Stories by Matt Villano

Starting a Startup Life

Arthur Tisi lays big bear hugs on first-time visitors, disarming them to the point of laughter. Over the course of a normal 10-hour day, he slams back half a dozen bottles of neon-blue Powerade, eats three (sometimes four) containers of fruit salad and checks his e-mail at least 40 times. During meetings, he treats the conference table like a set of drums, thumping the floor with his feet while tapping the tabletop in syncopated rhythm. At lunch, he blows off steam with what he calls "retail therapy," impromptu jaunts to the designer stores that line Madison Avenue, in search of stuff he says every self-respecting man should buy--shirts, slacks, Mont Blanc pens and the occasional ring for the missus.

Wall Street Rush Hour

Every weekday morning around 8:45, the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Inc. comes to life. Traders dart from broker booths to trading specialists, scribbling quotes on tiny pieces of pink paper. The specialists themselves are hard at work too, using specially designed keyboards to scroll through pages of data. This pace crescendos until the bell kicks off trading at 9:30 a.m., when it becomes downright frenetic. Scampers become sprints. Typing becomes flailing. For a few moments, the 3,300 people who live and die on the floor of the world's largest exchange are moving as quickly as humans possibly can.

Industry Close Up: Travel Agencies

Years ago, Chicago-based McCord Travel Management oversaw travel policies for its 2,000 corporate clients from a network of call centers. Business travelers who needed to know if their plans complied with their company's policy had to submit requests by fax, and agents wouldn't respond for 24 to 48 hours. Clients found this waiting period annoying, says Paul Craft, McCord's vice president of technology, and they pleaded for improvement.

Tech as a Cure to the Health Care Waiting Game

The best-laid schemes of mice and men often go awry. So, roughly, wrote the poet Robert Burns back in 1785. And so it was when Penn State University's Milton S. Hershey Medical Center merged with nearby Geisinger Health System in July 1997 to create the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania-based Penn State Geisinger Health System.

Business Strategy: A Smile Makes a Lousy Umbrella

Back in 1818, when the country was young and James Monroe was president, a New England farmer named David Young published a tome that revolutionized agribusiness forever. The Farmers' Almanac was a compendium of facts and figures intended to provide readers with moral guidance and the wherewithal to make "sound and healthy" life decisions. Young organized this information into three major categories: astronomy, gardening and, most important, weather.