How a 31-year-old hopes to fix Ukraine’s state-owned defence giant | Why the rules on embryo experiments should be loosened | Where Companies Want Employees to Work — and Where People Actually Want to Work | Why Career Transition Is So Hard

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� � � � � � You Might Like � � � � � � � � � How a 31-year-old hopes to fix Ukraine's state-owned defence giant - The Economist    In MARCH Ukraine abruptly rebooted its defence-industry team. Oleksandr Kamyshin, a hyperactive manager with a reformist pedigree, was appointed to head a beefed-up strategic-industries ministry. He has previously turned around the railways and has the confidence of the president’s inner circle. Still more surprising is the recent appointment of Herman Smetanin, a little-known 31-year-old, to run the state defence consortium popularly known as Ukroboronprom. He is to sort out the sprawling, inefficient and notoriously corrupt company—in wartime. Mr Smetanin, a design engineer who rose from the shop floor to the director’s office, is on one level uniquely qualified for the unenviable job. At the start of the war in February 2022 he was to be found in his native Kharkiv, 35km from the Russian border, as the director of its famed but faded tank factory. He lived in the factory through the terrifying first weeks, as bombs fell through its roofs, while a group of key workers continued production in breaks between the shelling. Every defence contract was eventually fulfilled. “If the mortars or artillery were landing near, you’d wait half an hour before starting again,” he recalls. But there are questions about the possibility, and even the desirability, of turning around an umbrella organisation built on corruption and favour from its very early days. When the Soviet Union broke up in 1991, Ukraine inherited one of the world’s largest military complexes: shipbuilding, tanks, aviation, missiles. Over the next two years Ukraine created three agencies that, with the help of poor and corrupt officers, siphoned off whatever they could on the black markets. Ukraine stopped making ammunition. Factories stood idle. The most advanced products were refashioned for the export market. Continued here Why the rules on embryo experiments should be loosened - The Economist    When Louise Brown, the first child created through in-vitro fertilisation, was born in 1978, the idea of creating an embryo in a dish was very controversial. More than 12m IVF babies later, all bar some of the devoutly religious treat the technique as routine. Yet a rule invented in Britain in the 1980s still determines the sorts of research that can be done in the world’s embryology labs. The 14-day rule says that embryos must not be grown in a dish for longer than two weeks after fertilisation. First suggested in 1984, the rule tries to balance the benefits of research with the disquiet about experimenting on things that could potentially develop into human beings. It is law in several countries, including Britain and Canada, and followed voluntarily by researchers elsewhere. By reassuring doubters that scientists would not be allowed to act recklessly, the rule has made human-embryo research less controversial than it might otherwise have been. But 1984 was a long time ago and later this month Britain’s fertility regulator will seek more flexibility. However, it will not go so far as to scrap the rule. We think that is a mistake, both in Britain and elsewhere. Four decades of research have shifted the balance of benefits and drawbacks. Regulation should change to reflect this new reality. Continued here Don't like ads? Go ad-free with TradeBriefs Premium Where Companies Want Employees to Work — and Where People Actually Want to Work - Harvard Business Review    Companies are trying various strategies to adjust to a “new normal” in work modalities, ranging from fully in-office to fully remote to a mix of both. A comprehensive study covering interviews and ethnographic research within three major organizations, each employing a distinct work strategy, has unearthed a fascinating discovery: the intersection of company strategies and individual work preferences culminate in nine distinct employee personas. From the Avatar in a remote-first setting to the Producer in an office-forward environment, these personas reflect how alignment or misalignment between organizational approach and personal preference impacts an employee’s outlook and behavior. With these insights, organizations are encouraged to recognize, understand, and strategically address these personas to foster a harmonious and productive workplace. Contemporary narratives depict the workplace as an arena where managers keen on reinstating office routines clash with employees who cherish their work-from-home arrangements. That’s catchy but inaccurate. Rather, the modern workplace is a testbed where organizations are presently experimenting with different approaches to a “new normal.” Some are indeed throwing down the gauntlet via an office-forward strategy to preserve company culture. But others are embracing reinvention via a remote-first strategy to provide maximal employee flexibility. Still others are threading the needle via a hybrid strategy to synergize culture and flexibility. Continued here Why Career Transition Is So Hard - Harvard Business Review    The accelerated pace of technological change and, most recently, the advent of AI are reshaping jobs and organizations in ways that call for constant career reinvention. So we all need to learn how to get better at making the most of the frequent transitions that will constitute a long working life. But no matter how often people change careers, they will probably experience the transition as an emotionally fraught process—one that involves confusion, loss, insecurity, and struggle. Big changes can be exhilarating, but they’re also terrifying. For more than two decades, Ibarra, of London Business School, has been studying the process of career reinvention: what prompts people to do it, how they go about it, and how it affects them. In this article, drawing on new research, she explains why such transitions are still so hard for so many people, despite their growing frequency and prevalence. She also offers some ideas for managing them more intentionally and successfully. Continued here

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