Fish skin leather

Scientists are hoping to start a fashion trend: making clothes from materials that reduce environmental harm. They are developing new textiles that could curb the industry’s reliance on resource-intensive cotton and plastic-filled polyester. Potential benefits include cutting down on greenhouse gas emissions and slowing the pace of deforestation. After watching the alarming rise of the lionfish population in the Gulf of Mexico, three scuba divers founded Inversa Leathers with the idea that the invasive species wreaking havoc on coral reefs could be used for its skin. “We found that the fish skin was thin but really strong and had incredible flexibility,” said co-founder and CEO Aarav Chavda. The company, which has raised $2m in funding, works with about a dozen fishing cooperatives throughout the Caribbean to hunt lionfish, which are skinned and shipped on salt to their Tampa, Fla., headquarters. A leather lab in Cincinnati tans the product before it’s sold. TômTex, a Brooklyn-based material startup, is developing leather alternatives using cheap and plentiful shellfish waste.

(Adapted from “New Sustainable Fabrics: Lionfish Leather, CO2 Fibers and More,” by Chavie Lieber, published on September 8, 2023)

Work-life balance

When it comes to work styles, there are two kinds of people in this world: splitters — those who thrive with clear boundaries and personal time — and blenders — those who prefer to merge the two seamlessly. We asked our roundtable of Fortune 500 CHROs which work style they thought their employees preferred. They expected 24pc of their white-collar workers to be splitters, when in fact, 45pc preferred a splitter work style. When it came to production/front-line employees, CHROs thought 54pc of their employees would be splitters. In reality, 62pc preferred a splitter work style. In both cases, leaders overestimated the number of blenders in their organisations. This blind spot has real-world consequences for getting work done in an organisation. When employees are mismatched with their preferred work style, they’re less likely to be engaged and feel treated with respect and more likely to be burnt out and looking for a new job.

(Adapted from “Splitters and Blenders: Two Different Relationships With Work,” by Jim Harter, published on December 8, 2022, by Gallup)

Dream jobs don’t exist

Everyone wants to believe that the perfect job exists. A job you’re passionate about. A job with great work-life balance. A job that pays you well and values your work. While all of these things are important, the truth is that “dream jobs” aren’t real. Every role will have certain pros and cons, and every day at work will come with a few ups and downs. That’s why it’s useful to take a less narrow approach when you’re looking for your first (or next) position. Expand your view by replacing the idea of a “dream job” with a “sustainable and purposeful career.” In other words, your goal should be to craft a career that will keep you going because it fits into your value system and aligns with your long-term goals. Taking things into your own hands is what will eventually make your job feel “dreamy.”

(Adapted from “What You Should Chase Instead of a Dream Job” by Lan Nguyen Chaplin, published by HBR Ascend)

Korean ‘baby exports’

South Korea has the world’s largest diaspora of intercountry adoptees, with more foreign adoptions overall than any other nation. About 200,000 children have been sent abroad since the end of the Korean War in 1953, mostly to the US and Europe. Those adoptions have continued today, even though the country has one of the world’s lowest birth rates. Amid widespread accusations of corruption and malpractice in the past, South Korea opened its first official government investigation into its adoption industry last year. Profit motives for adoption firms created an incentive to falsify or obscure documents to make more children available for adoption, sometimes without the birth parents’ knowledge. Many unwed mothers were coerced into signing away their babies even before giving birth. The push for accountability has been led by hundreds of adoptees who have returned to South Korea in recent years with the time and resources to seek answers.

(Adapted from “World’s Largest ‘Baby Exporter’ Confronts Its Painful Past,” by Choe Sang-Hun, published on September 17, 2023, by The New York Times)

Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, September 25th, 2023