A work in progress
Kristina Johnson loves a challenge, and she loves serving on the board of directors of Boston Scientific Corp.

Acquisitions put Beacon on top
When mom and pop retire, Beacon Roofing Supply Inc. senses opportunity. Like many companies in the industry, Beacon -- founded in 1928 in Somerville -- was a local small business supplying roofers in the area with items such as shingles, slate, and flashing. In 1984, after it was purchased by Andrew Logie, it embarked on an aggressive nationwide expansion in ...

At Kmart prices
There are company stores, and then there's Reebok's company store: 5,000 square feet of space stocked weekly with the latest items from all the company's brands, many of which are barely available in any mall or department store.

Blue Deep
The companies in the Globe National 25 may call someplace else home, but they do a lot of business in Massachusetts.

Border crossings
They're shaped like pizza boxes, and packed with processors and circuit boards. And their name, "session border controllers," conjures up images of sentries along the Rio Grande.

Bullish on themselves
Most chief executives of Massachusetts companies aren't expecting the state or national economies to go better than sideways in the coming year.

Cashing in
What happens in Vegas . . . can make you the Globe 100 Company of the Year.

China Sales
What do a bank, an insurance provider, a paper products company, and the New England Patriots have in common? Like businesses of all sizes in all kinds of industries in Massachusetts and nationwide, all must figure out and execute a "China strategy."

Financial giant hungers to grow
W hen Ron Logue took over State Street Corp. in 2004, he adopted a simple strategy: Grow fastest where there's growth to be had.

For office space, the price is right
Quality, not quantity: That's the philosophy of Edward H. Linde, chief executive of Boston Properties Inc. , and his team as they buy, develop, manage -- and, when the time is right, sell -- property in Boston and elsewhere.

Fridge Factor
The office refrigerators in the kitchens at First Marblehead Corp., an educational loan firm in Boston, are so sparkling clean and organized that they put any home fridge to shame. Each Tupperware container, Chinese takeout box, bag of fruit, and yogurt is marked with the owner's name. That's because it's the last Friday of the month, fridge-purge day, and everyone ...

Going with the flow
The story of Watts Water Technologies Inc. reflects the forces of globalization, both positive and disruptive.

Hey, Bulldog
Sometimes when you're running a $3 billion company, you just have to be a bulldog. And for inspiration, NStar chief executive Thomas J. May can turn to this pair of cuff links, easily the most colorful response we got to our Globe 100 survey that asked chief executives to name their favorite dress-to-impress wardrobe accessory. May got the pair as ...

How we calculate the numbers
The Globe 100 ranks the best-performing publicly traded corporations based in Massachusetts by how well they increased sales, profits, and returns for shareholders during 2005.

In with the old and in with the new
The Massachusetts economy is coming off its best year since the days of dot-coms and telecoms. Providing a lift this time around: guns, golf balls, and concrete.

I've got an evil scientist
One perk of being a chief executive -- if you're into this kind of thing -- is that you can easily collect thousands of business cards over the years, including a few wacky ones. Like the business acquaintance of Sal Perisano Jr. , head of iParty Corp. , the Dedham party supplies retail chain, who dubs himself "Chief Listener." Or ...

Moguls on moguls
Forget the elevator pitch. If you want some quality time with Boston bigwigs, hop on a ski lift at Beaver Creek Resort in Colorado.

Pick-up tricks
It was the dead of night, 2:45 a.m., when a violent explosion leveled the CAI ink factory in Danvers, destroying houses and triggering a ferocious blaze.

Press 1 for...
"Going green" has a special meaning at Genzyme Corp. Among the many eco-friendly features of its Kendall Square headquarters are bathrooms designed to help Genzyme use 30 percent less water than a normal office building. For men, there are "waterless" urinals, and for both genders, so-called dual flush toilets that -- how can we most delicately put this? -- allow ...

Saudi firm to buy GE division
Saudi Basic Industries Corp., the world's biggest chemical company by market value, agreed to buy General Electric Co.'s plastics unit for $11.6 billion to gain products and operations in the United States, Asia, and Europe.

Skin so smooth
Vanity may be deeply sinful, but to Joseph Caruso it's also highly profitable. Caruso and his company, Palomar Medical Technologies Inc. of Burlington, are cashing on the desires of baby-boomers for smooth, flawless skin.

Stairmaster to heaven
Of course you'd expect an athletic-gear maker like Reebok to have a great gym at work. But the 20 Boston employees of American Well, a software provider for the healthcare industry, have even more incentive to get healthy.

Staples smackdown
Staples made a splash this season on the NBC hit comedy The Office ; its MailMate shredder, introduced on the show, was used to slice everything from credit cards to salad. But The Office wasn't the first foray onto the small screen for Staples. In 2005, a team of Trump wannabes on The Apprentice created the Desk Apprentice, an organizer ...

The first thing we do, let's feed all the lawyers
At lunch today, as you choke down soggy salad from your dreary company cafeteria, try not to envy Steve Cowley.

The paper chase
Staples chief executive Ron Sargent was not a big fan of the NBC hit comedy series, The Office, until the show about a fictional Scranton paper company started talking about the Framingham office-supply behemoth as its main rival.

Tower of Power
John and Pamela Egan's favorite view from high above Boston Common is of the Frog Pond ice rink, where their 16-year-old daughter, a figure skater, performed to open the rink the past two winters. "At night, you can see the lights" of the Frog Pond, John Egan says.

Translating type for a digital age
Despite its small size, Bitstream Inc. of Cambridge has made a big name for itself in the digital text business. Bitstream's font products generate many of the typefaces you see on your computer screen, television, or cell phone. If you work with WebEx Internet conferencing software, or used the onscreen program guide in Comcast's digital cable television service, then you've ...

Two top Pfizer Inc. executives to leave
Pfizer chief executive Jeffrey Kindler proved even those at the top aren't immune to an ongoing companywide transformation late Sunday in revealing the departure of research and development president John LaMattina and chief financial officer Alan Levin.