“Something is happening, and it affects us all. A global revolution is changing business and business is changing the world.” That was how cofounders Bill Taylor and Alan Webber introduced Fast Company to readers in November 1995. “A new generation is rewriting the rules of business,” they added, and they emblazoned these new tenets on the cover: Work Is Personal. Computing Is Social. Knowledge Is Power. Break the Rules.
Taylor and Webber’s manifesto proved prescient. But 25 years later, as society confronts a global pandemic, the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, and demands to end systemic racism (on top of climate change and growing income inequality), it’s time to rewrite the rules yet again. Some changes had begun before the existential crises of 2020—hourly wage hikes, pledges to lower carbon footprints—but they were largely reactive, and not adopted broadly enough to meet this moment. Taylor, who has gone on to write three books about leadership, recently said, “It’s hard to sustain a great company in a deeply troubled society, to build a healthy corporate culture in a world where so many people struggle with discrimination, lack of access to healthcare, and a planet that keeps getting sicker.”
We editors asked the Fast Company Impact Council—an invitation-only group of forward-thinking corporate and nonprofit leaders, CEOs, innovators, and founders—to help draft the new new rules of business. During a series of conversations this past summer, they aided us in developing a prescription for the next 25 years, and beyond. (Excerpts of these roundtables may be found on fastcompany.com.)
Bring democracy to work
When the spread of COVID-19 forced many employees to work from home, all illusions about the value of hierarchical leadership “blew up,” says Aaron Levie, cofounder and CEO of enterprise tech company Box. “In fact, it’s actually an anchor and a tax on how we work.” But a flatter organization isn’t just about working faster or cutting out expensive layers of middle management—it is essential to creating fairer and more inclusive workplaces and corporate cultures. Leaders should voluntarily share data about pay and diversity metrics, encourage employees to speak up when they see wrongdoing, and find ways to extend benefits and opportunities to all employees.
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