Seven Day Weekend
Richard Semler has built a company that breaks all the rules. He encourages his employees to play hooky. He tells them not to bother with growth plans. Employees choose their own salaries, set their own hours, and have no job titles. Ridiculous? Inefficient? A recipe for chaos? Perhaps. But Semler's company, Semco, has grown from $35 million in revenue to $212 million in the last six years, and e... posted on Aug 19 2004, 2,532 reads

Minimum Vacation Law
In Germany, the lowest-rung factory worker gets 30 days' paid vacation on average (or 24 days by law.) In France the norm is five to six weeks. Australians get 30 days paid vacation by law and take 25 days on average. Yet these countries maintain high rates of productivity.... posted on Jun 26 2004, 1,353 reads

Indian Spider Man
Spider-man is going global. The Indian version of this comic book superhero -- complete with loincloth, Hindu demons and battle scenes over the Taj Mahal -- is set to be released by Gotham Comics. In what critics are calling "reverse globalisation", Spider-man will become the first western comic book superhero to be re-invented fully - as opposed to translated - for a local audience.... posted on Jun 25 2004, 1,441 reads

Do Good To Fly Free
If you're flying Song Airline, it pays to be nice. The low-cost carrier is giving away free tickets to passengers who are nice to one another. Stash someone else's bag in the overhead compartment, help a flight assistant, or show some other random act of kindness and you could win one of 5000 roundtrip tickets to anywhere that Song flies. Each flight attendant gets four tickets to give away to an... posted on May 26 2004, 2,023 reads

Life Worth Living
Can you run a business with social and economic values? A record-breaking 129 teams from leading business schools across five continents participated in this year's Global Social Venture Competition. Run by Haas School of Business, Columbia Business School, and London Business School, four social venture plans with promise were recently awarded the top prize.... posted on Apr 28 2004, 1,581 reads

Free Culture
The opposite of a copyright is perhaps Lawrence Lessig. Or a "copyleft", as he is often called. He explains that we come from a tradition of "free culture" -- not "free" as in "free beer" but "free" as in "free speech," "free markets," "free trade," "free enterprise," "free will," and "free elections." A free culture supports and protects creators and innovators. The opposite of a free culture ... posted on Apr 07 2004, 1,248 reads

Modern-Day Robin Hood
When she graduated from Harvard in 1985, she wanted to do something meaningful. Now, Laura Scher is something of a modern-day Robin Hood, an entrepreneurial activist who redistributes the wealth of the marketplace to those in need. Instead of advertising, her company -- Working Assets -- donates that money to nonprofits, relying on socially responsible consumers to help them gain market share. ... posted on Apr 01 2004, 2,431 reads

Roots and Wings
It was suppossed to be a routine flat-tire change but the jack slipped and an Oklahoma man was pinned under a large van with no way to escape. A ton of glass and metal were crushing his body, he was quickly turning blue. His three young boys knew they had to do something. So the 13, 11 and 10 year old sons lifted the entire van to rescue their Dad and pull him to safety!... posted on Feb 06 2004, 1,614 reads

The Average Freshman
In Steve Leslie's dorm room at Miami University, there are bunk beds, posters of Led Zeppelin and the Simpsons, and an inflatable palm tree. There's also a plug for every outlet. They power the color TV, stereo, compact disc and DVD players, video game player, desktop computer and laptop, printer, scanner, refrigerator, microwave oven and two fans. Then there are rechargers for a cell phone, hand-... posted on Nov 22 2003, 1,312 reads

A tidy father. A messy bedroom. And a determined teenage daughter. These ingredients spawned a grass-roots charity run by a 17-year-old girl who is donating 400 backpacks stuffed with notebooks, Pokémon folders and pencil boxes to needy kids. Winnie Kao's 'Packs of Love' began in spring 2002 when her father lectured her about the mounds of school supplies cluttering her room and about how privil... posted on Sep 09 2003, 1,007 reads