Topic: The Gillette Company

PR Madness

Here at Fast Company World Headquarters, we get a lot of mail from companies trying to get our attention. Sometimes, those efforts yield awkward results. This morning, I received a slick, black padded envelope via Fedex's priority ...READ»

Natural Leader (Continued)

Confidence and Competence Risk is uncomfortable, of course. How do you persuade participants to face that discomfort head-on? Women in particular tend to have confidence issues. So I'll go around the room and ask people how many of ...READ»

Ten Commandments for Success on the Net

The new rules for success.READ»

Good to Great

Start with 1,435 good companies. Examine their performance over 40 years. Find the 11 companies that became great. Now, here's how you can do it too.READ»

Natural Leader

Rayona Sharpnack is a teacher and a mentor to some of the most powerful women in some of the most important companies around. Her message: Don't worry so much about what you need to know. Instead, figure out who you need to be.READ»

The Bear Market's Happiest Man

Tom Neff explains what companies from Lucent to Yahoo! are looking for in their new leaders. Hint: Internet-startup experience is not enough.READ»

Some of the Greatest Inventors Are Women

digg_url = 'http://www.fastcompany.com/article/some-greatest-inventors-were-women'; digg_skin = 'compact'; Do you know who invented liquid paper or the first solar home heating system? Well, those inventors were women. And with ...READ»

Reviewing Gillette's New Fusion 5-Blade Razor: Insert Your Own Damn Shaving Pun

As someone who has obsessed, analyzed, and quested for the perfect shave for as long as I’ve had facial hair, Christmas came early yesterday, in the form of an invitation Gillette extended to the press to come to a boutique midtown ...READ»

Creativity Gone Wild!

Gillette announced that next year, they're releasing the Fusion: a razor with five blades. While I look forward to an easier shave, I wonder if they're going too far. Five blades? I had thought Mach 3 was kind of extreme. Then ...READ»

Why All the M&A Activity? Count Your Sandwich Shops

Why do you think today's business news is teeming with M&A activity: Adidas buys Reebok. P&G buys Gillette. SBC buys AT&T. Because the old guard is searching for a solution. A solution to what? Let me enlighten you by telling you ...READ»

Let, First Service

I tuned into NBC’s Breakfast at Wimbledon last Sunday morning to catch Roger Federer outduel--and outlast--a re-energized Andy Roddick to win the men’s championship at Wimbledon, his 15th major.  Breaking sports news ...READ»

Amazon's New Cineplex

Cruising around Amazon looking for a book yesterday I happened on a curious little tease - a link to a little film called "Portrait", featuring Minnie Driver as a domineering fashionista. It didn't appear to be promoting any new ...READ»

PR Madness III

After sparking a minor hubbub with my criticism last week of Gillette's PR tactics, I felt obliged to actually attend the company's much-hyped event in Manhattan this morning. Gillette's news: The M3 Power, described by blades and ...READ»

In a Lather Over Advertising

Have you seen this television ad? A team of government agents discover a UFO in the desert. Inside are technological wonders previously unseen. A trailer for a new film perhaps? Actually, it is an advertisement for Gillete's new ...READ»

Manufacturing Demand?

(More heated discussion from the conference...) Does marketing capture the value of latent demand, or manufacture demand? Are we creating demand out of thin air? Or is the point of marketing just to "sell more sh*t, more often, to ...READ»

How Not to Innovate

The Fast Interview: Harvard professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter on what Google does right -- and the power of the small idea.READ»

• No Child Left Offline
• Marketing Pitfalls
• Can Green Homes be Mass Produced?

Dirty Marketing Campaigns

How marketers create disgust and embarrassment -- and why we shouldn't put up with it.READ»

• Modern, Manufactured Marketing Stigmas
• Making French Rabbit's New Eco-Smart Wine Bottle

Why Innovation Matters

A.G. Lafley and Ram Charan from the book The Game Changer: How Every Leader Can Drive Everyday Innovation on why innovation matters.READ»

• 8 Skills of People Who Perform
• How to Kill an Idea

Advertisers Target Captive Audiences

If screens seem to be popping up everywhere, that's because they are. In a DVR world, advertisers are reaching outside the home for today's most desirable audience: a captive one. Anywhere people might be waiting equals an opportunity to air short-form content and advertising. Tune in to the forefront of "advertainment." READ»

• Why You'll Be Watching More and More TV On Your Computer

To Live in Interesting Times

Advertising can't fix your brand's problems any longer. It's time to become part of the conversation.READ»

Did HBO's 'True Blood' Campaign Achieve Immortality or Just Plain Suck?

Sunday night played host to an anxiously-awaited television event on our newly all-digital TV signals (and we're not talking about the Lakers' victory). It was the premiere of the second season of True Blood, the vampiric HBO show ...READ»

Truth 1: Innovation Is New Stuff That Is (Made) Useful

Innovation is new stuff that is useful. That’s just about the best definition. It clears up what’s interesting about innovation without overcomplicating. It also leads to the two questions that you should be asking next: Useful ...READ»

Why is Gillette Stealing Souls?

Facing an growing uproar over a test at a UK Tesco, Gillette is backing down from its planned trial of RFID devices in its razor packages. Essentially, RFID is a new and powerful bar code, allowing scanning and product tracking ...READ»

The Best Things in Life Are Free

In an excerpt from his book, Free Prize Inside!, Seth Godin shows how anyone can champion new ideas.READ»

L.L. Bean Delivers the Goods

L.L. Bean ships 12 million packages a year. How the catalog giant, world famous for quality and service, does it better -- and faster -- than ever.READ»