For the 130th episode of Burning Platform, we host a repeat guest, Bill Hewitt. Founder, Windmill Hill Advisors. He is a 30 year veteran of the software industry, having held senior roles at companies like IBM, Hyperion and Peoplesoft. For the past 20 years, he has been a 7 time CEO, and currently works with Private Equity sponsors to improve portfolio company performance.
This time, however, we touch on the fast shaping economy in the second Trump administration. Couple of weeks ago we had a similar conversation with another software industry veteran, John Wookey.
We aim to keep the discussion un-political and focus more on business opportunities and risks.
We broadly cover 3 themes
• Nationalism vs. Globalism and the effects on global trade
• DOGE and how it can apply to business, and
• How immigration policies impact business growth
Bill discusses how over the course of a century the US has evolved from a domestic economy to global supply chains. However these supply chains have brought logistical challenges and costs across oceans and the pendulum is swinging again. I point out the US is the largest consumer economy in the world with 800 billionaires but even more importantly 25 million millionaires and a strong middle class. It makes a lot of business sense to make close to this large demand. Especially given the opportunity to avoid post-COVID supply chain issues and the fact that the US can offer plentiful cheap, clean natural gas fuel.
Bill points out he is on the board of two companies in Canada. “There's a fairly significant anti American sentiment among the politicians and the media. Business owners on the other hand tend to take a longer term view, because they have to. They're not swayed by the media”
We also discuss that next-gen manufacturing, logistics, farms etc. will be heavily automated with robots, sensors. autonomous vehicles and AI. We have still-active execs like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Tim Cook, Marc Zuckerberg and others who have shown the art of the possible in warehouses, plants, space, data centers in the recent past. As I say “They can help. If you want to build here, we'll bring them in and help you make sure your concerns (about talent shortages) go away.”
We next discuss DOGE and efficiency in government. Bill says “All Elon Musk is saying is we are spending way too much money. Most companies, do that - based on where they are in their stage of growth, are they organized the right way? Do they have the right mix of skills and talent? You have to analyze that on a frequent basis. If you don't, you become Xerox, you become Kodak, you become a company that stops looking at the market and the forces that are affecting you. We are $36 trillion in debt. We are spending at a rate that's unsustainable.”
and
“What are the core essential things that we need to satisfy the taxpayers who are providing this funding to the government? What are the social programs that we need to keep a contract between the government and the taxpayer, and what do we have left over to make sure that we are able to spread our message of freedom and democracy, because that's been a key tenet of our Republic for so long.”
I point out Elon is uniquely qualified to assess efficiency opportunities. During a visit to the SpaceX Boca Chica, TX facility I heard a startling factoid. They were lowering the cost of getting a payload into orbit down from $10,000 per pound during the NASA Space Shuttle days to about $9 per pound. Musk had shown similar adeptness when he significantly trimmed Twitter staffing after he acquired it.
We next turn to immigration. Bill goes “what immigration does is help fill in the gaps of our national construct. Because if we tried to satisfy our appetite with local labor every family would have need to have six kids. And it's a real fallacy to say, well, immigrants only do the low skilled work, because we know we have brilliant scientists, doctors, computer scientists, people in every walk of life that are immigrants, that contribute to our economy.”
He adds “We need people who want to be here, people who want to be part of our nation and part of that national identity, are enthusiastic about contributing to the economy versus taking from the economy. And finally, gratitude for everything that this country can provide, versus saying, no, the beliefs that I bring with me are the most important thing, and so I'm going to try and rebuild those here. You have to be part of this national identity in order to be a long term contributor to the economy”
I add color with my own journey as a talent based immigrant to the US – the long process it took for me to become a citizen, but how that vetting was so important and the time allowed for better assimilation into what Bill calls the “national identity”. I add we need to dust off and update that “process” to restore confidence in our immigration policies.
We cover plenty more ground in around half an hour. It was a real joy to watch Bill calmly discuss the state of the economy while Wall Street and the world are reacting so emotionally to Trump.
I am going to invite other business executives to provide similar perspectives on the Trump 2.0 economy in future episodes.
