What Are the Most Innovative Companies in the World?

One of my favorite regular pieces in any magazine is Fast Company's list of the most innovative companies in the world. This year, they've expanded the categories even further, identifying the 10 leading innovators across a huge array of industries.

Innovation is in vogue these days. So many of the business models of yesteryear are under assault -- whether because of the new openness of the internet, the growing clarity of the cost of our climate crisis, or something else entirely -- that many industries rightly feel the choice they face is to innovate or perish.

Yet for all the talk of innovation, there still just aren't enough companies that get it really right. The thesis of a new book, Innovation X, authored by Adam Richardson -- a Creative Director at frog design (who make the list for most innovative companies in Design) -- is that the most innovative companies tend to take signals from the consumer market. But unlike other companies, they interpret them in the context of the future and produce products that push us to think in new ways about how products should solve our problems.

I've been scouring Fast Company 's list, at least in part to see how they were adapting to the very real resource constraints we face today and moving forward. In doing so, I was excited to find many honorees who were pushing business to think differently about what business means.

Where it gets interesting is with #7 Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E). The company serves the California energy market, and while it serves 5% of America's energy needs, it only produces 1% of its emissions. PG&E made waves last year when CEO Peter Darby publicly resigned from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce over their opposition to global warming legislation, saying: "An intellectually honest argument over the best policy response to the challenges of climate change is one thing. Disingenuous attempts to diminish or distort the reality of these challenges are quite another." Snap!

Many of the companies you'd expect to see are there. Facebook is number one overall, which seems to me to be pretty well deserved considering it's the social network that's plumping for an increasingly large percentage of the world. Apple and Google are #3 and #4, respectively -- again, no surprises there.

Timberland was honored as the #4 most innovative company in the Fashion category, and also recognized as an "Innovation All Star" for their awesome innovation record. It released a new boot this year that was made from recycled tires, and which could be disassembled and recycled by consumers. Similarly, Frito-Lay got a nod as #28 overall for getting 1/3 of its plants to "zero landfill" last year, with the rest set to achieve that goal by 2011.

While there were great companies, I was still dissapointed with some of the choices. Particularly in the food category, where only mega-corporations were recognized (with the exception of the website Foodzie). Our food system is desperately broken, so while it was good to read about Frito-Lay's energy reduction and Darden Restaurant's research about sustainable lobster harvesting, I would have loved to see more examples of local, sustainable food production.

Still, overall, it's a great list and well worth a read.

Photo Credit: Arturo de Albornoz