Introduction

In the premiere issue of Fast Company, FC's founding editors, Bill Taylor and Alan Webber, outlined where FC came from and where it is headed. That opening editorial -- http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/01/edpage.html -- which was written in 1995 and cast FC as the "handbook of the business revolution," holds up amazingly well even today. As a member of the FC team, I reread our mission statement frequently to remind myself why I'm here and what I'm working on.

If FC is more than a magazine, if it's really a movement, than the Company of Friends -- the CoF -- is at the vanguard of that revolution. FC's readers' network helps business leaders and innovators around the world connect, communicate, and collaborate with likeminded business people from Auckland, New Zealand, to Washington, D.C. Members of the Company of Friends self-organize local and special interest groups -- discussion groups, mentoring organizations, and creative problem-solving teams -- to improve their careers, companies, and communities. They do real work. They have serious fun.

And all we did was give people the idea. Since the CoF's launch in October 1997, we've done nothing more than offer network participants online tools to find, contact, and communicate with other CoF members. We've done little to help people interested in organizing local and special interest groups start or run those groups. We haven't done anything -- other than publish the magazine and provide tools on the Web -- to help CoF members decide who they are collectively, much less where they're going together. In fact, you've told us what you want the Company of Friends to be, how you want it to work, and what you want it to do.

The Company of Friends Handbook comprises many of those ideas -- and much of that collective wisdom. We've compiled various models of network participation and CoF group organization from readers of the magazine and other people on the front lines of business. We've talked to volunteer coordinators about what works -- and what doesn't -- when helping to organize and facilitate CoF groups. And we plan to update this handbook as the readers network changes and grows. If you have ideas and experiences that aren't reflected here, email me at heath@fastcompany.com -- the users guide to the Company of Friends is a living resource, an evolving tool. As the new world of work continues to develop, FC and the Company of Friends will, too.

Heath Row
Social Capitalist
Fast Company

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