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Issue 96

July 2005

Is Your Boss A Psychopath?

  • Odds are you've run across one of these characters in your career. They're glib, charming, manipulative, deceitful, ruthless -- and very, very destructive. And there may be lots of them in America's corner offices.

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Features

  • Join the Circus

    In 21 years, Cirque du Soleil has grown from a funky band of street performers into a half-billion-dollar global company. It's a high-wire act of smart risk-taking, innovating around the clock, and staying uncomfortable.

  • Without a Net
  • Creating a Blue Ocean of Innovation
  • The Fast Company Interview: Jeff Immelt

    A candid conversation with the CEO of General Electric about leadership, creativity, fear -- and what it's really like to run the world's most influential company.

  • Summer Gadget Guide

    Wherein we offer sage counsel on nine of the most pressing consumer technology questions of our time...

  • The Bush Health-Care Solution

    No, not Dubya's. The president's first cousin Jonathan is an entrepreneur whose company, athenahealth, is trying to free doctors from the nightmare of insurance paperwork so they can get back to practicing medicine.

  • Keeping Your Company in the Pink
  • Rinse and Repeat

    Lush Cosmetics is a fast-growing $100 million brand, thanks to founder Mark Constantine's contrary product-development philosophy: Innovate like mad, then start over again.

  • How Lush Cleans Up
  • Bull Rider

    Amy Butte, CFO of the New York Stock Exchange, on deal making, change, and getting to ring the bell.

Now

Next

  • Customers Don't Grow on Trees

    How do you strike a balance between customer needs and the bottom line? A new way to balance two potentially contradictory demands.

  • Engaging the Enemy

    From Tuesdays With Mantu: My Adventures With a Nigerian Con Artist (2005), Rich Siegel's tale of stringing along, by email and phone, a dogged but dimwitted spammer.

  • Escape From the Chamber of Horrors

    Business leaders in Wisconsin sidestep traditional economic development booster clubs.

  • Sunrise, Sunset

    This month's CEO See-Ya!: Scott G. McNealy, CEO of Sun Microsystems.

  • Hoop Schemes

    Mark Cuban is the rare sports-team owner who acts like a fan. Do his on-court antics merit a technical foul or the game ball?

  • Uniformity

    Baseball is more than round balls and base runs; it can also involve branding, design, and typography.

  • Nearly Being There

    A business trip offers a break from the daily office routine. After a night's peace, though, you start missing everyone at home, and they you. Small dynamics -- the excited chatter on the drive home from soccer practice, or the way Dad can exactly explain the math homework -- help maintain household equilibrium. So how do things stay in balance when one parent is missing?

  • Free Lunches

    When companies offer us, of all people, something for nothing, we wonder: What's the catch -- or, for that matter, the business plan? So we asked actual experts -- Ben McConnell, author of Creating Customer Evangelists (Dearborn, 2002) and Jennifer Rice of Mantra Brand Consulting -- to assess a few high-profile giveaways. How do we know they're working?

  • Bluetooth Killers

    Get rid of that headset! Three new wireless technologies will render Bluetooth obsolete.

  • 60 Seconds with Evan Williams

    Evan Williams's Pyra Labs helped kick-start the personal publishing revolution with Blogger, the first user-friendly software for running a Web log. In 2003, Pyra was snapped up by Google, and Williams became the search giant's blogger-in-chief. Now Williams has founded Odeo, aiming to do for podcasting -- think of downloadable radio programming for your iPod -- what Pyra did for blogs. His bet: Your neighbor might be the next Howard Stern.

  • The Gadgeteers

    Gadget bloggers supply early adopters with quick gizmo fixes and a view of the tech horizon. Here are four of the best.

  • And No, It's Not for Seeing Through Clothes

    Innovation: Augmented reality goggles. Available: Three to five years.

  • China: The Next Big Bling

    After Lenovo bought IBM's PC division, it learned that the Chinese treat their gizmos like your grandmother treats her furniture.

  • Datebook

    Critical calendar listings for July 2005.

  • The $8.59 Selfless-Service Lab

    The pink-stucco and red-tile building, once home to a Red Lobster, blends easily into the urban sprawl of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. A truck dealership is on one side, a nail salon across the street. But there's something different going on here at California Fresh Buffet.

  • Office Handbook

    Hawaiian shirts in the office are still a no-no.

  • Return on Consultant

    Are consultants really worth the big bucks we pay them? Hmm...let us guess.

Fast Talk

  • Fast Talk: Dream Jobs

    They'd do it for free. They don't get discouraged by the inevitable hassles -- at least not for long. Four of our favorites tell you how to get a dream job, grow with one, and make it your own.

Next

  • Flipped to Last

    With our November issue, Fast Company will celebrate 10 years of publication. Each month until then, we'll review one of our favorite editions from the first decade.

  • Design Minded

    Dan Pink examines some of the causes of the rise of the creative class.

From the Editor

  • Working for the Boss From Hell

    Your boss summons you to his office. Once you're inside, he races behind you to slam the door shut. Then he fires a chair across the room in your direction.