Not long ago, he was the butt of jokes--lockbox, earth tones, a postelection beard. Then he dusted off an old slide show and jumped with both feet into the private sector. The untold story of how an epic loser engineered what may be the greatest brand makeover of our time. By Ellen McGirt
Al Gore Inc.
"I have really enjoyed the business world much more than I expected," says the former Vice President. Among his business and financial interests: By Fast Company Staff
An Inconvenient Portfolio
Al Gore's financial-services startup, Generation Investment Management, buys shares in companies that fit its founders' definition of sustainability. The firm doesn't disclose holdings, but public filings reveal some familiar names--Whole Foods, Staples, and General Electric. Here's a sampling of seven other lesser-known stocks in the portfolio as of March 31. By Fast Company Staff
Video: The Future of Online Advertising--Current TV VCAM (viewer-generated commercial)
Current TV is tapping into the future of online advertising, working with advertisers to create viewer-generated commercials like this SONY HDV ad created by a 16-year-old. To date, some 32 VCAMs have hit the air. T-Mobile has selected three VCAMs already, and Pop Secret, Sony, and L'Oreal are also using VCAMs. By Fast Company Staff
Living a quiet life as an animator, Travis Knight never dreamed he'd work for his father. Then the Nike founder gave him an offer he couldn't refuse. By Chuck Salter
The 30 Fastest Cities In The World. Plus: 5 Cities Too Fast For Their Own Good and 5 Cities That Are Too Slow.
Fast Cities 2007
We scoured the globe in search of places that best embody economic innovation and opportunity. We found creative-class meccas, R&D hot spots, even cities so fast they're scary. Is your hometown on the list? By Andrew Park
Too-Fast Cities
Five spots where the risks outweigh the upside. By Fast Company Staff
Slow Cities
Urban centers that are going nowhere…slowly. By Fast Company Staff
Cities On The Verge
These great urban centers almost made our list of the most innovative cities. By Fast Company Staff
Pininfarina's legendary craftsmanship helped put ailing Maserati on the road to recovery. But for the $1 billion Italian studio, design is only the most visible arm of a far bigger machine. By Bill Breen
Past + Future = Present
Maserati has an iconic name, but over the past quarter-century it had lost a unified design sensibility. Pininfarina's task was to revive the brand's DNA by charting its next evolutionary stage. By Fast Company Staff
An Oral History of The Design Behind Maserati's 2008 GranTurismo
Here is the story of the birth of the GranTurismo's look and feel, in the words of Maserati managing director Roberto Ronchi, Pininfarina CEO Andrea Pininfarina, and others who were there. By Bill Breen
Americans spent more money last year on bottled water than on ipods or movie tickets: $15 Billion. A journey into the economics--and psychology--of an unlikely business boom. And what it says about our culture of indulgence. By Charles Fishman
Waterworks: An Interactive Timeline
An anecdotal journey through the ancient origins and fantastical growth of the bottled water phenomenon. By Alex Pasquariello
Podcast: Stop and Think Before You Drink
Get Fast Company Senior Writer Charles Fishman's take on why bottled water is such a booming business, what its local and global environmental implications are, and how a whole industry has grown up around supplying us with something that we do not need.
The big box is fueling its revenues with its gas business and freaking the competition. By Amy Feldman
Join the Pump-House Gang
If you don't have a Costco near you, there are two popular--and populist--sites to help you find cheap gas. Here's our tale of the tank. By Michael A. Prospero
Staples discovers that a team of super-retrievers--in day-glo orange--can keep a warehouse humming. By Evan West
Video: Staples Enlists Robots to Boost Efficiency
Staples has drastically increased its output in the last year with the help of product retrieving robots from a company called Kiva Systems. Get an inside peek at how this band of orange mechanical marvels ride effortlessly around to make the office supply giant's functioning a whole lot easier.
The spa for ladies who lunch goes for younger, more contemporary women with a new line of hair-care products. The brand-identity designers at Alexander Isley Inc. created the packaging to speak to that audience. By Alissa Walker
Inside Adobe, Microsoft, and Sun's fight to power the next wave of rich Internet applications. By Robert Scoble
Scoble on Tech on FastCompany.com
Robert Scoble is a technology enthusiast and video podcast evangelist. Here you will find his magazine columns and web exclusive videos, as well as excerpts from his blog citing the best of the tech web.
Video: Scoble on Tech: A Richer Internet
Robert Scoble talks to Ed Sussman, president of Mansueto Digital, about the fight to enrich the Internet. Will Microsoft's Silverlight challenge leader Adobe's Apollo program? And can Google Gears or Sun's Java compete?
Leslie Bennetts, Author, The Feminine Mistake: Are We Giving Up Too Much?; contributing editor at Vanity Fair, and Vivian Steir Rabin, Vice president of search firm Salovey & Associates; coauthor, Back on the Career Track, hash out the great mommy track debate. By Leslie Bennetts and Vivian Steir Rabin
Slideshow: Female Friendly Companies
Just how female friendly is your company? If you're looking for an organization that pays women well, has female board members, has a high percentage of women senior managers, or just offers a comprehensive child care program, check out our slideshow of ten companies that the National Association of Female Executives and Working Mother Media have identified as winners in these fields for 2007 and 2006, respectively.
As Wal-Mart and its controversial labor and management practices emerge as issues in the presidential campaign, check out this classic Fast Company story, by Charles Fishman, about the high cost of low prices.
Video: The Future of Online Advertising--Current TV VCAM (viewer-generated commercial)
