The Fast 50 and what we can learn

Despite being in drastically different fields the companies on the Fast Company’s Fast Fifty list share several fundamental qualities. After going over a few companies we can see already that all of these companies understand the importance of excellence and that profit cannot be the sole objective. A few things they share in common are the support of employee time, awareness, flexibility, and care for consumers, socially driven initiatives, a disposition for experimentation, a clear and often lofty vision and the active pursuit of these goals.

Employee time is a common item accounted for on many of these companies’ budgets. In fact it is encouraged by companies such as Timberland and Google for employees to take time off their current projects and pursue other interests, become involved in community projects, develop personal side projects of their own, or to innovate and enrich their personal portfolio of knowledge. In fact these employee side projects are responsible for a large fraction of overall new innovations that these businesses develop. Innovation is also speeded along by the fact that these companies value employee input and management’s efforts to integrate them are visible so employees feel empowered and take more action to make changes and suggestions as they see fit, thus adding value to companies since this helps them evolve and adapt to business conditions as well as avoid stagnation.

Adaptability is also a common factor among these leading companies, establishments such as Baidu and AirAsia have adapted elegantly to their local consumer. It is not necessarily the fact that these companies cater so well to their consumers that makes them so successful but rather the underlying acumen for what works and what doesn’t. This isn’t to say that these businesses owe their success to unfounded intuitions but rather an acute awareness of their surroundings; in truth they seem to have done their fair share of analyses, applying betas and working out kinks all in the pursuit of high quality service. These companies settle for nothing short of perfection and in fact they may not be able to risk settling for less because of the fast-paced environment in which they live. Baidu for example is a search engine similar to Google which has gained success in China for the simple fact that it is tailored for the Chinese language and is more sensitive to local idiosyncrasies. It also offers incentives for people to use it for features like its point rewards system. AirAsia is unbelievable affordable and offers short-haul flights to popular locales ideal for Asians who must frequent relatives spread around the continent. Not only are these companies aware, but they are also very conscious of today’s informed and inquisitive consumer. Take Whole Foods, it has gone to great lengths to tell produce buyers where their food comes from and how it produced in order to keep consumers informed and satisfied.

In order to survive with all the people in the world and the pace of technology it is also imperative that innovative businesses be able to adapt. Experimentation is vital to innovation, which also comes hand in hand with failure. This is all part of the fine-tuning process when developing new products, services, models or what-have-you. All these companies have realized that although there is cost involved in blunders, the cost of not making mistakes for the sake of improvement is even greater, transcending the profit-driven attitude of yesterday. For example, Timberland has re-structured the company with the objective of becoming carbon neutral by 2010 even at the risk of loss (although they haven’t). IBM, Nintendo are all actively involved in constant exploration and enquiry has led them to hits such as the Wii. These innovations although they may be products of necessity, reinvent industry expectations and continue to raise the bar.

Last but not least all of these companies have a clear and lofty vision and mission statement for the future. Many top companies today operate conscientiously reflecting the values of the times. They seek to differentiate amongst themselves as well as to provide quality of very high calibre. These companies can not benefit very long with first-mover advantages therefore must rely on constant improvement and the pursuit of quality to thrive, not only this but passion above all is the greatest drive behind many business endeavours and can be the distinguishing point between a company that does well and a company that surpasses expectations.

Managers of today can take many cues from what these top fifty companies have achieved and the routes they have taken to reach this point in their progression. Clarity in vision as well as flexibility and a more horizontally skewed attitude towards company hierarchy can go a long way not to mention adaptability. Managers and businesses must find their niche in the ecosystem and interact with it accordingly. In a world of billions, successes and failures are fast to reveal themselves making a constant flow of innovation crucial for breakthroughs as well as a sense of empathy and purpose for the world we live in today.