Posts Tagged ‘BCG’

The World’s 50 most Innovative Companies

Monday, April 26th, 2010

Businessweek has collaborated with Boston Consulting Group to publish their 2010 list of the 50 most innovative companies in the world based on a survey of corporate executives.  Here is the full list.  It is an interactive table.  And here is a slide show commentary on the top 25.

There has been considerable movement in the list from previous years although Apple retains a firm grip on the top spot.   China with 4 entries, India with 2 and South Korea with 3 have all increased their showing.  Britain has 4 entrants – Virgin, BSkyB, Vodafone and HSBC.  Germany has 3 companies in the list and France has none.  Here is the list.

1 Apple  U.S.
2 Google  U.S.
3 Microsoft  U.S.
4 IBM  U.S.
5 Toyota Motor  Japan
6 Amazon.com  U.S.
7 LG Electronics  South Korea
8 BYD  China
9 General Electric  U.S.
10 Sony  Japan
11 Samsung Electronics  South Korea
12 Intel  U.S.
13 Ford Motor  U.S.
14 Research In Motion  Canada
15 Volkswagen  Germany
16 Hewlett-Packard  U.S.
17 Tata Group  India
18 BMW  Germany
19 Coca-Cola  U.S.
20 Nintendo  Japan
21 Wal-Mart Stores  U.S.
22 Hyundai Motor  South Korea
23 Nokia  Finland
24 Virgin Group  Britain
25 Procter & Gamble  U.S.
26 Honda Motor  Japan
27 Fast Retailing  Japan
28 Haier Electronics  China
29 McDonalds U.S.
30 Lenovo  China
31 Cisco Systems  U.S.
32 Walt Disney  U.S.
33 Reliance Industries  India
34 Siemens  Germany
35 Dell  U.S.
36 Nestlé  Switzerland
37 British Sky Broadcasting  Britain
38 Vodafone  Britain
39 JPMorgan Chase  U.S.
40 Oracle  U.S.
41 Petrobras  Brazil
42 Banco Santander  Spain
43 Fiat  Italy
44 China Mobile  China
45 Goldman Sachs  U.S.
46 Nike  U.S.
47 HTC  Taiwan
48 Facebook  U.S.
49 HSBC  Britain
50 Verizon Communications  U.S.

The survey methodology is highly subjective and depends on what the survey group perceive as innovative.  However, reputations matter and this list gives a powerful indication that the tide of innovation is gradually turning towards the East.

Paul Sloane

  • Share/Bookmark

Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Innovation | Comments Off

Innovation Metrics – which are the best ones?

Monday, June 9th, 2008

Last week I ran a session for GBPA corporate members where we discussed innovation metrics.  We reviewed the Boston Consulting Group 2007 research on the subject and the results of my innovation metrics web survey.  It was agreed that most organisations find it difficult to measure innovation in any satisfactory way.  The most common measurements are backward looking – e.g. % of revenue from products released in the last two years.  The BCG report recommends that you select a small number of metrics appropriate for your business and have some for inputs, process and outputs.  At the meeting we discussed which were the best metrics to use and here are some of our choices:

Input metrics:

  • Number of ideas generated
  • Resources allocated to innovation – people and budget

Process Metrics

  • Average time from idea approval to implementation
  • Number of ideas approved and number implemented
  • Stage-gate pass rates
  • Value of the innovation pipeline

Output metrics

  • Number of new products or services launched
  • Revenue from new products or services
  • ROI on innovation spend
  • Market Perception
  • Number of new customers

We also found it useful to draw flow-chart diagrams of the innovation approval and pipeline processes and ask some searching questions about this.  Are we getting enough ideas coming in?  Is it taking too long for good ideas to be implemented?  Are we getting enough innovations out of the process?  Are our approval processes too complicated or too difficult?

It was agreed that everyone should have targets or objectives for innovation.  In collaborative ventures it is particularly important to agree goals, expectations and metrics for innovation at the outset.

There are no perfect measurements for innovation.  All the metrics are limited in value.  But that does not mean that you should not use them.  By choosing and applying a small number of metrics appropriate for your business you can add innovation to your balanced scorecard and give it the high level attention that it needs if you are to succeed.

Paul Sloane

  • Share/Bookmark

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Innovation | 2 Comments »