Technology is not the only industry that knows how to innovate, according to the Boston Consulting Group (BCG). Automotive, consumer, and retail, and industrial products are strong on innovation also. Tech and telecom do dominate the top ten from this recent BCG executive survey. Apple is #1 on the list. Google is #2.
Seven of the top ten places on BCG's list are tech or telecom. Many of these companies have demonstrated impressive staying power in the top rankings:
- Apple has been number one every year since 2005.
- Google has been number two every year since 2006.
- Microsoft has been in the top ten every year since 2005.
- IBM and Sony have been in the top ten nearly every year since 2005.
Since 2004, BCG has surveyed more than 1,500 senior executives in a wide range of countries and industries to help illuminate the state of innovation. In a new report titled The Most Innovative Companies 2012: The State of the Art in Leading Industries, the firm reveals the 50 companies that global executives ranked as the most innovative. You have to register to download the full report, but it is free.
Forbes does its own World’s Most Innovative Companies list, which has its fair share of technology companies, but the Forbes methodology relies on investors. Read Samantha Sharf’s story: The Ten Most Innovative Companies In America (with a link to the 100 companies on this list). You can read how Forbes did theirs: How We Rank The World's Most Innovative Companies.
Companies and organizations like to make lists. MIT does its own. The list of list makers goes on. See MIT list link below. There's also a cool gallery of the 10 Most Innovative Companies In Asia.
The BCG report details the major industry and company trends that have emerged since the survey began and maps the innovation landscape in four major industries that dominated the list in 2012—industrial products and processes, automotive, consumer and retail, and technology and telecommunications—as well as in an industry that has struggled to regain its place: health care.
As you would expect, Amazon, Google, Facebook, Samsung, Sony, Toyota, Dell, have proven their innovation mettle. But the world of bits and bytes no longer comes exclusively to mind when executives think of innovation. In a notable development, traditional industries such as industrial products and automotive together made up 40 percent of the list, comparable to the percentage that the technology industry held in 2010. Automotive companies made up 7 of the top 25 companies in 2012, for example, and 5 diversified industrial companies entered or returned to the rankings.
Bcgperspectives.com is a new website where you can get a copy of the report. The site is available on PC, mobile phone, and iPad. It features the latest thinking from BCG experts as well as from CEOs, academics, and other leaders. It covers issues at the top of senior management’s agenda.
Haydn Shaughnessy covered MIT’s 50 Most Innovative Companies list in 2011.
[Long AAPL]
