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Good morning.
I’ve made several references in this newsletter to CEOs who find most of their employees working from home. Yesterday, I spoke with Emmanuel Faber, Chairman and CEO of Danone, who has 2/3rds of his 100,000 employees around the world still at work–operating factories, collecting milk, distributing product, etc. The company has instituted some pretty extreme distancing protocols at its factories, as well as temperature checks, and premium pay for those on duty. (You can read more in this Financial Times story.)
Danone has enjoyed a spot on Fortune’s Change the World list for its focus on social benefits, and is working to convert the entire company to B-Corp status over the next decade. Faber said the crisis will accelerate the company’s move toward B-Corp status, and probably push other companies in the same direction. His take:
“Everything we have seen during the last several months suggests companies will have even more stakeholders than they felt before, with government stepping in, health authorities stepping in, and so on. Whether you want to call them stakeholders or not, they are.
“This idea of stakeholder capitalism is going to be significantly bigger than it was before the crisis, whether you like it or not.”
More news below. And be sure to listen to this week’s edition of Leadership Next, which you can access here. My cohost Ellen McGirt talks with two entrepreneurs who have turned their considerable skills to solving problems of the pandemic: K.R. Sridhar of Bloom Energy and Jane Mosbacher Morris of To The Market.
Alan Murray
@alansmurray
alan.murray@fortune.com
TOP NEWS
Oil prices
U.S. oil prices continue to slide on concerns over storage capacity. The WTI contract for June had fallen over 20% to $10.16/barrel at one point this morning, following a 25% drop yesterday. Westpac head of market strategy Robert Rennie: "We are approaching [the limit of] physical storage capacity around the world…[and] the point where floating capacity is also approaching its structural limits as well—and that has a depressing effect." Financial Times
HSBC loans
HSBC has set aside $3 billion to cover bad loans. The bank's Q1 profits nearly halved due to a range of factors including declining customer activity, weakening oil prices and "a significant charge related to a corporate exposure in Singapore" (it did not name the firm, but it may be oil trader Hin Leong Trading, to which HSBC is heavily exposed). Reuters
Coronavirus waves
Chinese scientists predict the novel coronavirus will come back each year, flu-style, as asymptomatic carriers make it difficult to fully contain its spread. This is becoming the international scientific consensus. Also, Chinese experts warn there is no evidence that summer will slow the virus's spread—they say it's heat-sensitive when exposed to 56 degrees Celsius (133 Fahrenheit) for prolonged periods of time. If summers get that hot, well, we have other problems. Bloomberg
Plane masks
JetBlue has become the first U.S. airline to require its passengers to wear face coverings during travel and check-in. JetBlue COO Joanna Geraghty: "This is the new flying etiquette…Onboard, cabin air is well circulated and cleaned through filters every few minutes but this is a shared space where we have to be considerate of others." And while we're on the subject, check out the new PPE uniforms that AirAsia flight crew will have to wear—that can't be fun over extended periods of time. Fortune
AROUND THE WATER COOLER
Right to WFH
Working from home could become a right for many in Germany, if Labor Minister Hubertus Heil gets his way. Heil: "Anyone who wants to, and whose workplace allows it, should be able to work from home—even when the corona pandemic is over. You can either switch to working from home entirely, or you can decide to do so once or twice per week…We want to enable more working from home—but not to force them to do so." Deutsche Welle
About force…
And what if American employers do want to force their employees back to work? Fortune's Jeff John Roberts has an informative piece on that, which notes: "According to legal experts, employees don’t have a blanket right to refuse to work during the pandemic, but that doesn’t mean they can’t demand protection from obvious risks. Meanwhile, lawyers are advising business owners to think carefully about worker safety as they navigate a situation fraught with legal implications." Fortune
Wine lakes
Winegrowers are begging the European Commission to fund the emergency distillation of over a billion bottles of wine into industrial ethanol. Consumer demand for wine is down because of restaurant closures, and their cellars can't store all the wine that's being produced—all quite reminiscent of the current oil crisis. Politico
Investment prospects Executive editor Adam Lashinsky be chatting over Zoom with longtime tech analyst Gene Munster about how he sees the investing environment playing out. The call is live on Wednesday, April 29, at 10:00 Pacific/1:00 Eastern. They'll take your questions via chat. (This call will be audio only: You have permission to multi-task.) Register here for free.
This edition of CEO Daily was edited by David Meyer.