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Issue 123

March 2008

The World's 50 Most Innovative Companies

  • A company doesn't have to be new to be fast. Our list has centenarians like GE and Corning bumping up against young punks like Baidu and AKQA. The result? A master list of innovators who are reinventing the rules of the change game that is today's business.

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Features

Now

  • now-chinadesign1.jpg Now: March 2008

    What's happening this month: Shiny new airport terminals in London and Beijing take off; why baseball's first pitch is in Tokyo; and Austin's South by Southwest by the numbers.

  • The Journal-ist: In the Lead

    From this month's academic journals, four views on what makes a top-notch 21st-century leader: curiosity, charisma, neuroscience, and Ivy League thinking.

  • Corning's History
    1908

    EUGENE SULLIVAN joins Corning and creates an industrial-research lab to drive innovation in glassmaking. At the time, half of Corning’s revenue comes from manufacturing lightbulbs—by hand.

    1912

    Corning develops HEAT-RESISTANT GLASS for railroad-signal lanterns. A similar material is used to make Pyrex scientific glassware and cookware. (The cookware business has since been sold.)

  • Open House: Just Plane Ambitious

    London unveils a new airline terminal on March 30, a few weeks after Beijing. Here's a look at the two new temples of aviation.

Next

  • In Praise of Spikes

    In an exclusive excerpt, the guru of the Creative Class explains the peaks and valleys of the global economy.

  • Where Art Thou?
  • Zipcar Makes the Leap

    The car-sharing darling makes its play for the mainstream by emphasizing economics and lifestyle over environmental impact.

  • Eureka?

    Alan Trounson, the new president of California's stem-cell agency, talks about the science, the opposition, and his qualms about working with embryos.

  • ¡Hola Surfers!

    When it comes to attracting the lucrative, fast-growing Hispanic demographic online, don't go with what you know--go with what you know works.

  • Hustle & Flow

    Alaska Airlines' Airport of the Future makes quick work of getting passengers through check-in.

Columns

Fast Talk

From the Editor

  • Letter from the Editor

    I sometimes look up at an airplane flying overhead and envision what its occupants would look like if the fuselage were see-through: Hundreds of people, sitting in straight rows of cushioned seats, watching movies, typing on computers, eating and drinking, all while suspended 30,000 feet in the air and traveling at 500 miles per hour. And not a hair blown out of place by the wind. It is surreal, really, and for most of human history it would have been absurd and fantastical.