Meet the best of the best -- business leaders with bold thinking and tested techniques for customer service, e-commerce, strategy, and change.

How do you lead when the times get turbulent?

Tom Peters, management guru and author
[ FC Articles: The Wow Project, The Brand Called You, Rule#3: Leadership Is Confusing as Hell ]

The past five years challenged us all to rip off our neckties, shed our standard-issue business suits, and most important, lose our Model T-type business thinking. For the next five years, business is on wartime footing -- it's a high-stakes, high-risk, high-profile operation, and it's filled with uncertainty and ambiguity. And that means we're going to have to reckon with new, unorthodox, and untested leadership qualities: Learn the 50 rules of being a leader in weird times.

What's your survival strategy?

Michael Saylor, founder, chairman, and CEO, MicroStrategy

[ FC Article: People and Technology: MicroStrategy Inc.; Updating the Agenda: MicroStrategy Inc. ]

After a nine-month investigation by the Securites and Exchange Commission into bookkeeping irregularities, MicroStrategy went from being a market darling to being at the center of a public controversy. Now with a more frugal approach, new faces in management, and a humbled exbillionaire CEO, the software company is out to prove that a devastating year has made it smarter and stronger. Hear what it takes not only to survive times of hardship but to lead through them.

Are you stuck with a brand when you need a "lovemark"?

Kevin Roberts, CEO, Saatchi & Saatchi

[ FC Article: Trust in the Future ]

A few short years ago, according to advertising orthodoxy, brands were everything. The combination of rising global competition, proliferating product offerings, and multiplying Web sites put a premium on a company's ability to establish its brand as a recognized mark. Today, says Roberts, brands are history. Looking forward, companies need to establish their products and services first as "trustmarks" and then up the ante, establishing them as "lovemarks." This transformation requires a new set of ideas that encompasses brands, advertising, and marketing as well as leadership, authenticity, and the human spirit.

(Read Kevin Roberts' RealTime speech here.)

Are you keeping the Web's promise to your customers?

Jeanne Jackson,CEO, Walmart.com;

Martha Rogers, partner, Peppers and Rogers Group

[ FC Articles: What Makes Team Work?, How You Can Help Them ];Hal Logan, president and CEO, Manheim Interactive

[ FC Article: Used Cars, New Models ]

One of the new economy's big promises was that the customer would finally be king. Technology, empowerment, disintermediation, and rich databases would all converge in a life with fewer and fewer hassles -- not only for customers but for companies. But has there ever been a worse time to get or give great service? Share Jackson, Rogers and Logan's trials, tribulations, and triumphs when it comes to keeping the Net's promise to customers.

How do you keep the dream alive?

Martin Luther King III, president, Southern Christian Leadership Conference

[ FC Article: The Dream Deferred ]

As president of the organization his father, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., helped found and make famous in the 1950s and '60s, Martin Luther King III wears the hats of human-rights advocate, community activist, and political leader. Living up to his leadership legacy, King continues the quest for equality and justice for all people. Let him take you through an examination of his father's goals in a contemporary context, offering you hope and inspiration that ordinary people can do extraordinary things.

Session Speakers

Are you a leader and a catalyst for change?

Rayona Sharpnack, founder and president, the Institute for Women's Leadership

[ FC Article: Natural Leader ]

Sharpnack is a teacher and mentor to some of the most powerful women -- and a growing number of men -- in some of the world's most important companies, including Boeing, Charles Schwab, Compaq, and Hewlett-Packard. Her message is, To become a breakthrough leader, don't worry so much about what you need to know. Instead, figure out who you need to be.

Barry Frew, professor, the Center of Executive Education, Naval Postgraduate School

[ FC Article: Change Course: That's His Message to the Navy ]

Frew teaches a course on change that turns admirals into mavericks in one of the most change-averse organizations in the world: the government. Hear lessons from this frontline change agent on how to instigate change in your organization.

What is your leadership style in tough times?

Simon Walker, managing director, Challenge Business

[ FC Article: "I Can Only Compete Through My Crew." ]

If you want to win, you have to be a great leader, because, as Simon Walker puts it, "You can only compete through your crew." Of all the environments for testing your ability to build a winning team and to be a leader, one of the toughest is the deck of a storm-embattled sailboat. Simon has spent much of his adult life in just such a place. He's sailed across the Atlantic Ocean seven times. He's led two expeditions to the Arctic Ocean. He won the first Teacher's Whiskey Round Britain Challenge race in 1995. But in the world of sailing, the toughest race of all is the BT Global Challenge, a 30,000-mile marathon "the wrong way" around the planet -- that is, against prevailing winds and currents. More people have traveled in space than have circumnavigated the globe the wrong way. Simon has done it twice, the first time as a first mate. The second time, at age 28, he was the youngest skipper ever to compete in the event. The BT Global Challenge gives ordinary people -- many of whom have no sailing experience -- a chance to take on the challenge of their lives and sail around the globe. "Each boat's performance has very little to do with sailing," says Simon, managing director of Challenge. "It has much more to do with the leadership that we as skippers are exhibiting, and with our ability to develop the full potential of our teams." Join Simon as he imparts the lessons of the race and teaches the qualities that make for a winning leader.

What does your personal brand of leadership look like? In the next economy, vision, values, and a good track record aren't enough. People want to know whether their talents and futures are going to grow in your garden. They want to connect emotionally to you as a leader. Building on Tom Peters's infamous take-no-prisoners belief that being a leader is like being the GM of a sports team or theater ensemble, the tompeterscompany has developed a path for anyone committed to developing the passionate leadership skills required to cultivate talent -- and results. Anixter will lead you through five transformations that allow leaders to energize talent and create passion in extraordinary ways.

Are you getting the most out of your people?

Bruce Tulgan, founder, RainmakerThinking and author, Winning the Talent Wars

[ FC Article: How to Give Good Feedback ]

The best leaders know where all great companies start: with their people. Tulgan can offer both the strategic thinking and tactical advice that you need to win in the never-ending war for talent.

Arte Nathan, former VP of human resources, Mirage Resorts Inc. and director of the Data Intelligence Center of the Unifi Network division, PricewaterhouseCoopers

[ FC Article: Full House ]

At Bellagio, Nathan and his HR team designed a campaign that screened 84,000 applicants in 12 weeks, interviewed 27,000 finalists in 10 weeks, and processed 9,600 hires in 11 days. In the end, the group nailed the deadline -- without using a single sheet of paper. Find out how they did it.

Dan Pink, contributing editor, Fast Company and author, Free Agent Nation

[ FC Article: Free Agent Nation ]

"The so-called war for talent is, to put it delicately, garbage," says Fast Company contributing editor Dan Pink. "People are not prizes to be won, land to be invaded, treasures to be captured. People are people. People are you." There's a new movement in the land. From coast to coast, in communities large and small, citizens are declaring their independence and drafting a new bill of rights. Free agents quickly realized that in the traditional world, they were silently accepting an architecture of work customs and social mores that should have crumbled long ago under the weight of its own absurdity. Work, free agents say, has to be about something. And so, instead of accepting the old terms, they're creating new ones. Dan, author of Free Agent Nation: How America's New Independent Workers Are Transforming the Way We Live (Warner Books, 2001) and former chief speech writer to Vice President Al Gore, will give you a map of the new land, with practical instructions for navigating the territory. He'll also teach you seven laws, and seven new no-no's, for dealing and dialoguing with the natives. You may even find yourself wanting to settle in Dan's new land. Come follow Dan as he shows you the path to freedom.

Competition in the new economy is all about competing with ideas. The company that comes up with the best ideas -- fast -- wins!

Tom McMakin, COO, Great Harvest Bread Co.

[ FC Article: Great Harvest's Recipe for Growth ]

It's one of the biggest challenges facing companies: How do you roll out a new idea without giving command-and-control instructions, and while fostering creativity and contribution by the individuals who comprise the organization? How do you use technology to spur innovation and share knowledge? Tom McMakin, COO of Great Harvest Bread Co., has a recipe for communication. There are 140 Great Harvest bakeries in 40 states, and the company generates annual sales of more than $60 million. The company has grown by selling franchises. But unlike most franchises, Great Harvest doesn't insist on standardized procedures, and it doesn't impose top-down regulations. Instead, it promotes localized innovation and encourages fast learning. "We think of this as an intellectual-property business," says Tom. "We're a bread company, but we're also a university. We're creating a community of learning. A network of equal participants doing similar things will generate lots of new ideas -- and produce a big competitive advantage for the whole company." Tom, a longtime RealTime favorite, will share what a bunch of bakers taught him about business -- and happiness -- and he'll demonstrate how companies can use technology to mine competitive advantage from community.

Annette Moser-Wellman, founder, FireMark and author, The Five Faces of Genius

[ FC Article: Have You Seen the Five Faces of Genius? ]

Moser-Wellman teaches managers how to identify and harnass their creative styles. If you want to come up with great ideas consistently, she says, analyze your own creative style and learn how to enhance it. Let her help you answer the question: What face of genius are you?

Does your company have the right Internet strategy? How do you make change in your organization?

Lynne Waldera, president and CEO, InMomentum Inc.

Does your company have the right DNA -- the cultural building blocks -- to create growth, profit, and value? There are five dimensions of an effective culture, says Lynne Waldera, founder of the consulting group InMomentum Inc. They are: heroic leadership, talent magnetism, network connectivity, idea market execution, and customer centricity -- all of which are used by highly successful companies to mobilize human capital, respond to market forces in real time, and ultimately create economic value. Lynne's firm undertook a research study to identify the cultural characteristics of high-momentum companies and to benchmark their best practices by polling 4,800 employees across 15 different organizations. Lynne will teach you what she's learned from studying certain farsighted companies, and she'll explain how they go about developing a set of business operating systems that leverage the power of the Internet and the potential of their own human capital. Like DNA, these systems define the structure and processes of the organization, enabling it to adapt efficiently to external and internal forces and to compete powerfully in the marketplace.

Peter Foss, president of the Polymerland division, General Electric
[ FC Article: Adventures in Polymerland ]

Earlier than most companies and much earlier than most business units inside GE, Polymerland understood a simple yet powerful proposition: that it could use the Web to improve its customers' purchasing experiences. Since mid-1997, when the Polymerland Web site launched, Web revenues have grown from $60,000 per week to more than $7 million per week. Foss predicts that in 2001, the site will bring in more than $1.5 billion in sales. Which explains why the division has become the definitive model within GE -- a full-scale, fully operational instruction manual for bringing an old-line business into the online arena. For this reason, Foss has become a kind of wandering Web minstrel at GE, enchanting audiences from other operating units with his lessons on how to make e-commerce work. Won't you let him enchant you too?

Debora Wilson, president and CEO, weather.com

Alex Kaminsky, VP of marketing, weather.com

[ FC Article: Weathering the Storm ]

These days, the forecast for most Web-based companies, and for the Internet economy in general, is "stormy weather ahead." But weather.com has become an online service with a loyal following that keeps growing. It's not only the top weather-related site, but it's also one of the top sites on the entire Web. Last July, 7.4 million users visited weather.com, placing it 33rd on Media Metrix's list of Web domains. Wilson and Kaminsky attribute the site's success to more than ambitious goals and great ideas. A key to its success is solid execution. Get a lesson from Wilson and Kaminsky on how to study the industry and navigate through the storm.

How do you stay ahead of your customers' new demands?

Frank Hauck, executive VP of products and offerings, EMC Corp.

[ FC Article: Customer Service: EMC Corporation ]

It's impossible to understand EMC's meteoric rise without appreciating its commitment to customer service. The company, a leading provider of enterprise storage systems, networks, software, and services, boasts that its customer-retention rate is an astonishing 99%. When Forrester Research surveyed 50 big companies about their various technology suppliers, "EMC came out looking like God," says Carl Howe, a director of research at Forrester. "They had the best customer-service reviews we have ever seen, in any industry." Join Frank Hauck, executive VP of products and offerings, as he takes you behind the scenes at EMC, showing you how EMC has changed the logic of business, and explaining the key principles that have made EMC a leader in its industry. The core of Frank's message: Solved problems mean loyal customers. Customers get better service when the company doesn't expect to earn a profit from fixing their problems. Creating the customer trust loop requires aggressive listening, responding, validating, refining, delivering, fine tuning - doing hundreds of small things right, over and over again. Learn from a company and a culture that's learned how to make customer service deliver big dividends.

Are you getting the most out of your work?

Richard Leider, founding partner, the Inventure Group

[ FC Article: Are You Deciding on Purpose? ]

At the heart of Richard Leider's approach to counseling is one core belief: that each individual is born with a reason for being, and that life is a quest to discover that purpose. "There are three hungers that people are trying to feed throughout their lives," Richard says. "The first is to connect deeply with the creative spirit of life. The second hunger is to know and express your gifts and talents. The third hunger is to know that our lives matter." What do you want to be when you grow up? How can you make a living doing what you love? What is your life's work? Helping people answer these questions is Richard's specialty. In this session, Richard will lead you on an "Inventure": an internal exploration that helps you discover your own answers to such questions and uncover your life's calling. A founding partner of the Inventure Group, a Minneapolis-based training firm whose mission is to help individuals, leaders, and teams discover the power of purpose, Richard counts among his clients such high-powered companies as AT&T, Caterpillar Inc., General Motors, Motorola, and 3M -- organizations where he both coaches executives and teaches in executive programs. His books include Repacking Your Bags(Berrett-Koehler, 1995, with David A. Shapiro) and The Power of Purpose (Berrett-Koehler, 1997).

What's your brand got to do to survive in tough times?

Scott Bedbury, founder and CEO, Brandstream

[ FC Article: What Great Brands Do ]

Scott Bedbury knows brands. Scott, the man who gave the world "Just Do It" and Frappuccino, has served as message architect for some of the world's most dynamic companies. "A brand is a metaphorical story that's evolving all the time," he says. "This connects with something very deep -- a fundamental human appreciation of mythology. People have always needed to make sense of things at a higher level. We all want to think that we're a piece of something bigger than ourselves. Companies that manifest that sensibility in their employees and consumers invoke something very powerful." Whether the product is sneakers, coffee, or a brand called You, building a great brand depends on knowing the right principles. At RealTime, Scott shares his back-to-the-basics program for turning anything -- from sneakers to coffee to You - into a great brand. Currently a consultant and author -- his book A Brand New World: 10 Principles for Achieving Brand Leadership in the 21st Century (Penguin Books, 2001) is forthcoming -- Scott started his career in advertising and moved on to direct Nike's worldwide advertising efforts. In seven years, he helped grow Nike from $750 million to $5 billion in revenues, while building one of the world's most meaningful trademarks. Scott moved on to become Starbucks's chief marketing officer, increasing the store base from 350 stores to several thousand stores, while also expanding the brand's reach into grocery products.

Seth Godin, author, entrepreneur, and change agent

[ FC Articles: Permission Marketing, Unleash Your Ideavirus ]

"We are entering an era," Internet-marketing pioneer Seth Godin declares, "that's going to change the way almost everything is marketed to almost everybody." The first 100 years of our country's history were about who could build the biggest, most efficient farms. The second 100 years were about the race to build efficient factories. Welcome to the third century: This one's about ideas. An idea that just sits there is worthless. But an idea that moves, grows, and infects everyone it touches? That's an ideavirus! Exactly how does an ideavirus manifest itself? Where does it live? What does it look like? It starts with an idea manifesto, a powerful, logical "essay" that assembles a bunch of existing ideas and transforms them into a new, larger idea that's unified and compelling. Sometimes a manifesto is a written essay. But just as often, it's an image, a song, a cool product, or a slick process. The medium doesn't matter; the message does. Seth has cowritten two highly influential books: Permission Marketing (Simon & Schuster, 1999) and Unleashing the Ideavirus (Do You Zoom, 2000). As founder and CEO of Yoyodyne, an interactive direct-marketing company which Yahoo! acquired in late 1998, Seth created marketing plans for some of the most powerful companies in the world, including AT&T, H&R Block, MCI, and Volvo.

What's the current reality mean for what's next?

John Ellis, columnist, Fast Company and Inside; independent-strategy and advertising consultant