Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2016 - January 2017 i Fast Company

1 Baccarat Vega Whiskey Decanter and Tumblers $670 (for full set) us.baccarat.com With holiday party season in full swing, you can toast to the end of the year with Baccarat’s graphic interpretation of the classic whiskey decanter and its accompanying tumblers. Whether it’s filled with bourbon or scotch, there’s no doubt your party guests will be singing your praises. 2 Cire Trudon Christmas Collection Candles $210 trudon.com Cire Trudon has been creating candles since 1643. Their annual Christmas Collection, Odeurs d’Hiver, includes three beautifully scented miniature candles in Bethléem (saffron and amber), Gabriel (leather and candied chestnuts), and Gaspard (orange and sandalwood). 3 Minted Gold Foil Art $67 to $234, depending on size and customization minted.com The Minted platform manufactures work submitted by independent artists who get a portion of…

SPORTS Certain genes are associated with endurance and strength, which could signal what sports you’re likely to excel at. DNA may also reveal if a person is at a higher risk for debilitating sportsrelated injuries, such as stress fractures and ACL ruptures—information that can be used to create training and physical therapy regimens. Linkages between nutrition and genomics could also inform an athlete’s diet. FAMILY/ANCESTRY For more than a decade, relatives have been brought together through DNA testing, which reveals forgotten branches of family trees, along with ancestry dating back millennia. The next step may be anticipating romantic connections. “Gene-matching” dating sites are already starting to proliferate, promising to use DNA to find the perfect date. But be warned: The science is iffy at best. HEALTH AND MEDICINE Genomics is…

McDonald’s founder Ray Kroc once said of his restaurants, “We’re not in the hamburger business, we’re in show business.” That is perhaps the one thing he and the millennial founders of the fast-growing locavore salad chain Sweetgreen might agree on. If you’ve never visited a Sweetgreen, picture a farm stand designed by Steve Jobs—with white walls and colorful, fresh vegetables waiting to be chopped. The stores’ open kitchens (a design trope shared by Chipotle, another fast-casual pioneer) showcase how much scratch cooking happens on-site. Salad dressings are made in-house daily. So is the falafel, which is prepared from dry chickpeas soaked overnight on the premises. (This is basically unheard of in this category; even some high-end restaurants use canned chickpeas.) The nine-yearold company also stages the Sweetlife food and music…

The Cannery Davis, California STARTING PRICE: $450,000 SAMPLE AMENITY: Every house is built within 300 feet of a park or access to the neighborhood’s extensive network of biking trails. Prairie Crossing Grayslake, Illinois STARTING PRICE: $180,000 SAMPLE AMENITY: The property boasts an “edible landscape” featuring 80 varieties of trees and bushes that produce blackberries, currants, grapes, and elderberries. Willowsford Near Ashburn, Virginia STARTING PRICE: $580,000 SAMPLE AMENITY: Homeowners looking for greener lawn care can rent the resident goats. Upcountry Farm Kauai, Hawaii STARTING PRICE: $2.95 million SAMPLE AMENITY: Owners can hand-pick pineapples, bananas, kale, and other produce, or gather eggs for breakfast.…

MELINDA GATES Cochair, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation “When I worked at Microsoft for nine years and didn’t have kids, I would often stay late, polishing some presentation for the next day. My best friend had two kids at the time, and she had to go home for dinner—she didn’t have a choice. If you have to be home, you squeeze a lot into the last hour. Being a parent taught me to task-shift very quickly. But it also taught me to take pauses. “Six or seven years ago, I felt like I loved the philanthropy work, but I was going trip to trip and meeting to meeting and then I would rush home and be with my kids, and I’d rush back and get on email at night and…

ANDREW ZIMMERN Creator and host, Travel Channel’s Bizarre Foods series; chef; CEO, Andrew Zimmern’s Canteen and Intuitive Content “Restaurants have informed everything I do. The kitchens that I grew up [working] in were serious food environments. That kind of teamwork, where different people are working on different aspects of the same thing and it’s all meeting at a certain place, is how I run all of my businesses. A lot of it is cadence. We have a rhythm in our company that I think has been the saving grace. We have weekly management meetings that take place whether I’m in town or not. Waiting for the guy at the top who’s overextended can sink a lot of businesses. [I] employ people whose job it is to keep me from procrastinating.…

ELIZABETH O’NEILL Master taster, Woodford Reserve “I was diagnosed with ADD as a kid and needed to take Ritalin. But as an adult, I’ve figured out how to make it work for me. My mind wanders when it’s quiet, so I listen to music to help me focus. I’m involved with the boots-on-the-ground distillery work, making sure instruments are calibrated and doing quality control. I also work on the more artistic side of production, creating new flavor profiles for Woodford Reserve. [It’s helpful that] my job requires me to bounce between a lot of different functions, because I can’t stay on one task for very long. “I travel a lot as master taster to educate people on how to explore different flavors, so I spend a lot of time in…

Nonprofits—and governments— can’t solve the refugee crisis alone. Last June, the White House asked businesses to help. A new program called the Partnership for Refugees, created with support from Accenture, among others, calls for U.S.-based companies to pledge to assist with education, humanitarian-aid financing, and most crucially, job placement. By September, 51 companies had signed on. Some have vowed to hire refugees directly—joining a handful of companies, such as Chipotle and Starwood, who have already been working with resettlement agencies to do so. —Adele Peters Chobani P L E D G E : Continue its current hiring practices: Nearly 30% of yogurt-factory employees are resettled refugees. DSM P L E D G E : Help refugees in the U.S. build language and cultural skills, and look for opportunities to…

Bonin Bough HOST, CLEVELAND HUSTLES; AUTHOR, TXT ME (646) 759-1837 Why did digital-marketing innovator Bonin Bough ditch Triscuits for TV? Snack-food giant Mondelez’s chief media and e-commerce officer left in August to star in CNBC’s Cleveland Hustles, a business-focused reality show created by LeBron James. Bough also recently released a book, Txt Me (646) 759-1837, about how technology is changing modern life (yes, you can message him at that number). “I just started thinking that these moments might not present themselves again,” says the former PepsiCo social media guru, who is still doing consulting work but wants to devote more of his energy to content creation. He’s especially intrigued by how Snapchat and other messaging apps are reshaping behavior. “[I wanted] to be at the beginning of a whole new…

Before his death from pancreatic cancer in 2011, Steve Jobs paid $100,000 to have his DNA sequenced. It was a rare and expensive move that, according to biographer Walter Isaacson, provided insight into potential treatments and allowed doctors to customize his drug regimen. Five years after Jobs’s death, that same kind of sequencing is widely available and costs just a few thousand dollars—or less. The company most responsible for revolutionizing access to DNA isn’t a household name. Illumina is a $20 billion–plus genomics powerhouse whose supercomputers have sequenced some 90% of all the DNA data ever processed. Its machines have helped make genomics a compelling tool, used to treat diseases, predict drug responses, and identify which genetic mutations increase our risk of serious illness. They’ve also made it affordable…

Have you heard the one about the man who took off his pants in the middle of a corporate training exercise? “That happened once!” says actor Robyn Scott. She’s describing the freewheeling atmosphere integral to the communications workshops she runs for Second City, the improv theater that famously served as a launchpad for some of the biggest names in entertainment, including Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, and Steve Carell. As an instructor with Second City Works (SCW), the theater’s consulting side, Scott leads groups of up to 50 employees from such companies as Cisco, Facebook, and Google in a series of 10- to 20-minute exercises that draw on one of the key tenets of improv: the willingness to adopt a “Yes, and . . .” approach to conversation. “It’s perfect for…

Sweetgreen’s ambition for the year ahead isn’t just to grow, but to get customers through its restaurants more quickly— and turn its salads into true fast-food staples. Here’s how the founders have been making their outposts more efficient. 1 Online ordering In January, Sweetgreen relaunched its app, allowing customers to order, pay, and select a pickup time via mobile. The image-driven app lets people choose among more than 60 ingredients to build their dishes, while delivering instant nutritional data. It also tracks awards points and integrates calorie information with the Apple Health app. 2 Store design To accommodate online orders, which now account for 30% of sales, Sweetgreen began redesigning stores, adding extra prep lines and separate pickup areas that allow mobile customers to bypass the cashier entirely. 3 To-go…

“ I ’ M G I V I N G YO U 1 0 0 % , ” Kevin Hart says with commitment, settling into a chair in a conference room inside his new 18,000-squarefoot Los Angeles production studio. “When I sit down for an interview, that’s what I do. I give 100% of my energy.” Within three minutes, he’s talking on the phone. Over the course of the next hour and a half, the 37-year-old comedian will stop to review ongoing plans for the studio space (“These rooms in the back need to be soundproofed”), check on his two young children zooming around the hallways (“That better not be soda you’re hiding behind your back!”), quiz his stylist about his wardrobe (“You sure those shoes are blue? They don’t…

1. Save posts for later The drop-down button on the top right corner of a post reveals a “save” button, which Janelle Burdette, a communications associate at Facebook, uses to bookmark anything she knows she wants to see—“political posts, puppy videos, or Game of Thrones recaps,” she says— but doesn’t have time to click on at that moment. Saved posts are stored under the “Favorites” tab on Facebook’s home page. 2. Say the right name If Burdette knows she’s going to be meeting with a colleague whose name she isn’t sure how to pronounce, she searches his profile to see if he has offered a phonetic spelling in the “About Me” section. 3. Find an old post One of Facebook’s little-known capabilities, Burdette says, is its ability to easily surface…

1. Download a map Amanda Leicht, a product manager at Google Maps, says that the service’s offline mode can be a lifesaver if, for example, you’re stuck in a parking garage with no signal or navigating a country with high data fees. But it requires some prep work: While you still have Wi-Fi, tap “Offline Areas” in the Google Maps menu and download the maps for the areas you will need. 2. Share access to tools Salit Kulla, a product marketing manager for Google, gives her six kids editing access to one central calendar so that everyone stays connected, especially when they’re apart. “It’s made our trips more enjoyable, and we haven’t lost anyone yet,” she says. 3. Store important documents offline Using the scanning feature available in Google Drive…

WHITNEY WOLFE Founder and CEO, Bumble “I literally work from the moment I open my eyes. Bumble has gone from zero to over 8 million registrations in less than two years. We have to be as fast as our users are. It’s not abnormal that I’ll wake up to urgent emails and spend three hours in my bedroom working through them before I leave [for the office]. I’m the type of person who loves ‘inbox zero,’ but I prioritize. I have a severe phone addiction, and to curb it, I set microgoals: You don’t need to look at your phone right this second. Leave it in your bag five more minutes. I try to cook something every single night, and that forces me to put it down because I only…

CATHY EN ELBERT CEO, Deloitte “I was a Division I college athlete, and I grew up with five brothers and two sisters. I’ve always been a competitor. [But] I’ve learned that productivity should not be a competitive sport. You’re never going to win. “I am responsible for almost 80,000 people. I prioritize people over tasks. One Note allows me to put different tasks [involving] each of my executive-team members in a tab. That way when I talk to them, I can be more effective, because the five things I wanted to talk to them about [are right there]. “If I looked at email and Twitter and texts [during the day], I don’t think I would ever give my full attention to anything. You cannot be insightful if you’re deluged with…

It’s a swampy August night in Las Vegas, temperatures simmering in the mid-90s. Inside the air-conditioned T-Mobile Arena just off the Strip, a different sort of heat is rising. Fans wrapped in the orange, green, and white of the Irish flag sway in unison, chanting for Conor McGregor, the Dublin-born star of Ultimate Fighting Championship, the mixed-martialarts league. He is facing off against Nate Diaz, a Mexican-American who surprised the fight world in March when he knocked McGregor out. The Irish fighter, whose pale skin is fully inked in elaborate tattoos, has made racially derogatory remarks about Diaz, and at a joint press conference a few days ago Diaz ended up hurling water bottles and storming out. Amid the arena’s Bud Light–infused fervor, the two most powerful dealmakers in Hollywood…

1 23andMe Anne Wojcicki’s DNA testing company has rebounded from its 2013 FDA slapdown by concentrating on genealogy and slowly reintroducing health reports. It’s also working with researchers to help in drug discovery and development. 2 Ancestry.com The genealogy giant, which focuses on connecting customers with lost relatives, claims some 1.5 million genomes in its database, thanks to its AncestryDNA testing kit. 3 Genos Like Helix, this new service promises to bring down the cost of sequencing. Users will be able to peruse genetic insights online via a data-visualization tool. 4 Color Genomics Founded by veterans of Google and Twitter, Color looks for common genes associated with a higher risk of hereditary cancers for a flat rate of $224. 5 Veritas For $999, it puts your whole genome on a…

Thanks to recent gains in machine learning, computers are getting skilled at picking out patterns and features in text and images. That’s how e-commerce giants like Amazon and eBay build sophisticated recommendation systems and how social networks like Facebook and Twitter are tweaking feeds to keep users hooked. Pinterest is no exception, with 30% of engagement tied to personalized real-time suggestions. Here’s how Pinterest engineers are leveraging artificial intelligence to keep the website’s 150 million–plus users pinning and sharing. Identifying visual similarities Machine learning can not only determine the subject of an image, it can also identify visual patterns and match them to other photos. Pinterest is using this technology to process 150 million image searches per month, helping users find content that looks like pictures they’ve already pinned. Pin…

MARCO BIZZARRI President and CEO, Gucci “In fashion, you cannot make a decision with 100% of the information. You can collect all the data and conduct all the focus groups, but that is a picture of the past. You have to [make decisions] based on demand, feelings, rationality, and emotions. Why do you go into the shop to buy something? Because you are emotionally driven. Nobody needs any more bags and suits. Sometimes you see shows for luxury companies and you say, ‘My God, that is so boring. Why did you need to do a show for this?’ If you don’t take risks, you’re going to lose. . . . We are not a consumer-goods company, we are a luxury company. We have to create demand even if the people…

SUNDA R P I C H A I I S H U D D L I N G with five Google staffers in a room next to his office that’s known—appropriately enough—as “Sundar’s Huddle.” The employees are members of the Google Photos team, and they’re here this morning to update Pichai on something they’ve been working on for months (I agreed not to reveal details of the project, which is due out by the end of the year). The group has barely begun its presentation when Pichai starts peppering them with questions, opinions, and advice. For half an hour, the discussion careens from subject to subject: the power of artificial intelligence, the value of integrating Google Photos with other products such as Google Drive, the importance of creating an emotional…

1. Build a better calendar In the LinkedIn app, there’s a function listed in the “Add Connections” section that lets users sync their personal calendar to their LinkedIn account. Mark Hull, a senior product manager, explains that before an appointment, you’ll get a push notification with background information about the person you’re meeting. 2. Network effortlessly Hull uses the site’s notifications to practice what he calls “lightweight” networking: congratulating someone on a promotion, adding a comment to an insightful post, or recognizing a work anniversary, all based on news that’s pushed to him, rather than the mix of updates that show up in his feed. “As small as it is, it shows you care,” he says. 3. Develop new skills When Hull wanted to work more effectively with his data…

1. Bookmark important messages If Anna Pickard, Slack’s editorial director, doesn’t have time to read a post, she stars it, which stores it away for later. Clicking on the star icon at the top right corner of Slack’s landing page shows all starred posts. 2. Practice channel management Pickard also stars channels and direct-messaging threads that matter most so that they’re at the top of her queue. She mutes some channels (so that they are de-emphasized in the menu). “[It’s helpful to] create a culture where that’s okay,” she says. In some channels, “there are already too many cooks.” 3. Respond wisely Slack users can acknowledge colleagues’ posts with emojis, which are often cute or clever but rarely anything more. Pickard makes the reactions functional: When someone assigns her a…

SAVING ENERGY NEVER GOES OUT OF STYLE NEST LEARNING THERMOSTAT The Nest Thermostat learns what temperatures you like, turns itself down when you’re away, and connects to your phone. So it can keep you comfortable and help save energy. And now, it comes in copper, black, white, and stainless steel. nest.com/thermostat SECURITY, RAIN OR SHINE NEST CAM OUTDOOR SECURITY CAMERA Who’s at the door? Was my package stolen? Meet Nest Cam Outdoor. It’s weatherproof and plugs into power, so you can look after home 24/7, rain or shine. Get an alert when there’s activity. And listen in and talk back from your phone. nest.com/outdoor MORE THAN SAVINGS GEICO Did you know that GEICO is the secondlargest auto insurer in America? With a 97% customer satisfaction rating, it’s easy to see…