Daydreaming's dark side: the compulsive, complex fantasy disorder that dominates some people's daily lives

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Daydreaming's dark side: the compulsive, complex fantasy disorder that dominates some people's daily lives Daydreaming, when defined as thoughts that aren’t tied to what you’re currently doing, occupies a good chunk of our waking lives – an average of around 30% of the time if you randomly probe people. It’s part of our everyday conscious experience. You might even think of it as our default mode which we return to, especially when doing things that don’t require a lot of brain power, such as mundane tasks like hanging out washing. But it’s estimated 2.5% of adults experience a type of excessive daydreaming which is defined as the disorder “maladaptive daydreaming”. So-called maladaptive daydreamers compulsively engage in vivid fantasies and daydreaming plots so excessively that it interferes with their ability to function in daily life. Continued here

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Pharmeasy: Expansion Dilemma Amidst Regulatory Uncertainties ^ W20396 The two co-founders of PharmEasy, an online medical store and pharmacy website launched in 2015, faced a new challenge in December 2018. Recent judgments by the Madras and Delhi High Courts had suspended the operations of India's more than 250 online pharmacies until new industry regulations could be drafted. Only a few months earlier, in August 2018, the Indian government had released proposed draft regulations for the online sale of medicine. However, an organization representing more than 850,000 pharmacists in India had staged a one-day strike to protest the government's proposal. Should PharmEasy take a cautious approach with its ambitious expansion plans until the government introduces regulations? Or would its competitors seize the opportunity to move forward aggressively to gain market share? The co-founders recognized that the regulatory uncertainty was creating confusion. They needed to decide on their next steps quickly-and communicate their intentions to all stakeholders. Rakesh Gupta is affiliated with Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad. Lubna Nafees is affiliated with Appalachian State University. Continued here

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Teach For China and the Chinese Nonprofit Sector ^ 314052 Teach For China was founded in 2008 with the mission of expanding educational opportunity across China. By 2013, Andrea Pasinetti's lofty dream had taken flight: over 300 graduates from top American and Chinese universities were participating in its 2-year teaching fellowships in more than 87 rural Chinese schools. The organization had grown from a founding team of three in a shoebox office to an 80-person operation headquartered in Beijing with teams in six other locations across China. Teach For China adapted the model pioneered by Teach For America to meet the needs of the educationally under-resourced of rural China. Led by an American, could Teach For China reshape its international identity and become an enduring Chinese institution? Could Teach For China manage regulatory risks and challenge public and government skepticism of the still-nascent and highly volatile nonprofit sector? Would Teach For China be able to sustainably scale its model to truly end educational inequality in China? Continued here

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IKEA in Saudi Arabia (B) ^ 116016 Supplement to case 116015. A Swedish newspaper reveals that IKEA has erased all images of women from its catalog for Saudi Arabia. The article sparks criticism of IKEA from the Swedish government and its customers in the West. Critics content that IKEA is not living up to its own commitments to gender equality. Some threaten a boycott. IKEA must respond. Reissuing the catalog with women included risks running afoul of Saudi censors who can impose harsh penalties. The company has had a presence in Saudi Arabia for nearly 30 years. Continued here

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After Job 1: Actions and Reactions in the Ford/Firestone Recall ^ BAB113 Few recent events have shaken public confidence in product safety as much as the recall of 6.5 million Firestone tires in August 2000. The defective tires made by Bridgestone/Firestone Inc. were supplied primarily as original equipment on Ford Motor Co. sport utility vehicles (SUVs) and sold as replacement items for SUVs and light trucks. For some consumers, the combination of Firestone tires and Ford vehicles proved lethal. Accidents involving tread separation and rollovers were blamed for 148 deaths and over 500 injuries. Chronicles the actions and reactions of Ford and Firestone, various legislative and regulatory bodies, and the public as the truth emerged. Continued here

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Wall Street's First Panic (A) ^ 708002 In the early 1790's, a flood of newly issued public and private securities sparked an investment boom in the nascent United States. In New York, the bustling commercial district along Wall Street emerged as the center of the city's securities trade. One of the many Americans drawn into the frenetic and largely unregulated securities market was William Duer, who ultimately became a major player on the Street. As it turned out, however, Duer's financial dealings proved unsustainable, and his financial collapse helped to bring the securities boom to a halt. Shocked by the widespread devastation wrought by Wall Street's first panic, the New York legislature acted quickly to ban outdoor securities auctions and a popular class of financial instruments known as "time bargains," both of which were thought to have contributed to the boom and bust on Wall Street. Facing public outrage along with the new legal restrictions, New York's top brokers had to decide whether a new system for securities trading was needed and, if so, what it should look like. Continued here

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GoSports Foundation: Going Beyond The Gold ^ W21246 GoSports Foundation was a non-profit venture that developed India's emerging athletic talent through athletic scholarships and other supports that helped the athletes achieve sports excellence. The foundation had limited funding and numerous applicants, requiring that it carefully choose the athletes it would support. Nandan Kamath, a co-founder of the organization, has to choose one athlete from several applicants for support. He also has to decide whether the foundation should start supporting the development of coaches and trainers and how it should balance its support with a desire to advance the profile of athletes competing in the Paralympics.Sanjeev Tripathi is affiliated with Indian Institute of Management Indore. Vijay Krishnamurthy is affiliated with SDMIMD, University of Mysore (India). Continued here

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groupelephant.com 2021: Beyond Corporate Purpose ^ B5997 The groupelephant.com case focuses on CEO Jonathan Tager as he grapples with expanding his company's Beyond Corporate Purpose: Elephants, Rhinos & People ('ERP') initiative, six years after its 2015 launch. groupelephant.com originated from EPI-USE, a professional software and services firm, and the world's largest independent SAP HR/Payroll specialist. Following a period of rapid corporate growth but waning enthusiasm for purely financial objectives, Tager decided to rebrand the Group and employ a hybrid (blended) business model to achieve business, environmental and social goals. Tager reflects on the various ERP programs and their impact on elephant and rhino welfare, through a strategy based on poverty alleviation in areas adjacent to the threatened species, in Southern Africa. The case also describes the effects of the ERP initiative and corporate rebranding on the core for-profit business. More broadly, the case study explores the benefits and challenges inherent in the hybrid business model, potential strategies for scaling the ERP initiative globally, the importance of "purpose-driven leadership", and issues related to impact strategy and impact measurement. Drawing on recent trends, it also prompts students to discuss whether company leaders have a responsibility (or an implicit mandate) to actively engage in advocacy and devote significant resources to social and environmental objectives. Continued here

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Enterprise Culture in Chinese History: Zhang Jian and the Dasheng Cotton Mills ^ 308068 This case focuses on the legal and managerial evolution of limited-liability firms in China, using the example of the Dasheng cotton mills in Nantong near Shanghai. Dasheng, one of the earliest and most successful industrial enterprises in pre-war China, was founded by the famous entrepreneur Zhang Jian (1853-1926). Having survived various economic and political crises, the Dasheng cotton mills became a state-owned enterprise in 1953. In the wake of the economic reforms the successor to the original Dasheng Enterprise was restructured as the Jiangsu Dasheng Co. Ltd. in 1996. Issues of corporate governance, legal environment, government relations and the role of family business structures are discussed in the context of how they shaped the business environment in pre-war China and continue to influence Chinese enterprise culture in 2008. Continued here

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Edward Lewis: Essence Magazine ^ 318115 Essence, the first magazine aimed at African-American women, was created by four, young, Black entrepreneurs in the aftermath of massive racial and political upheaval in the United States in 1968. The venture was a financial, branding and cultural success. By 2005, the company was sold to Time Warner, Inc, the largest magazine publisher in the world at that time, for the highest price ever paid for a single-title magazine company. However, there is still debate about whether the last remaining co-founder, Edward Lewis, jeopardized the iconic Black brand by selling it to a white-owned company. Continued here

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Bill Cummings: The Cummings Way ^ 619038 Buy books, tools, case studies, and articles on leadership, strategy, innovation, and other business and management topics Continued here

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TerraCycle (B): A Million Tradeoffs ^ IMD706 Buy books, tools, case studies, and articles on leadership, strategy, innovation, and other business and management topics Continued here

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South African Chefs Association: Maintaining a Non-Profit Organization ^ W19787 In February 2020, the president of South African Chefs Association was exploring ways to ensure a sustained revenue stream for the association, which relied primarily on membership fees for survival. As a non-profit organization, South African Chefs Association had a rich history of representing chefs, enabling them to compete on the international stage, supporting their training and education, and providing members with networking opportunities and a community. The association faced several challenges; most notably, it needed to find an innovative solution to sustainable growth in terms of both membership and revenue numbers and the value created for members. The association's president needed to establish a sense of relevance and community for its members through a range of strategic partnerships and innovative value contributions, ensure its leadership reflected the racial makeup of the country, and reconsider its structure and purpose.Anastacia Mamabolo is affiliated with University of Pretoria. Charlene Lew is affiliated with University of Pretoria. Continued here

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Holden Forests & Gardens: Leading in Turbulent Times ^ 821051 Buy books, tools, case studies, and articles on leadership, strategy, innovation, and other business and management topics Continued here

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Food Forward: How Volunteer Teams Move Surplus Produce from Tree to Table ^ B5991 Food Forward's volunteers call it "fruit therapy" to harvest excess fruit from citrus trees throughout Los Angeles knowing it will soon feed food insecure families. Through the nonprofit's 2020 surplus produce programs, the team rescued 62.5 million pounds of nutritious fruits and vegetables and even organized 2,037 socially-distanced volunteer events during the COVID-19 shut-downs. The team, comprised of 40 engaged staff and 4,100 dedicated volunteers, worked together to overcome the imbalance of food waste and people who lacked enough to eat. How did Food Forward maintain and motivate such a large volunteer group to help bridge the hunger gap - and what role would they play in the organization's future? Continued here

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Christine Lagarde ^ 418007 The case covers the youth and career trajectory of Christine Lagarde, across her time at Baker & McKenzie, as a minister in the Government of France, and as the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The case highlights the challenges and opportunities that she faced during each phase of her career and how she managed them. Lagarde started her career in 1981 as a lawyer at the global law firm Baker & McKenzie, which employed approximately 2,500 lawyers across 35 countries by 1999, when she became the firm's first non-American and female chairman. In 2005, she became France's Minister for Foreign Trade in President Jacques Chirac's administration, and was the EU's de facto finance minister when the financial crisis was most acute. In 2011, she was then selected to head the IMF in 2011. Since 2011, Lagarde built the foundations for the IMF's adaptation to the realities of the twenty-first century. By 2017, shortly after Lagarde began her second term as the Managing Director of the IMF, the world faced pressing issues as a result of the rapidly-evolving, hyper-connected global economy-ongoing recovery from the global financial crisis, the rise of emerging economies, deeper cross-border integration, technological change, and growing wealth and income inequality within countries. These interrelated dynamics were playing out alongside heightened anxiety within the populations of some major advanced economies about what these changes meant for them. The concerns manifested themselves in an inward focus, rumblings of protectionism, and questions about the worth of international cooperation and the multilateral system itself. Lagarde believed that the challenges facing the world economy warranted not less but more global cooperation. In this context, she had to determine how the IMF-as the leading advocate of global economic cooperation since its creation-could better demonstrate its effectiveness. She knew that it was a critical moment.This case is accompanied by a Video Short that can be shown in class or included in a digital coursepack. Instructors should consider the timing of making the video available to students, as it may reveal key case details. Continued here

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Greylock Partners ^ 813002 In 1965 William Elfers left Georges Doriot's American Research and Development Corporation to found Greylock, his own venture capital firm. Over the ensuing three decades followed a series of eight Greylock partnerships, during which time Elfers never lost a general partner or saw a colleague leave to start his own venture capital firm. Furthermore, each of the investors in Greylock's first fund participated in all succeeding partnerships. Elfers was among the first to pioneer the limited partnership structure of the modern venture capital firm with Greylock being organized as a series of limited partnerships, each of which pooled the investment capital that its general partners and limited partners committed for finite lifetimes. Greylock was established against a long historical tradition of New England financial innovation going back to at least the nineteenth century. In essence Elfers helped to create a new organizational approach to venture capital through mechanisms that deeply reflected New England's financial investment culture. Continued here

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The PikoGym Entrepreneurs: Muscling Up through Intellectual Property ^ W20431 Frustrated with the available means of working out while travelling, the three founders of PikoGym, a start-up out of Erlangen, Germany, had the idea to build a workout device that allowed users to train anywhere and everywhere. The lightweight and compact solution would be combined with a progressive web application to facilitate customers meeting up for workouts, provide motivation, and build community. PikoGym would be entering a growing but highly competitive and relatively fragmented market. Although competitors' solutions were similar to PikoGym's, they lacked the versatility and comfort offered by the latter. The three entrepreneurs wanted to ensure that their intellectual property (IP) management strategy aligned with their business goals and long-term plans for the company's success. Florian Fuchs is affiliated with Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg. Peter M. Bican is affiliated with Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg. Alexander Brem is affiliated with Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg. Continued here

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ENOVE: Business Strategy in a Transitioning Economy ^ W16035 In August 2014, La Société Energies Nouvelles & Environnement (ENOVE), a subdivision of Groupe Bismuth, was developing an expansion strategy in the unstable political and economic environment of Tunisia, the company's home country. Tunisia was the birthplace of the Arab Spring, a series of political revolutions that started in 2010 and swept the Mediterranean region for five years. Tunisia was also quickly moving toward a democratically elected government, but the transition was not an easy one; the country experienced a setback of about 10 to 15 years, in regards to economic development. Years of functional corruption under the long-time president, Ben Ali, were followed by sustained economic growth in manufacturing, tourism, and education. This led the economy into a governmental vacuum. For the first time, workers began exercising their rights to demand better conditions. There was little governmental oversight on customs, labour, or taxation. The threat of terrorism, whether real or perceived, was always present. Under these conditions, ENOVE's president had to make a decision: Should ENOVE expand within Tunisia, or move their manufacturing operations to a more stable country, perhaps nearby Morocco?Maciek Nowak is affiliated with Quinlan School of Business-Isom. Continued here

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Thailand in May and June of 1997 ^ 398131 Buy books, tools, case studies, and articles on leadership, strategy, innovation, and other business and management topics Continued here

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Lincoln Center CEO Henry Timms on New Models for Effective Leadership On Nov. 29, tens of millions of people around the world donated their time and money to the causes and institutions that matter most to them. It was all part of an annual movement known as “Giving Tuesday,” which Henry Timms and his team launched a decade ago. Since then it has generated more than $13 billion for good causes in the U.S. alone. The phenomenon is part of what Timms calls “new power,” where smart ideas are circulated for anyone and everyone to interpret and build on – rather than being controlled by a centralized organization. It’s based on what one of Timms’ colleagues calls “un-branding,” where institutions don’t insist on putting their logos and terms of engagement all over everything they initiate. “The ‘old power’ world was: you participate in my mission on my terms, and I tell you what to do, and you do it or don’t,” says Timms. “The ‘new power’ world is: we get people to participate in our mission on their terms.” Continued here

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Vermeer Technologies (A): A Company Is Born ^ 397078 Charles Ferguson has just heard from a venture capital (VC) consortium that it is willing to finance Vermeer Technologies, a company he has cofounded for developing Internet software. The funds are sorely needed, but the VCs have imposed some onerous conditions, including a request that Vermeer's first CEO be an outsider. This case is accompanied by a Video Short that can be shown in class or included in a digital coursepack. Instructors should consider the timing of making the video available to students, as it may reveal key case details. Continued here

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P&G Canada: Old Company, New Tricks ^ 916019 P&G Canada faces ongoing global pressure to increase productivity and reduce spending. Thom Lachman, President of P&G Canada, is seemingly out of options that will make a large enough impact without harming the business, until the idea of a radical space reduction strikes him. The case follows Lachman, working closely with Country HR Manager Jane Lewis, from idea inception to the eve of the company-wide transition to a dramatically scaled-down and reorganized office space. In particular, the case provides a basis for discussion surrounding employee motivation-specifically as it is affected by the change management process and workspaces, benefits versus perks, and sorting effects. A (B) case details the outcome of the office space transition. Continued here

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Winning Business at Russell Reynolds (B) ^ 422046 In an effort to make compensation drive collaboration, Russell Reynolds Associates' (RRA) CEO Clarke Murphy sought to re-engineer the bonus system for his executive search consultants in 2016. As his HR analytics guru, Kelly Smith, points out, that risks upsetting-and maybe even losing-some of the "big billers" (rainmakers) who were heavily rewarded under the current system that motivated individual, 'entrepreneurial' efforts to win business. Frustrated by the current system's shortcomings, including failing to provide clients with the teams they needed for increasingly advisory work and affording junior consultants an opportunity to adequately apprentice, Murphy was worried that the current compensation system was holding RRA back from executing on his growth strategy intended to help RRA-a top 5 search firm-recapture market share lost to its competitors since the great recession. He had tried many attempts, over multiple years, to change the culture through other means, but only with tepid success. Now he had to decide whether to pull the trigger on a large-scale effort to adjust RRA's discretionary bonus system after hearing concern-and even anger-over the proposal from some of his top 20 consultants. To permit students to analyze the situation, they have access to detailed, real performance and compensation data for all RRA consultants in 2015 (in the supplementary (C) case spreadsheet), along with the modeling RRA did to forecast the effect of the compensation system changes on each person. Students can therefore analyze how a more collaborative approach to compensation might positively impact some consultants and adversely impact others, assessing the benefits and risks of the dislocation. By asking students to decide whether Murphy should move forward with the new compensation system, or whether an alternative might be better, students will wrestle with the role of compensation systems in driving intended behaviors, such as collaboration, and thus in supporting or warping organizational culture, performance, and growth. By analyzing the dislocation to employees' variable compensation due to a change, students will learn the challenges of changing and calibrating compensation systems. Finally, by exposing students to the various tradeoffs involved in designing a compensation system and the "zero sum" nature of their implications, students will internalize the complexity involved in attempting to drive organizational change through changes to a compensation system (i.e., "align incentives" is not as easy to do as it is to say). Continued here

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GROW: Using Artificial Intelligence to Screen Human Intelligence ^ 418020 Over 10% of all 2017 university graduates in Japan used GROW, an artificial intelligence platform and mobile app developed by Tokyo-based people analytics startup IGS, to recruit for a job. This case puts participants in the shoes of IGS founder and CEO Masahiro Fukuhara, a first-time entrepreneur, as he considers the varied ways the "big data" he is collecting is being used--and whether some uses promised more meaningful (or less potentially misleading) impact than others. After briefly introducing IGS, Fukuhara, and GROW, the case outlines exactly how GROW works, starting with a mobile app to assess competencies and personalities of candidates and ending with artificial intelligence (machine learning) to produce high-quality recommendations to companies about whom they should hire. The case then articulates precisely how three companies--airline ANA (All-Nippon Airways), global conglomerate Mitsubishi Corporation, and advertising/media company Septeni--use GROW in very different ways to manage talent recruiting, screening, hiring, placement, and development. The case asks students to consider two questions: (1) Which of the three company's approach to using people analytics for talent acquisition and development is most appealing (or most concerning)?; and (2) Should Fukuhara turn on the most advanced part of the artificial intelligence engine, allowing GROW not just to provide recommendations to clients about whom they should hire, but also (based on performance and attribute data of previous hires) to overrule clients' specifications (or biases) about the competencies they should be targeting in their ideal hires?Accompanying the case are the (anonymized) data one of these companies used to make their hiring decision, so that students can experience first-hand the opportunities and challenges of using people analytics in hiring. The case also provides an accessible yet thorough explanation of the key aspects of artificial intelligence (supervised, unsupervised, and reinforcement machine learning). The case is well-suited to courses in Managing Human Capital, People Analytics, Talent Development, Organizational Behavior, or General Management. Continued here

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Creating a Luxury Experience at Value Retail ^ 513009 Value Retail PLC owned and managed a number of premium shopping destinations (Villages) across Europe. Soon the company would be moving into an entirely new market: China. The company's Villages had proven popular with both shoppers (many of whom were international tourists who had come to Europe specifically to visit one of Value Retail's Villages) and brands, a number of which were luxury brands that had historically avoided selling product at outlet locations. The company's Founder and Chairman, Scott Malkin, looked to the future challenges his company might face in China, as well as to the challenges his company faced around human resource management and organizational control as the company grew in size and formalized parts of its processes, and how his company would be impacted by the ongoing changes in the retail industry, including the rise of online shopping. Continued here

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Facebook (A) ^ UV1164 Facebook was one of the many social networking Web sites (such as MySpace.com) that launched in 2004. A free-access site that allowed users to connect and interact with other people, Facebook was immensely popular, having millions of active users. Of course, putting questionable content on one's Facebook page could become a source of embarrassment. In this case, consulting firm manager Miranda Shaw is trying to decide between two highly qualified applicants for a position in her company. She's leaning toward hiring one candidate until she finds photos on his Facebook page of him partaking in unsuitable activities (smoking pot, etc.) during college. Shaw is no longer certain about her decision. This case provides a brief and simple way to look at the issues, privacy and others, of social networking sites. Continued here

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Global Knowledge Management at Danone (A) ^ 608107 This case explores French consumer goods company Danone's novel approach to knowledge management. In 2007, Human Resource Chief (Executive Vice President) Franck Mougin assesses the company's knowledge-sharing tools and considers his options going Forward. Through informal knowledge marketplaces and sharing networks, Danone had helped managers connect with each other and share good practices peer-to-peer, rather than relying on traditional hierarchical lines of communication or IT repositories. From 2004 to 2007, Mougin and his team had found that 5,000 Danone managers around the world--the company conducted business in 120 countries--had shared about 640 now-documented good practices. In 2007, the strategic importance of saving time in a decentralized organization through adoption of colleagues' good practices was put to a test. Should the knowledge management tools be extended to include all employees and external partners on a regular basis? And on top of sharing good practices, could it be extended to include the creation of new solutions and processes? Would this require more formalization of processes and more tracking of results? The case illustrates Mougin's options on taking knowledge management into the future of Danone.This case is accompanied by a Video Short that can be shown in class or included in a digital coursepack. Instructors should consider the timing of making the video available to students, as it may reveal key case details. Continued here

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United Parcel Service (B) ^ 488017 With expansion into other countries (Germany), new areas of service (air express), and new ventures (two small acquisitions), UPS had to decide how to adjust its human resource policies to businesses and people which were substantially different from its traditional ones. The objective is to examine the tradeoffs in changing strong cultures and well established hiring, promotion, and reward practices to meet business needs. Continued here

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Staffing Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (B) ^ 904C07 Buy books, tools, case studies, and articles on leadership, strategy, innovation, and other business and management topics Continued here

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Au Bon Pain: The French Bakery Cafe, the Partner/Manager Program ^ 687063 In recent years, Au Bon Pain (ABP), a chain of upscale French bakeries/sandwich cafes based in Boston, confronted a set of human resource problems endemic to the fast food industry (i.e., a labor shortage which made it difficult to attract and maintain quality crew personnel and management candidates, an inadequately trained management staff, and high turnover). To deal with the resulting "cycle of failure" while increasing individual initiative and performance at the unit level, ABP devised a new compensation-incentive system for its store managers--the Partner/Manager Program. Under this program, store managers would be paid a standard base salary plus a share of the incremental profits. The case asks students to evaluate the program by comparing it to ABP's existing compensation system, determining the different ways in which managers from two stores operating under an experimental run of the program achieved their results, and by considering the strategic implications of implementing the program in all of the company's stores. Continued here

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The Written Interview: Self-Assessment and Career Development ^ 481012 Buy books, tools, case studies, and articles on leadership, strategy, innovation, and other business and management topics Continued here

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Identifying and Developing Capable Leaders ^ 601054 Buy books, tools, case studies, and articles on leadership, strategy, innovation, and other business and management topics Continued here

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Adam Baxter Co./Local 190: 1985 Negotiation, Local 190 Confidential Information ^ 396325 Includes a series of three negotiation exercises portraying management/labor relations at ABC over a period of seven years. ABC, initially a family-owned business, had prided itself on its cooperative relationship with its union, Local 190. With the skyrocketing inflation of the 1970s, management considered drastic changes. Management and labor would undergo a series of negotiations over wages, benefits, and work conditions at ABC's main plant in Deloitte, Iowa. Continued here

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Applied: Using Behavioral Science to Debias Hiring ^ 921046 The UK government's Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) needed to hire a new associate and were trying to increase the diversity of their job candidates. This decision was based on academic research showing that recruiters and managers often fell into common traps like "stereotype" and "affinity" bias, where they hired people who looked the part or who were similar in appearance or background as themselves. To overcome these biases, the team had spent hours using a permanent marker to redact the names and educational information from each candidate's CVs, one-by-one. This painstaking process inspired Kate Glazebrook to develop Applied-a technological solution to debias hiring. Applied was a recruitment and hiring platform that used technology to eliminate biased language in job ads and used task-based assessments to reduce favoritism, among other features. Years after founding the company, Glazebrook considered asking her clients to remove CVs altogether. Could Glazebrook convince her new and existing customers to use the platform, even after taking away CVs? Continued here

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Union Fenosa Gas: Human Resources Start-up ^ IES171 Faced with new challenges in the energy sector, Union Fenosa decides to enter the liquefied natural gas (LNG) business and becomes involved at every stage, from procurement to sale. The challenge is to source gas from optimal locations, create the right type of organization, build a liquefaction plant, and put together a team capable of managing the project successfully. And all this in record time (the Damietta plant went from engineering to production in just three years). Continued here

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LinkedIn Reviewed Millions of Job Listings. This 1 Key Change Leads to Many More Applicants There's an enormous disconnect, and it could be an equally enormous opportunity. Continued here

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You Have 22 Days Left in 2022. These Daily Tips Can Help You Make 2023 an Extraordinary Year Sign up now to get a daily tip or mindfulness challenge, plus a behind-the-scenes look at my column. Continued here

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Forget Productivity. The 4-Day Work Week Has a Greater Benefit that Solves a Major Problem It just might be the solution you've been looking for. Continued here

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How the ‘5-by-1’ Technique Can Help You Fall Asleep Faster and Reduce Anxiety It's okay to give yourself permission to forget. Continued here

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The EU Finally Set a Date that Your iPhone Must Have  USB-C. Well, Sort Of The end of the Lightning port is coming. Continued here

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Google Research Found That What Separates Great Teams From the Pack Comes Down to 5 Management Strategies It's what has made Google one of the best places to work in the world. Continued here

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Keep Forgetting Things? Neuroscience Says This Memory-Fixing Brain Habit Works Best "The results were incontrovertible ... regular, engaged reading strengthened older adults memory skills." Continued here

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Why is strep A surging — and how worried are scientists? Group A streptococcal bacteria (strep A) cause infections that trigger a sore throat — and can lead to scarlet fever or, rarely, more serious conditions and death.Credit: CNRI/Science Photo Library As the days lengthen and temperatures rise each spring, British paediatricians know what to expect: an increase in group A streptococcal infections that should tail off by the summer. But an off-season outbreak of the bacterial infections this year has jumbled expectations, made scores of people ill and killed 13 children under the age of 15 in England since September. Continued here

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Rescinded job offers and quarantine hotels: what lockdown lab moves taught us Alongside the stresses of adapting to a new country and settling into a new lab, scientists who have made the move abroad since 2020 often face extra barriers as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. These include rescinded job offers, postponed start dates, burdensome vaccine paperwork and long and lonely stints in quarantine hotels. Continued here

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AI bot ChatGPT writes smart essays — should academics worry? Educational assessment might need a rethink in the wake of ChatGPT.Credit: Thomas Trutschel/Photothek/Getty Between overwork, underpayment and the pressure to publish, academics have plenty to worry about. Now there’s a fresh concern: ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence (AI) powered chatbot that creates surprisingly intelligent-sounding text in response to user prompts, including homework assignments and exam-style questions. The replies are so lucid, well-researched and decently referenced that some academics are calling the bot the death knell for conventional forms of educational assessment. How worried should professors and lecturers be? Continued here

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NIH plans grant-review overhaul to reduce bias The National Institutes of Health, located in Bethesda, Maryland, is the world’s largest funder of biomedical research.Credit: J Scott Applewhite/AP/Shutterstock The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) has released a tentative plan to change how its research grant applications are scored, with the aim of reducing bias and lowering the burden on reviewers. Under the new system, reviewers would no longer rate researchers’ expertise or their institutions’ access to resources, and there would be fewer scoring criteria overall. Continued here

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The doubt behind knowing, and insights in sci-fi: Books in brief Andrew Robinson’s many books include Lost Languages: The Enigma of the World’s Undeciphered Scripts and Einstein on the Run: How Britain Saved the World’s Greatest Scientist. He is based in London. In 1837, botanist Matthias Schleiden and zoologist Theodor Schwann saw an “uncanny” microscopic similarity between plant and animal tissues: they had discovered the unity of the cell across living beings. This complex portrait illuminates cells’ roles in immunity, reproduction, sentience, cognition, repair and rejuvenation, malfunctions such as cancer, and treatments such as blood transfusions, drawing on author Siddhartha Mukherjee’s varied experience as an immunologist, stem‑cell scientist, cancer biologist and medical oncologist. Continued here

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Tinkering with molecular ‘backbones’ holds promise for drug discovery Chemists used a molecular editing method to make compounds including precursors of the anti-inflammatory drug celecoxib. Credit: DBA Images/Alamy A chemical procedure that precisely deletes a carbon atom from molecules shifts their backbones from a hexagon to a pentagon ― a technique that could aid drug discovery1. Continued here

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TSMC ups its Arizona chip investment to $40B - The Hustle Those were the words of Apple CEO Tim Cook yesterday as he joined President Biden in announcing a critical win for US manufacturing. The win: chip maker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company is upping its US investment in Arizona from one $12B plant to $40B across two plants. Continued here

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Alcohol deaths in the UK rose to record level in 2021 Deaths from alcohol in the UK have risen to their highest level since records began in 2001, according to the latest data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). In 2021, 9,641 people (14.8 per 100,000) died as a result of alcohol: a rise of 7.4% from 2020. The leading cause of alcohol-specific deaths (deaths caused by diseases known to be a direct consequence of alcohol) continues to be liver disease. More than three-quarters (78%) of all alcohol deaths in 2021 were attributed to this cause. The remainder of the deaths were due to “mental and behavioural disorders because of the use of alcohol” and “accidental poisoning by, and exposure to, alcohol”. Continued here

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70 years on from London's Great Smog, we still need cleaner air to protect health London’s Great Smog of December 1952 was the largest in a series of “pea soupers” which brought normal activity to a halt across the capital. The smog lasted from December 5 to December 9 and led to a large spike in hospital admissions and as many as 12,000 deaths. Pollution episodes like this one were driven by smoke from burning coal in city centres to generate power and heat homes (as recently as the 1980s power plants were still found right in the centre of London). This was then exacerbated by cold and windless winter weather: smoke + fog = smog. This was a very visible challenge. The ensuing Clean Air Acts focused on removing these key pollutant sources to make the air cleaner. Continued here

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Stormzy: This Is What I Mean – spirituality takes centre stage on the artist's new album From the beginning of his career, Stormzy has unapologetically shared his spiritual journey as a central part of his artistry. On his latest album, This Is What I Mean, Stormzy fuses his spiritual worldview with the day to day issues that are most important to him. Songs such as Give It To The Water and Holy Spirit continue his conversations about faith in his music. Continued here

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Harry & Meghan – what the first episodes reveal about Meghan's reputation within the royal family As an expert in the contemporary British monarchy, I watched the first three episodes of The Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s new Netflix docuseries, Harry & Meghan, closely. What came across most was how Meghan’s gender, race and class intersected in her treatment both by the media and by “the Firm” (an unofficial nickname for the British monarchy and its staff that describes the institution as a business) itself. Continued here

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Emotional labour: what it is – and why it falls to women in the workplace and at home Have you ever been asked to make a cup of tea for your colleagues in the workplace? A recent survey commissioned by Samsung of around 2,000 employees in the UK showed that this is about three times more likely to happen to you if you are a woman. Women are expected to do more non-work office tasks, such as organising staff away days and cards and gifts for colleagues, than men. Even if a woman says no to a task like this, it’s likely that another women will be asked in her place. Continued here

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China's new space station opens for business in an increasingly competitive era of space activity Scott Shackelford is a principal investigator on grants from the Hewlett Foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York, National Science Foundation, and the Microsoft Corporation supporting both the Ostrom Workshop and the Indiana University Cybersecurity Clinic. The International Space Station is no longer the only place where humans can live in orbit. Continued here

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What is voluntary sterilization? A health communication expert unpacks how a legacy of forced sterilization shapes doctor-patient conversations today Sterilization is a safe and effective form of permanent birth control used by more than 220 million couples around the world. Despite its prevalence, however, patients seeking sterilization from their doctors often face a surprising number of challenges. In men, the sterilization process is known as a vasectomy, which involves severing the tubes that carry the supply of sperm to the semen. In women, sterilization involves a procedure called tubal ligation. In this form of permanent birth control, the fallopian tubes are severed – or ligated – preventing eggs produced by the ovaries from traveling through the fallopian tubes to fertilize an egg. Vasectomies and tubal ligations can be reversed in some cases, although success rates vary widely. Continued here

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Near record-high numbers of young people voted during the midterms, signaling a possible shift – or exception – in voting trends The November 2022 midterms have come and gone, but there are still some potential lasting implications that could influence the next election season. One is that young people, aged 18 to 29, had one of the highest voter turnouts in a midterm election in recent history, according to our early analysis. Continued here

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Banking reforms expert Q&A: will relaxing the rules help the UK economy and what are the risks? Jeremy Hunt, the UK chancellor of the exchequer, has unveiled a package of measures aiming to protect the City of London’s position as one of the world’s leading financial capitals. With the UK having lost nearly a tenth of the financial assets it manages since Brexit, plus at least 7,000 jobs, mostly to mainland Europe, much of the focus of these “Edinburgh reforms” is on making London more competitive. This includes rowing back on rules introduced a decade ago to avoid a repeat of the global financial crisis, such as the ring-fence between customer deposits and investment banking activities, and holding finance bosses personally and financially responsible for things that go wrong on their watch. Continued here

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Iran executes first protester as human rights abuses come under international scrutiny Iran’s execution of protester Mohsen Shekari is the first after a huge wave of unrest swept around the country in the autumn of 2022. Shekari was found guilty by a Iranian Revolutionary Court of “moharebeh” (enmity against God), news sources reported. Human rights groups say Shekari and other protesters who have been arrested are not being given access to lawyers and have faced sham trials. Continued here

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Sinema out, Warnock in – Democrats narrowly control the Senate and Republicans the House, but gridlock won't be the biggest problem for the new Congress In the wake of the 2022 U.S. midterm elections, a general sense of the political landscape in the upcoming 118th Congress has taken shape. With Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s announcement that she is leaving the Democratic Party and Sen. Raphael Warnock’s victory in Georgia’s runoff, Democrats will maintain control in the Senate, while Republicans will take control of the House. Divided government sparks fears of gridlock, a legislative standstill. At face value, this makes sense. Given the different policy priorities of the two major parties, you might expect to see each party passing legislation out of the chamber it controls that has little chance in the other chamber – and thus no chance of becoming law. Continued here

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Arrakhis: the tiny satellite aiming to reveal what dark matter is made of The European Space Agency (Esa) recently announced a new mission of its science programme: a small telescope orbiting the Earth dubbed Arrakhis. But although its name is inspired by the sci-fi novel Dune, it will not be looking for sandworms or “spice” on a desert planet. Instead, this nimble satellite will punch hugely above its weight and try to track down one of the most elusive and mysterious substances in the universe: dark matter. This is the term given to the hypothetical invisible matter that is thought to be more abundant than normal matter and have a similar gravitational effect on its surroundings. Continued here

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Picky eater? Research shows it could be in your DNA Senior Manager Biostatistics Unit at Human Technopole and Honorary Fellow, The University of Edinburgh In the last 40 years obesity has been constantly rising. This has happened despite the popularity of all kind of diets ranging from low carb, paleo or even ice cream based. Continued here

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How to keep your home warm during very cold weather (on a budget) – and avoid dangerous heating 'hacks' A cold snap of Arctic weather dubbed the “Troll from Trondheim” has hit the UK. The combination of an energy price crisis and very cold weather has left many people worrying about how to keep their homes warm and manage energy bills that have already gone through the roof this winter. The government has provided some support, but it simply won’t be enough to cover rising costs for many people. What can we do at home to try and keep warm during a cold snap? Beyond simply putting the heating on 24/7, there are some things that can help. And many of the measures are easy to do. As people are considering different ways to keep warm at home, it is also important to do so safely. Continued here

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London air pollution: expanding the ULEZ is good but it won't work by itself On November 25 2022 Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London, announced plans to expand the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) to cover the whole of Greater London. According to Khan, this will “ensure 5 million more Londoners can breathe cleaner air”. While there have been significant improvements in London’s air quality in recent years, 99% of the city’s residents still live in areas that exceed World Health Organisation limits for air pollution, specifically particulate matter (PM) 2.5, which is emitted by vehicles, among other sources. Continued here

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Christmas trees can stay fresh for weeks – a well-timed cut and consistent watering are key As an Extension Forester, Curtis VanderSchaaf has worked with Christmas tree growers in his region. Every year somewhere between 25 million and 30 million Christmas trees are sold in the United States. If you’re one of the people who decorate for the holiday with a freshly cut Christmas tree, you might be wondering how to keep it looking good all the way through Santa’s visit – and maybe even a little beyond. Continued here

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Will Smith Isn’t the Main Reason to Avoid 'Emancipation' The film is part slavery-era drama, part survival thriller, part war epic—and all confused. The filmmakers behind Emancipation probably wanted a standard Hollywood publicity circuit, with its stars offering amusing anecdotes about production and talking up the importance of the Training Day director Antoine Fuqua’s slavery-era drama. But the press tour for Emancipation, which starts streaming today on Apple TV+, has instead looked more like an apology tour. Continued here

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The End of High-School English I’ve been teaching English for 12 years, and I’m astounded by what ChatGPT can produce. This article was featured in One Story to Read Today, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a single must-read from The Atlantic, Monday through Friday. Sign up for it here.       Continued here

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What Makes Neil Young’s Voice Irresistible The cover of Neil Young’s fourth album, Harvest, is the color of unbleached muslin, lending a mellow vibe to a pleasant, if not groundbreaking, work. Yet as the author Sam Inglis puts it, “Harvest is the only Neil Young album that has found its way into the record collections of people who don’t have record collections.” It was the best-selling album of 1972—and of Young’s career—with four-time platinum sales in the U.S. Its first single, “Heart of Gold,” is his only bona fide hit and quickly became his signature song, a staple of rock and pop radio. Fifty years after Harvest’s arrival, Reprise has put out a deluxe reissue that includes previously unreleased documentary footage. No one who knows Young’s catalog—40-plus studio albums, with his latest, World Record, released last month—would argue that Harvest is his best. It’s wildly uneven, containing at least one earnest but lousy song and a couple of embarrassing experiments in symphonic arrangement. Harvest isn’t a great record; it isn’t even a great Neil Young record. As “Heart of Gold” celebrates its golden anniversary, then, how are we to understand the album’s enduring popularity? Continued here

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The Meta Oversight Board Has Some Genuinely Smart Suggestions In its new decision, the board reveals some significant and insightful recommendations for how to improve speech online. A little more than 14 months after The Wall Street Journal first published the “Facebook Files”—the reporting series that exposed the inner workings of the site’s content-moderation practices—the Meta Oversight Board has finally released its opinion on the controversial and opaque cross-check program that gave preferential treatment to certain users of the site, even when they openly flouted the site’s community standards. Continued here