Fast Company's Greatest Hits : Ten Years of the Most Innovative Ideas in Business

by Vamos, Mark; Lidsky, David; Collins, Jim

• ISBN13: 9781591841180
• ISBN10: 1591841186
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-07-06
• Publisher: Portfolio Hardcover

Summary

The greatest articles from the hottest business magazine of the past decade Since 1995, Fast Companyhas been the place to turn for cutting-edge business ideas and profiles of amazing companies and their leaders. This hardcover collection gathers the magazine’s best and most enduring articles, the ones that generated the most buzz and the deepest insights.These outstanding pieces include: • The Brand Called You” by Tom Peters • Free Agent Nation” by Daniel Pink • In Search of Courage” by John McCain • Malcolm Gladwell: The Accidental Guru” by Danielle Sachs • Are You on Craig’s List?” by Katharine Mieszkowski • Everything I Thought I Knew About Leadership is Wrong by Mort Meyerson As Jim Collins writes in his foreword: Imagine you could sit at Thomas Jefferson’s dinner table and listen in on the conversation during the late 1700s. That’s the way I like to think of the best articles in Fast Companycollected in this wonderful book. Reading them is like listening in on a series of fascinating conversations with some of the best minds and creative thinkers of a generation.”This is the perfect book for Fast Company’shundreds of thousands of devoted fans—and for others who missed these great articles the first time around.

Author Biography

Mark N. Vamos is the editor of Fast Company, and David Lidsky is a senior editor.

Table of Contents

FORWORD by Jim Collins	xv
INTRODUCTION by Mark N. Vamos, editor, Fast Company	xxi
Handbook of the Business Revolution	1	(3)
Alan M. Webber and William C. Taylor, November 1995
Fast Company's founding editors outline their mission for a different kind of business magazine.
Everything I Thought I Knew About Leadership Is Wrong	4	(11)
Mort Meyerson, April/May 1996
A big-time CEO learns to build a financially successful Juiciness without steamrolling employees and customers.
He lives to tell how values and IPOs can mix.
Wide Awake on the New Night Shift	15	(4)
And Marie Cox, August/September 1996
Before she was Wonkette, Cox penned stories late at night for proto-blog Suck.com.
Her inside knowledge informs her portrait creative people staying up all night trying to make magic.
Starwave Takes the Web...(Seriously)	19	(13)
Michael S. Malone, October/November 1996
The Internet's first mini-bubble and bust, from 1994 to 1996, presaged the bigger one to come a few years later and provided wad map for the future.
Malone explores how we go from romance to greed to business online without losing sight of the big picture, told through the company whose pioneering work built such Web gems as ESPN.com.
The Brand Called You	32	(11)
Tom Peters, August/September 1997
This exhortation to develop your own signature or suffer the consequences may be more relevant than ever.
Or it may be too self-centered to work in a corporate environment.
Readers couldn't decide then, and they're still torn today.
Read it for yourself and see where you come down.
Free Agent Nation	43	(16)
Daniel H. Pink, December 1997/January 1998
A former speechwriter dives deep into an emerging subculture of workers who are throwing off the shackles of a single employer, rigid schedules, and outmoded thinking about work and life.
Genius at Work	59	(13)
Sara Terry, September 1998
Bill Strickland is a potter, a teacher, and the very model of social entrepreneurship.
The Agenda—Grassroots Leadership	72	(10)
Polly LaBarre, April 1999
U.S. Navy Commander D. Michael Abrashoff offers a surprisingly progressive leadership model from his perch at the helm of the USS Benfold.
Why We Buy	82	(10)
Charles Fishman, November 1999
Apple design guru Jonathan Ive unfurls his design philosophy that created Apple's breakthrough iMac.
Here, he reveals the ideas that let Apple—and anyone—create innovations like the iPod.
Are You on Craig's List?	92	(8)
Katharine Mieszkowski, Winter 2000
Craig Newmark shares his ideas on successful community building on the Web, long before his eponymous site became the de facto first stop for anyone looking to buy or sell virtually anything online.
Built to Flip	100	(12)
Jim Collins, March 2000
At the Internet bubble's crest, the author of Built to Last and Good to Great argued passionately for a return to the values that led to the opportunities of the dot-com era rather than the greed that perverted it and ultimately brought it down.
"What Are We After? We Are Literally Trying to Stop Time"	112	(9)
Bill Breen, May 2000
John Smith trains the world's best track athletes to reinvent how they run in order to shave hundredths of seconds off their time.
His approach can help any businessperson win the race against time—and the competition.
The Permatemps Contratemps	121	(16)
Ron Lieber, August 2000
Free agent nation has a dark side, and it's witnessed here all too clearly in the story of Microsoft and its cadre of temporary workers who didn't share in the software behemoth's outsized riches.
"We Take Something Ordinary and Elevate It to Something Extraordinary"	137	(13)
Curtis Sittenfeld, November 2000
With her novelist's eye, Sittenfeld brings to life Samuel Mockbee, an Auburn University professor and architect who changed the lives of his students and of locals with his unique brand of teaching and design philosophy.
"But Wait, You Promised..." "...And You Believed Us? Welcome to the Real World, Ma'am"	150	(15)
Charles Fishman, April 2001
Why is customer service so bad?
And is there any hope?
Grassroots Leadership: U.S. Military Academy	165	(11)
Keith H. Hammonds, June 2001
West Point, the U.S. Army's cradle of leadership development, turns out remarkable young men and women prepared to defend the nation.
Through a combination of monotony and creativity, a leader is born.
Boomtown, U.S.A.	176	(10)
Charles Fishman, June 2002
The last bomb-making factory in America provides an object lesson in imbuing employees with mission, excellence, and precision.
The New Face of Global Competition	186	(12)
Keith H. Hammonds, February 2003
Wipro Ltd. is emblematic of a force that's changing the nature of global business: educated, motivated workers in a place like India willing to do your job...at a fraction of what you make.
Be afraid.
Be very afraid.
Adding Value—But at What Cost?	198	(3)
Marshall Goldsmith, August 2003
The world's top executive coach explains why the word "but" may be the most dangerous part of a leader's arsenal.
Still Angry After All These Years	201	(7)
Jennifer Reingold, October 2003
Tom Peters has been a business superstar for more than 20 years; he reached his peak in the 1990's by exhorting people to grab the new economy with both fists.
As the froth settles, the master of the exclamation point fights for relevance.
How to Give Feedback	208	(3)
Seth Godin, March 2004
What happens when you don't tell our popular how he's doing?
You get a primer on how to do it right.
And Now the Hard Part	211	(12)
Chuck Salter, May 2004
If you've flown jetBlue, your notion of what an airline can be has been forever altered. An insurgent company sits at the crossroads and tries to insure blue skies ahead.
The Toll of a New Machine	223	(10)
Charles Fishman, May 2004
The relentless pursuit of improved productivity leads to innovations not just in technology but also in the jobs that the machines theoretically replace.
A self-service kiosk may look simple as it alters how we check in at the airport.
Just wait until it reinvents your job.
The Thrill of Defeat	233	(11)
Bill Breen, June 2004
Failure stinks, and the usual line is that you just have to learn how to deal with it.
For the team at Pfizer trying to come up with a blockbuster diabetes drug, there's been no shortage of failure; some may go their whole careers without tasting success.
If you want to know how to deal with a setback, go to the experts.
A Design for Living	244	(11)
Linda Tischler, August 2004
The titan of the teakettle, designer Michael Graves, deals with the challenge of his life, working around an illness that left him paralyzed.
Yet he manages to be more successful than ever.
An inspiring tale of courage, collaboration, and resilience that's worthy of Graves's best work.
In Search of Courage	255	(5)
John McCain, September 2004
Navy pilot, prisoner of war, senator.
Who better to define courage—our demand for it, its dwindling supply, and how you can exercise courage like a muscle—than John McCain?
Balance Is Bunk!	260	(9)
Keith H. Hammonds, October 2004
The quest for a perfect equilibrium between work and life is a pipe dream.
The way to achieve true balance is to unbalance your life and work, depending on which needs more attention.
The Accidental Guru	269	(10)
Danielle Sacks, January 2005
Malcolm Gladwell, a self-effacing Canadian writer for The New Yorker magazine, is suddenly the hottest business thinker of the age.
A profile of a man and his tipping point.
The 10 Lives of George Stalk	279	(12)
Jennifer Reingold, February 2005
The legendary strategist came back from the dead with a message that squishy-minded business leaders may not like: Hardball players do what it takes to win.
Gospels of Failure	291	(9)
Jena McGregor, February	2005
The Columbia space shuttle explosion. 9/11.
Jayson Blair at The New York Times.
Three colossal organizational failures that produced three remarkable investigations into what went wrong.
Together, they're a stirring dirge of failure and how to avoid it.
Making Change	300	(12)
Alan Deutschman, May 2005
Imagine you were told that if you didn't change, you'd die.
Could you change?
Probably not.
The latest advances in neuroscience and psychology indicate just why and what can be done to change your ways.
Join the Circus	312	(9)
Linda Tischler, July 2005
The circus was a dirty; dying relic of early-twentieth-century entertainment-until the artists at Cirque du Soleil reinvented it, creating a high-end market for tumblers and acrobats.
Their on-stage feats may be surpassed only by their inventiveness in creating such pyrotechnics.
INDEX	321