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John Warrillow, author of Built to Sell, answers questions from readers about building a sellable business. Dear John: I've had my company up and running for five years. We've gotten past the start-up days where it felt like survival most of the time.

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CEOs of two breakthrough, webby businesses show Fast Company how office policies built on frankness, trust, and occasionally awkward closeness engender a culture of success. Inside the multi-million dollar video streaming giant, Hulu CEO Jason Kilar has gone to extraordinary lengths to subvert his own power: He has no office, has a makeshift desk partly built from empty boxes, and personally takes each new hire out to lunch to learn what he or she thinks the company can do better.

From work to play, how can someone get the most out of what they do? We continue our Leadership Hall of Fame series, a year-long look at the top business books and authors, with an excerpt from Flow (1990) by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi

When she wasn't satisfied with her career choice, Anne-Marie Faiola decided to make a business out of what she knew how to do best: Make soap. You could say Anne-Marie Faiola made a clean getaway from her original profession of choice: Corrections officer. In December of 1998, then 20-year-old Faiola left the justice system because "it wasn't terribly satisfying or a good fit," she says.

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Good managers know that happy employees are loyal, productive employees. Below are seven areas to improve employee satisfaction. Employee attitudes typically reflect the moral of the company.

I'm not a born networker. I go to a lot of events and conferences, but I'm not great at walking up to strangers, unless I have a specific goal in mind. Even when I do go home with a fistful of business cards, there's a good chance they'll wind up crammed in the back of a drawer

Scott Harrison was 28 years old, sitting on a beach in Uruguay with a model girlfriend, a Rolex watch and a BMW waiting nearby—a life the nightclub promoter in New York City had been chasing after for nearly 10 years—when he realized (in his own words) "what a selfish scumbag" he was. His entire adult life had been geared towards serving himself and the club patrons, and when he had done nothing to help others, it made him step back. Seven years removed from that day on the beach, Harrison is still in New York, heading up charity: water , a non-profit organization that has delivered clean drinking water to over 1 million underserved people in 17 different countries, and aspires to help more than 100 million in the next ten years.

The environment in which a business must grow is an unpredictable terrain. Rises and dips in markets, sudden technological breakthroughs, and a finicky consumer base can all render a company's original business model obsolete.

A few days ago , I met Ben, a first-time founder who's been working on his business idea for 10 months. I asked him to give me the two minute overview of his business idea (or the "elevator pitch" in investor speak)

Walmart, that bastion of cheap food, clothing, and everything in between, has corporate-responsibility goals that put every other big box retailer to shame . When Walmart asks its 60,000 suppliers to shape up, the world listens; a demanding packaging goal will have companies the world over scrambling to fit the requirements (for both Walmart and the inevitable copycat retailers that jack up their requirements later). In Walmart's 2011 Global Responsibility Report , we get a glimpse at just how far along the company is in meeting its ultra-ambitious goals

Timberland is being refreshingly honest about not hitting its greenhouse gas-reduction goals. "We have to fix our business process fundamentally," CEO Jeff Swartz tells us. If they can't do it, though, how can anyone

Does your company "aim to be a leader of quality products, customer service, and innovation for tomorrow?" So do thousands of others. Sure, this statement sounds nice, but it means very little to your customers—and employees. An intelligible mission statement is essential to clarify the intentions of your business.

Preparing for international travel is unlike planning a business trip within one's own country.