Kate Rockwood - Business

Rising Dough

katerock — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 17:45:34 -0400

Mention Panera Bread and fans are as likely to praise the free Wi-Fi as they are to gush about the Asiago cheese bagels. And that, execs at the $2.6 billion restaurant chain say, is the point. Originally published October 2009, Fast Company magazine

Applaud: Congratulations, Graduates!

katerock — Sun, 11 May 2008 18:20:35 -0400

It's diploma season again, which means not only that a new batch of students will soon be facing the reality of the workplace but also that universities will be handing out honorary degrees. A look at several honorees—and how they earned their doctorates.

Originally published June 2008, Fast Company magazine

How We Compare

katerock — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 15:21:26 -0500

Not too many years ago, an experienced linguist could listen to a local news broadcast and guess by the announcer's accent where the show originated. That's probably unlikely today. The relentless mobility of Americans and the booming mass media, among other things, have scoured many of the regional distinctions across the country. With that in mind, we thought it would be interesting to see how the nation's five biggest cities compared across a range of business, social, and cultural categories...

Originally published February 2006, Chicago magazine

Growth Points

katerock — Sun, 11 May 2008 20:03:07 -0400

You can see it in their stats and in their cityscapes: These 12 Fast Cities around the globe are thriving. We'll be watching these nodes of creativity and innovation this year and beyond—we're expecting big business and big things.

Originally published June 2008, Fast Company

Chicago Soul Sidebar

katerock — Sun, 11 May 2008 19:43:54 -0400

Chicago is the creative capital of the universe. Discuss.

"Big yes! A great creative place has to have great art, great food, and a combination of beauty and grit to be inspired by. Chicago has all of that." —Brad Morris, Second City ensemble member

Originally published June 2008, Fast Company

June Now: Fast Company Calendar

katerock — Sun, 11 May 2008 18:12:28 -0400

Buy: Wal-Mart Annual Shareholders Meeting:

Call it what you will: a pep rally, an old-fashioned Arkansas revival, a Peoples Temple brimming with Kool-Aid and those creepy Wal-Mart smiley faces. We still can't wait to see what kind of hoopla the WMT annual meeting generates this year, with the company's investors and employees expected to pack an 18,000-seat arena near its Bentonville headquarters...

Originally published June 2008, Fast Company magazine

May Now: Fast Company Calendar

katerock — Sun, 11 May 2008 18:02:28 -0400

Wrap: The Packaging Summit

Coffee lids that change from crimson to mauve as the cup's contents cool. Sex-toy filled tubes for hotel minibars. Pop-top plastic fruit containers to replace metal cans. Before innovations like these get to consumers, they're shown at the Packaging Summit, home to the Ameristar Awards (aka "the Oscars of packaging").

Originally published May 2008, Fast Company

Dead Man Running Sidebars

katerock — Sun, 11 May 2008 06:00:03 -0400

AOL's Greatest Hope:

With the online-ad market expected to hit $42 billion by 2011, AOL's headlong rush into advertising makes plenty of sense. Following the 2004 purchase of Advertising.com, the company has gone on an acquisition bender, snapping up specialized ad servers with the intention of building the world's largest third-party network, dubbed Platform A. Here's how it all fits together.

Originally published April 2008, Fast Company

April Now: Fast Company Calendar

katerock — Sun, 11 May 2008 06:00:02 -0400

Illuminate: Light + Building:

This biennial, which bills itself as "the world's biggest innovation platform for lighting," puts the sector's smaller trade shows into the shadows. (Lightfair, we're talking about you.)

Originally published April 2008, Fast Company

Zipcar Makes the Leap Sidebar

katerock — Sat, 10 May 2008 20:32:21 -0400

With Car Sharing, More Means Less

As car sharing gets bigger (thanks largely to Zipcar), so does the ecological impact: fewer cars on the road and tons less CO2 emissions in the air.

Originally published March 2008, Fast Company