Looking into the future, business growth and innovation are top priorities in an annual report released this week by the Boston Consulting Group. The world’s most innovative companies are named by industry peers and ranked by shareholder return. Small and emerging businesses can look to this list of 50 leading businesses for inspiration as they plan for growth.
Interestingly, many of the companies that made this year’s list are not in the technology sector. Instead, health care, auto designers, financial services, and others are gaining attention for new products, designs, and expansions into new markets.
“Facing increasing competition and saturating global markets, more companies beyond technology are pursuing innovation and science as growth drivers, according to new data,” reported CNBC in relation to the report.
An overwhelming majority of respondents in the survey, 79 percent, said innovation was either their company’s top priority or a top-three priority in the coming months and years. In addition, many of those companies are looking outside their company for new ideas. Perhaps opening the door for collaboration with smaller companies, inventors, researchers, and developers.
“Beyond global- and sector-specific trends, the research also found more businesses are flexible about sourcing innovation from outside company walls. As speed to market becomes crucial to staying competitive, more companies are finding they can no longer afford to be picky about whether innovation was invented in-house or outside the business,” wrote Heesun Wee for the CNBC report.
The report identified several critical factors for innovation success. According to the BCG report:
“…science and technology continue to be seen as increasingly important underpinnings of innovation, enabling four attributes that many executives identify as critical: an emphasis on speed, well-run (and very often lean) R&D processes, the use of technological platforms, and the systematic exploration of adjacent markets.”
Finally, as you begin to think about your small or emerging business’ strategic growth plan, look at the complete BCG report. The analysis of what makes these top 50 most innovative companies successful is compelling.
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