Topic: Medtronic Inc.

Fast Talk: Marathon Man

Medtronic's Stephen Oesterle gets patients to run 26 miles with him--to prove the power of optimism.READ»

On the Books

Fast Company recently launched the FC Book Club, a monthly book discussion group featuring the best and brightest business books selected by our readers -- and our host Charles Decker. October's selection is Authentic Leadership by ...READ»

NASA Tech Worms Its Way Into Your Heart, Via Medtronic's Attain Ability

Here's another poke in the eye for people who gripe that the space industry is a waste of money: Technology originally developed by NASA as an insulator for spacecraft has been incorporated into a new implantable medical device ...READ»

At Dinner With Bill George

"We connect through our weaknesses, not our strengths," says Bill George, former CEO of Medtronic and author of Authentic Leadership, "Human fraility is where we connect." George says that when he sent e-mails to Medtronic employees ...READ»

What It Means to Govern: For-Profit and Nonprofit Boards

September 16 - At the Global Boards Forum, presented today in New York City by Directorship and Global Proxy Watch, 80 directors of public companies gathered to discuss board member responsibilities. Particularly striking to me ...READ»

The Most Innovative Companies in Design

You have seen our Fast Company 50. But what are the companies within specific categories doing creative and ground-breaking work? Who is leading an industry into the future? Here we present the top ten firms in Design.READ»

Lead Here

Hewitt, the global HR outsourcing and consulting company, has released its 2005 study of the top companies for leaders. What are the top 20 companies for leaders? 3M Company General Electric Company Johnson & Johnson Dell Inc. Liz ...READ»

Market for Thoracic Aortic Aneurysm Stent Grafts Surpasses $160 Million

According to a newly released report from Medtech Ventures, the forward looking strategy think tank for the medical technology industry, the global market for Thoracic Aortic Aneurysm Repair (TEVAR) devices reached $160 million in 2008.READ»

How the Networked Body Is Reinventing the Consumer

Leslie Saxon Professor of Medicine; Chief of Cardiovascular Medicine USC school of Medicine Los Angeles, California Reinventing the Consumer Leslie Saxon, 50, has worked in the field of networked health monitoring ...READ»

• Fast Talk: Making It Personal
• Fast Talk: Designing a Lifestyle App
• Fast Talk: Empowering the Patients

Mr. Inside Speaks Out

Former Medtronic CEO Bill George has split with his brethren to make an impassioned case for courageous leadership.READ»

FC Book Club - It's About Passion II

As Charles says, passion is a strong undercurrent throughout Authentic Leadership. In one key passage (pp. 36-37), Bill George connects passion and purpose: Many leaders search for years, even decades, to find the purpose for their ...READ»

Bill George: World Leaders Need to Think of the World like the Internet

Bill George, Harvard Professor and former CEO, Medtronic, will be keynoting the World Business Forum next Tuesday for the second year in a row. I spoke to him today. Here is some of what he told me:Leaders need to think of the world ...READ»

New Models for Engaging Consumers: A Report from Opportunity Green

Shifting the consumer paradigm to sustainable products, processes, and experiences has to begin with a fundamental shift in the way we think, the way we do business, and the way we all live our lives.READ»

• Ravi Sawhney's Design Reach blog

Open Debate

Do leaders teach? Do teachers lead? Bill George and Teach for America's Wendy Kopp take to the blackboard.READ»

A Better Way to Health Care Reform: Is There a Designer in the House?

A "dream team" of designers could improve America's ailing system by focusing on health care as a series of meaningful, user-centered experiences.READ»

Roadmap for Recovery: Five Ways to Come Out on Top

In my last post, I shared five short-term strategies for surviving the downturn by using design thinking as a roadmap to connect your business with consumers. Once you've weathered the worst of the economic storms, it's time to ...READ»

• Roadmap for Recovery: Five Ways to Help Your Company Survive Now

Roadmap for Recovery: Five Ways to Help Your Company Survive Now

History has shown that hard times can provide as much opportunity as pitfalls. Want proof? Motorola, Hewlett-Packard, and Xerox are just three innovation-driven companies that were founded during the Great Depression. More recently, ...READ»

• Design Like a Surfer..and How Hyundai Caught the Wave
• Designing From the First-Person Perspective

Over-Innovation: A Cautionary Tale

The difference between simple and elegant can mean the difference between success and failure for your brand.READ»

• Ravi Sawhney's Design Reach blog

Why Designers Need to Focus on Focus Groups

The design team can play an important role in research and focus group testing.READ»

• Ravi Sawhney's Design Reach blog

Diplomatic Relations

Wharton's relationship-building course puts you in control of your contacts.READ»

Design's Reach: Let's Begin a Dialogue

Design. Everyone seems to know about it. Some discredit it as superficial, while others crave it as a lifestyle. Business can be perplexed by it or harness its power. Not even designers can agree on its meaning. It's no wonder ...READ»

Change-Agent Designs: They Inspire You to Do the Right Thing

While designs are often the result of great inspiration, I'm even more interested in designs that themselves inspire. I'm a great believer in design's power to effect positive change in the world. Understandably, the first job ...READ»

Designing From the First-Person Perspective

In professional industrial design, designs aren't really for the designers. They aren't even for the clients. They're for the end-users. I believe we get the best results when we "design from the first-person perspective" ...READ»

• Change-Agent Designs: They Inspire You to Do the Right Thing
• iPhone Apps and the Making of the 99 Cent Hero
• The Web Design That Changed the World

The 10 Faces of Innovation

In an exclusive book excerpt from the general manager of Ideo, we meet the personality types it takes to keep creativity thriving--and the devil's advocate at bay.READ»

Teaching Moments: A New Era for Design Education

Design educators are reinventing the industry from the inside out as employers are less interested in students' ability to sketch, and more interested in their ability to think and communicate strategically. READ»

• Ravi Sawhney's Design Reach blog