In April 1998, Fast Company introduced The Agenda: an annual awards issue that recognizes excellent companies for stand-out strategies. 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.

Best Practices of the Best Companies

2002

The Children's Hospital at Montefiore

Strategic Innovation Dr. Irwin Redlener has spent his career devising solutions to large-scale problems of health care for disenfranchised children. The most recent expression of his single-minded agenda combines excellence in pediatric care with cutting-edge design, the latest technology, and the joyous worldview of Carl Sagan. Polly LaBarre

Web-Exclusive Feature
Dr. Irwin Redlener's strategic innovations don't end at the hospital gate. Read a Web-exclusive account of his "medical missionaries."

A Gigabit at the Bedside
This interactive virtual portal brings the Carl Sagan Discovery Program to life at the Children's Hospital at Montefiore.

Commerce Bank

Customer Service
Commerce Bank is one of America's best-performing financial institutions, with a stock that grew more than 2,000% in 10 years. It is also America's most convenient bank, with a fanatical commitment to "wowing" its customers. Chuck Salter

Saying Yes to Change
If you think like a retailer, as Commerce Bank does, then you're constantly coming up with ways to enhance the customer experience.

Guinness

Brand Marketing
How do you refresh a 243-year-old brand? By brewing a modern experience that combines the power of history with the allure of contemporary design. Guinness Storehouse, in Dublin, reimagines how a brand can perform for customers, employees, and the community. Scott Kirsner

The Power of Small Ideas
The initial schematic for Guinness Storehouse was sketched out -- where else? -- on a cocktail napkin.

Special This Year

New Leaders, New Agenda

These six leaders stepped into their top jobs at a time of enormous challenge: worried workers, scarce resources, demanding customers. Here's what each of them has to say about their approach to passing today's tough test and setting the agenda for the future. Edited by Alison Overholt

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. Keith H. Hammonds

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. Rekha Balu

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.