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‘Strategic agility’– i.e., how organizations can strategically plan and cope with uncertainty through a continuous tuning, monitoring, and re-balancing of their opera- tions – has been characterized as a critical component to foster organizational resili- ence. This paper aims at investigating whether and how design can support organiza- tions to acquire greater strategic agility. Our analysis is grounded in a case of a globally operating software company that has recently established a design team and intro- duced design methods in its development processes. The paper shows how design fa- voured processes that are generally linked to strategic agility (distancing, anticipating, reframing, experimenting, decoupling, and dialoguing). Taken together, these pro- cesses were key in building the strategic agility needed in transitioning from a product- centric orientation towards a user- and service-centred approach.

A new organometallic ruthenium complex, named AziRu, along with three amphiphilic nucleoside-based ruthenium complexes, ToThyRu, HoThyRu and DoHuRu, incorporating AziRu in their skeleton, have been synthesized, stabilized in POPC phospholipid formulations and studied for their antineoplastic activity. Self-aggregation behavior of these complexes was investigated, showing that the three synthesized AziRu derivatives able to form liposomes and, under specific conditions, elongated micelles. The formulations prepared in POPC proved to be stable for months and showed high in vitro antiproliferative activity. The here described results open new scenarios in the design of innovative transition metal-based supramolecular systems for anticancer drugs vectorization.

The chemical synthesis and 1H NMR analysis of a novel bicyclic uridine derivative, with a 18-crown-6 ether moiety fused at the ribose 2- and 3-positions, as first example of a hitherto unknown class of ribose-modified nucleosides, are here described. NMR-based conformational analysis studies showed for the modified nucleoside a marked preference for an N-type sugar puckering and the nucleobase in the anti conformation, with the uracil favouring the coordination of a sodium ion hosted in the crown ether.