The Crown, the commute, and the future of management: my highlights of 2022

It is 35 years to the day since I joined the Financial Times as a graduate trainee. "Don't stay more than five years or you'll be here for ever," a colleague advised me. "For ever" is a long time, but here I still am, celebrating my good fortune.

2022 marked a shift of role for me, from management editor and columnist to a specially created position as the FT's senior business writer and consulting editor at FT Live. In the latter role, I've already co-chaired our Women at the Top/Women in Business European summit, anchored our Global Boardroom virtual event, and moderated panels and hosted conferences, in person and virtually, from Lausanne to Luxembourg, for FT Live, Headspring, and FT Forums. It was at a Forums event that I interviewed retired general Stanley McChrystal about risk management, only weeks after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. I wrote about his insights and whether managers were prepared for 2022's global stress test in July: we will be needing some of that resilience in 2023.

As senior writer, my highlights included a brief and unexpected burst of media activity, from CNN to South African radio, as an "expert" on the future of the Crown, following my analysis of the royal finances and the late Queen Elizabeth II's leadership qualities in September. I also enjoyed exploring in depth the UK's semiconductor policy (or lack of it), a theme I returned to in December when I interviewed Chris Miller, author of Chip War, winner of the FT Business Book of the Year Award. Emma Jacobs and I examined the impact of lockdown on the UK's commuter belt towns in November with the help of data crunched by Chris Cook , part of a continuing focus on what’s happening to working patterns and habits as the pandemic ebbs.

One objective of my latest FT role is to write more feature-length interviews. In 2022, they included a fascinating discussion with Giny Boer, CEO of C&A Europe, about the challenge she faces reviving the retail brand in the teeth of an economic storm, an exploration of the power of regret with Daniel Pink, and a sparring match with Bernie Marcus, co-founder of Home Depot, unrepentant capitalist and Trump backer, who is still taking on "the woke people" at the age of 93.

I joined Isabel Berwick and the team on the FT's award-winning podcast Working It as it went from strength to strength, whether chatting about the value of strategy ‘away days’, or debating the point of HR.

My favourite columns this year included one on the utopian and dystopian futures that could face purpose-led businesses and ESG, which provoked a wave of interesting feedback, and my last outing as management editor in March, in which I made clear why good managers matter more than ever. There'll be many more features, interviews, podcasts, conferences and columns in 2023. In the meantime, thanks to my followers and readers for supplying inspiration and material over the past year - indeed, over the past three and half decades - and Happy New Year.

(Some of these links may hit the FT paywall. I have a limited number of "gift" links to offer, so let me know if you need one - first come, first served.)