50 most innovative companies With the sudden reversal of the global economy, businesses are struggling not only with shrinking income and budgets, but also with seismic shifts that are upending entire industries, from autos and retail to banking and entertainment. These same forces are apparent in our latest ranking of the Most Innovative Companies. While the 2009 list includes some stalwarts in their usual top positions—namely Apple and Google—15 newcomers have joined the lineup, the biggest change since BusinessWeek and Boston Consulting Group first partnered on this proprietary survey in 2005. These include more companies headquartered outside the U.S. than in the past, such as Volkswagen, Infosys, and Telefónica. See a full explanation of our methodology as well as the footnotes at the bottom of the table. Click column heading once to reorder from highest to lowest. Click twice to reorder from lowest to highest.
2009 2008 Rank Rank
Company
Revenue Margin Stock Growth Growth Returns 2005-08 2005-08 HQ 2005-08 * ** *** HQ Country Continent (in %) (in %) (in %)
1
1
Apple
U.S.
2
2
Google
U.S.
3
3
Toyota Motor
Japan
4
5
Microsoft
U.S.
5
7
Nintendo
Japan
6
12 IBM
U.S.
7
15 Hewlett-Packard
U.S.
8
13 Research In Motion
Canada
9
10 Nokia
Finland
10
23 Wal-Mart Stores
U.S.
11
11 Amazon.com
U.S.
12
8
U.S.
13 14 15
6 Tata Group 9 Sony 19 Reliance Industries
16
26 Samsung Electronics
17
4
Procter & Gamble
General Electric
India Japan India South Korea U.S.
18
NR Volkswagen
Germany
19
30 McDonalds
U.S.
20
14 BMW
21
17 Walt Disney
U.S.
22 23
16 Honda Motor 27 AT&T
Japan U.S.
Germany
North 5.9 30.4 15.8 America North -9.5 52.6 -8.2 America Asia -20.7 4.2 -35.9 North -8.0 13.5 -1.3 America Asia 36.7 61.1 20.6 North 2.3 4.4 14.3 America North 9.1 10.9 31.6 America North 24.6 74.1 11.2 America Europe -8.3 14.0 -10.3 North 8.0 9.1 -2.1 America North 2.8 31.2 -4.8 America North 4.5 11.7 2.4 America Asia Private Private Private Asia -25.8 3.1 -41.1 Asia 22.6 28.5 11.9 Asia North America Europe North America Europe North America Asia North
Known for its Most Innovative (% who think so)
Product (47%) Customer Experience (26%) Process (35%) Process (26%) Product (48%) Process (31%) Process (39%) Product (53%) Product (38%) Process (49%) Customer Experience (41%) Process (27%) Product (44%) Product (40%) Business Model (35%)
-10.8
10.5
-1.5
Product (41%)
-19.7
10.1
-12.2
Process (36%)
-14.4
7.1
33.6
Customer Experience (38%)
25.8
7.2
9.5
Customer Experience (55%)
-14.8
6.9
-14.6
Customer Experience (37%)
-0.2
6.4
17.2
Customer Experience (68%)
-15.4 9.9
4.8 41.5
-14.6 9.7
Product (47%) Product (33%)
24
NR Coca-Cola
U.S.
25 26
47 Vodafone NR Infosys
27
NR LG Electronics
28 29
NR Telefónica 31 Daimler Verizon 34 Communications
Britain India South Korea Spain Germany
30
U.S.
31
NR Ford Motor
U.S.
32
35 Cisco Systems
U.S.
33
48 Intel
U.S.
34
28 Virgin Group
35
NR ArcelorMittal
36
40 HSBC Holdings
37
42 ExxonMobil
38 39
NR Nestlé NR Iberdrola
40
25 Facebook
41
22 3M
42
NR Banco Santander
43
45 Nike
44
NR Johnson & Johnson
45
49 Southwest Airlines
46
NR Lenovo
47
NR JPMorgan Chase
48
NR Fiat
49
24 Target
50
NR Royal Dutch Shell
America North America Europe Asia
6.8
11.4
0.1
Customer Experience (38%)
8.6 -8.1
10.2 32.4
N/A 2.0
Product (25%) Process (40%)
Asia
-5.0
9.6
17.0
Product (46%)
Europe Europe North America North America North America North America Europe
12.2 -11.9
17.0 1.5
-2.0 39.0
Business Model (40%) Product (40%)
10.4
11.9
-1.0
Customer Experience (38%)
-32.6
-3.3
N/A
Product (36%)
-1.6
14.3
-8.0
Process (27%)
-14.3
-1.1
-8.0
Process (35%)
Britain Luxembour Europe g Britain Europe North U.S. America Switzerland Europe Spain Europe North U.S. America North U.S. America Spain Europe North U.S. America North U.S. America North U.S. America China Asia North U.S. America Italy Europe North U.S. America Netherlands Europe
Private Private Private
Customer Experience (45%)
-6.7
64.4
-18.0
Business Model (63%)
-6.1
20.3
-18.0
Process (32%)
14.5
8.8
2.0
Process (47%)
4.3 7.5
6.5 54.0
-14.0 -14.0
Product (47%) Customer Experience (40%)
Private Private Private
Customer Experience (51%)
-7.2
6.1
-3.0
Product (44%)
-9.3
11.8
2.0
7.1
11.5
-4.0
Business Model (37%) Customer Experience and Product (36% each)
2.4
8.1
1.0
Customer Experience (42%)
-19.2
13.3
-25.0
Customer Experience (45%)
-14.2
6.6
4.0
Business Model (35%)
-4.4
-2.6
N/A
Process (62%)
-13.5
8.5
2.0
Product (30%)
-13.5
8.1
2.0
Customer Experience (60%)
4.7
14.3
-8.0
Process (45%