Summer 2021 WoBecause business ris abou kt people. The power paradox: China’s complex, confl icted relationship with capitalism What’s the point of business planning? Workers’ playtime: the surprising history of the British seaside getaway How (and why) the world is getting back to the o ce WoBecause business r is k about. people When does an asset become a liability? It is a question that matters to business leaders, and even to governments, as much as it does to accountants, as our cover story on Jack Ma’s dramatic fall from grace demonstrates. Once the global pin-up for China’s tech prowess, the Alibaba founder now appears to have been rejected by powerful state forces fearful that the nation’s digital giants may be getting too big for their boots. Lessons from the second largest global economy are also highlighted as Work. looks at how the rest of the world is managing the return to o­ce life on p28. How to cope with the unexpected is a perennial topic that has been thrust straight back to the top of the corporate agenda recently. And as our feature on p46 explains, when even the best-laid plans are blindsided by events, it’s the qualities of resilience and agility that can make all the dierence between an organisation’s success and failure. Fortune favours the prepared mind, even – or perhaps especially – when events take a radically dierent course. Andrew Saunders Contributing editor Features in detail p4 Perspectives: distilled management thinking p6 15 minutes with… Cherie Pridham p12 Professor Angela Hobbs on the meaning of work p14 The rise and fall of Jack Ma p18 International lessons on the return to the oce p28 Scientific ideas that stand up to scrutiny p34 Interview: HMRC’s Esther Wallington p42 The allure of workplace resilience p46 Why do Brits like to be beside the seaside? p54 Debrief: business research, reports and insight p62 Further reading p72 The o-piste guide to the new normal p74 Inside front cover: Science & Society Picture Library/Getty Images 03 FEATURES IN DETAIL Professor Where’s Back to Scientific for Angela Hobbs Jack? the oce the people p14 p18 p28 p34 Why are we here, and When celebrity The formerly everyday The way scientific ideas what’s it all in aid of? entrepreneur and founder business of when and how are co-opted into popular Should we spend so much of Chinese e-commerce often to go to the oce is workplace practice is far of our brief allotted span giant Alibaba Group set to become one of the from ideal. What starts on earth climbing the Jack Ma mysteriously major preoccupations life as a research paper greasy pole and filling dropped o the radar for employers over the is then reinterpreted the coers? During the last November – only coming months. Who and repackaged by pandemic, many of us to reappear in a bizarre really needs to be in? Who popular science writers have spent more time and uncharacteristically just wants to be in? What and journalists and alone with our thoughts, low-key video a few about those who never may have taken on and may have got to months later – the want to go there again? a dierent meaning wondering if there isn’t internet rang with Squaring these conflicting entirely by the time it a better way to exist unanswered questions. agendas – while also is influencing actual than as a disembodied What had happened to delivering productive practitioners. As Nicole image on someone him, and why? Who was work and fostering a Kobie discovers, the best else’s computer screen. responsible? Andrew coherent culture – could way to understand the In this enlightening Saunders looks at the easily become a minefield. scientific ideas that could interview with Angela motivations and potential Fortunately, some reshape the way we think Hobbs, professor for the dramatis personae that businesses have already about work is to go direct public understanding of might lie behind this experimented with the to the scientists who philosophy at Sheeld remarkable incident. It’s return to work: Jeremy formulate them – which University, Matthew a story that goes to the Hazlehurst takes a virtual is exactly what she did, Gwyther explores the heart of the relationship trip around the globe asking some of academia’s perennial issue of living between personal, to gather experiences finest minds for their the ‘good life’, as well as business and state power from HR professionals views on everything more timely questions in the world’s largest and employees on the from unconscious bias to around the value of a communist state. frontline in countries employee activism. Along philosophical approach from China and Singapore the way, she discovers to work, and the light that Andrew Saunders is to Israel and Australia, as many counterintuitive classical philosophers contributing editor of he examines lessons to be ideas and incorrect such as Plato can shed Work. and a business drawn about the influence assumptions that have on purpose and ethics. journalist whose writing of national culture, become part of the also appears in The Times, levels of trust and risk HR lexicon. Matthew Gwyther is The Telegraph and management. a business journalist Management Today Nicole Kobie is a science and former editor of Jeremy Hazlehurst is a and technology journalist Management Today journalist who has written who writes for Wired, Vice for The Wall Street and the Guardian Journal and The Times Julian Dodd; n Pictures; Bloomberg; Colin Stout; NurPhoto; The Ring Magazine/Getty Images; Corbis 04 Q&A: Esther How to be Happy Debrief p62-71 Wellbeing Wallington resilient holidays The good news: mental health p42 is getting more investment and p46 p54 attention from bosses. The bad news: it isn’t enough. When the tortuously What’s the point in Our national love a air Leadership complicated planning when the with foreign travel A top-performing CEO aects modernisation of the things that really have may have been forced more than the financials – they can also make their business British civil service is an impact are the ones into abeyance – at least more ethically robust. discussed, HMRC rarely no one can plan for? for now – but fear not, gets a look in. And yet, It’s a thought that must the pleasures of the Cybervetting Why are recruiters checking the UK’s tax and customs have crossed the minds staycation remain there out their potential hires on authority has arguably of many in business – for the taking. And as social media? changed how and where from the C-suite to the Work.’s picture essay on L&D it works more profoundly frontline – in recent the history of the Great Practitioners need new digital than any other part of months, as carefully British seaside holiday skillsets to thrive post-pandemic. the public sector – and nurtured forecasts reveals, the evolution Psychology during coronavirus, it and spreadsheets were of work and leisure Why under-pressure businesses pivoted rapidly from unceremoniously binned. has been intimately are more likely to turn to being a collector of Perhaps what’s needed linked since at least unethical managers. cash to a benefactor, is a less doctrinaire and Victorian times. Wakes Inclusion administering vital more resilient approach, Week in Lancashire Lack of self-belief may explain the dramatic pay gap grants and loans that one that enables Mill towns – an unpaid for women in science and enabled businesses and organisations and people break for workers while technology. individuals to survive alike to bend before a factory machinery Business planning through financial hurricane rather than was overhauled – kick- Greater investment and turmoil. As chief people be snapped in half by started the expansion innovation is required for firms ocer Esther Wallington its force. Paul Simpson of resorts like Blackpool to become truly resilient. tells Robert Je ery, the examines the history and Morecambe, while Collaboration public likes HMRC a lot and practice of resilience the rise of the railways Team-building exercises more when it’s handing in business, how to provided the cheap travel only work when they are out money than when develop more of it and needed to make a trip approached scientifically. it’s collecting it. But where its strengths and to the coast a realistic Motivation the bigger picture is weaknesses lie. proposition. While in Want to inspire your sta to lead? Give them leaders who creating a workforce more recent times the are realistic role models. that is suciently agile Paul Simpson is a journalist chilly appeal of the Purpose and digitally enabled to and author. His latest book, promenade, pier and Employees who find meaning in thrive no matter what The Colour Code, will penny slot machines may their work are more productive comes next. be published this autumn have palled, the domestic and innovative than their peers. by Profile Books holiday – and the tourist Teamwork Robert Jeery is editor in industry it supports – is Criticism doesn’t have to be the chief of Work. and People surely here to stay. enemy of eective collaboration. Management magazines Performance Working with a star doesn’t necessarily make you a winner. Gender diversity To bring more women into your business, start by making your shortlists longer. Wellbeing How a healthier diet (and less reliance on late-night snacking) can make you more productive as well as healthier. 05 PERSPECTIVES MANAGEMENT THINKING DISTILLED Q&A RITA TREHAN Hubristic leaders are a destructive force must be clear about the values How to close the and purpose of their organisation and check their behaviour against disability gap them constantly.