Inhoudsopgave van February 2017 - Fast Company

I didnÕt know what to do. A protester had just stood up in the audience, shouting questions toward the stage, where I was moderating. As host of the event, it was my responsibility to defuse the situation. But how? That’s when PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi, one of my guests onstage, stepped in. Nooyi calmly and firmly addressed the question with no hint of defensiveness. The audience applauded. When another protester tried to interrupt the session again several minutes later, the people seated nearby shouted down the disrupter. Completely unruffled, Nooyi continued on with our interview. The crowd came away even more impressed by her. She turned adversity to her advantage. There are other compelling messages that Nooyi delivered that day (several of which are highlighted in Food for Thought on…

S TAY RESTLESS When Rachel Holt joined Uber in 2011 to run the company’s small Washington, D.C., arm, the concept was relatively modest: to match corporate-oriented “black car” limousine services with customers during downtimes (when drivers would otherwise be idle). But then the business started changing fast—a hallmark of Uber’s rise. “One of the things that really sets Uber apart is our willingness to disrupt ourselves. Back when we launched [less-expensive ride-share service] Uber X, we were a black-car product, and tons of people were like, ‘Are you crazy? You’re lowering the price. You’re cutting your margins. Why wouldn’t you keep the highmargin product?’ Everything I learned [in business school] also said to keep the high-margin product. But we realized that if we weren’t going to do it, someone else…

With her latest philanthropic campaign, Melinda Gates is trying to bring more women into the tech industry by helping to build a better pipeline. Gender diversity is an issue the former Microsoft executive knows well, which makes her advice especially valuable. FIND YOUR OWN STYLE Gates had a long, successful career at Microsoft, but it took her a while to find her way at the company. “When I started, I loved the industry and what we were building, but I didn’t love the [corporate culture]. So I finally decided to quit. But then I thought, I’ll just try to be myself for a while [at Microsoft] and see what happens. And I started becoming a lot more successful. I was a manager by then, and people [were] flocking to work…

As a core member of Google’s Jigsaw division, Yasmin Green is using technology to tackle online extremism. Jigsaw is identifying people vulnerable to recruitment by ISIS and other groups and trying to de-radicalize them through targeted online content—a challenge that requires persistence and empathy. BELIEVE IN YOUR MISSION When Jigsaw (then called Google Ideas) launched in 2010, it faced skepticism. “It was difficult to get anyone to take you seriously when you said the internet had anything to do with violent extremism. Now the pendulum has swung so far the other way, there’s hysteria that the internet is the root of extremism. And neither of those is the case.” PROVE THAT YOU CARE If you truly believe that what you’re doing matters, push yourself as much as you can. “Give…

Soko earrings $56 shopsoko.com “I love Soko jewelry’s stunning statement pieces that are handcrafted in Nairobi, Kenya. They offer a wide array of accessories. The company helps local artisans expand their markets globally and allows the craftspeople to retain up to 35% of revenue from each sale.” Nora Feeney Pittenger Business development director, Fair Trade USA Figma Free figma.com “Figma is a web-based UX tool that I’ve only just started using. I am extremely excited by the platform, which has innovative vector network tools and a collaborative system that makes it a very simple and fun way to develop apps. It’s perfect for beginners.” Harry Lees Design director, Alpha Audiotronics Owney’s rum From $30 owneys.com “Owney’s is created from non-GMO molasses in a female-owned and -run distillery in Brooklyn. It’s…

COGNITIVE DIVERSITY IS THE MOST POWERFUL TOOL As the head of Facebook’s secretive new hardware unit, Building 8, Regina Dugan leads a team of engineers who are trying to develop breakthrough technologies, much as she did when she was the first female director of DARPA. She’s learned that assembling a diverse group of perspectives is essential to the creative process. “There’s very little difference between scientists and engineers and artists—they just use different tools. We [all] want to make things that haven’t been made before, and that’s tremendously exciting. It’s exhilarating, it’s invigorating, and it’s hard. Diversity is absolutely key to innovation. It’s just hands-down true. When we are working on very difficult problems, it’s essential that we have different voices in the room. In my teams it is…

EXPERIMENT FEARLESSLY With a new content studio called Scenic, Helvetica director Gary Hustwit has gathered a group of like-minded documentarians to explore nonfiction storytelling in the emerging format of virtual reality. Their goal is to move quickly and keep trying new things. “I’ve always had an entrepreneurial streak, even when I was a kid. A big part of why I started Scenic was to give more filmmakers a chance to play around with [virtual-reality] tools. You have to start thinking in VR to then be able to create in it. You have to make a lot of mistakes and try things. We know so much more than we did a year ago, it’s crazy— and I still don’t feel like I know that much about making nonfiction VR. But…

ASPIRE TO DEEPERINTER ACTIONS As the visionary behind a $400 million fashion juggernaut, Eileen Fisher has always pushed hard to maximize her brand’s impact. The designer has also long found meaning and inspiration through meditation and mindfulness practices—which she has worked to integrate into the workplace. “Meditation gives you a little space between things, a chance to stop and make choices. We get very busy, and we do a lot of things that really aren’t purpose-ful or meaningful or even true to who we are. But if we make a little space, then we can stop and go, hmm. We take a moment of silence before our meetings. It’s about giving people that little bit of space. We [also] have this practice of active listening, where you’ll sit with another…

WEAKNESSES CAN BE STRENGTHS With a new show debuting in Las Vegas this month and more than 3 million followers relishing her emoji-stuffed (and often politically charged) tweets, Cher knows how to hold an audience’s attention. It’s a skill she developed in the face of adversity. “When I was growing up, no one knew what dyslexia was. My teachers would say things like, ‘She’s really smart, but she doesn’t apply herself.’ [With Twitter], at the beginning, my tweets were frightening. I would read them back and they didn’t make sense. But then I started using emojis, which was heaven. They’re like hieroglyphs. I learn so much about what’s really happening on Twitter. I mean, there’s a bunch of crap, but then there are some fabulous things. What I get from…

John Legend Musician, activist What he’sk nown for The singer-songwriter has won 10 Grammys and an Academy Award. Latest move In December, he released his fifth studio album, Darkness and Light. As a TV and film producer, you’ve made series such as Underground, about the Underground Railroad, and you’re developing a film based on the mixed-race general who inspired The Count of Monte Cristo. How do you decide which projects to pursue? I start with my own background: I was an English major and also concentrated in African-American literature, history, and culture. Even as a young person, I used to read a lot about Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman and Martin Luther King Jr. Everything we do has some connection to that interest of mine and the interests of my…

Kevin Plank has built Under Armour into a $5 billion business from a very modest start in the basement of his grandmother’s house. Jordan Spieth, the face of UA’s golf apparel brand, won both the Masters and U.S. Open in 2015, and last year helped bring the Ryder Cup back to the U.S. In this conversation with Fast Company’s Robert Safian, Plank and Spieth discuss how they’ve inspired and empowered each other to be better at what they do. How did you two find your way to each other? Jordan, what is it about Under Armour as a brand or a business that made you want to associate yourself with it? JORDAN SPIETH: In 2012, while I was still at the University of Texas, I visited UA’s campus in Baltimore.…

As one of the world’s most indemand fashion stars, Karlie Kloss has appeared in dozens of ad campaigns and walked countless runways. But in her free time, the Victoria’s Secret model is more likely to obsess over code than clothes. “I like knowing how apps and hardware work and why,” says Kloss, who is pursuing a degree at NYU. That interest in technology inspired her to found Kode With Klossy, a summer computing camp and scholarship program with a mission to empower young women. Along the way, Kloss has learned three techniques that can further any passion project. FOLLOW YOUR INSTINCTS Kloss didn’t set out to learn about coding, but as she got more interested in business and tech, she realized it would be an essential tool. “As a model,…

BE A SHARK To keep stalwart preppy brand Ralph Lauren relevant in a fastfashion era, David Lauren is looking for fresh ideas at every level of the company. “When I started, about 17 years ago, there were about 6,800 employees. Today, there are 26,000. My job is to make sure we’re protecting the brand DNA and innovating. It’s hard to move large organizations, no doubt about it. It’s about [finding] entrepreneurial energy. You have to figure out ways to think small. At our company, although it seems like we have a lot of employees, when you go in and meet each team, it’s just a handful of people. The more nimble we can be, the more we can be tuned in, so we’ll hear the [next] idea and try it.…

WHEN YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO, TRY DOING SOMETHING When he bought a decommissioned Kraft factory in upstate New York with a loose plan to launch a yogurt company, Hamdi Ulukaya didn’t have a clue how to proceed. Rather than sitting around, he just . . . started. “I did not know business. Innovation, marketing, branding, financing, I had no idea of those. [Our first handful of employees] were looking at me, saying, ‘Okay, what do we do now?’ So I said, ‘We’ll go to the Ace hardware store and buy some white, blue, and red paint.’ That was strategy number one: We’re going to paint the wall outside. [One] guy, very quiet, says, ‘Hamdi, tell me you have better ideas than this one. This wall hasn’t been painted…

After almost 30 years, The Onion remains an essential source of satire, but these days the laughs are as likely to come from a video as a clever headline. To keep the site vital, Matt Klinman has had to think carefully about managing his staff. GO WITH THE GROUP Klinman encourages everyone to toss out ideas freely; the team decides what works. “We pitch so much stuff, and we encourage everyone to pitch from every aspect of their psyches. You trust people around you to pick the best [material]. If you have that, you feel comfortable reaching deep.” BE A TRUE UNIT To reinforce that sense of teamwork, Klinman de-emphasizes individual contributions. “We’re all doing one thing together. Every idea, every script, every draft we do [is worked on by]…

AOL CEO Tim Armstrong and actorentrepreneur Sarah Jessica Parker —who collabo rated on city.ballet, a documentary series about dance that airs on AOL—are experts at navigating the contemporary media landscape, thinking boldly, and engaging their fans and customers. Though their backgrounds differ signif icantly, both have extensive thoughts on how to foster creativity in business, which they share here with Fast Company’s Robert Safian. You both have been involved in a lot of evolutions. Tim started at Google and then went to AOL, which was sold to Verizon, which is now buying Yahoo. Sarah Jessica, you are a performer and a producer and you’re in other businesses: fragrances, a book imprint, footwear. Do you think of yourselves as risk takers? Is risk a good thing? TIM ARMSTRONG: I started in…