Blackstone Group, one of the biggest commercial property owners, needs to work harder to maintain its culture, according to President and Chief Operating Officer Jon Gray. One way to do that, he said, is through "Blackstone TV."
Speaking at a conference hosted by AllianceBernstein Holding, Gray said New York-based Blackstone's almost 5,000 employees need opportunities to bond.
To that end, the firm has hosted since the onset of COVID-19 online video conferences each Monday dubbed "Blackstone TV" because “it sounds more fun" than a weekly Zoom call, said Gray, according to a transcript of the talk.
The name also encourages a wider scope of topics than just business successes and challenges, including the personal triumphs of employees.
“We have a photo contest and we show people climbing mountains, running marathons, overcoming cancer, because we want people to feel like they're part of something,” Gray said. “We talk about what we're doing around energy transition, diversity, other things. We want people to feel a sense of the importance of the mission, who we're serving, who the people at our firm are.”
Yet he said video conferences have their limits, describing Blackstone as “a work-from-work place” since September 2020, with investment professionals in the office five days per week.
“We believe that training our young people through our Zoom screens is very hard,” Gray said. “We prefer having people in the office.”