Tweet This
- 79% of strong innovators have digitized innovation processes versus only 29% of weak innovators.
- 43% of strong innovators are investing in Big Data today versus 26% of weak innovators.
- Stronger innovators scale faster based on their greater skill at using analytics and big data to gain customer and product insights.
- Alibaba, Adidas, Time Warner (acquired by Charter Communications), SAP and InterContinental Hotels Group joined the list for the first time this year.
- Airbnb, SpaceX, Orange, Marriott, and Siemens each moved at least ten positions higher in the rankings this year.
These and many other insights are from the Boston Consulting Group’s 12th annual report defining the world’s most innovative companies in 2018. The Most Innovative Companies 2018, Innovators Go All In On Digital is an insightful, quick, read. Those in engineering, product development, product management and senior management roles will benefit from the lessons BCG shares regarding how to accelerate the innovation process. BCG is also providing a useful Interactive Guide to compare the changing patterns in the last ten years of their analysis of the world’s most innovative companies. The report is available for download here (28 pp., PDF, free). Please see page 23 of the study for details regarding the methodology BCG is using to produce this report annually. The study finds there is a widening gap between strong and weak innovators globally, specifically in the areas of big data analytics, the fast adoption of new technologies, mobile products, and capabilities, and digital design.
Forbes also has an annual list of the world’s most innovative companies you can find here. The methodology Forbes uses is explained in the post, How We Rank The Most Innovative Companies 2017.
Key insights from BCG’s 2018 list of the most innovative companies include the following:
- Four of the ten most innovative companies globally are cloud-based including Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Alibaba. The study notes that seven of the ten most innovative companies excel at digital innovation. BCG finds that when companies capitalize on the four elements of digital innovation including big data analytics, fast adoption of new technologies, mobile products, and capabilities, and digital design, they out-innovate competitors and grow faster than the markets they compete in. The following is BCG’s 2018 lost of the most innovative companies globally.
- Speed of adopting new technologies is the fastest growing area of innovation and new product development, nearly doubling in a year (16% to 30%). Digital design, mobile products and capabilities and big data analytics are additional areas that are highest priority strategies for driving greater innovation.
- Strong innovators are prioritizing mobile products and capabilities at a much higher level than low-innovating companies (42% to 16%). Strong innovators are also concentrating on big data analytics, digital design, and as was mentioned previously, the speed of adopting new technologies. Stronger innovators are also relying on technology platforms as a catalyst for greater innovation (42% to 22%).
- Stronger innovators scale faster based on their greater skill at using analytics and big data to gain customer and product insights, in addition to streamlining digital processes. By being able to interpret and act on data faster using analytics, stronger innovators can more clearly define product profiles, accelerate agile development and streamline digitized processes.
