Professionals tend to strongly resist breaking from their professions’ core cultural tenets and it is unclear how some may voluntarily break from deeply ingrained views. Through our study of French anesthesiologists who practice hypnosis, we aim to better understand this little-explored phenomenon. Adopting hypnosis, a technique that many anesthesiologists consider subjective, contradicted a core tenet of their profession: the need to only use techniques validated by rigorous scientific-based research. Drawing on interviews and observations, we analyze how these anesthesiologists were able to change their views and reinvent their work. We find that turning inward to oneself (focusing on their own direct experiences of clients) and turning outward to clients (relying on relations with clients) played critical roles in anesthesiologists’ ability to shift their views and adopt hypnosis. Through this process, these anesthesiologists embarked on a voluntary internal transformation, or reboot, whereby they profoundly reassessed their work, onboarded people in adjacent professions to accept their own reinvention, and countered isolation from their peers.

- 00:03:47
Antony, together with his colleagues from NEOMA, presents research conducted with the University of Bristol on how international companies choose countries for sourcing. The concept of "country risk," once focused on economic conditions and political stability, now includes three major sociopolitical factors: populism, which creates regulatory uncertainty; state fragility, which affects suppliers’ ability to deliver; and checks and balances, which can limit but not always prevent political drift.
The study, covering 1,300 U.S. companies and their suppliers in 90 countries, shows that these factors directly influence sourcing decisions. Examples like Samsung and H&M illustrate this shift toward countries perceived as more stable. In conclusion, companies must strengthen their geopolitical monitoring to anticipate risks and secure their supply chains.
PAULRAJ Antony - NEOMA Business School |
- Research
- Logistics and Supply Chain