm. An inspiration, but I just... Whenever I go over there, think, okay. How the hell do I get out of here? I find it difficult to get in and out of Hudson Yards, but that's not a year enough. Kara Swisher · 40:13 Anyway, thank you so much, Scott. Scott Galloway · 40:14 Thank you. Kara Swisher · 40:15 Gonna go now. Rebecca Sinanaz produces a show. Nishat Kerwa is the executive producer. Thanks also to Eric Johnson. Thanks for listening to Pivot from Vox Media. We'll be back next week with more of a breakdown of all things tech and business. If you like what you heard, please subscribe, rate, and review Pivot on Apple Podcasts.