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July 31, 2006

Water for Women

If someone were to give you a bottle of water that appeared to have an hour-glass frame and then proceeded to tell you that in drinking said water:

1. you will be provided with all of the calcium and magnesium that you needed for that day, and
2. you will have a healthier body and be in better shape...

would you believe them? Well I didn't either, but that seems to be the pitch behind Contrex Natural Mineral Water, another sponsor at BlogHer '06.

Contrex is reported to contain 486 mg/L of calcium and 84 mg/L of magnesium, which equals 11.5% of the RDI for calcium and 5% of the RDI for magnesium --- and with no calories. True or not, the entire marketing strategy comes off a little hokey (from the bottle design to the overall focus on body shape) feeding into many women's insecurities with their body weight and shape.

Posted by Lynne d Johnson at 5:11 PM | 2 Comments

Designing David

Today's New York Post sports a quick Q&A with designer David Rockwell (which, unfortunately, doesn't appear to be available online). He discusses working with dance choreographer Jerry Mitchell to design the JetBlue terminal at JFK, as well as how children's playgrounds should be more social, collaborative spaces. Interestingly enough, Rockwell derived some inspiration for his recent playground projects from skateparks. Where have you recently gained ideas from an unlikely source?

Posted by Heath Row at 3:11 PM | 1 Comment

Sky Ride

As one of the sponsors of BlogHer '06, the conference I wrote about on Friday, GM embarked upon a little one-on-one marketing. Instead of forcing conference attendees to sit through some intolerable PR session about future vehicles from Saturn, the company offered conference goers the opportunity to learn about them first hand by handing over the keys to the rides. For instance, I chose to test drive a silvery two-seater convertible named Saturn SKY.

Continue reading "Sky Ride"

Posted by Lynne d Johnson at 12:25 PM | 1 Comment

July 28, 2006

Welcome to BlogHer '06

Yesterday I endured a long (but pleasant) JetBlue flight from New York to San Jose so that I could attend BlogHer '06. In its second year, the conference's mission is to create an opportunity for all kinds of women bloggers to pursue exposure, education and community.

This morning hundreds of women (and their friends) were welcomed to the conference by BlogHer co-founders Elisa Camahort, Jory des Jardins and Lisa Stone. Of note was Stone's citizen journalism related comment: "Today everybody is press. Everything you say or do is on the record."

Now I'm off to a panel that focuses on starting a community-based blog site. The panel is sponsored by Blurb, an online service that provides software that enables writers to both layout and publish books. It will be very interesting to hear the implications of community-based blogging for businesses.

More from BlogHer soon.

Posted by Lynne d Johnson at 12:27 PM | 4 Comments

Someone’s Been Sleeping in My Bed

You caught an early flight and when you land you’re exhausted. You refuse to pay the airline extra for a meal, so all you’ve had today is a cup of coffee. So when you step into your hotel room, you think delirium has set in. “Have I been here before?”

Perhaps.

A couple of weeks ago, I got a PR pitch for Cooper Used Hotel Furniture, a company that purchases and resells old hotel beds, dressers, whatever. For as low as $250, anyone can buy entire rooms of furniture. Anyone, the pitch claimed, including other hotels. My editor, sensing a good kamikaze-intern mission, assigned me to find a hotel that would admit to stocking its rooms with secondhand furniture.

Continue reading "Someone’s Been Sleeping in My Bed"

Posted by Tonya Garcia at 9:34 AM | 12 Comments

July 27, 2006

Mood Ringer

Having a bad day? How come? Were you in a bad mood when you got to work in the morning? Or did something happen in the office that threw you for a loop -- and now you're trying to find an even keel?

Knowledge@Wharton features an interesting piece on the research of Wharton management professor Nancy Rothbard and Steffanie Wilk, a professor at the Fisher School of Business at Ohio State University.

The researchers found that both positive and negative moods affect employee productivity, but that positive moods are more potent. Most importantly, they discovered, the mood you bring with you to work has a stronger effect on the day's mood -- and on work performance -- than mood changes caused by events in the workplace.

Let's take a quick survey of FC Now readers. What affects your productivity more: concerns at home or concerns at work? Take the Fast Company poll.

Posted by Heath Row at 5:11 PM | Add Comment

July 26, 2006

A Winning Tale

If you're a woman business owner, here's a pretty irresistible proposition: tell a story about how you grew your business, and win a year's worth of consulting services from one of the country's most successful entrepreneurial women.

Mary Cantando, a sales and marketing expert who personally closed sales of nearly $50M in her own business, has written a book, The Woman's Advantage, explaining how 20 women business owners across the country have built their little start-ups into multimillion dollar companies. It's timely, it's practical, and it's inspirational.

As a board member of the Women's Presidents' Organization, Cantando wants to help bootstrap other women to success. So she's come up with a contest to do just that.

Here's the deal: read her book, implement one of the ideas she suggests, then write up your results in 500 words or less, and send it in, via Cantando's website. The Grand Prize winner will receive business building prizes from various corporate sponsors, plus one year of consulting services with Cantando herself. What's not to love?

And even if you don't win, it will be worth checking out the section of the site called The Woman's Advantage in Action, which will launch soon, just to read contest entries from women entrepreneurs all over the country. Who knows? One of those ideas could push your company over the million dollar mark as well.

And fellas: you can't enter the contest, but feel free to peek at the entries on the site. Good ideas have no gender.

Posted by Linda Tischler at 5:53 PM | 1 Comments

Seeing Red

A few months ago, retailers pulled a Bausch & Lomb contact lens solution when reports emerged that it could cause a dangerous eye infection. Now, the problems associated with the company’s products appear to be more widespread than previously thought. My rub isn't with no-rub solutions or even B&L, it's with the lack of transparency, oversight, and foresight in an industry that’s supposed to be helping millions of us see better.

All that B&L controversy came weeks after my own contact lens crisis. I've been wearing soft lenses since middle school, and using the same Ciba Vision overnight disinfectant for just as long. This spring, the shelves usually filled with the stuff were empty. Generic hydrogen peroxide knockoffs were out, too, and not just in my local Duane Reade but all around New York City. An online search revealed backorders on all the main pharmacy sites and even my eye doctor said she was out. For weeks I put up with sticky lenses and red eyes at work.

If you don't read Ciba Vision's website carefully, you might think the Bausch & Lomb scare caused a run on its products, which isn't what happened. A quick search through Nexis revealed that Ciba voluntarily shut down a production site in Canada because there was a potential for infection. A Ciba spokesperson said the company didn't announce the shutdown because they thought they had enough disinfectant out there on shelves and they didn't want their competition to seize on the problem. The Montreal Gazette predicted the shutdown would cause "a global shortage of contact-lens care products." And it appears to have done just that. The B&L contamination exacerbated the situation, causing a ripple effect.

Recently, Ciba Vision's bubbly overnight disinfectant returned to the shelves around the corner and B&L's ReNu with MoistureLoc disappeared completely. Still, contact lens product safety continues to be studied around the country and there's talk that some cleaners can actually cause corneal staining. It might just be time to ante up for better glasses.

Posted by Alyssa Danigelis at 5:44 PM | Add Comment

Mind the (Skills) Gap

Josie's FC Now entry today inspired me to revisit another article in today's Journal. Tucked inside the B section, Christopher Scinta explains American businesses' hunt for technical talent. (Online subscription might be required.)

Using words like "desperate" and indicating that one of the reasons companies are turning to China and India for employees is because workers in the U.S. don't always have the skills needed in more technology-oriented businesses.

For the last couple of years, the FC team has compiled a list of the top jobs in emerging industries and markets. These needed technical jobs are on the 2006 list. What needs to happen to make sure the U.S. doesn't need 135,000 computer professionals a year -- while only graduating 49,000?

That's a hefty chasm.

Posted by Heath Row at 2:11 PM | Add Comment

A Prestige Problem

The results of a Harris Interactive poll measuring the prestige of various professions have been released and the findings aren’t good for the people in my office or, I’m guessing, for the people in yours.

Doctors and firefighters are the most prestigious professions, according to data from more than 1,000 adults interviewed by phone. Also prestigious: nurses, teachers, and military officers.

Not so prestigious: stockbrokers, business executives, and journalists. Real-estate brokers bring up the rear, with only 6% of people surveyed believing that job carries “very great” prestige.

The statistics on business executives haven’t changed much since the study began in 1977, so it’s hard to blame recent scandals for giving the industry a bad image. Why do these professions lack prestige and what can be done to change it?

Check out the full data in the WSJ.

Posted by Josie Swindler at 11:48 AM | 1 Comment

July 25, 2006

HP's Viral Video Maneuver

What better way to garner the attention of the YouTube generation than with your own brand of viral videos.

Yesterday I watched the premiere of HP's latest installment in its "The Computer is Personal Again" campaign on Vibe.com, an urban music and lifestyle publication's Web site. The commercial featured Pharrell Williams, one half the musical production team The Neptunes, who have produced hits for such megastars as Beyoncé, Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, No Doubt, and Jay-Z. As of this writing, the commercial had not yet appeared on HP's site and won't air on TV until July 25, according to GEARlog.

Continue reading "HP's Viral Video Maneuver"

Posted by Lynne d Johnson at 1:43 PM | 16 Comments

You're Retired!

Helmut Panke, CEO of BMW, is scheduled to retire Sept. 1. He doesn't want to, but at BMW, retirement at 60 is mandatory.

Marshall Goldsmith suggests that retirement is a bad idea. In fact, fewer and fewer seniors are retiring on schedule, resulting in an increasing job shortage.

What do you think about mandatory retirement? If it's not a good policy, how might an aging workforce and the need for more jobs be better balanced? Do you think a CEO's tenure should be limited like a president's?

Posted by Heath Row at 9:52 AM | 10 Comments

July 24, 2006

Chappelle's Show: The Repo'ed Episodes

Last night marked the last of three “Lost Episodes” of Chappelle’s Show material filmed before Dave Chappelle’s abrupt departure during production of the show in 2005. And airing the footage may prove to be a big mistake for Comedy Central.

Let’s recap: The third season of Chappelle’s Show was highly anticipated, and probably would have been a huge success for CC and Chappelle regardless of the quality of the material, had it been completed. DVD sales and critical acclaim from the second season led the channel to fork over a highly publicized $50 million check for another helping. Then their star walked out, leaving the channel suddenly without a scheduling cornerstone. More than a year later the channel got its revenge...

Continue reading "Chappelle's Show: The Repo'ed Episodes"

Posted by Joseph Manez at 5:41 PM | 8 Comments

Investing Far and Wide

A recent interview with K. V. Kamath, CEO of the second largest bank in India, in the Wharton Leadership Digest indicates that part of ICICI's growth strategy is to focus on rural market development -- and move into the 600,000 villages in India.

Sounds like a wise move. It's about time traditional banks began to take cues from groups like the Grameen Bank. Social entrepreneurs are developing their own version of the IPO. And some banks in the U.S. are opening branches in the inner city and underserved areas -- rather than closing them.

What does ICICI need to do to personalize financial services for this new market of rural customers? How do you think they should manage the expansion?

Posted by Heath Row at 4:58 PM | 1 Comment

The Organizing Principle Of The 21st Century

Interesting article in Sunday's Los Angeles Times on the spread of open-source ideals, to religion, terrorism, and other far-flung realms. (Registration may be required.) The piece dwells too much on the basics--Linux, Wikipedia--but it raises some good questions. How far can open-source principles be applied? What are its limitations?

Have you participated in an open-source project or started one at work? How did it go? Let's talk about it.

Posted by David Lidsky at 3:45 PM | 2 Comments

No One Knows What They're Doing

"The difference between what the most and the least learned people know is inexpressibly trivial in relation to that which is unknown." -- Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

You can stop pretending you know what you're doing. I know you're making everything up as you go (hoping nobody notices). It's OK though - that's not where your problems are coming from. Rather, your problems are coming from the fact that you think other people know what they're doing. It's an illusion that's wreaking havoc in your life. It's causing you to doubt yourself. It's causing you to hide your challeges from others. It's even paralyzing you at times. No one else knows what they're doing either. They're making everthing up too. Relax into your ignorance. Open up. Experiment.

Continue reading "No One Knows What They're Doing"

Posted by Doug Sundheim at 11:48 AM | 6 Comments

July 21, 2006

Boys Just Want to Have Fun

In the world of boy's play, Hot Wheels and Matchbox just don't cut it anymore. And neither does Batman, nor Superman action figures. So what's a toy maker to do? Mattel has presumably figured out a solution. If boys are playing video games and collectible card games, then why not make a toy (or is it a game?) that's a cross-section of the two?

This fall Mattel will release a hybrid video gaming system utilizing CD-ROM and RFID technology that is targeted at tweens. HyperScan, as the system will be called, combines video gaming and card collecting in one device. Players scan cards over the gaming system and their favorite characters appear on the TV screen. During play, the gamer can pause and scan cards over the console to upgrade, modify and enhance their battle abilities. It will ship with a game based on Marvel's X-men, and additional games will be based on Marvel Heroes, Cartoon Network's Ben 10, Mattel's Interstellar Wrestling League and Nickelodeon's Avatar.

Nifty, huh? Perhaps, but it really depends on the game's price point in comparison with what's already "hot" out on the market from the competition, doesn't it? Mattel announced that the console would be sold for $69.99 and "Game Packs" will include one CD game and six collectible game cards for $19.99. Booster packs of game cards will cost $9.99. Right now, two of the most popular portable game systems the Nintendo Game Boy and the Nintendo DS Lite cost around $80 and $130 respectively, and the DS features Wi-Fi. Game cartridges can run anywhere from $10 - $40. The dynamic Nintendo duo might not be able to plug into your television set, but there are TV tuner plug-ins available for both enabling users to turn their handhelds into mini televisions.

So how does that add up?

Posted by Lynne d Johnson at 5:52 PM | 2 Comments

My Date with Verizon

A special guest blogger today: My wife Jackie Dyer, who's been vainly waiting at home for, yes, a telephone repair. Classic: A phone company that more than lives up to its own stereotype. In three days, Jackie has become quite the authority on customer non-service. As a prelude to our blockbuster, third annual Customer First Awards package, coming in our September issue, I thought I'd give Jackie the mike:

"Fast Company has written about companies with good customer service. Here's the flip side…

"Verizon. Near monopoly, non-discretionary product, huge switching costs for consumers (getting DSL to work the first time was a nightmare). Not a company that needs to be too worried about customer satisfaction - and believe me, they aren't.

Continue reading "My Date with Verizon"

Posted by Keith Hammonds at 12:30 PM | 14 Comments

July 20, 2006

Which Fast Company Article Is Your Favorite?

About a year and a half ago, my editor asked me to help out in selecting the articles that Fast Company would include in a book compilation. The end result of that work, Fast Company's Greatest Hits: ten Years of the Most Innovative Ideas in Business, is now out in bookstores.

The process of going through old issues, frankly, was a revelation. Even though I can still remember where I was when I first saw Fast Company magazine (a newsstand in New York's Astor Place hanging out with my friend Alan) and of course, how profoundly the magazine spoke to me, I was still blown away by the sheer volume of great stuff that the magazine published. It really was hard to narrow it down to 32 articles that we felt best reflected Fast Company's traditions of great writing and timely analysis of issues affecting all of us in the world of work. We wanted to compile the articles that still held up on rereading today and would for years to come. That's what we've done in the book.

But as I talked about the project with friends and interview subjects, other articles kept coming up, invariably with a great story attached about how the article affected them. There were plenty of personal favorites that I couldn't include for space, given the confines of book publishing. But the Internet isn't bound by such restrictions. With those conversations lingering in my head and seeing what John Moore at Brand Autopsy is doing, compiling his own list of favorite Fast Company reads, I want to throw it open to you.

Tell us your all-time favorite Fast Company article or articles and how they impacted your life and your career. The best story this week will get a copy of the book and whatever other FC swag I can dig up around here. If you keep it going, I'll keep the contest going, giving out books and tchochkes for as long as there are a meaningful number of posts. I look forward to reading your stories and talking about them with you.

Posted by David Lidsky at 3:15 PM | 13 Comments

Banking on Universities

In the university setting, technology transfer can be a major challenge. Students, researchers, and professors regularly discover and develop new technologies and innovations, but most universities don't have the staff or resources needed to find the corporate partners needed to really invest in those innovations.

Enter Utek, a company that helps publicly traded companies connect with university researchers in order to foster and further technology transfer developments. It's stake? Stock shares.

Posted by Heath Row at 11:26 AM | 1 Comment

And Then There's Dr. V

Dr. Govindappa Venkataswamy died July 7 in Madurai, India. "Dr. V" was the subject of a wonderful profile in Fast Company by Harriet Rubin a few years back. He founded the Aravind Eye Hospital in 1976, aiming to eradicate needless blindness in the Indian state of Tamilnadu. The basic idea: It costs Aravind $10 to do a cataract procedure that costs $1650 in the United States. And it takes 10 minutes.

As Dr. V told Harriet: "In America, there are powerful marketing devices to sell products like Coca-Cola and hamburgers. All I want to sell is good eyesight, and there are millions of people who need it." The idea for Aravind was born from that vision of McDonald's. "If Coca-Cola can sell billions of sodas and McDonald's can sell billions of burgers," asks Dr. V., "why can't Aravind sell millions of sight-restoring operations, and, eventually, the belief in human perfection? With sight, people could be freed from hunger, fear, and poverty. You could perfect the body, then perfect the mind and the soul, and raise people's level of thinking and acting."

"In the third world, a blind person is referred to as 'a mouth without hands,' " Dr. V said. "He is detrimental to his family and to the whole village. But all he needs is a 10-minute operation. One week the bandages go on, the next week they go off. High bang for the buck. But people don't realize that the surgery is available, or that they can afford it because it's free. We have to sell them first on the need."

In 2005, the five Aravind hospitals in India saw 1.7 million patients and performed nearly a quarter of a million surgical and laser procedures.

Posted by Keith Hammonds at 9:06 AM | 113 Comments

Retailing—For Real?—and Dr. Z

Ecstacy! Macy's, the department store chain, tells The New York Times that it will star in a new reality program, "Unwrapping Macy's," debuting in September on WE, the Women's Entertainment Network.

Which is a good thing, of course, because there isn't nearly enough "reality" programming on television. Sigh...

But I digress. The Times says that "Unwrapping Macy's" will offer "a behind-the-scenes look at how the retailer operates its stores, selects merchandise, creates a catalog and runs events like the annual Thanksgiving Day parade." Steven Weinstock, one of the show's producers, said that life at Macy's is "inherently dramatic," because of creative conflicts with staff members and the deadline pressure of each passing fashion season.

Right.

Continue reading "Retailing—For Real?—and Dr. Z"

Posted by Keith Hammonds at 8:18 AM | 14 Comments

July 19, 2006

Your Ad Here

On page 51 of the current issue of FC, we talk about advertising that’s moved beyond traditional media and into the urinal, the airport and the parking lot.

Now we can add to that list. An article today from the AP says US Airways is going to begin advertising on its barf bags. And CBS will start advertising its programs on eggshells using new laser technology.

Continue reading "Your Ad Here"

Posted by Tonya Garcia at 5:43 PM | 5 Comments

PUSHing the Future

I've been meaning for weeks to report on PUSH 2006, a very smart, cool three-day conference in Minneapolis sponsored in part by...Fast Company.

PUSH—this was the fourth annual iteration—was created by Cecily Sommers, the founder and strategic principal of an "innovation think tank" called Unit 1. Her object was to gather a bunch of thinkers and performers who could help steer us into the future. It's a consciously risky conceit, since not all of these leading-edge creatives have played in prime time before. Mostly, though, it works quite well.

Continue reading "PUSHing the Future"

Posted by Keith Hammonds at 4:23 PM | Add Comment

StupidDomainName.com

Inspired by an amusing article in today's Wall Street Journal on a dearth of available .com domain names, this morning I set out searching for the good, the bad, and the ugly of what’s already registered and up for sale.

It seems that "domainers" with get-rich-quick dreams conjure and create, then register, every possible domain name they can think of. Then they attempt to sell the names or make money on targeted pay-per-click advertising. If just one of their ideas becomes a hot commodity, then retirement is paid for!

Continue reading "StupidDomainName.com"

Posted by Josie Swindler at 2:30 PM | 3 Comments

Wal-Mart Takes on Everyone

Not only has Wal-Mart begun its organic foods push in an effort to take on Whole Foods and differentiate itself from Target, the company has also stepped into the social networking arena.

In order to catch the MySpace generation, Wal-Mart has launched The HUB (School Your Way). The attempt is pretty lame too. Sure "Hubsters" (not joking here) can create their own pages and upload video, but not without parental consent or Wal-Mart review before posting. It's actually not social networking at all. Though youth can create profiles, there's no interaction with other "Hubsters" (except voting on pages) and limits on what can be added there.

Of course we know that it's really a marketing campaign and not a hopeful MySpace killer.

Posted by Lynne d Johnson at 11:47 AM | 6 Comments

July 18, 2006

No Assembly Required

It seems scientists are harnessing the sum total of human knowledge and technology to… assemble Ikea furniture.

An article about artificial intelligence in the New York Times today discusses ways in which cutting edge technology might find its way into consumers’ homes. Among those uses named: ordering pet food, loading dishwashers, and taking out the trash.

Of course, the article also mentions that the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which hosts contests for robot vehicles that work without any human assistance, is upping the stakes by adding simulated traffic to next year’s event. Fair enough. That seems like a legitimate goal with obvious applications.

And since the contest started in 2004, it’s come a long way. Perhaps, these seemingly humdrum applications should be seen as another measure of how far the technology has come – out of the army, into the kitchen. But this trend still begs the question: does a nation with widespread obesity problems need another reason to avoid walking to the curb with a garbage bag?

Now, if they could only get the robot to bring the Ikea furniture home on the subway, I’d really be impressed.

Posted by Joseph Manez at 5:40 PM | 3 Comments

I've Got $20 on the IRS

Last week, I talked about increased online gambling during the Atlantic City casino shutdown and the Internet Gambling and Prohibition Act, which would put an end to most online gambling.

This week, the online gambling crackdown continues and it has taken an international turn.

The arrest of a British executive from BetOnSports by the U.S. federal government has other European online gambling companies worried. The arrest has affected the London Stock Exchange, taking a bite out of the FTSE. Check out the article from today’s New York Times.

The best part of the story - the last paragraph where British analysts are surprised that the U.S. collects taxes on dirty money.

Posted by Tonya Garcia at 5:24 PM | 2 Comments

Immelt, Insolvent?

Not too long after a Wall Street Journal article about how a CEO's public persona can help temper and weather public perception of a company's performance, GE chief Jeffrey Immelt takes a hit today for bouncing a $2,000 check.

BloggingStocks contributor Tobias Buckell asks a challenging question: If Immelt can't balance his checkbook accurately, can stakeholders trust him as CEO?

Take the Fast Company poll.

Posted by Heath Row at 3:30 PM | 1 Comment

Survey, She Says

Where are the women? Now, even the AFL-CIO wants to know.

If you're a working woman, participate in the union's 2006 Ask a Working Woman Survey, and your input will be presented "to every U.S. representative and senator as well as state and local officials around the country on Labor Day."

Posted by Heath Row at 1:18 PM | Add Comment

July 17, 2006

Web 2.0 Raises Ante

When Rupert Murdoch's News Corp bought Intermix Media, owner of Myspace.com, for $580 million last year the acquisition signaled the rebirth of the Internet boom, including its overpriced valuations.

Take for instance the robust investment activity taking place in the social networking space. Facebook, the social networking site for college students has raised $38.2 million; Bebo, a social networking site that's a cross between Myspace and Facebook (with a Skype-powered IM service) recently raised $15 million; TagWorld, a social networking site that includes video chat and a music discovery engine has raised $7.5 million; Tagged.com, a social networking site specifically for teens recently raised $7 million; and even online teen community Habbo raised $7.7 million in a partnership with Movida Group -- a joint venture by SoftBank BB Corp. and Asian Groove -- in Japan.

But it's not only social networking raking in healthy heaps of cash. Consider blog search engine Technorati that raised $7.6 million in its third round of venture capital financing recently.

It's both exciting and scary.

Just last week it was rumored that Bebo turned down a $552 million acquisition offer from British Telecom Group. And back in March, Facebook turned down a $750 million offer in hopes of fetching as much as $2 billion.

Whether they'll be acquired or move toward IPOs, are any of these viral Web-only models going to be worth the stake?

Posted by Lynne d Johnson at 7:06 PM | 7 Comments

July 14, 2006

One for the Weekend

My previous Netflix rental was explicitly about business. My most recent watch, which I saw last night, was explicitly about post-war Poland... but implicitly about business. Go figure!

Krzysztof Kieslowski's 1976 film The Scar touches on a lot of serious business issues: The impact a new business can have on a community, involving community members in business development projects, paying attention to the needs of employees, the importance of leadership -- and finding yourself in a situation where you're being set up to fail -- social responsibility, and the impact your work can have on your family life.

It's subtitled, and a subtle cross between the Apprentice and the Corporation, with a little social revolution thrown in.

Worth a rental.

Posted by Heath Row at 5:46 PM | 1 Comment

Going to Work... Green

Hear, Hear -- a new online publication more oriented toward small business -- features an article today that offers advice that might still be of interest to Fast Company readers. The environmental impact of your business activity can be a concern, but what about the environmental impact of your daily work habits?

Shawn offers four extremely basic ways you can lessen your daily environmental load at work, including carpooling, recycling, and packing a lunch. (Imagine!)

What else might people do at the individual level to further the ideas of green business?

Posted by Heath Row at 5:39 PM | 3 Comments

Passing the Torch

Some things are better left to the younger generation. That's what David Pogue felt this week when he empowered his intern, Bart Stein, a 19-year-old Brown sophomore, and ran his "The Next Generation's Take on the New Sidekick" in Pogue's Circuits newsletter.

Smart mentoring move. Stein is Tmobile's intended demographic for this device, and though Pogue is the technology expert, I'd rather have Stein's take on this one. He's more likely to actually use a Sidekick III.

Posted by Lynne d Johnson at 5:26 PM | Add Comment

July 13, 2006

Pass Me a Bottle, Mr. Jones

Borders’ new CEO George Jones faces a major challenge. Known as a retail innovator from stints at Warner Bros. Studio Stores and Saks, Jones takes over a company that’s locked in a competitive vise-grip between Barnes & Noble and Amazon. I thought a little unsolicited advice might be in order:

Dear Mr. Jones,

I am an author, filmmaker, and avid consumer of books, CD’s, and videos. I live a few blocks from your Santa Monica store, and you don’t get any of my business.

Your store is located on the Third Street Promenade, a high-visibility location frequented by tourists and trendy locals. The Promenade has become a brand showcase for the world’s top retailers including Apple, Puma, Adidas, J Crew, Pottery Barn, Urban Outfitters, Restoration Hardware and Abercrombie & Fitch. These stores are glittering, innovative, and ever changing. Yours is dingy and unfocused.

Continue reading "Pass Me a Bottle, Mr. Jones"

Posted by Greg Spotts at 7:27 PM | 6 Comments

Feeding America

Grocery chains across the nation have started to mimic Whole Foods choice of products -- all natural, organic, and specialty food items. Because these items are specialty items, they carry a specialty price tag. Is the American economy so strong that people will shell out more dough for groceries just because -- or are shoppers more concerned with what their lamb chops were fed and how they were treated while being fattened for the slaughter?

Thirty new steakhouses have sprung up in New York City this past year, according to a story published in Crain's this week. People out there are willing to pay well over $100 a head for a steak dinner in NYC -- and chefs and restaurateurs have been feeding the frenzy.

Are we willing to spend more money on food today than a decade ago? Is this a new trend that will fade with the economy or a lifestyle choice that will grow even stronger with the new generation?

Posted by Melanie Brooks at 5:30 PM | 10 Comments

Social Responsibility Gone Bad

One non-profit lobbies for tax-reform. Another non-profit airs a commercial criticizing the powers-that-be for an electricity shortage in California. Seems legit, right? But, what do you think when it turns out these non-profit lobby groups are backed by corporations? One could view it as social responsibility gone bad, non-profits funded by corporations and secretly acting as their mouthpieces.

Social responsibility isn't about manipulating a market to go your way. It should be about using your name and your corporate power to get positive changes made that do not directly impact your business. Bill Gates doesn't improve schools and make the students slaves to Microsoft, nor does Jeffrey Swartz of Timberland aid City Year to create boot aficionados.

What are the ethics of companies funding non-profits? And what do you think about Pfizer, Intuit and others that manipulated the system?

Posted by Kevin Ohannessian at 5:19 PM | 3 Comments

Gentlerobots, Start Your Engines!

Didn't get your fill of obscure sports with chessboxing, roshambo, and competitive eating? Then how about Driverless Motorsports, which, like the DARPA Grand Challenge and the Ansari X Prize, seeks to inspire innovation through competition. The first challenge? A race up Pike's Peak in Colorado on September 23.

Now, they've been racing manned vehicles up the 14,000-foot mountain for about a century now, but this would be the first unmanned race. While this is a cool idea, the founders have put the cart before the horse, so to speak. You see, DARPA and the Ansari foundation ponied up $2 million and $10 million, respectively, as a prize. At this time, though, participants in the Pike's Peak climb "have no reason to expect any prize money."

While getting up the hill first is an achievement in itself (and bragging rights are nice), nothing motivates like a wad of green. So here's hoping that Driverless Motorsports gets some sponsors.

In the meantime, would you do something like this merely to be the one to have done it first? How much does a prize purse affect your decision? How much of a cash incentive would you need?

Posted by Michael Prospero at 4:58 PM | Add Comment

July 12, 2006

Paging Dr. Z

I don't know if you noticed this during the World Cup, but DaimlerChrysler began running its new ad campaign, starring CEO Dieter Zetsche, aka Dr. Z. If you polled most Americans, I doubt many could tell you who he is ("Is he the surgeon general? Comedian David Cross wearing an oversized fake mustache? Wait, wasn't he in the barbershop quartet in The Music Man?" ). While Dr. Zetsche has been busy remaking the troubled automaker, he's kept a low profile. Now he's following Lee Iacocca in becoming the public face of the company.

In one ad, Zetsche takes a reporter on a joy ride of sorts to demonstrate the latest vehicles, zigzagging like a stunt driver. In another, Dr. Z makes house calls to answer consumer questions, at one point showing off his soccer chops. They worked: I didn't fast-forward the Tivo. Maybe it's because I'd love to conduct all my interviews that way, traveling at high speeds. Or maybe it's because Dr. Z is, well, pretty good. He has a mischievous look about him (I'm telling you, it's the 'stache) that suggests he has some tricks up his sleeve. Or maybe it's the German accent. In recent years, it was easy to forget that Chrysler is German-owned. Not anymore.

You can view the ads at askdr.com, hosted by a cartoon version of Dr. Z. The action figure can't be far behind.

Posted by Chuck Salter at 5:24 PM | 19 Comments

Does the House Always Win?

A couple of days ago, I talked about increased online gambling during the Atlantic City casino shutdown. Yesterday the House of Representatives voted 317 to 93 in favor of the Internet Gambling and Prohibition Act, which would put an end to most online gambling. Credit card use would be banned on gaming sites.

Jack Abramoff lobbied against this bill when it first came to the House six years ago and it was defeated. Based on language used by Virginia's Rep. Robert W. Goodlatte (“This is the opportunity to expunge a smear on this House done by many lobbyists”), it looks like the bill also gave the representatives a chance to try and distance themselves from the scandal.

There’s no telling what the Senate will do now that they’re faced with the issue, but some in Congress have taken a more moderate tone. The Poker Players Alliance supports regulation and taxes, saying that over $4 billion could be collected for state and federal coffers. They call poker “an American tradition” and have come out strongly to protect our right to lose our money however we see fit.

Posted by Tonya Garcia at 2:50 PM | 4 Comments

Progressive Pants

Distressed denim is nothing new. (Remember the horrible stonewashed jeans of the '80s?)

But the global market for new jeans that look, well, old, continues to grow.

An article in today's New York Times considers the work of Martelli Lavorazioni Tessili, an Italian company which has learned the perfect method for aging pants -- from the Japanese. And the company's labor force? Chinese.

MLT doesn't actually make the pants -- but they offer the aging process and procedure. Whither Levi's?

Posted by Heath Row at 1:16 PM | Add Comment

Towers of Power

We want cell phone reception practically everywhere we might find outselves. Yet we don't want to blight our landscape with cell phone towers. The Washington Post's Arshad Mohammed takes a look at some of the approaches to solving that dilemma. One option: Fake trees.

Posted by Heath Row at 1:12 PM | 1 Comment

July 11, 2006

Are You Getting Enough Sleep?

Marcia Conner, managing director of Ageless Learner, a global advisory practice that helps companies and people learn and adapt to new technologies, processes, and information, in her recent Fast Company Learning Resource Center column writes: "According to the National Sleep Foundation, almost 70% of us get fewer than eight hours sleep a night. Only one in ten say sleep is an important part of good health. A full 40% blame watching TV or surfing the Web for not going to sleep before midnight."

Read Marcia Conner's Advice for Executives: Get Some Sleep! to find out how a sleep-deprived life could end up costing you the ability to excel. And be sure to take the Fast Company poll.

Posted by Lynne d Johnson at 6:26 PM | Add Comment

Man at his Best, Internet Edition

Esquire.com, until recently the neglected digital stepbrother of the seminal men’s mag, is finally catching up with the times: with their August issue, readers no longer have to pay to read back issues.

Is this big news? Well, kind of. Traditional print media still tends towards cautious indifference when it comes to the Web. Vogue and W, two of Conde Nast’s flagship brands, share a single site (Style.com) – two completely different brands jammed together out of disinterest. Hearst, for its part, is no better, leasing out its brand names to third parties like iVillage and leaving sites for titles like Cosmopolitan mere placeholders for subscription forms...

Continue reading "Man at his Best, Internet Edition"

Posted by Joseph Manez at 5:10 PM | Add Comment

July 10, 2006

Dropping the (Rocket)Boom

In the business world, headlines have been resounding with the news that PayPal's president is leaving Ebay. The announcement has led to a stock drop, as well as speculation about what it means for Meg Whitman's eventual succession. (Jeff Jordan was seen as a leading contender for the head role.)

Meanwhile, in the Web world, Amanda Congdon's apparently acrimonious split with the groundbreaking video blog Rocketboom is raising some eyebrows. One partner says she's moving to LA to pursue a Hollywood dream. Congdon says she was fired and is now living with her parents. A successor has been named.

Regardless of which side is spinning -- and which is speaking truth -- the parting has become one of the most popular searches in Technorati. And it parallels -- in my opinion -- Star Jones's departure from the view and Dan Rather's split with CBS and signing onto HDNet.

For me, the changeover at Rocketboom isn't just a succession story, but a branding story. Dave Winer has publicly supported both actors in the online controversy, but the question remains:

Is Rocketboom Rocketboom without Congdon as host?

Take the Fast Company poll.

Posted by Heath Row at 8:06 PM | 3 Comments

On the Movie

While many people are walking the movie-theater plank to see the Pirates of the Caribbean sequel, I'm staying in this warm evening to watch a Netflix rental of The Corporation.

It's not a cheery film -- in fact, it paints a decidedly un-cheery picture of modern business -- but it's well worth watching. The documentary's combination of stock footage (including some wonderfully naive educational films from four-plus decades ago), interviews with academics and activisits, and original reportage paints a thought-provoking image of business, business people, and the motivations of same.

I know I'm late to the party, but if you haven't seen the movie yet, you should. If you have, what did you think?

I think this movie