Contributors

Pong for corporate training?

True Office aims to turn compliance testing into a videogame-like experience. Will firms pay for their employees to play?

By Alex Konrad, reporter

FORTUNE -- Adam Sodwick wants to make corporate compliance training, er, sexy -- or at least make it more exciting than it is today. That may sound like an uphill battle, but the True Office CEO thinks he has a way to engage employees and make HR folks MORE

How to save social readers from extinction

Users are fleeing pioneering media social readers on Facebook. Here's why — and what publishers can do to save themselves.

By Alex Konrad, reporter

FORTUNE -- So-called social readers -- Facebook apps that facilitate, well, reading -- are based on a simple premise: blending news and social media boosts readership. Like a twenty-first century version of the loud-mouthed newsy on the corner, readers from the likes of The Guardian and The MORE

DoubleTree doubles down on cookies -- and Twitter

How does a hotel chain make itself cool to consumers? DoubleTree figured that pairing a Twitter hashtag with warm cookies and an outdoor tent would help. Did it?

By Daniel Roberts, reporter

FORTUNE -- "Freeeee cookie!" squeals a pedestrian, to no one in particular, after receiving one from a woman in a green DoubleTree t-shirt. The yelp-inducing giveaways in New York City's Flatiron Plaza were part of the hotel chain's so-called MORE

Etsy's secret? The "Cult of Me"

The online marketplace for handmade and vintage goods just scored another $40 million in venture funding. Here's why it's surging.

By Doreen Lorenzo, contributor

FORTUNE -- It's easy to see that many consumers are increasingly seeing themselves as creators, too. Companies that will launch successful products and services in coming years will not only understand this phenomenon, but also embrace and enable it.

The reasons why are all around us. On the MORE

Entrepreneurs should be watching Africa

Many investors and philanthropists still miss two important points about how and why many of the continent's investors are succeeding.

By Tony O. Elumelu, contributor

FORTUNE -- The turnaround of Africa's economy gets a lot of attention. Yet, despite a gradual evolution in thinking, many investors and philanthropists still miss two important points about how and why Africa is succeeding: African-led entrepreneurship is growing rapidly and needs to be encouraged further; MORE

The "random collision" theory of innovation

Leaders tend to surround themselves with people who are like them. Creating environments where "unusual suspects" can meet is the key to generating new business ideas.

By Saul Kaplan, contributor

FORTUNE -- Collaborators are everywhere. You will find them in the gray areas between silos. Just look up from your current business model. Seek out difference and gather often across boundaries, disciplines, and sectors. Be open and be curious. Beware of MORE

It's dangerous to depend on natural gas

Today's natural gas market is still vulnerable. We should take advantage of our domestic energy resources, including nuclear energy.

By Christine Todd Whitman

FORTUNE -- The United States needs an "all of the above" energy strategy that focuses on low-carbon electricity sources that will lower energy costs, reduce dependency on foreign fuel sources and promote clean electricity. This is a prudent strategy to help drive American manufacturing and transportation networks of the MORE

MercadoLibre: How it rules the Latino Internet

The Argentina-based online marketplace has weathered political and economic storms over the last decade and come out on top.

By Richard McGill Murphy, contributor

FORTUNE -- Founded in 1999, Marcos Galperin's Argentine startup was the only Latin American dotcom to survive the 2000 crash and go public. "They placed a bet on e-commerce really early on, and it paid off," says veteran Latin America tech executive Javier Carrique. No kidding. Today MORE

Online video saved the radio star

Online video may yet help beleaguered artists and their labels get back on their feet. Here's how.

By Janet Morrissey, contributor

FORTUNE — In a world of downloads and streams, making money as a musician is not easy. The days when getting one popular song onto Billboard's Top 10 chart brought money, fame and gaggles of adoring fans are long gone. So what's a struggling artist to do?

Gyroskope, a Louisville, Kentucky-based MORE

How Hewlett-Packard lost its way

Léo Apotheker's disastrous tenure as HP's CEO revealed a dysfunctional company struggling for direction after a decade of missteps and scandals. Can his replacement, Meg Whitman, fix the tech giant?

By James Bandler with Doris Burke

FORTUNE -- A few months after she took over as the CEO of Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) last September, Meg Whitman held one in a series of get-to-know-you meetings with employees. To say the audience, a group MORE