Razor Sharp

Most net surfers have seen Web pages designed by Razorfish, Inc. But to call Razorfish a Web design company is like calling Honda a company that makes engines — there’s a lot more to it. Razorfish says that its mission is to help companies manage digital change. Its business combines the functions of a traditional ad agency with the technical chops of a precocious and inventive computer consultant, and throws in an overlay of dot-com business-speak about transforming society. The Internet press calls the company, and its competitors such as AGENCY.com, Ltd., and MarchFirst, Inc., “digital service providers.”

Whatever it’s called, Razorfish has been good at it. Through assiduous cultivation of big-name clients like Charles Schwab and Co., Inc., Time Warner Inc., and Microsoft Corporation, and acquisition of U.K. design shop Sunbather and other Internet companies like Sweden’s Spray Network, Razorfish is now a big, public business, employing more than 1,500 people worldwide. And a lot of them, all blessed with stock options, are just barely out of school.