3M Co.’s new chief is recalling managers to the office, dialing back a remote-friendly policy that his predecessor had hailed as being “rooted in flexibility and trust.”

The industrial giant, which has 85,000 employees globally, will expect but not require those at the director level and above to come into an office Tuesday through Thursday, which the company has deemed “collaboration days,” a 3M spokesperson confirmed. For those below the director rank, the new policy is voluntary.

The new rules start next month at 3M’s Maplewood headquarters for employees who live within 50 miles of the office, and will expand globally over time in line with local labor laws, the spokesperson said.

For the past three years, desk-based workers at the 122-year-old company had the freedom to work remotely for the most part in consultation with their managers, under a policy dubbed “Work Your Way.”

Employees at 3M will now be asked to work the way Bill Brown, who took the reins in May after a turbulent period of sluggish growth and legal setbacks, prefers. Brown has said that his biggest priority is “reinvigorating the 3M innovation machine.”

Under 3M’s current flex-work policy, about 75% of non-manufacturing workers had chosen some type of hybrid or fully remote arrangement, an executive who has since departed 3M said in a 2023 interview. That model, rolled out in mid-2021 under former Chief Executive Officer Mike Roman, called for employees to sit down with managers and determine how often they should be onsite or remote. Managers had the discretion to bring teams in from time to time for what the company called “moments that matter,” when in-person collaboration was deemed essential.

— Bloomberg News

Disney sets out plan for leadership transition

The Walt Disney Co. is tapping Morgan Stanley executive James Gorman to serve as its next chairman, beginning early next year. The entertainment giant also announced that it anticipates naming its new CEO in early 2026.

Gorman will become chairman on Jan. 2, 2025. He will succeed Mark Parker, who is leaving after serving on Disney’s board for nine years.

Gorman is currently chair of Disney’s succession planning committee.

“The Disney board has benefited tremendously from James Gorman’s expertise and guidance, and we are lucky to have him as our next chairman — particularly as the board continues to move forward with the succession process,” Disney CEO Bob Iger said in a statement on Monday.

Iger came back to Disney in 2022 after a period of clashes, missteps and a weakening financial performance at the company under his chosen successor, Bob Chapek.

Iger was Disney’s public face for 15 years, compiling a string of victories lauded in the entertainment industry and by Disney fans, before he retired in 2020.

Feds to fund $325M chip factory in Mich.

The Biden administration said Monday that it would provide up to $325 million to Hemlock Semiconductor for a new factory, a move that could help give Democrats a political edge in the swing state of Michigan ahead of election day.

The funding would support 180 manufacturing jobs in Saginaw County, where Republicans and Democrats were neck-and-neck for the past two presidential elections. There would also be construction jobs tied to the factory that would produce hyper-pure polysilicon, a building block for electronics and solar panels, among other technologies.

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said on a call with reporters that the funding came from the CHIPS and Science Act, which President Joe Biden signed into law in 2022.

— From news services