Arrive Magazine - May/June, 2007

CEO Scott Griffiths rebranded Zipcar as a cost-effective alternative for people who don’t need a car every day.

both sides of the income gap, Wright went from a young woman with no Wall Street network to one of the most well-connected businesswomen in New York.

Lease Nation

Daniel Nissanoff

Consultant and author of FutureShop: How the New Auction Culture Will Revolutionize the Way We Buy, Sell and Get the Things We Really Want

In his 2006 book, FutureShop, Daniel Nissanoff argued that before the Internet auction sites like eBay let us sell everything, people bought things and owned them until they broke or became obsolete. Today, consumers can easily find buyers for used items before their value dissipates. He predicts that in the future we’ll become a nation of “leasers”—consumers who view the value of an item based on its original cost minus what we’ll make when we resell it. If his theory plays out, the paradigm shift would place the consumer, not the manufacturer or retailer, in control of a product’s supply chain.

The book has become a must-read in the business world, especially the retail industry, which was “totally blindsided by this trend,” Nissanoff says. “They stood on the sidelines watching eBay and they never understood the level of connectivity that consumers have with one another. Consumers are taking control of the supply chain, and ultimately, the brand.” His provocative theories have made Nissanoff a regular speaker and consultant at companies hoping to prepare for a future in which consumers won’t want a single product, but access to a stream of constantly upgraded products and a forum to resell them. “It’s better for society and consumers to shift to a more efficient way of living which involves sharing of resources,” Nissanoff says.

Assumption Junction
Sarah Ruhl

Playwright, MacArthur “genius grant” recipient

It’s been a heck of ride for Sarah Ruhl, and it just started. The new mom was nominated for a 2005 Pulitzer Prize and a $500,000 MacArthur

“genius grant” in 2006 for her play The Clean House, which explores an uptight, white doctor couple, their fiery Brazilian housekeeper who dreams of being a stand-up comedian and the assumptions that finally fall apart to reveal their true natures. The play completed an acclaimed run at the Newhouse Theatre at Lincoln Center in January. Her work Passion Play also deals with role-playing, theatricality and typecasting, this time literally, and charts

the production of the Passion play in three different times and countries. As an undergrad at Brown University in Providence, R.I., Ruhl, whose mother was a theater actress, fancied herself a poet. But after taking a playwriting class with a professor who promised to be her thesis adviser if she wrote a play, she was smitten.