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Former Bain Capital Managing Director Ed Conard, Greenleaf Book Group CEO Clint Greenleaf and Tasti D-Lite CEO Jim Amos on how Obama’s re-election i...
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So it's only that -- -- since the election but executives and CEOs are already reaching out to the administration agreeing with president Obama's message.
It is time to work together to rebuild our economy each hour.
Said you know that hasn't been tried already businesses now have to deal with the very real possibility of higher taxes and expenses in the president.
Has to make it easier to do business here in the US right.
All right we have assembled a panel to sort through all of this -- canard.
-- former Bain Capital managing director of the author of unintended consequences its rate there.
Clinton -- -- as the founder and CEO green -- book group thanks for coming back.
And we also have -- in those he's the CEO of frozen yogurt chain HT delight.
My favorite I love it are right and they all because for joining us let's let's dive right in the what I think that eight Clint let me start with DO.
I mean.
You're one of those folks that ahead of the election thought that it was going to be really difficult.
To get business rolling again with the president office he's there here we are we've got a start making money.
What do you think can be done.
But I think the first -- we -- it is all out of collective awe shucks moment and say okay that's not didn't traveler wanted to but.
Now here we have this this new reality right we garlic and say we still wanna make money we still -- -- was run businesses.
So how we structure our businesses with a new tax climate.
That's gonna mean a lot of game playing it means a lot of money for lawyers and accountants as we figure out how to structure investments.
Employment that sort of thing in order to make sure that we don't open ourselves up to -- liability in the coming years.
Yet and one of the things that I heard was that what we needed was certainty.
You know that it wasn't really about who was in charge it was knowing what the climate was going to be going forward -- now we have certain -- how does that help you plan I don't.
Think -- going to be the biggest factor here I think that when you balance.
You're running -- one point one trillion dollar a year deficit.
You can run about 200 billion dollars a year and debt as a percent of GDP won't be grown we got a -- 900 billion dollars.
The certainty -- that it doesn't matter they be tax increases that are required and the spending reduction that's required.
To bring this back into balance of long term is going to have a big impact on the economy.
But -- the bottom line is that it's about time for business -- you're still successful -- -- with many many stores all over the place what are you gonna do right now to move forward.
While life and that's the question isn't it appears to me that postal I don't know how -- -- -- change particularly.
Pre or post election I -- people talk about status quo of the issues the uncertainty that's just been mentioned the issues with.
Facing the fiscal close cliff in the long term the uncertainty around taxes and general corporate rates.
In coherent energy policies.
I know we music sensible -- you're gonna roll over and play dead you're gonna get out there and win I know you you have a successful business how are you gonna do it.
But listen no one is going to roll over and play -- -- anymore than they did before I think the issue is what one it's practical and one is philosophical.
The practical issues that you have to make your way if you're and facing -- -- and you know you have an employer mandate and you have people that are going to.
Have another six point four billion dollars -- burden both an infrastructure on top of business.
And we're facing on the franchising side losing about 3.2 million jobs as a result of that.
You have to respond part of that response I think as we've learned in this election.
It's just not the practical metal matter of fixing these things.
But from the business community's perspective.
Finally responding to -- shrill rhetoric that's coming out of Washington.
And saying look it's time for business to make the moral and that an ethical case far business as a as a moral enterprise it used to -- A positive thing to be in business in the United States -- get a -- And now it's rather pejorative if one stops and thinks about it -- it seems to me we've lost the education element of this for a lot of people and it's time for us to take it back.
But -- eight you know at the end of the day we think that's a philosophical side you gotta talk about the practical side we have to run our business as we have to make money we have to -- -- we have to have a -- -- had.
How are you gonna do that I mean -- you just gonna hire more part time workers because of the way the rules of the game have been set out are you going to outsource more what you do.
Yeah I.
I think 1099 is going to be a buzz word of two -- thirteen we're gonna find ways outsource just about every job function that we can Ahmedabad forty -- employees right now.
And come hell or high water I'm not going above that fifty threshold I'm gonna make -- stay below that so -- an outsource more.
I'm also gonna -- bank capital expenditures and if they're getting ever to section 179 exemption that's gonna cut my expenses down as well so I'm going to be a lot more careful guard my cash.
Yeah what do you think having does that make sense are gonna see businesses do all that I think you see businesses hunkered down and I think the resolution in the fiscal -- is not gonna cause businesses to stop hunkering down why it's going to be.
Because when you when you spend the money you Marty you've -- the taxes that doesn't matter what the -- our not.
And so we government spending goes up the private sector goes down and when government spending comes down and it might come down a bit here.
Private sectors -- -- very leery about ramping up until they see real reductions because they'd never seen the government cut before and they can't ramp up that quickly they're gonna ramp up cautiously yeah and that's that means that we're gonna go through a a recession as we try to transition to a more sustainable model one that has a 200 billion dollar -- deficits -- one point one trillion -- kick the can down the road.
And now we gotta we gotta deal with it now it's going to be tough -- -- -- -- the last forty agree with that.
While I agree in this sense though the reaction of business.
In terms of hunkering down as an example -- franchising.
If you have a franchisee sitting out there wanting to sign a ten or twenty year agreement and he doesn't know what is tax rate is going to be in two months what's next.
Much less two years.
He struggles with that so what do we do we lower the overhead cost of entry we try to find somebody -- -- the people.
That hasn't been lending for the last four years.
You make adjustments but I would suggest you that's not a rapid recipe for -- yes much less stealing with some deal of robustness yet that makes a lot of sense gentlemen thank you so much.
