Business

‘He’s a bit stupid but we go wayyyy back.’ fizkes Sheheryar Banuri, University of East Anglia Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta/Facebook, recently remarked in a podcast interview that when it came to hiring new staff, his preference was people whose “values aligned in the things that you care about”. This, he said, was akin to “choosing a friend or …

Some businesses have managed to build positive outcomes from the crisis. MicroOne/Shutterstock Thomas Malnight, International Institute for Management Development (IMD) and Ivy Buche, International Institute for Management Development (IMD) The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted different responses from company CEOs seeking to ensure their businesses survive. Keeping their employees safe has been the first priority, but beyond that, their task has …

studiostoks/Shutterstock Oliver Laasch, University of Manchester It’s been a tough few years for people who own or manage a business. Lockdowns shut down whole industrial sectors worldwide, turning profitable businesses into loss-making ones, while a lot of smaller businesses went under. Many companies will now be hoping for a return to some type of normality after COVID. However, there are …

Shutterstock/fizkes Claire de Oliveira, University of York In any given year, about one in five people will experience a mental health problem or illness. Fortunately, many employers have gradually come to realise that supporting mental health in the workplace is an important part of their role. This makes sense not just for reasons of your own wellbeing as an employee. …

‘Cant wait to reach my new cage.’ eamesBot Carlos Carrillo-Tudela, University of Essex; Alex Clymo, University of Essex, and David Zentler-Munro, University of Essex The great resignation is a buzzphrase that first appeared in May 2021, and has struck fear into the hearts of employers ever since. Coined in the US, the term refers to the unprecedented rise in the …

Shutterstock/Shopping King Louie Olaya Moldes Andrés, Cardiff University The early days of COVID brought a new sense of urgency to shopping for certain items. Toilet paper, pasta and bread flew off the shelves as people stocked up on vital supplies. Then came the must-have purchases to help with the tedium of lockdowns, with hot tubs, kitchen gadgets and new pets …

Renaud Foucart, Lancaster University The invasion of Ukraine has placed Russia on the verge of bankruptcy. Interest rates have doubled, the stock market has closed, and the rouble has fallen to its lowest level ever. The military costs of war have been exacerbated by an unprecedented level of international sanctions, sustained by a large coalition of countries. Russian citizens, now …

What happens now? lenina11only John Hammond, University of Reading and Yiorgos Gadanakis, University of Reading We are currently witnessing the beginning of a global food crisis, driven by the knock-on effects of a pandemic and more recently the rise in fuel prices and the conflict in Ukraine. There were already clear logistical issues with moving grain and food around the …

Shutterstock/fizkes Taha Yasseri, University College Dublin You might wish you were more passionate about your job. Or that you had the kind of job you could at least imagine being passionate about. Something that made you jump out of bed in the morning, excited about a new day filled with fist pumps and joy. But psychologists differentiate between two types …

Sergey V. Popov, Cardiff University Russia knows sanctions. In 2009, the death of Moscow anti-corruption lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in custody motivated Bill Browder, an entrepreneur who used to work in Russia and employ him, to lobby the US government to introduce sanctions against Russia. US sanctions were duly applied to 18 people in 2013 who had been directly related to …