Not Business As Usual   

It's not that Alan Webber and William Taylor don't like white men in suits. They're just tired of seeing them in magazines such as Fortune and Forbes , pushing the same messages about what's good business.

Webber, 45, and Taylor, 34, are confident their magazine, Fast Company , which debuted in November, won't be business as usual. "Business is becoming a form of personal expression," explains Taylor, who with Webber likes to compare the bimonthly to a hybrid of the hip attitude of Rolling Stone and the stern expertise of the Harvard Business Review , where both had been editors.

The editors believe that "idea merchants" will prevail in the emerging "brain vs. brawn" global economy. For today's "knowledge workers," they explain, "business isn't a chore. It's a culture..an opportunity to create."

Fast Company's first issue offers Tommy Boy Records, a label for rap and pop artists, as a "management model" for the New Economy. The firm has "rap music coming out of loud speakers, with young, enthusiastic people feeling that they're doing something special," notes Taylor. The company is also unusual, he says, because it was founded by a former graduate student in environmental geology and a one-time topless dancer.

Taylor and Webber joined forces after both left the Review. Taylor, an associate editor, departed in 1992 to write a book called "No Excuses Management"; Webber resigned last July as editorial director to plan the magazine.

After signing on various investors, the men asked Roger Black , who has revamped magazines such as Premiere and Esquire , to design the magazine. His bold colors and typefaces support the lively editorial pace.

"Don't think of it as a magazine," says Webber. "Think of it as an album or CD. [Over time], there may be some slower tunes or they may be in a different key."