A British TV series invites CEOs to leave their offices, head to the front lines, and find out what's going on at their companies. The results are eye-opening -- and millions are watching. Ian Wylie page 34
You'd think startup wizard Atiq Raza would be getting hammered. He operates in trouble-plagued Silicon Valley, he launches companies in the wildly overbuilt telecom sector, and he runs -- gasp! -- a business incubator. Based on his impressive results, you may want to think again. Bill Breen page 38
Our correspondent seeks out the counsel of great men (and women) and learns a valuable lesson: The best advice to follow is your own. Harriet Rubin page 44
What can executives learn from a women's liberal-arts college in Milwaukee? The most important lesson: how to turn their companies into learning organizations. Curtis Sittenfeld page 48
Not long ago, we believed in technology's outsized potential to move markets and to transform industries. Now the promise of technology seems unfulfilled. What's next? Will technology take a backseat? Or are we about to see a new role for technology -- one that is smarter, sharper, and more sustainable? Fast Company page 62
Deviance tells the story of every mass market ever created. What starts out weird and dangerous becomes America's next big corporate payday. So are you looking for the next mass-market idea? It's out there ... way out there. Ryan Mathews and Watts Wacker page 70
Jim Mullen's company invented a blockbuster treatment for multiple sclerosis, and it spends $1 million a day experimenting on revolutionary new medicines. Mullen himself is experimenting with the new challenge of leadership: How do you exude confidence and command in a high-stakes business fraught with big risks and head-spinning complexity? Here's what he's discovered. Charles Fishman page 82
It is with great pride and genuine excitement that we introduce the winners of our first-ever readers' challenge. We unveiled the competition last November and unleashed a torrent of grassroots energy and enthusiasm. Here are 50 leaders, change agents, disrupters, trendsetters, and social entrepreneurs who are getting things done by doing things differently. page 95
Ideas need to move faster than ever. Global teams have to cooperate more closely than ever. Nonstop travel seems less appealing than ever. The solution: an ever-growing collection of tools for electronic collaboration. Can it be that when it comes to doing real work across long distances, we are ... virtually there? Alison Overholt page 108
Preventing another Enron means understanding what really went wrong. That means understanding transparency, opportunity, and speed. John Ellis page 118
Everybody worships at the altar of innovation. But it takes a company such as Intel to distill the very essence of innovation and turn it into a set of learnable, repeatable practices. George Anders page 122
Is it getting kind of bleak in the business game these days? Finding it hard to get on base, get some hits, win some praise? Forget about old Casey! We recommend this switch: If you want to score some business, instead work on your pitch! Fara Warner page 126
According to The Cluetrain Manifesto coauthor David Weinberger, the Web has been underhyped. That's right, underhyped. In his new book, Small Pieces Loosely Joined, Weinberger offers a unified theory of the Web -- and rules for tapping into its real power. Keith H. Hammonds page 132
In the magazine, you'll meet the winners of our first-ever Fast 50 competition. Then go online to explore the ideas, strategies, and tactics that they use to invent new products, reinvent companies, and champion change. A Web-only manual on innovation designed to help you and your company innovate more effectively.
How do you stay on the growth track during a slump? Some of the best thinking on that question comes from VeriSign and BEA Systems, two Silicon Valley companies that have figured out how to be recession-proof.
Detroit's second-largest auto company has been home to big experiments with change -- and is experiencing some big problems too. Former CEO Jacques Nasser is gone, but should he be forgotten? William Clay Ford Jr. may be the future, but can he fix the present? Consult our A - Z Fast Companies Directory for essential reading about Ford Motor Co.
