Business World

Alan Webber, former St. Louisan, co-founder of Fast Company business magazine and author of "Rules of Thumb: 52 Truths for Winning at Business Without Losing Yourself," was back in St. Louis last month to speak to the St. Louis group of Southern Illinois University business school alumni.

Webber writes that "Rules of Thumb" originated as notes on 3×5 cards when a business leader said something insightful, those ah-ha moments that you remember and get you thinking.

In the spirit of the book, the answers in this week’s Five Questions are abbreviated so they could be on 3×5 cards (well, maybe spilling over onto both sides).

As a native St. Louisan back in the city, what do you think of how St. Louis has changed and what lies ahead?

When I was working in the mayor’s office in Portland, we believed that downtown is the heart of the city, and neighborhoods have to have a stake in downtown’s success. The mayor went to Seattle and talked with the Nordstrom folks and sketched out where a store might be built in downtown. That store was an iconic project, and it got the backing of the community.

St. Louis needs an iconic project that the community will buy into and support.

In "Rules of Thumb" I use the metaphor of Zoysia grass. The growth spreads out from one plug that takes root and grows. A great example is Delmar Boulevard and what Joe Edwards has done and what has sprung up from what was one restaurant, Blueberry Hill.

How do you make innovation a part of workplace culture?

Creative ideas often come from other places. In Fast Company we had a piece that interviewed a NASCAR pit crew leader on team building, and another focused on a Native American chief on the importance of tribe because a company’s employees are a tribe.

What’s your take on how newspapers might be able to survive and maybe even thrive again?

Storytelling is important. There are so many ways you can connect with readers so that they feel that it’s time well spent. A newspaper should deliver not what’s nice to know, but what one needs to know no teletrack payday loans.

Rule 15 in the book is all about innovation. It suggests that there are four keys to innovation: Chance, connections, conversations and community. Newspapers have a huge opportunity to harness the energy and imagination of their readers.

A newspaper is no longer a one-way communication. It’s a conversation.

It’s an exciting time. Newspapers aren’t ever going to go back to their glory days. They have to reinvent themselves. And someone somewhere is going to go find something that works and show everyone else the way.

In your book, you write that when interviewing business leaders you often got the most revealing answers when you asked "What keeps you up at night?" and "What gets you up in the morning?" So what keeps you up at night?

The state of education in America worries me. In Santa Fe, where I live, 50 percent of students drop out before graduating. In Los Angeles, the number is even higher. The superintendent there said recently, "I don’t know why we keep trying the status quo because it’s obviously not working."

We need to find a way to engage the community to find something that begins to solve this massive urban problem. Otherwise, people vote with their feet — people choose to raise their kids where there are good schools, and that means cities are losing jobs. The smartest cities are talent magnets.

What would be your 53rd Rule of Thumb?

In the book, I left the 53rd Rule of Thumb blank so readers could write in their own. But I learned a lesson recently while hiking in the Grand Canyon. It’s a core rule of hiking. At the bottom of the canyon is the Phantom Ranch, and as you hike up to the rim of the canyon it’s important that you don’t look up. In business and life, when you are faced with a challenge, take things one step at a time. Focus on what’s in front of you. And you’ll get where you’re going one step at a time.

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