Innovation | Fast Company

In Education, Size Matters

BY JD Rucker | 05-22-2012 | 6:45 AM | INNOVATION

One of the promises of the internet was to make education easier to deliver and more robust in its application. We dreamed two decades ago of teaching our students and those around the world in ways that simply weren't possible without the connectivity associated with online networks. Now, it seems that education has finally caught up.READ MORE›

Innovation Agents: Oscar Morales And One Million Voices Against FARC

BY David D. Burstein | 05-21-2012 | 2:37 PM | INNOVATION

Long before the Arab Spring, Oscar Morales was among the first people to use Facebook to mount a successful large-scale political activism effort.READ MORE›

Why You Should Start a Company In... Greenville, South Carolina

BY Lydia Dishman | 05-21-2012 | 1:12 PM | INNOVATION

The clackety-clack of weaving looms has long given way to automotive and turbine manufacturing in Greenville, SC, but the little urbane city in the foothills of the Blue Ridge is also home to a growing tech community that's about to bust out.READ MORE›

The Really Big Guide Of Small Business Success Tips

BY Lydia Dishman | 05-21-2012 | 1:12 PM | MANAGEMENT

In the spirit of helping more startups and growing enterprises succeed, Fast Company is kicking off National Small Business Week with a compendium of wisdom we've gleaned over the years. READ MORE›

Tracking Facebook's IPO Day On Social Media

BY Nidhi Subbaraman | 05-18-2012 | 3:36 PM | INNOVATION

Zuck's big day, curated by Fast Company writers and editors.READ MORE›

"Keep Shipping" Vs. "Keep Serving": Why Startups Should Think Like Baristas

BY Douglas Crets | 05-17-2012 | 6:47 AM | INNOVATION

Everyone talks about "keep shipping" as a mantra for product delivery to customer needs. It might be more accurate to phrase it as "keep serving." Serve up what the customer needs. READ MORE›

Phil Fernandez And Marketo's Mission: Eliminate Cold Calling Forever

BY Lydia Dishman | 05-16-2012 | 4:44 PM | MANAGEMENT

Meet Phil Fernandez, CEO of Marketo, and believer that cold calling should go the way of the dinosaur. READ MORE›

How Great Entrepreneurs Lure Their Competitors' Sheep Away

BY Kaihan Krippendorff | 05-16-2012 | 6:04 AM | MANAGEMENT

About 2,000 years before Clayton Christensen coined “disruption,” a Chinese fable told of a clever peasant who lured a sheep away from a vigilant shepherd. This strategic tool has been used by history’s most significant companies and visionaries to beat tough competitors. READ MORE›

5 Ways Process Is Killing Your Productivity

BY Lisa Bodell | 05-15-2012 | 10:40 AM | LEADERSHIP

If your team spends its days asking for permission, taking hours to complete expense reports or time sheets, attending redundant meetings, or answering irrelevant emails, you’ve got a problem.READ MORE›

The SNL/Andy Samberg Approach To Creating Innovation

BY Grant McCracken | 05-14-2012 | 6:00 AM | INNOVATION

A Culturematic is a little machine for making culture. It is designed to do three things: test the world, discover meaning, and unleash value. It's what Andy Samberg does for SNL--and what you should be doing within your organization. READ MORE›

Lessons In Winning Fans From The World's Most Elite Niche Sport

BY Chuck Salter | 05-10-2012 | 7:46 AM | DESIGN

The infrequent Volvo Ocean Race features unfamiliar athletes with skills you won't understand on expensive boats in the middle of nowhere. You won't be able to look away. Seriously.READ MORE›

Don’t Innovate...Integrate

BY Kaihan Krippendorff | 05-09-2012 | 7:36 AM | MANAGEMENT

Just as Steve Jobs created miraculous things by piecing together in new ways existing technologies, you can work with what's already out there to impact the world. Here's the story of how Health eVillages is getting medical knowledge to healthcare providers in the developing world.READ MORE›

Disrupt The Process--Not Just The Product

BY I.P. Park | 05-09-2012 | 6:15 AM | LEADERSHIP

Healthy disruption is not limited to end products. Shaking up the processes that yield them can be just as critical, in order to harness the creative instincts. READ MORE›

Why Your Company Needs A Chief Collaboration Officer

BY Lydia Dishman | 05-07-2012 | 9:24 AM | MANAGEMENT

Collaboration. Everyone talks about it, but only a few know how to do it well. Here's Motley Fool's chief collaboration officer on best practices for working together better.READ MORE›

Why You Should Swap Your Corporate Boardroom For A Company Kitchen

BY Lydia Dishman | 05-04-2012 | 9:05 AM | WORK/LIFE

Turns out, preparing and breaking bread with clients can nurture both the people at a company, as well as nourish its bottom lines. This is the story of what happened when the principals at Universal Value Advisors traded their Brooks Brothers for butcher's knives. READ MORE›

The Power Of Coordination

BY Kaihan Krippendorff | 05-04-2012 | 9:04 AM | MANAGEMENT

People underestimate the effort and value of coordinating things, because we think that to create defensible market advantage, we need to buy and own things. That idea couldn't be further from the truth. Here's how to work coordination to your company's benefit. READ MORE›

Sustainable Innovation Stems From Individuals, Not A Group

BY Sarah Krasley | 05-03-2012 | 10:29 AM | INNOVATION

Brainstorming is great, but sometimes the best way to think of a world-changing idea is to disappear into your own thoughts. READ MORE›

Former Facebookers Want To Accelerate Your Project Work With Asana, A Virtual Whiteboard

BY E.B. Boyd | 05-03-2012 | 9:27 AM | INNOVATION

Facebook cofounder Dustin Moskovitz takes his "underestimated secret sauce" from his Zuck days and teams up with Google and Facebook alum Justin Rosenstein to solve one of business' biggest problems: lost productivity. READ MORE›

Tim Hwang Isn't A Lawyer, But He Plays One Online

BY Adam Bluestein | 05-03-2012 | 8:18 AM | CAREERS

When he’s not ROFLing or being Awesome, this 25-year-old is serious about shaking up the legal profession--with an army of robots. On the eve of ROLFCon III, an Internet culture conference, we speak with Hwang about how, exactly, he plans to "unleash sheer ridiculousness upon the world."READ MORE›

The Simplicity Thesis

BY Aaron Levie | 05-02-2012 | 8:45 AM | CAREERS

The only companies or products that will succeed now are the ones offering the lowest possible level of complexity for the maximum amount of value, says Box CEO and cofounder Aaron Levie. READ MORE›