Business Magazines Profile Individual Success Stories

Remarkable people grace the covers of business magazines this summer -- but they're not the usual captains of industry who are profiled on a regular basis. Some you've heard of, some you haven't, but all have interesting success stories to share.

In its June issue cover story by Bill Breen, Fast Company introduces readers to 20 innovators who are revolutionizing the business world through design.

But the article begins by explaining why design is so important -- namely because it is through design that a consumer experiences a product.

"In the 90s, companies were beginning to understand that they fashioned products not for retailers, but for the people who would actually use them. Steelcase, Apple and Samsung -- by creating a new generation of cool, human-centered wares -- made the consumer their customer. Design was the differentiator," Breen writes. "A product must speak to a customer's emotions -- and emotions are sparked by design. [Design] reflects the real idea behind a product and, by extension, behind the company that created it."

So the magazine put together a first-of-its-kind report on 20 masters of design, starting with J. Mays, group vice president of global design at Ford Motor Co., who specializes in reinventing the past. His car designs include the Volkswagen New Beetle, the 2002 Ford Thunderbird and the 2005 Ford Mustang. In 2003, the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art featured the first comprehensive museum exhibition devoted to the work of an American car designer in "Retrofuturism: The Car Design of J. Mays."

The list includes Tom Ford, former creative director of Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent. The article credits him with the " elevation of the designer from a creative-class citizen to a celebrified auteur who dominates every aspect of the business." Ford took charge of everything from product design to communications strategies to store décor, and in the process took Gucci from "near-bankrupt also-ran to an icon of high-fashion glamour."

Jonathan Ive, vice president of industrial design of Apple Computer, earns the rank of master for his landmark product designs. "His translucent Power Mac G4 Cube, which resembled postmodern sculpture more than office equipment, proved that computer design could even aspire to high art. But nothing better fulfills Ive's ambition to create elegant, intuitive machinery than his revolutionary design for the iPod MP3 player."

Robyn Waters, founder and president of RW Trend LLC, served as Target's vice president of trend, design, and product development for 10 years until she left to form her own consulting firm in 2002. During her tenure at the retailing giant, she "pioneered the idea that low prices and good design weren't oxymoronic."

Fast Company's list includes many others such as Sam Farber, the inventor of Good Grips, popular kitchen tools that "prove that consumers are indeed willing to pay $6 for a potato peeler that works better and looks great."

Movie star and director Mel Gibson has appeared countless times in entertainment magazines -- he was even People magazine's very first Sexiest Man Alive in 1985 -- but what's he doing on the cover of Forbes this month?

Forbes puts out The Celebrity 100 list every summer, ranking the star power of actors, athletes, models and musicians based on how much they earn and how many people are paying attention to them. Mel Gibson takes the No. 1 spot this year, thanks to his film, "The Passion of the Christ."

The rest of the top 10 includes, in order: Tiger Woods, Oprah Winfrey, Tom Cruise, the Rolling Stones, J.K. Rowling, Michael Jordan, Bruce Springsteen, Steven Spielberg and Johnny Depp.

A place on the Celebrity 100 list is as fleeting as fame itself. Almost 40 percent of the stars on last year's Celebrity 100 didn't make it this year -- Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck, for example.

The magazine profiles a handful of stars. In "King of the Court," writer Kurt Badenhausen looks at why tennis player Andre Agassi is still garnering top dollars from marketers even as he nears the end of his playing days. Author Brett Pulley features film director Peter Jackson in "Hollywood's New King Kong." Matthew Miller focuses on Carson Daly, the former face of MTV, and how he's now less famous but more successful, in "The Daly Grind." In "The Model Mogul," Kiri Blakeley explains why Kathy Ireland has made more money selling her name than her looks.

Money magazine features average folks who have achieved success in the July issue cover story, "How I Made It!"

"Push the traditional trappings of financial success aside -- the big toys, the big house, the even bigger bank account -- and what success boils down to is living life the way you please, and having an impact," the article contends as it examines the hard work and lucky breaks of 20 accomplished people.

Take James Murdock, the 48-year-old founder of Endless Pools, which makes pools that create currents for lap swimmers. Like so many, he financed the business with credit cards. Last year, the company had revenue of $25 million.

Or John Beutler, Century 21 Real Estate's highest commission earner last year, who works in Coeur D'Alene, Idaho (population 36,000), where the average home sells for $132,000 and a sale over $1 million is rare. All the same, Beutler closed 281 sales last year, at an average of more than five a week. Century 21's second-highest earner in the U.S. sold just 48 homes for the year.

Or finally, Toby Cecchini, who became a bartender, first to pay his college loans and then to support his writing, but invented the cocktail of the 90s -- the Cosmopolitan -- along the way. He got a six-figure advance to write about it. "Cosmopolitan: A Bartender's Life" was published last October.

Copyright © 2008 Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism