TURNING CREATIVE IDEAS INTO SUCCESSFUL BUSINESSES: 13
INSPIRING STORIES FROM 2014
The
common thread of almost every Fast
Company story
is a creative person who had a compelling idea and managed to spin it
into a successful company or organization that continues to innovate.
In
case you missed them the first time around, here are some stories
that inspired or fascinated us during 2014. You'll find teenage
lingerie entrepreneurs, feminist coders, crossword-puzzle game
changers, the engineer shaping the future of wearables, and more.
1. BUILDING THE NEXT PIXAR
Pixar
alums (many of whom joke that they're a small club, because no one
wants to leave) have gone on to lead in a range of fields, from
entertainment to consumer
technology to healthcare. Fast
Company spoke
with more than a dozen executives, entrepreneurs, and storytellers
from all eras of Pixar's three-decade history, all of whom have moved
on but attest that Pixar's influence over their ongoing work is
invaluable and profound.
Whether
they're selling healthy snacks or building potentially lifesaving
technology for
type 1 diabetics, these
alums are applying Pixar's values in unexpected but highly successful
ways.
2. "I" IS FOR INNOVATION: SESAME STREET'S SECRETS TO STAYING RELEVANT
If
you are under the age of 50, there’s a good chance you are fiercely
attached toSesame
Street,
the show that shepherded so many of us through our toddler years.
You
may remember sitting in rapt attention, wondering if anybody would
believe that Mr. Snuffleupagus was real, or giggling hysterically
about Oscar the Grouch’s musical ode to trash. For generations of
viewers, Sesame Street is a portal to a simpler, more innocent time
in their lives. This creates something of a quandary for the show’s
producers: how do you keep evolving a show so it doesn’t get stale
without offending its devoted fans?
Carol-Lynn
Parente, executive
producer of
Sesame Workshop, talked
with Fast
Company about
how you keep a 45-year-old brand fresh—yet familiar at the same
time.
3. THIS COMPANY'S BRILLIANT MARKETING STRATEGY MAKES YOURS LOOK SAD AND BORING
Over
the last decade, Manhattan Mini Storage's ads have become
increasingly provocative. The company has perfected its distinct,
snarky voice with dozens of billboard ads that address hot button
issues on New Yorkers’ minds including gay culture, right wing
politics, abortion rights, and perhaps most shockingly, why the Mets
even bother calling themselves a professional team.
People
often ask which advertising agency hatches MMS’s hugely successful
campaigns, but the truth is that the branding is an in-house job. For
the last two decades, Archie Gottesman, chief branding officer of
Manhattan Mini Storage, has been carefully crafting the ads for MMS,
the company that her father and uncle founded in 1978. She spoke
with Fast
Company about their
approach to advertising—and why groupthink makes everything suck.
4. CHANGING THE BRA INDUSTRY FOR YOUNG GIRLS
High-school
student Megan Grassell couldn't find cute, age-appropriate bras for
her younger sister, so she made her own. Now her
company, Yellowberry,
is being held up as a model of innovation, design, and feminists
united against the sexualization of girls.
5. THE END OF SHAMPOO
With
Purely Perfect, Michael Gordon hopes to change the American shower
regimen and kill shampoo along the way. "The problem with
shampoo is you have to make lots of product to try and correct what
the shampoo did," says Gordon. Thechemicals in
shampoo strip hair of its natural oils, which necessitates
conditioner.
Gordon's
formula, on the other hand, relies on fatty alcohols, which are mild
cleansers, so there's no need to counteract with additional
product. That
means less time in the shower, less wasted water, and less stuff to
buy.
6. THE NEW YORK TIMES INNOVATES THE CROSSWORD
Since
starting at the Times straight out of Swarthmore
college last
year, Anna
Shechtman has brought some youthful edge to the 72-year-old quadrant
of the paper.
Not
only did Shechtman get crossword editor Will Shortz to include clues
like "State of being awesome, in modern slang" (answer:
epicness) in her own puzzle, she has influenced dozens of other
grids, helping to justify more modern words and clues.
7. THIS LINGERIE COMPANY A/B TESTS THE WORLD'S HOTTEST WOMEN TO SEE WHO MAKES YOU CLICK "BUY"
Sex
doesn't sell, so forget the boudoir shot. Blondes don't work. Props
distract. Couches are fine. Playing with hair is ideal.
Those
are some of the insights the lingerie company Adore
Me has
learned from testing the photos of models wearing its sexy products
online.
For
each bra, Adore Me shoots multiple versions of images to run on its
website. The distinctions between the pictures might include
different models wearing the same set in the exact same position, or
the same model in the same set in a different position, for example.
Then, like any good tech company, it tests the options to find out
which one sells better.
8. THE CODER GRRRLS OF DOUBLE UNION, SAN FRANCISCO'S FEMINIST HACKER SPACE
Unlike
Sheryl Sandberg's brand of feminism, which puts the responsibility on
women to lean in, the women of Double
Union—San
Francisco's feminist hacker space—take a structural approach. It's
the system that needs fixing, not women.
The
stated goal of Double Union is to create a safe space for women, and
it does that in many ways. DU tries very hard to make its members
feel welcome, while actively keeping "creeps" out. Most of
the time the door stays shut and locked. People take the
anti-harassment policy seriously. Can
a handful of members of a feminist hacker space make significant
strides in how women in tech are treated outside their protective
doors?
9. INSIDE RENT THE RUNWAY'S SECRET DRY CLEANING EMPIRE
Most
people think of Rent the Runway—which rents designer dresses at a
fraction of the retail
price for
women to wear to events—as an innovative fashion
retailer powered
by impressive technology. And it is.
But,
when the company moves to its new 160,000 square foot warehouse, it
will also officially become the nation's single largest dry cleaner,
as measured by pounds per hour.
We
spoke to the unsung heroes—who,
by the way, are harder to hire than engineeers—who make sure each
RTR dress that shows up on your doorstep looks just as glamorous as
it did the first time someone took it off a hanger.
10. THE SURPRISINGLY PROFITABLE RISE OF PODCAST NETWORKS
In
the last six months, three podcast networks have popped up, from
established public radio players: Infinite Guest from American Public
Media, SoundWorks from PRI, and Radiotopia from PRX. Meanwhile WNYC
has added more podcasts to its roster of shows, which includes the
beloved, and very popular, Radiolab. This American Life, the radio
show, is now spawning a podcast called Serial. Online print media has
also gotten the message: Slate has doubled its podcast output in the
last two years.
With
more people listening than ever, and real money to be made in a media
landscape with disappearing ad dollars, of course radio
veterans are flocking to podcasts.
"There have been a number of successful podcasts that have
generated fans and made money—everyone wants to see if they can
take a crack," says Steve Nelson, the program director for
Infinite Guest, American Public Media's brand new podcast network.
11. THE HIDDEN MESSAGES IN "GAME OF THRONES" COSTUMES
Game
of Thrones features
dragons, blood magic, white walkers, dire wolves, and all sorts of
made-up creatures, but its world is a "fantasy reality," to
use the words of the show's costume designer Michele Clapton. In
spite of all the otherworldly elements, viewers still have to believe
that the Seven Kingdoms could exist somewhere in the universe.
Much
of the credit for the plausibility of the HBO show's made-up world
goes to Clapton, who has overseen costume design throughout the
show's first three seasons. For her, the key is looking at costume
design as a mode of storytelling. "It's so easy to draw a pretty
dress in a fun way," Clapton
told Fast
Company.
"But this is so much more about finding the right look and
telling so much more about that character, and that's what I really,
really enjoy: the storytelling....Each thing will tell a story. It
might look like a costume is wrong, but actually it's supposed to
look like that. It's telling you something about the character at the
time."
12. THE SOFTER, MORE WEARABLE, FUTURE OF WEARABLES
Amanda
Parkes, the founder of Skinteractive Studios, is bridging the worlds
of tech and fashion to make sure next-gen wearables look less like
watches, and more like scarves.
Wearables
of the future will cover the entire body and do a host of things we
can't yet imagine. She spoke
with Fast
Company about
the real future of wearables,
and what we'll see in new categories of yet-to-be-created products.
13. GENTRIFICATION, INC.
New
York real-estate developer Jamestown has perfected the art of
creating the Next Hot Neighborhood. This
is its formula—how
gentrification really happens—and where you fit in.
BYERIN
SCHULTE
http://www.fastcompany.com/3040182/most-creative-people/turning-creative-ideas-into-successful-businesses-13-inspiring-stories-?utm_source=mailchimp&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=fast-company-daily-newsletter&position=featured&partner=newsletter&campaign_date=12302014
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