Indholdsfortegnelse for October/November 2020 i Fast Company

In 1995, I was a cub reporter at The Wall Street Journal covering small businesses and venture capital. I thought it was the best job in journalism, writing about entrepreneurs and their backers, but my work wasn’t exactly front-page stuff. The Journal, like the corporate leaders and investors it served, valued news about the public markets, scoops on companies such as General Electric and AT&T, and profiles of star CEOs who maximized profits for their shareholders. That same year, editors Bill Taylor and Alan Webber, entrepreneurs in their own right, unveiled a new magazine with a thoroughly different view of capitalism. “We want to shape the conversation about business at its best and the real meaning of success,” they wrote in the premiere issue of Fast Company, published 25 years…

2,500 GIGATONS The amount of carbon stored in soil globally Topsoil depth before and after one farm switched from conventional to regenerative farming Soil organic matter before and after one farm switched from conventional to regenerative farming Soil farmed regeneratively can absorb and store three times the amount of water as soil farmed conventionally. $50.1B Size of the U.S. organic food market in 2019 0.55% Organic as a percentage of total U.S. farmland Sources: “Soil Carbon Storage,” Nature Education Knowledge, 2012 (2,500 gigatons), “Regeneration of Our Lands: A Producer’s Perspective,” TED Talk by Gabe Brown (Topsoil depth, Soil organic matter, Soil farmed regeneratively), Organic Trade Association industry survey 2020 ($50.1B), USDA 2016 organic production survey (0.55%)…

When Jan Christian Vestre, CEO of the family-owned urban furniture company Vestre, wanted to build a new factory, he had big ideas of what the facility could-and should-be. “We want to produce smarter and greener and faster,” says Vestre. “Even more important: We want to bridge the gap between climate, nature, biodiversity, and the need for new jobs and economic growth.” The result is the Vestre Plus, a 70,000-square- foot state-of-the-art facility in Magnor, Norway, designed with Bjarke Ingels Group, which broke ground earlier this year. In addition to incorporating environmental innovations that reduce the plant’s carbon footprint (such as solar panels and a fleet of Tesla trucks), the Vestre Plus redefines the role a factory can play in its surrounding community: It’s set on 300 acres that the company…

01 Waking Up “OH YEAH,” YELLO This song was popularized in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. I play it when I want to get my kids up in the morning. 02 Driving “FIDELITY,” REGINA SPEKTOR I love Regina’s voice and mood. 03 Working Out “BELIEVER,” IMAGINE DRAGONS This song has a great feel. I also love U2’s “Where the Streets Have No Name.” 04 Hard at Work “CLAIR DE LUNE,” CLAUDE DEBUSSY I always work to classical music-it reminds me of my dad. 05 Get Psyched “ROSAS,” LA OREJA DE VAN GOGH I love French, Spanish, Mexican, and Israeli contemporary music. This really energizes me. 06 Mellowing Out “MY FUNNY VALENTINE,” CHET BAKER If I really want to feel melancholic. “These pens come in tons of different colors. I use them…

Every person is unique. We all experience the world through our own subjective lens. But when it comes to user-experience design, most companies choose a one-size-fits-all approach. Salesforce, best known for its customer-relationship management platform, is hoping to change that. The company is using artificial intelligence to deliver personalized digital experiences and build customer relationships by design. It’s this type of program that earned Salesforce a spot on Fast Company’s list of Innovation by Design award winners. Salesforce’s goal was to bring automation into a design process that is traditionally very labor-intensive. “If you were to personalize design today, it would take a designer, developer, and data scientist a month of work,” says Sönke Rohde, vice president of Salesforce’s UX R&D team. “That’s why we looked at the intersection of…

CLOVE SHOES FOR HEALTHCARE WORKERS When Philadelphia hospitals filled up with COVID-19 cases, frontline workers would wipe themselves down from head to toe with sanitizing wipes between patients, terrified of transmitting the virus within the hospital or bringing it home to their families. Clove, a shoe brand created expressly for healthcare workers, was ready for this moment with sneakers that can withstand industrial-strength cleaners. Before its shoes hit the market in late 2019, the startup had spent a year conducting focus groups with hundreds of medical professionals to create its first product, a shoe that is perfectly tailored to their needs: easy to slip on and fluid-repellent. The brand also got input from shoe designer Stuart Weitzman to ensure a chic profile. When the pandemic arrived in America, many doctors…

THE NEWYORK TIMES GENERAL EXCELLENCE In May, when the United States reached the grim milestone of 100,000 confirmed deaths from COVID-19, The New York Times turned its front page into a powerful memorial, a list of every American coronavirus fatality to date: name, age, hometown, and a personal detail. Topped by a banner headline, the gray page was as solemn as a tombstone. It was the latest example of how the Times, the winner of Fast Company’s 2020 Innovation by Design General Excellence category, is reimagining its most valuable real estate to help readers make sense of these confusing and scary times. “We cannot just tell those stories with stories,” says New York Times executive editor Dean Baquet. “We need for people to pick up the front page and understand…

FINHABITS FINANCIAL ADVICE Despite high rates of entrepreneurship and increasing middle-class buying power, the Latinx population continues to be ignored by many financial institutions. Finhabits, launched by former Wall Street investor Carlos Armando Garcia in 2017, has developed a series of bilingual, mobile-friendly lessons designed to teach Latinx people about topics such as retirement and credit so they can better seek out financial tools that will grow their wealth. During the pandemic, a tutorial on how to build an emergency fund has been particularly popular. “Instead of saying to people, ‘You should have three to six months of your expenses [saved],’ we say, ‘You should start with $1,000, and build from there,’ ” says Garcia. “It’s much better to talk in dollar figures.” Paying attention to those types of details,…

SISTER CITY/MICROSOFT/BJÖRK • HOSPITALITY • HOSPITALITY • HOSPITALITY KÓRSAFN In the lobby of Sister City, a sleek Manhattan hotel from the creators of the Ace Hotel chain, no song is ever played twice. In fact, none of the music has ever been played before. It’s all being composed in real time on the roof. Computer vision technology—built by Microsoft for manufacturing and other enterprise applications—captures video footage taken by a camera on the hotel’s rooftop. Then snippets of choral music, produced by Icelandic artist Björk over the past 17 years, combine and recombine in real time in response to clouds, birds, light, and more, creating a dreamy soundscape, which Björk named Kórsafn (Icelandic for “choral” and “archives”). “The intention of the hotel was to make a space in the middle…

A day after the August NBA strike in response to yet another police shooting-this time, Jacob Blake, in Kenosha, Wisconsin— Uber’s head of diversity and inclusion, Bo Young Lee, tweeted out the company’s new billboard campaign. “If you tolerate racism, delete Uber,” the sign read. Lee added, “Now is the time for all people and organizations to stand up for what is right.” Corporate America had already been examining its complicity in furthering systemic racism and inequality in the wake of a summer rife with police killings of Black people. Uber, for its part, was one of many companies standing up for what’s right—so long as it didn’t have to change too radically. Several weeks earlier, Uber had committed to anti-racism education for riders and drivers, established that it had…

For the past 80 years, eggs have been a main ingredient in vaccines for measles, mumps, rubella, chicken pox, the flu, and others. Typically, modified genetic material from a virus is inserted into an egg’s proteins, and those proteins are then in- troduced into the human body to “teach” it an immune response. But since each egg must be modified individually, the lag time for egg-based vaccines can literally be a killer. In the U.S., for example, the CDC must predict in January what strains of the flu will erupt nearly a year later, to give drugmakers time to manufacture enough inoculations. A handful of companies, however, are pioneering vaccines developed in plants, which can be grown and treated in bulk. Using a cousin of the tobacco plant (nicotiana benthamiana),…

In recent years, much of the investment in online learning has focused on companies such as Coursera, which offer users affordable college courses and professional development. While these more traditional education platforms have seen huge spikes in users and funding during the pandemic, consumers have also demonstrated a growing appetite for online classes geared toward entertainment and enrichment. MasterClass is adding more content, while Airbnb and Instagram Live have emerged as learning hubs, with influential instructors teaching everything from dance to poetry writing to cocktail making. Drawing a Crowd In 2020, Airbnb has launched 700+ online experiences They’ve earned hosts more than $2M since April. Creative Class Instagram Live has become a way for brands and individuals alike to reach new audiences. A sampling of viewership numbers for popular classes:…

As wireless networks advanced from 2G to 3G to 4G LTE, businesses quickly learned how to take advantage of faster data speeds to reach more customers, launch new products, and streamline operations. But the leap to 5G networks is poised to unlock a new range of possibilities for businesses. Wireless networking firm Cradle-point developed the software and hardware that will allow businesses to take advantage of this new network technology. And this past June, the company, based in Boise, Idaho, partnered with Australian mobile network operator Telstra to launch the world’s first 5G service for business based on its comprehensive, enterprise-class 5G solution. Cradlepoint’s NetCloud platform and specialized hardware—including wideband adapters and routers—serve as the foundation of the carriers’ unique 5G offering. Here, Cradlepoint CEO George Mulhern explains what businesses…

Instagram @SHOW_THE_ BOARDROOM Many corporations have announced [diversity] programs. I check Show the Boardroom to see how their boards look. Show HAMILTON ON DISNEY PLUS I was a playwright for the Powerhouse Theater when Lin- Manuel was working on Hamilton’s first act. Now you can stream it! Podcast LATINA TO LATINA MSNBC’s fabulous Alicia Menendez and producer Juleyka Lantigua-Williams created Latina to Latina, which tackles subjects important to my community. Twitter @AUSCHWITZMUSEUM The content being produced by the Auschwitz Museum is so important today, as we confront white supremacy in the U.S. and the risk it poses to our democracy. “Man Ray, the photographer and art icon closely associated with the Dada and Surrealist movements, designed this geometric chess set (pawns are spheres and the king and queen are triangles).…

01 Out of Our Minds: The Power of Being Creative SIR KEN ROBINSON Educator Sir Ken Robinson’s TED Talk “How Schools Kill Creativity” [is amazing]. He explores why it’s essential to [foster] creativity in education, work, and life. 02 Unscaled: How AI and a New Generation of Upstarts Are Creating the Economy of the Future HEMANT TANEJA Taneja outlines how we’re moving from mass markets to personalization, driven by machine learning. 03 Subscribed: Why the Subscription Model Will Be Your Company’s Future-and What to Do About It TIEN TZUO This is the subscription playbook by one of the earliest employees at Salesforce, Tien Tzuo. 04 Savvy: Navigating Fake Companies, Fake Leaders and Fake News in the Post-Trust Era SHIV SINGH AND ROHINI LUTHRA This serves as a practical guide to…

STAN CHUDNOVSKY DOESN’T REMEMBER WHEN CEO MARK ZUCKERBERG AND OTHER TOP FACEBOOK EXECUTIVES BEGAN TALKING ABOUT TREATING THE COMPANY’S PORTFOLIO OF SERVICES MORE LIKE, WELL, A PORTFOLIO. THE CURRENT VP FOR FACEBOOK’S MESSENGER SERVICE SIMPLY RECALLS THAT THE COMPANY’S ORIGINAL TENDENCY TO KEEP FACEBOOK, MESSENGER, Instagram, and WhatsApp pretty much separate started to feel increasingly unwieldy as user numbers for each surged well past the billion mark. Instead of continuing to silo off each app, execs concluded that “we can serve people better if the experiences we are building are a little bit more interconnected,” Chudnovsky says. “That truth [had] been ringing in our ears for a long time. What was never obvious is how would we exactly go about it, and how would we prioritize it.” To kick-start the…

CURA MOBILE HEALTH CLINIC The international design firm Carlo Ratti Associati turned unused shipping containers into intensive care units to support northern Italian hospitals overwhelmed during the pandemic. These connected units for respiratory ailments (CURA) help hospitals extend their emergency facilities. Each temperature- controlled pod is equipped to treat two ICU patients, including ventilators, monitors, and stands for intravenous fluid dispensation. To make sure that the atmosphere is clean, an extractor fills the space with negative pressure, which greatly reduces the spread of airborne diseases. The units were also designed with families in mind: Two windows carved into the container let people check on their sick loved ones and allow doctors to monitor progress. The designers of CURA also outlined tech specs in opensource files available online so that…

TRUEBIRD THE COFFEE ROBOT The automated coffee machine continues to be a sad, vestigial organ of hospital cafeteria culture. So when Jonas Damon (pictured, right), former VP of concepts studio at Starbucks and current chief design officer at the robotic coffee startup Truebird, was figuring out how to package an automated coffee kiosk of the future, he recognized that it had to break old conventions and find its own identity. “We sit somewhere on the spectrum from vending machine to coffee shop,” says Damon. “We obviously want to be closer to a coffee shop. And part of being a coffee shop is it’s architectural in nature.” Damon’s team chose to hide away Truebird’s mechanical features, such as automated milk dispensers, to create a machine accented to evoke an inviting café…

WALMART SHOPPING CONVENIENCE ●HEALTH ●DATA DESIGN ●APPS & GAMES Most people don’t associate Walmart, the original big-box store, with good design. But under VP and head of design Valerie Casey, who has worked at the world’s three most iconic design firms- Pentagram, Ideo, and Frog-that’s changing. “Hundreds of millions of people walk into a Walmart each week,” Casey says. “How do we convert [them] to more satisfied shoppers with digital tools?” Case in point: Ordering grocery pickup from Walmart is now a smoother process than getting grocery delivery from Amazon Prime Now. Walmart lets you add additional items to your order after checkout (Amazon doesn’t), and the company doesn’t increase its shelf prices for the convenience of pickup or delivery (which, during COVID-19, has allowed customers to social distance without…

WORKPLACE • WORKPLACE • WORKPLACE • STUDIO O+A MCDONALD’S INNOVATION CENTER The playful redesign of the McDonald’s Innovation Center, in Romeoville, Illinois, was the brainchild of Studio O+A. The colorful space is decorated with oversize graphics of patent designs and other innovation-themed images, while large glass doors and windows and writable surfaces encourage employees working on technological and culinary creations to intermingle and take their work anywhere- a departure from the building’s previous, mazelike layout.…

MOST MEANINGFUL WNBA players Before the season opener, Layshia Clarendon and Breanna Stewart leave the court in protest of Breonna Taylor’s killing. Players later strike because of the Kenosha shooting. Delta Air Lines The carrier establishes a strict enforcement policy for passengers to wear masks, ejecting more than 100 people for not complying. Sony Interactive Some gamers trash the sequel to the video game The Last of Us because of its inclusion of an LGBTQ character, but Sony dismisses the criticism and the game sets sales records. Walmart It commits $100 million to create a center for racial equity, improve access to Walmart for minority suppliers, hire nonviolent former prisoners, and recruit more at HBCUs. Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier, a Black man, expresses outrage at the George Floyd killing, saying…

Once a pot of water is boiling, it takes less than 10 minutes to turn a box of Annie’s mac and cheese into a bowl of warm, creamy goodness. But that convenience belies a complex ongoing effort on the part of the organic food pioneer’s parent company, General Mills, to enable the product to do vastly more. The 154-year-old consumer packaged goods giant has emerged as a leading champion of regenerative farming practices, which sequester carbon in the soil rather than releasing it into the atmosphere, where it contributes to global warming. As climate change imperils food systems around the world, disrupting the supply chains that General Mills relies on to make Cheerios cereals, Yoplait yogurts, and more, the company’s executives, looking to mitigate risk, have found themselves taking a…

Data tells a story, and when it’s in the hands of Mona Chalabi, data editor for The Guardian U.S., the tale can be riveting. The London-born, New York-based journalist of Iraqi descent has made a career of creating striking visualizations that highlight unexpected issues ranging from female hairremoval to anti-Semitism in Europe, which have been shared as many as 2.2 million times on her personal Instagram account. Recently, she has garnered attention for depicting statistics related to the novel coronavirus and police brutality targeting Black people in the United States. Here, Chalabi- who has also hosted and produced Strange Bird, a Guardian podcast on how numbers shape our lives-talks about bias in data collecting, how she developed her signature style, and why she makes graphics for her least-informed reader first.…

Finnish designer Nicholai Wiig Hansen’s Raawii Strøm jug was inspired by the geometric shapes of Cubism and the vibrant hues of Danish artist Vilhelm Lundstrøm’s still life paintings. The ceramic pitcher, which is handmade in Portugal, comes in two sizes and several colors, including vivid yellow and muted blue and green. It adds a playful pop of color to a kitchen counter, and can be used as a vase to brighten up any room. ($82, dwr.com)…

What’s your best habit, and what’s your worst? I never quit, and I never quit (so I don’t get enough sleep). Is there a famous person you admire? Ava DuVernay. What is the buzzword you never want to hear again? Six Sigma. What’s the best mistake you ever made? Writing an op-ed against the Iraq War as a news employee at an NBC affiliate in 2004 that accidentally had my work email on it. Did you have a career fork in the road? Quitting my job in local news over my objections to the Iraq War (after the oped I mentioned) to work on [the John Kerry campaign] against George W. Bush, in 2004. That move launched me into campaign politics, steered me into talk radio, and set up my…

INVEST IN COMMUNITY DEFINE YOUR PURPOSE BE AUTHENTIC BRING DEMOCRACY TO WORK CURIOSITY IS CURRENCY CHANGE IS CONSTANT “SOMETHING IS HAPPENING, AND IT AFFECTS US ALL. A GLOBAL REVOLUTION IS CHANGING BUSINESS AND BUSINESS IS CHANGING THE WORLD.” THAT WAS HOW COFOUNDERS BILL TAYLOR AND ALAN WEBBER INTRODUCED FAST COMPANY to readers in November 1995. “A new generation is rewriting the rules of business,” they added, and they emblazoned these new tenets on the cover: Work Is Personal. Computing Is Social. Knowledge Is Power. Break the Rules. Taylor and Webber’s manifesto proved prescient. But 25 years later, as society confronts a global pandemic, the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, and demands to end systemic racism (on top of climate change and growing income inequality), it’s time to rewrite the…

CURRENT ENCRYPTION LEVELS OF FACEBOOK’S THREE MESSAGING APPS WHATSAPP End-to-end encryption MESSENGER* Link (standard) encryption INSTAGRAM DIRECT No encryption * Messenger’s “Secret Conversations” feature offers end-to-end encryption. HOW DOES END-TO-END ENCRYPTION WORK? WHY IT’S CONTROVERSIAL 1 IT ABSOLVES A PLATFORM FROM RESPONSIBILITY Because Facebook can’t read the communications being sent, it may be relieved of its current burden of content moderation. 2 GOVERNMENTS HATE IT Officials complain that end-toend encryption creates a “safe space” for criminals and have demanded a “back door” to access end-to-end encrypted messages. 3 IT SHIELDS BAD BEHAVIOR During recent elections in Brazil, Nigeria, and India, WhatsApp enabled the spread of disinformation and misinformation, largely unbeknownst to the public. WHY IT’S ATTRACTIVE TO TECH COMPANIES 1 IT MAKES THEIR SERVICES MORE APPEALING Users like the idea…

UCLA ART STUDIOS When architecture firm Johnston Marklee set out to transform a 70-year-old factory for the UCLA Margo Leavin Graduate Art Studios, it wanted to “honor the legacy of the building and the rawness of the space” even as it reimagined all 48,000 square feet, according to partner Sharon Johnston. That meant creating a mix of public and private spaces that were flexible and nonhierarchical to reflect the spirit of the school. The three covered yards create an “umbrella” around the building to help keep it cool.…

NEWLAB STARTUP COMMUNITY On its surface, Newlab might seem impossible to run remotely. The 84,000-squarefoot space in the Brooklyn Navy Yard functions as a collaborative work space, innovation lab, and prototyping facility for everything from robotics to aerospace. (Member companies pay to use the space, affording them access to staff and facilities; Newlab sometimes invests in these companies as well.) But when New York City locked down as COVID-19 hit in early March, Newlab kicked into an even higher gear. Almost immediately, cofounder Scott Cohen enlisted members of the Newlab community to get two projects running: a COVID-19 tracker and a ventilator. The first was developed through AppliedXL, a company spun out of Newlab a few months earlier that takes a journalistic approach toward data, using it to tell a…

HYUNDAI E V CHARGER A dozen major auto manufacturers are now building electric vehicles, but the charging ports are all over the place. Some companies design on the front of the vehicle, others on the back or side. As Hyundai planned its first public charging stations in Seoul, the company tapped McKinsey to design a more universal charger that could accommodate as many brands as possible. The result, the Hyundai Hi-Charger, is a beacon, featuring a glowing halo overhead. This halo rotates and drops the cable in just the right spot, depending on the make and model of your vehicle. “So much inspiration came from self-serve car washes,” says Jeff Salazar, a partner at McKinsey San Francisco. “They have the sprayer hanging down from the top and it kind of…

UNOCUP SUSTAINABLE CUP Tom Chan was just a sophomore at Cooper Union in 2015 when he came up with the original Unocup concept: a single unit with an origami-like lid that you fold into place to seal liquid inside, eliminating the need for single-use plastic lids. Countless coffee-shop interviews and more than a thousand prototypes later, he and longtime friend Kaanur Papo founded Unocup, in 2019. Funded by a Kickstarter campaign, they are now marketing their cup, a 100% plastic-free, compostable unit that replaces the traditional lid with paper folds that seal the drink tightly. “When people think of sustainable solutions,” Papo says, “they think of certain compromises that have to be made. What’s really exciting about this is that it’s a sustainable and practical solution at the same time.”…

IKEA / WORK & CO CONSUMER PRIVACY For all their talk of transparency, most companies continue to make it difficult for consumers to exert control over their personal data. Ikea wanted to approach the issue differently, and collaborated with digital product firm Work & Co on a new set of digital tools that put privacy front and center. Customers can choose if and how their browsing and purchase histories are used to inform product recommendations, as well as how long Ikea keeps their data. Unlike many sites, which make privacy options almost impossible to find, Ikea’s data controls are seamlessly integrated into the shopping experience— users can swipe up to view and change their preferences at any time. “There is real value being exchanged,” says Dever Thomas, associate design partner…

GOOGLE NEST MINI Like its predecessor, the second generation of Google’s compact and affordable smart speaker, released in October 2019, lets users play music, make phone calls, control home appliances, and use the internet, all through voice control. It features the same soft fabric texture and circular shape, blending unobtrusively into homes. But Google updated the device with a larger speaker and a machine learning chip so that it responds more quickly to user questions, with better sound quality. The company also integrated a notch to give customers more options for wall mounting and added another color, a soft blue called Sky, to the existing Charcoal, Chalk, and Coral choices. Another innovation: 100% of the new Mini’s outer casing is made from post-consumer recycled plastics, and the external enclosure is…

1 NOÉ, 6* Tampere, Finland Perfected ear - splitting screech that abbreviates tutoring sessions 2 HANUNI, 5 Mombasa, Kenya Repurposed expired N95 masks to design a new line of hats for puppies 3 BERNARDO, 3 Sao Paulo Secured R$30 angel round from dad for return of golf clubs used to build fort 4 CYNTHIA, 5 Flint, Michigan Designed energy - frее household intercom system using duct tape and TP rolls 5 HARPER, 4 Auckland, New Zealand Created belly button plug to tease her brother about the “grotty hole” in his stomach 6 NIC, 2 West London, England Scored a six-figure sponsorship for his “milky tea mustaches” Instagram…