Over the course of the pandemic, almost all the 6,500 global associates of Acushnet—the parent company of golf brands Titleist and FootJoy—were told not to come in to work, and manufacturing shut down. The decision to focus on health and safety was easy, says chief people officer Brendan Reidy. Determining how and when people should return was much harder. Reidy spoke with HBR about how Acushnet’s strong culture embraces hybrid work arrangements. Edited excerpts of the conversation follow. How did you decide when to reopen? Shortly after the shutdown, we experienced a huge uplift in business as people flocked to outdoor recreation. The question became: How do we keep our associates safe while meeting our customers’ growing needs? Our manufacturing operations reopened in accordance with local and state guidelines and when we…

IS NEFERTITI HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT? Hints of ancient whitewashing in Tutankhamun’s tomb have bolstered the theory that the space was originally intended for his stepmother, Nefertiti. Dr Nicholas Reeves, a former curator in the British Museum’s Department of Egyptian Antiquities, believes he has found evidence of changes made to cartouches on the burial chamber’s northern wall: the current cartouches that depict Tutankhamun being buried by his successor, Ay, may have been painted over cartouches of Tutankhamun burying his predecessor, Nefertiti. Reeves also believes that the facial features of Ay depicted on the wall match other images of the boy king, whereas the mummy’s face evokes Nefertiti’s famous profile. The small size of Tutankhamun’s tomb has puzzled experts since it was uncovered in 1922, but Reeves believes his discovery supports…

Over a decade ago, I entered the scary world of self employment. Like any business, some ideas worked and some didn’t. I had a brilliant idea for syndicating boat test articles. It made no sense, I reasoned, for magazines in different countries to each send one person to do a review when I could write and photograph a boat test and sell it as a complete package worldwide for translation. I’d sell it for a third of the normal cost but to ten magazines, earning three times as much. Brilliant! I spent months collating and talking to boat magazine editors around the globe, all of whom were hugely enthusiastic and I even had a little success, with tests published in Japan, Italy, America and more. But ultimately the enthusiasm wasn’t…