Is it just us or does Fast Company have an odd policy when it comes to deciding who should feature on their cover (and even in their articles)? Sure, we love some of the writing in the magazine but why on earth would a magazine that is supposed to be future focused feature Intel or Nokia as their cover stories?
And we’re not the only ones who don’t rank those companies highly – their employees don’t either. A survey by Glassdoor.com has employee approval rating of their bosses. While Steve Jobs got a 90% mark, Paul S. Otellini of Intel got a 62% and Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo of Nokia only got a 56%.
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No it’s not just you. I was thinking the same thing when I read the Nokia story about how they want to rule the world, bla…
October 24th, 2009 at 10:23 pm
Piers –
As someone who used to (for nearly a decade) work in business media, it’s actually a very simply answer: advertising $.
The truly revolutionary, new companies don’t have the budgets to advertise — and likely wouldn’t spend their money in FastCompany even if they did have the funds.
So, under the veneer of innovation, you curry favor with the companies that do spend — and would love nothing more than having the “innovator” stamp placed upon them.
In the biz press, Fast Company and Fortune are both notorious for this — as was Business 2.0 back in the day, in both its incarnations.
(And, er, hopefully this wasn’t just a rhetorical question on your part, pointing out an annoying situation. ;>)
Cheers,
Josh
October 25th, 2009 at 11:01 pm
I was wondering the same thing myself actually! I haven’t renewed my subscription for this very reason in fact. I figure I’ll just go pick up the Masters of Design issue or the 100 Most Creative People in Business when those come out on newsstands.
Josh, thanks for the insight into this. I never even had a clue.
October 27th, 2009 at 10:05 am