The World’s Most Innovative Companies – So What?

Forbes business magazine publishes an annual list which they call The World’s Most Innovative Companies. The rankings are based on what is called the “innovation premium” which compares market cap and the value of cash flows from their existing businesses to measure the bonus points that savvy investors might give to their belief that the companies will continue to grow and be profitable. You can read more about the process elsewhere, it’s not necessary that you totally understand how the numbers are derived to appreciate that thought and science (and math) go into the rankings.

The list includes companies that most of us are familiar with, like Amazon, Under Armour, and Coca-Cola. There are also a lot of companies that are not household words, like Incyte, FleetCor Technologies, and Perrigo. My quick read of the list convinced me that I didn’t know nearly 60% of them!

The important thing about a list like this is, what’s in it for me? You may have some thoughts on what you could do with a list of highly innovative companies, but here’s my plan. I am going to visit the company websites – you can learn a lot from seeing what other businesses promote through their web presence, how they encourage current and potential customers or business partners to connect with them, and the attention they pay to this very public face. I am going to follow these companies Twitter feeds, again to get insights into good social media practices and also to find practical tips and wisdom which I expect will be present in their messaging. I am going to find people in my LinkedIn communities that work for companies on this list and invite conversations with them to ask about their “internal perspective” on working for highly innovative corporations. Finally, I am going to realize that even though it’s pretty likely my own business may never make it to this lofty list, there is plenty I can do to improve, by learning from the winners!

You can access the current Forbes Most Innovative Companies list right here.