TURNING CREATIVE IDEAS INTO SUCCESSFUL BUSINESSES
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 to Sesame 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. The chemicals 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 retailerpowered 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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