In charge of the whole color-digitizing process is Peter Constable, who calls himself the "saucier" at "Chez Colour." His team isn't just turning film into pixels; it is adding value. As each photo is scanned, technicians record color values and monitor color settings. That information becomes a meta-tag on the photo file so that when customers purchase the photo, they can use that information to control their computer settings in order to get more accurate color. The digital artists on Constable's team also create special options in some files, with objects that are digitally laid onto transparent backgrounds, so that a designer can pop those files into a layout and can have the designer's background layout show through. So, for instance, a glass of water takes on the color of a table in the image that it's inserted into. "We've added a whole new level of service that was never available before," Constable says. "And it's only because we're digital that we can offer it."

All told, the development of Getty Images represents a remarkable portrait of Web-based strategic change and business growth. And challenges become clearer all the time. "The process of really changing your skin is painful and difficult and endless," Mark Getty says. "Anyone who tells you otherwise is lying."

Cheryl Dahle (cdahle@fastcompany.com) is a Fast Company senior writer. Contact Jonathan Klein by email (jonathan.klein@gettyimages.com), or visit Getty Images Inc. on the Web (www.gettyimages.com).

Sidebar: Banking on Ideas

The Internet economy is an idea economy. But what good are ideas that don't get implemented? That's why Getty Images launched its Idea Bank committee -- 10 people who meet once a month. Their job? To funnel ideas from the company's 2,600 employees to the person best equipped to make a decision about whether to move forward, and how.

The group has no formal leader. It processes between 40 and 80 ideas a month. Some of the ideas are small and relate to company culture; other ideas have had a huge effect on Getty Images and its customers. Based on multiple requests, for example, the committee lobbied for an option to allow customers to create customized packages of CDs by choosing their own mix of images. The customization option now accounts for more than 40% of both sales-promotion and up-sell revenue.

"This group is one of the building blocks that make the company different," says Tara Butler, 30, vice president of business affairs for gettyone and one of the founders of the Idea Bank committee.

One benefit of the committee is that since ideas become public immediately, an individual idea can't be squashed by only one manager. More important, the committee creates an environment where people are motivated to make suggestions, because those people know that their ideas will be heard. "It's a grassroots thing," Butler says. "If the process were more structured, I'm not sure that we would get the same results."