Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2017 i Fast Company

In the days after Donald Trump was elected president, I found myself reaching out to chief executives of several key businesses that Fast Company has covered. The presidential campaign had convinced me that neither party’s candidate, and neither party, had a compelling vision for how our technology-driven culture could both energize our country and include all Americans. What I encouraged of these CEOs was to use their perches to fill that leadership vacuum. There has long been debate in America about the role of the corporation.Is it a job- and wealth-producing marvel? Or is it a nefarious, rapacious beast? “Corporations aren’t to be trusted,” argues Ian Bremmer, president of global strategy firm Eurasia Group. “The presumption that America supports capitalism has never been true: The number of people who have…

At that moment, many other businesses, from Google to Starbucks, were publicly fighting policies proposed by President Donald Trump, most notably in the area of immigration. But Zuckerberg didn’t mention the president or politics. Instead, he posed a broader question: “Are we building the world we all want?” Facebook, he argued, had a responsibility to help people. It was a mission statement, shared just as discussion of business leadership’s relationship to government leadership was reaching a fever pitch. Facebook itself had been stung by critiques of its role in “fake news” and “filter bubbles.” Implicit in Zuckerberg’s letter was the idea that, despite Facebook’s vacuuming up of ever-larger piles of cash, its real purpose—its reason for existence—wasn’t to make money. It was to make the world a better place. Such…

Why Were you the right person to direct the Guardians movies? when i was a kid, i would sit in my room and listen to aM pop radio and read Marvel Comics. that was my life. i had a [toy] raccoon collection. so Guardians of the Galaxy is really everything i loved all in one soup. you’re active on social media, ansWering questions from fans and teasing out aspects of your films. Why are you so accessible? some of my favorite directors of the 1970s became rich and famous and lost touch with other human beings not like themselves. i can now maintain a connection to other people, not just in the u.s. but all over the world. it allows me insight into someone who’s 15 in thailand. it makes…

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Updates from the MIC alumni Panera Bread The soup-and-sandwich café chain has been rethinking customer service across its 2,000-plus outlets, implementing a series of technology-infused initiatives it calls Panera 2.0. The project drives orders through digital platforms that simplify food prep in the back of the house while expediting the customer experience. And it’s paying off: Twenty-four percent of the company’s sales are made through in-store kiosks, on the web, or on the Panera app (only the pizza giants drive more digital business), and 9% of customers opt to order ahead and pick up in a café. Panera’s samestore sales growth in 2016 was 4.2%, well above the industry average. “We asked ourselves, ‘What’s going to be next?’ ” says CEO Ron Shaich, “and then we made the long-term commitment…

Alaska A NATIONAL BRAND BUILT ON LOCAL VALUES Last fall, a pair of snacks began appearing in Whole Foods and other stores throughout the Pacific Northwest and West Coast: sleek packages of wild Alaskan salmon jerky and jars of smoked sockeye, under the label Dear North. The comestibles company is a subsidiary of the Huna Totem Corporation, which benefits its Alaska Native shareholders and the southeastern Alaskan community of Hoonah (population: 750). For years, Huna Totem has run a thriving cruise-ship port that celebrates the area’s Tlingit heritage. In an effort to create year-round revenue and jobs for locals, it launched Dear North, designed to export Alaskan products—and Hoonah’s values—to the rest of the country. “We wanted to share a piece of Alaska,” says CEO Russell Dick, “but also who…

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Sibling entrepreneurs Laura and John Nelson launched ColourPop with a simple idea: makeup that would be native to Instagram, not drugstore shelves. It was 2014, and the duo—both working as executives at Spatz Laboratories, their father’s beauty industry supply company—saw Instagram and YouTube personalities posting makeup tutorials that were attracting huge audiences. The Nelsons also noted an uptick in overall cosmetics spending, which they attributed to excitement over those how-to videos and online product endorsements. Taking advantage of Spatz’s high-volume manufacturing infrastructure, they created a company called Seed Beauty, which they hoped would serve as an umbrella for a range of new brands. The first of these was ColourPop, offering products specifically aimed at the kind of young people who were obsessing over, say, YouTube demos of how to do…

As podcasting grows— 57 million Americans tuned in to at least one a month last year, up 23% from 2015—so do the marketing opportunities the medium presents. Moving beyond simply sponsoring a few episodes (“Mail . . . kimp?”), brands such as State Farm and Slack are getting increasingly involved by creating podcasts of their own. GE’s breakout eightepisode radio drama, The Message, topped more than 5 million downloads and hit No. 1 on the iTunes chart in 2015. The company followed up with last year’s AI-focused drama Life- After. “People are making a very conscious choice—to down load a podcast, subscribe, and listen,” says Alexa Chris ton, GE’s head of media innovation. “That [kind of] relationship is something brands covet.” In response, the major podcasting studios are building out…

1  Reynolds Rocket October 1945 The Reynolds International Pen Company introduced the first commercial ballpoint pen with much fanfare at New York’s Gimbels department store, which promoted it as “miraculous.” What happened: Big lines and a “no-holds-barred fracas,” according to one report at the time. An early example of masterful buzz-building. 2 Edsel September 1957 When Ford debuted this mid-priced car line, it tapped into the era’s most advanced marketing muscle, amping up expectations with teaser ads and a TV special called The Edsel Show. What happened: Edsels turned out to basically be souped-up Mercuries, and disappointed consumers dismissed the overhyped brand. 3 Kodak Instamatic March 1963 The product marketed itself; all Kodak had to do was tell customers, “Now, in the time it takes to read this sentence aloud, you can…

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