25 Fast Ideas for Slower Times

Take three Maori tribesmen wielding spears, throw in one man slicing warm bread, add a guy who lost $6 billion in one day, sprinkle with various visionaries, change insurgents, big thinkers, and a strolling band of Mummers, and what have you got?

RealTime Philadelphia, of course.

The theme of this spring's Fast Company conference was "Tougher Times Demand Smarter Thinking." And while the mood in the hall was anything but downbeat, the speakers that assembled to address the new, more sobering economic environment pulled no punches: It's ugly out there, and nobody's saying that it's going to get better anytime soon.

Still, they said, these are just the kinds of conditions that present real opportunities for those who can see beyond yesterday's grim headlines or today's anemic Dow.

Here's a sampling of some of the more provocative ideas we heard in the City of Brotherly (and Sisterly) Love:

1. An Acronym Worth Using
"S.A.V. -- Screw Around Vigorously. Try something. How are you going to figure out if the Internet is going to cannibalize your sales unless you try selling stuff on the Internet?"
-- Tom Peters, management guru and author

2. Up, Up, and Awry
"There are certain disadvantages to flying, like crashing.... The one thing I did not anticipate for MicroStrategy was the most disastrous outcome possible, and then it hit at the worst time possible."
-- Michael Saylor, founder, chairman, and CEO, MicroStrategy Inc.

3. Don't Be a Pushover
"What's next for advertising? Pull will soon replace push. We will begin to ask people what advertisers they want to hear from and what advertisements would be most helpful to them. Advertising will evolve into a terrific business."
-- John Ellis, columnist, and strategy and advertising consultant

4. Independent State
"How many California residents hold conventional, full-time, 40-hour-a-week jobs? One-third. Hmmm ... has California ever led the nation in any trend before?"
-- Dan Pink, contributing editor, Fast Company and author, Free Agent Nation

5. People Power
"People don't leave companies -- they leave leaders."
-- Richard Leider, founding partner, the Inventure Group

6. When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Tea
"During a crisis, my third command was always to put on the kettle. In the midst of chaos, no leader can deal with a crew of 18 upset people. By demanding cups of tea for the whole crew, I got one person out of my hair, and I introduced a normalizing factor into a crisis situation. If the skipper wants a cup of tea, it can't be that bad."
-- Simon Walker, managing director, Challenge Business

7. Currency Exchange
"Ideas are capital. The rest is just money."
-- advertisement for Deutsche Bank, quoted by Leslie Becknell of Coca-Cola

8. Job Title of the Future: Hero
"Don't assume that your people want a promotion. Talk to them, get to know them, ask them what they hope to achieve at work. If your guru programmer won't thrive as a manager, don't promote him up the ladder. Instead, make a hero out of him. Put him on a pedestal and make him a superstar that other employees can admire."
-- Debora Wilson, president and CEO of weather.com

9. A Recipe for Learning
"When your oven is jammed and your bread is burning -- that is when you will learn to use an oven. People can't learn in a classroom. True learning occurs 'just in time.' "
-- Tom McMakin, COO, Great Harvest Bread Co.