Jerry Putnam is working to build an alternative to the Wall Street trading establishment. He's a maverick, but he's not a wild-eyed revolutionary. And his backers include some of the biggest names in finance. Bill Breen page 80
Chet Huber of GM's OnStar has been working hard to connect automobile drivers to the outside world for seven years. His service has succeeded in ways he never expected -- and faced obstacles he never imagined. Fara Warner page 88
Business is a dogfight. Your job as a leader: Outmaneuver the competition, respond decisively to fast-changing conditions, and defeat your rivals. That's why the OODA loop, the brainchild of "40 Second" Boyd, an unconventional fighter pilot, is one of today's most important ideas in battle or in business. Keith H. Hammonds page 98
Far from the front lines of combat, there is a place where people do the unlikeliest work imaginable. Here is the story of the men and women of McAlester, Oklahoma, who run the factory that makes virtually every non-nuclear bomb in the U.S. arsenal. Charles Fishman page 106
Business is at a crossroads. Scandal and recession have cast a pall on the way CEOs go about leading their companies. Three distinguished professors send this memo -- Five Half-truths of Business -- as a wake-up call. Robert Simons, Henry Mintzberg, and Kunal Basu page 117
Rob McEwen owned an underperforming gold mine in northwestern Ontario, and he needed new ideas about where to dig. So he broke new ground -- and made data on the mine available online to anyone who wanted to help. Eureka! The Internet gold rush was on. Linda Tischler page 40
DoveBid has built its fortune on the misfortunes that come with irrational exuberance -- from the junk-bond scandals of the 1980s to the dotcom implosion. Here's how it gets the highest bidders -- and how it almost repeated the costly mistakes of its own clients. Scott Kirsner page 50
Marvin Johnson can't seem to stop innovating. The plainspoken scientist from Phillips Petroleum has 212 patents to his name. Here are the surprising secrets of his creative success. Alison Overholt page 60
The next force for business transformation won't be digital, it will be horticultural. That's the disruptive idea behind the awe-inspiring Eden Project. Ian Wylie page 64
It's been a tough year for Sun Microsystems -- think of it as the perfect storm. With the company under siege, could it really be possible that Newt Gingrich has the solution? John Ellis page 124
Everything Microsoft touches, it eventually does brilliantly. When it comes to products, strategies, and sales growth, Microsoft sets the standard for performance. So why aren't we willing to trust Microsoft with all of our private information? George Anders page 128
Seagate Technology, one of the oldest firms in the disk-drive industry, has developed a set of five operating principles that allows it to out-innovate even the most nimble young competitor. The result: an innovator that poses a dilemma for its rivals. George Anders page 132
Permission marketing has deteriorated into spam. TiVo is threatening to kill the 30-second commercial spot, and no one trusts corporate America. Could there be a more challenging -- or thrilling -- time to work in marketing? Branding guru Laurie Coots offers a collection of surprising answers. By Anni Layne Rodgers
Brandaq (bran-dak) also Brandex, BrandX: 1. n an exchange for the buying and selling of lifetime loyalty with consumer brands. 2. v to unlock and then commercialize any long-term value through a negotiated contract. By Jeff Belle
Suddenly, General Motors is in the driver's seat among the Big Three auto companies. How did bigger get better? Read more than five years' worth of Fast Company articles on GM, and get an insider perspective from GM employees, in our A - Z Fast Companies database.
