September 2002

Size Is Not A Strategy

The faster big business cleans up its ethical mess, the sooner we can address the real crisis of capitalism. Giant companies dominate the landscape -- from media to medicine, banking to broadband. But talented people don't want to work for them, customers hate doing business with them, and Wall Street doesn't want to invest in them. A candid appraisal of why so many big companies (even the honest ones) don't work -- and some radical ideas for reform.
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Cheat Sheet

How to speak business this month
Light Reading
Did you ever try to read -- say, on a plane or in bed -- only to get an angry scowl from the passenger next to you or your spouse, whose sleep you're interrupting? Here's the solution: LightWedge is a personal reading light that emits an even band of soft light directly onto a book page without casting a floodlight on the surrounding area. Simply slide the plexiglass sheet over the entire page and, with the touch of a button, the page lights up.
Web Picks

Chicken or Beef? www.airlinemeals.net Marco Hart took his first picture of an airline meal on a flight to Turkey in October 2001 thinking it would be nice to show his parents what he ate while flying over Eastern Europe. A hobby was born. He found fellow mile-high foodies on the Web and created a site that now features nearly 300 different meals from more than 70 carriers. (Above: Air Alfa, Economy, Istanbul to Amsterdam.)
Ad of the Month

New Balance "Thunderstorm"
Speedometer

Going Fast. Going Slow. Going Nowhere.

Power

"I've never seen a time like this," says Roger Ailes, chairman and CEO of Fox News and, for the past 20 years, one of the greatest architects of power in the country. Ailes has a gift: He knows what makes people stars. He's most famous for helping transform a fringy California governor, Ronald Reagan, first into a president and then into a legend. Ailes kisses frogs and turns them into presences. But now, as he assesses the art of power, Ailes has worries.
Culture

Anne Every morning as I read another dreary story of greed-head corporate malfeasance and insider arrogance, I remember two of my favorite pieces of satire. One is a comedy sketch starring Eddie Murphy on Saturday Night Live, where Murphy put on whiteface and slipped into the secret whites-only world of extravagant, buffoonish privilege. The other is The Way We Live Now, in which Anthony Trollope shows how the promise of too-easy money turns members of the circa-1875 English ruling class into fools and betrayers.
Strategy

"Those who out of cowardice use their wealth to pay Danegeld to the preachers of hate and destruction must be taught that this aggression will boomerang. A nuclear war stirred up against the 'infidels' might end up displacing Mecca and Medina with two large radioactive craters." -- Fred Ikle, former undersecretary of defense,in the Wall Street Journal, May 31, 2002

Fast Talk: 9/11/02

It's one year later. Where were you then? Where are you now? How have you changed?

Between the Lines

The stories behind this issue's stories
Index to Advertisers

Interact with the companies whose products and services are advertised in Fast Company.

Changing the Game - Again

Back in 1995, when we launched Fast Company, our most valuable asset was our originality. What was different about the magazine? Its message. Its language. Its design. Most important, its promise to readers. Nobody talked about business the way we did - which is why so many businesspeople were eager to hear what we had to say. We'd like to believe that we helped shape a new conversation about the role of business, the value of work, and the nature of leadership.