Fast Company sets the agenda, charting the evolution of business through a unique focus on the most creative individuals sparking change in the marketplace. By uncovering best and "next" practices, the magazine and website helps a new breed of leader work smarter and more effectively.
Fast Company empowers innovators to challenge convention and create the future of business.
To contact us regarding feedback, submissions, permissions, advertising, or business opportunities please visit our Contact Us page.
Interested in interning at Fast Company? Please visit our Jobs page.
PRESS RELEASES
Cover Story: Hollywood’s Rogue Mogul – How Terminator Director McG is Blowing Up the Movie Business, by Mark Borden, page 54
How the director known as McG, a master of music videos and guilty-pleasure TV, became a power in Tinseltown – and now plans to transform the studio system.
Plus: Fast Company reveals exclusive on-set interviews with McG online at www.fastcompany.com.
App Mania!, by Farhad Manjoo, page 72
Everyone wants a piece of the booming iPhone ecosystem, from competitors like Google to marketers like Nike. Farhad Manjoo analyzes the mania that has grown up overnight around the iPhone and Apple’s App Store. Entrepreneurs like Ethan Nicholas – who projects his tank game will make him a millionaire this year – big brands such as Kraft – which see the app world as a ripe marketing realm – and device makers such as Research in Motion and Nokia all are salivating to exploit the new passion for mobile tools.
The Doctor of the Future, by Chuck Salter, page 64
Cutting-edge technologies, from Facebook-like software to surgical robots, are bringing the American health-care system into the 21st century – just in time. Senior writer Chuck Salter avoids the swamp of congressional hearings, lobbyists’ arguments, and think-tank reports about health-care reform and instead visits with on-the-job doctors who are already deploying the kinds of cutting-edge technology that could make medical treatment cheaper, better, and more convenient – and reassert America’s global leadership in this critical area.
What Meth Made This Billionaire Do, by James Verini, page 84
Tech billionaire Tom Siebel has no doubt that he can keep teenagers off crystal meth – and change the world – as long as everything is done his way. James Verini explores the method behind the Meth Project, whose graphic, harrowing TV ads – directed by big-time auteurs – have blanketed Montana’s airwaves since 2005. To watch the full spots, go to www.fastcompany.com.
Ground Control, by Greg Lindsay, page 80
Honeywell’s new GPS-based landing system could save the airlines billions – and save you from terminal hell. Greg Lindsay, reports on the first salvo against interminable flight delays.
Other highlights of the issue…
Fast Talk, page 17
NOW, page 27
NEXT, page 37
#####
New York, April 16, 2009 – Seattle has been named City of the Year on Fast Company’s 2009 ranking of “Fast Cities.” Editors cited Seattle’s “smarts, foresight, social consciousness, and creative ferment” as the ingredients that made it tops this year – “ingredients that we believe will bring our communities – and country – back to prosperity.” The complete ranking of “Fast Cities 2009” appears in the May issue of Fast Company and online at www.fastcompany.com.
Twelve other U.S. and international cities were cited on Fast Company’s honor roll for exemplary initiatives that are improving neighborhoods, transforming lives, and helping build better, faster cities for the future. (See below for full listing.)
Novelist Garth Stein, who penned “Seattle Grace” as part of the “Fast Cities” package, says that the capital of the Pacific Northwest is blessed with divine geography, frontier spirit, and an abundance of artists and geeks. Plus, it’s not even that rainy. “But consider the bounty those long, dark damp winters have provided the world,” Stein writes. “There’s Starbucks, Microsoft, Amazon and its Kindling, Boeing jets, Frango mints, Pearl Jam, Costco, Jones Soda, Jimi Hendrix, salmon jerky. That’s an impressive list for a city of just 600,000 people tucked in a remote corner of America, wedged tightly between two mountain ranges, and pushed up against the cold, deep Puget Sound.”
Stein points out that in this winter of our nation’s economic discontent, “Seattle’s multifaceted economy and forward-thinking business climate have given the city a little extra insulation; the jobless rate in January was 6.8%, more than a percentage point better than the national average. This is the kind of city that will thrive and lead us into recovery.”
Fast Company also singled out 12 initiatives in other cities that set new standards for how to “go greener, be safer, live smarter, and invest for the future”.
Cleveland, OH – Reimagining a More Sustainable Cleveland Initiative
San Francisco, CA – Bank on San Francisco
Tucson, AZ – Healthy City Initiative
Taipei, Taiwan – Zero Landfill, Total Recycling
New Orleans, LA – The Broadmoor Improvement Association
Malmo. Sweden – Sustainable, Eco-friendly Enclaves
Denver, CO – Five by Five
Chicago, IL – I-Go + CTA Smart Card
Houston, TX – Discovery Green
Philadelphia, PA – The Mortgage Foreclosure Protection Program
Vancouver, British Columbia – Green Games
New York, NY – The NYPD Counterterrorism Unit
#####
New York, April 16, 2009 – What do you say about a brilliant Hollywood director who suffers a breakdown, generates more money than God, and goes only by a three-letter moniker? In the May issue of Fast Company and online at www.fastcompany.com, Mark Borden finds a lot to say about the enigmatic McG – director of Terminator Salvation, and the Charlie’s Angels franchise, and producer of TV’s The OC, Supernatural, and Chuck – who in the past few years has overcome a debilitating anxiety disorder and stealthily emerged as one of the most powerful figures in Hollywood.
In “Hollywood’s Rogue Humanoid,” McG (born Joseph McGinty Nichol, for the record) talks publicly for the first time about his struggle with agoraphobia that finally brought him to his knees, just as his career and reputation were heading for the stratosphere. Everything temporarily ground to a halt on a July day in 2004 outside the Warner Bros. private jet terminal, when McG collapsed. “I was staring at the terminal, knowing I didn’t have what it took to get on,” McG tells Borden. “It just put me in that fetal position in the corner, saying, ‘What have I become?’ I had to look into the abyss and experience that find-my-character moment – and realized I didn’t have it.”
After keeping his condition secret for so long, Borden writes, McG is relieved to discuss it publicly for the first time, just as his diversified $2 billion entertainment machine – including Terminator Salvation and the film version of Spring Awakening – is cranking into high gear. “There’s something about the path I’ve walked to get here that means I can be forthcoming,” McG tells Borden. “I don’t know how much deeper you can get than being agoraphobic for your entire adult life and having that be the mountain you need to overcome. I don’t know how much further you can get than your brother dying in a cocaine overdose and being there to clean up the scene. [He lost his brother in 2007.] I look in the mirror and realize everything I’ve got is out there.
Hollywood moguls aren’t scared of casting their fates with him, either. “He’s the kind of guy where if you put a big franchise in his hands, you know you’re going to be taken care of and have a big hit movie,” says Amy Pascal, who runs Sony Pictures.
#####
New York, March 19, 2009 – Fast Company received two nominations for National Magazine Awards, the magazine industry’s highest honor, from the American Society of Magazine Editors in the categories of Reporting and General Excellence. “China Storms Africa,” by investigative journalist Richard Behar, which appeared in the June 2008 issue, was nominated in the Reporting category, while the June, September and November issues were highlighted in the General Excellence category.
In a press release announcing the finalists for the 44th annual National Magazine Awards, Sid Holt, Chief Executive of ASME said, “In the midst of a global economic recession, magazines continue to be an unparalleled source of information and inspiration.”
Winners will be announced on April 30
#####
April 2009 Issue Highlights
Cover Story: Boy Wonder (The Kid Who Made Obama President), by Ellen McGirt, page 58
The untold story of how Chris Hughes, at the tender age of 25, helped create two of the most successful startups in modern history: Facebook and the Barack Obama campaign. Fast Company reveals exclusive details in the magazine and in accompanying coverage online at www.fastcompany.com.
Finely Tuned, by Anya Kamenetz, page 66
In one of the great untold media stories of the past decade. NPR has become the country’s largest newsgathering giant. How CEO Vivian Schiller plans to deploy digital tactics, and good old-fashioned shoe leather to save the news business.
10 High-Octane Ways to Rev Up the Car Business, page 72
From the iPhone Solution to Pimp My Prius, real-world ideas to save the car business from genomics whiz J. Craig Venter, the founder of ZipCar, Cisco’s smart-garage guru and more.
Rwanda Rising, by Jeff Chu, page 80
In the wake of the brutal genocide that killed one-eighth of Rwanda’s population 15 years ago this month, president Paul Kagame has tapped business leaders from Costco, Google, Starbucks, and more to create a new model for economic success.
Om My!, by Danielle Sacks, page 92
Yoga may be the ancient route to self-knowledge and discipline, but for moving $90 leggings, Lululemon found it a little “too slow.” Danielle Sacks reports on how the om-oriented niche retailer is creating a cult following for its yoga gear by incorporating secrets from The Secret and other controversial self-help classics.
######
New York, March 18, 2009 – Fifteen years after the genocide that killed an eighth of its population (1 million people in 100 days in 1994 alone), the small African nation of Rwanda remains one of the world’s poorest places: 90% of its adults are subsistence farmers, and its per-capita income is about $1 a day. But the country is now trying to reinvent itself—and conquer poverty—by embracing a new model of economic development: Build a global network of powerful friends–including CEOs from Costco, Starbucks, Google, and RealNetworks—to lure private investment, and market the brand of Rwanda. Fast Company’s Jeff Chu reports on how President Paul Kagame and other leaders are transforming the fabric of Rwanda’s economy. “Rwanda Rising” appears in the April issue of Fast Company and online at www.fastcompany.com, beginning March 18.
“Rwanda’s biggest challenge is reputational,” says economist Jean-Louis Warnholz of Oxford’s Center for the Study of African Economies. “It’s associated with war. It’s seen as so poor that people think of it as a place to do charity. The opportunities are there, but it hasn’t been taken seriously as a place to do business.”
That is starting to change, thanks to the relationships fostered by Kagame’s Presidential Advisory Council—which has never before been profiled in the Western press. Kagame (who still faces troubling questions about his involvement in the region’s ongoing conflicts) established this unpaid, business-savvy team to help market and promote the country for outside investment. Perfect example: in 2006, Costco CEO Jim Sinegal was asked by Dan Cooper, a partner in Chicago’s Fox River Financial Resources, if he would have a lunch meeting in New York with Kagame. That meeting led to a presidential stop at Costco HQ near Seattle, which led to Sinegal’s promise to visit Rwanda. Today Costco is one of the two biggest buyers of Rwandan coffee beans – about 25% of the country’s premium crop. “I knew the Rwanda story, but I wasn’t intimately involved,” Sinegal says. “It took more elbow grease to get this started up, but it has been very profitable. Good for us and good for them.”
How good? Sinegal introduced Kagame to Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks, now the other top buyer of the country’s coffee. “Rwanda has no oil and few minerals,” Fast Company’s Chu writes, “but it does have one abundant asset: well-placed friends.” Sinegal. Schultz. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. “Purpose-driven” pastor Rick Warren. RealNetworks CEO Rob Glaser. Google CEO Eric Schmidt. All are part of Rwanda’s ever-expanding network of influential supporters.
Chu reports that President Kagame’s goals are ambitious: to boost GDP sevenfold, find paying jobs for half of Rwanda’s subsistence farmers, nearly quadruple per capita income to $900, and turn his country into an African center for technology, all by 2020. Investors and donors seem thrilled at the chance to participate in the rebuilding of a country whose recovery from unimaginable tragedy is seen as inspiring. RealNetworks CEO Glaser, who has created internships at his company for Rwandans and given more than $6 million to build health centers in Rwanda, offered a typical reaction: “If we can make this place a beacon of hope – a place where just 15 years ago, an eighth of the country was murdered in the most brutal way possible – then that hope should be possible anywhere.”
One of those beacons of hope—and an example of how local ingenuity can lift people out of poverty—is Marta Mukakalisa, 30, who supports her four children and an orphan while her husband is off in the army. She has singlehandedly built a small dairy-distribution business, and now earns twice the government’s goal for per-capita income. Mukakalisa embodies the entrepreneurial spirit and daring that developing countries will need more of to compete in the global economy. She told Chu that she plans “to make a lot of money.” Why will she succeed where her neighbors haven’t? “Some people here, they’re reluctant to take risks,” she says. “I like to take risks.”
#####
