Reviews For Fast Company Magazine


New Ideas

I really have been enjoying this magazine. It explores new companies and why they are being successful. I also really like the emphasis of the Green companies and their importance. I also like that the companies they feature are usually pretty different. Learning is a good thing.

I read every issue completely

We have a subscription to "Fast Company" at work and I read every issue completely. That is because I feel that it is written for a "normal" person like me, not for some high-level manager or economic professor in his ivory tower.

I also have to add that I find it easy to understand and sort of entertaining - something I cannot say about other business publications I sometimes browse in.

I like that it is a magazine that focuses on our/ my full life and not on business only - therefore I'd almost call it a lifestyle magazine.


Recommended:
Yes

Recommended For: Professional development

When there is no best model.....

Found a company?! No way, at least it'll never be me.

If the main reason you think this way is because the idea of being a CEO is too large a scale for you. Take a look of this mag.

In the MBA program, I have to study lots of business models, cases and theories. However, all those models seem to be great--in theory, all the cases keep me doubt that why those companies can keep running even with great deficiency, and theoretically, one can never lose money in option--but fact is chance to be broke is high.

What do these have anything to do with "Fast Company"? Sure they are. all the materials I study in the grad school only keeps me more and more conservative and intimidate to fulfill my dreams. However, I can see how differently the real world runs in this mag.

Fast company provides the best model for the Internet era--your own model. This is not a joke. Nowadays, everything changes with incredible speed. How could any business model be suitable for world changing so fast? The best part of this mag is that it, unlike other mags, provides not only business news, but also the opinions and experiences of those who really practice their own model. And from these stories, we can absorb lots of knowledge and courage, which is the most essential virtue of entrepreneur.

Need some advise for your business? Go get one, you won't regret.


Recommended:
Yes

Fast Company In A Fast Startup Time

This is one of the magazines that is truly the sign of the times. Yes, the times are all ebusiness-related. This is the greatest time to have a business on the great WWW. With a publication such as Fast Company, you are sure to find all the ideas you need to get your own company started. The magazine has a fun group of writers that present the issues in a very entertaining way. The first time I ran into this magazine, I could not believe my eyes. I found so many interesting articles that I ended up losing an appointment I was going to. I found exactly what I needed in one of its issues.

For the most part, you will encounter articles that take you inside and behind the scenes of the hot startups and IPOs. The writers do a wonderful job of digging hard enough to bring us news that we could use. Except in some rare issues won't you find interesting articles that you even want to copy. I encourage you to go out and buy a copy of this magazine. If you want, you can subscribe to it to make life easier. It will soon catch up with the likes of Business 2.0 and Red herring that have already broken records in terms of subscriptions and demand.


Recommended:
No

FC: the 1st Magazine for the New World of Work

I picked up my first copy of Fast Company about 3 1/2 years ago, and started a subscription immediately. I was drawn to its profiles of innovative companies and individuals, setting many of the new work trends and issues we now take for granted (such as work/life balance, innovative employee rewards, and the fight for talent in the booming economy.)

The magazine content is driven by its founders' core themes:

New Ways of Working
The Digital Domain
Careers
New Logic of Competition
Learning
Change
Leadership
Social Justice
Innovation and Creativity
Coping
Design
Neoleisure

Each issues contains articles that cover these core themes, with some issues containing a fatter than normal section that explores one theme, such as careers, in more detail.

Each month, I've watched the issues get fatter and fatter, but much of this new heft appears to be advertising, not new content. And though Fast Company once was alone in their niche, many new e-biz titles are now on your newsstands -- such as eCompany Now, Business 2.0, Upside, and too many more to list.)

Luckily, it appears they've taken notice of what's working for their competitors. For the past few years, they've hosted "Fast Company Real Time" conferences, giving readers a chance to hear from the magazine's founders and some of the people profiled by Fast Company while discussing the core themes with others. The local "cells" that bring together readers on a city-by-city basis also help the magazine become more than just another publication as far as its integration into its subscriber's daily work lives.

I love their fresh print design, and their writers, and frequently visit their web site to refer friends to the career-related articles. I hope they are able to continue to compete with the many other "New World of eWork" magazines.


Recommended:
Yes

Recommended For: Personal and professional reasons
Primary Reason for Buying: News/Current Events

Insightful

Great business magazine. FRESH outlook. New perspective like actually getting into the meat of business. Deals with the heart of the issues. Why read those other magazines that tell you "they readjusted their priorities" and turned it around. Ever want to know how they readjusted their priorities? Want the meat. The beef? It's in here. I've read Success magazine for years and simply got tired of their trimming articles to the extent there isn't much of value left in them other than for inspiration. Inspiration is great, but isn't enough if you are looking for in depth solutions.


Recommended:
Yes

Recommended For: Personal and professional reasons
Primary Reason for Buying: Articles

THE magazine for the fast new economy

In the last three or four years, we've seen the old economy model turned upside down. Tech companies, specifically the ones that had to do with the Internet, sprung up faster than mushrooms after a rainy day. There were the heady optimists who claimed that the dot-coms would rule the world, that this was no bubble. Then there were the naysayers - including respectable publications like Barron's that claimed that something has to give, and eventually we'd see the stocks come crashing down.

If you're like me, you yearn for a magazine that tries to comprehend the new economy. "Tries" is of course the operative word: we are not sure what will happen, but we can try to understand why this is happening now. That is Fast Company's best contribution: it does a great job building a model to explain the new economy, and why companies like Yahoo have such a huge market cap. It tries less to PREDICT the future - it tries to EXPLAIN the present - and lets YOU draw your own conclusions. I, for example, was impressed by their argument about Yahoo's evaluation. (Fast Company's take is that with 120 million users, Yahoo has tremendous growth potential - and investors are betting on the company taking advantage of this user-base.)

And then there is the whole format and attitude of the magazine: it's hip, cool, and so un-businesslike in their approach. There have insights into so many things - leadership, work-life balance, creativity ... this is more than a business magazine: it covers your lifestyle as a member of the new economy.

Fast Company is almost the one-stop shop for surviving - and prospering in the new economy. And it does that by raising interesting, and cogent, arguments to explain how this fast new world is operating.






Recommended:
Yes

Recommended For: Personal and professional reasons
Primary Reason for Buying: Editorials/Social commentary

Once rock-solid, now merely good

Nearly every fledgling business magazine that appears on the shelves has patterned itself to be a copycat of the style established in the early days of Fast Company: The magazine was as good as it's mantra, and the bimonthly magazine was filled with relevant information in the internet era.
As time has passed, the once rock-solid publication has slipped a little, once focusing on strategies, ideas, and new ways of doing old business, now it focuses on "free agency" and "Are You Happy At Work?" stories.
While this does focus on the growing idea that work can somehow be meaningful and fulfilling, simply repeating issue after issue that readers should strike out and find a better job, better career, better company,does not create an entire circle of meaningful work. Fast Company has spent less and less time talking about what to do when you find a job you like...and how to go from there.
I still think Fast Company is putting out one of the better magazines, but it's no longer the undisputed best. I once referred to Fast Company that it " actually is what every other business magazine claims to be "..now I can't really say that applies, but given the concepts the magazine was founded on, I wouldn't count on the magazine resting on past success.


Recommended:
Yes

Recommended For: Personal and professional reasons
Primary Reason for Buying: Articles

Get on the inside track

I subscribed to Fast Company over a year ago and can't get enough of it. It's great for anyone working in corporate business environments. FC does a great job of keeping you informed of different outlooks on business and different techniques/theories that have evolved.

It's especially great for young executives looking to plan their careers or anyone looking for a better way to work. The articles cover every aspect of business (including the "behind the scenes" events that have huge ramifications on your work).

The only negative is the size of the magazine. If you read other magazines, you'll have trouble completing this one before the next issue arrives, but this also means there is plenty of insightful articles and information.

Along with Fortune, this magazine is a must-have for those serious about pursuing their careers.


Recommended:
Yes

Back on track...

A ground-breaking magazine when it first came out, Fast Company kind of fell apart after the Dot-Com bubble. It was almost like they stopped employing journalists. Now it seems to be finding its way again by focusing on leadership, entrepreneurship, innovation and creativity rather just on the latest technology craze (there are blogs for that). This is a worthwhile subscription to have if you are interested in what's happening now and what's next in today's information economy.

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