In April 1998, Fast Company introduced The Agenda: an annual awards issue that recognizes companies for excellence in grassroots leadership, humane technology, total teamwork, and sustainable growth. At a time when change is fast, powerful, and relentless, when the flow of information is overwhelming, when anything seems possible, these categories suggest what matters -- not just what is doable, but what is worth doing.

Here is Fast Company's best of the best -- a list of the innovative, relentless companies that we hold in the highest regard and the stories that demonstrate those winning practices.

New This Year

Agenda Items
Fast Company's collection of best-of-the-best innovations -- technologies that set the business agenda.

What's on Your Agenda?
Confusing times demand clear thinking and focused execution. We asked 10 executives and thinkers to explain the most crucial item on their leadership agenda.

Sound Off
Share the vision, ideas, and lessons on your agenda!

Best Practices of the Best Companies

2001

U.S. Military Academy
Grassroots Leadership
If Harvard Business School is the West Point of capitalism, then where is the West Point of leadership? It's in West Point, New York. Here's how raw cadets become resilient commanders.

Action Items
The five leadership qualities that give West Point graduates an edge over the competition.

Hindustan Lever
Strategic Innovation
Most giant global companies focus on the same market: middle-class consumers in rich countries. Hindustan Lever focuses on India's rural poor. Meeting their needs isn't just about lowering prices. It's about developing products and processes that do more with less.

Web-Exclusive Feature
Hindustan Lever's strategic ingenuity has the potential to improve the quality of life for India's rural citizens. Now the company is exporting those ideas to other parts of the world -- from Indonesia to the Congo.

Action Items
A high-growth agenda for strategists looking to address rural customers.

EMC Corp.
Customer Service
Under the leadership of Mike Ruettgers, EMC bounces back from a near-death experience to become one of the "four horsemen of the Internet." At the heart of EMC's rise has been its fanatical devotion to customer service. The company has benefited from this critical insight: If you want service to pay off, don't treat it as a profit center.

Action Items
On-site product upgrades maximize flexibility and minimize errors.

2000

Ford Motor Co.
Grassroots Leadership
As part of a cultural overhaul, Ford is embarking on a sweeping attempt to mass-manufacture leaders. It wants to build an army of "warrior-entrepreneurs" -- people who have the courage and skills to topple old ideas and who believe in change passionately enough to make it happen.

Action Items
Six rules for new business leaders from a Ford veteran and mentor.

Imagination Ltd.
Total Teamwork
Teamwork is how Imagination works. As the company creates interesting experiences for its customers -- and for its customers' customers -- it is also creating a space at its own headquarters in which "the team experience" flourishes.

Action Items
Four steps for herding an extraordinary collection of talent into fast-working, high-performance teams.