A Business Innovation and Sustainability Blog

Booz & Company recently conducted a survey where they asked 450 innovation leaders, spanning more than 400 companies and 10 industries, to identify the three companies they considered to be the most innovative. The top 10 ranked results:

1	Apple
2	Google
3	3M
4	GE
5	Toyota
6	Microsoft
7	Proctor & Gamble
8	IBM
9	Samsung
10	Intel

Source: Booz & Company (Strategy & Business, 2010, Pg.59)

Not a whole lot of surprises here! But a little dismay develops when you consider how each of the most innovative companies rank in R&D spending:

R&D Spending Rank	Company	R&D Spending ($US mil.)
81	Apple	1,333
44	Google	2,843
84	3M	1,293
35	GE	3,300
4	Toyota	7,822
2	Microsoft	9,010
58	Proctor & Gamble	2,044
12	IBM	5,820
10	Samsung	6,002
13	Intel	5,653

Source: Booz & Company (Strategy & Business, 2010, Pg.59)

The results suggest the top innovators not only have an outstanding proclivity to innovate, but also have prowess in investment strategy.  But hold on…there’s really a whole lot more behind these innovation machines that explains why the top innovators consistently continue to be on top. The top innovators are colossally crazy about capturing innovation! There’s a brass pipeline weaving in and out of the organizations that funnel a flurry of ideas through to a product development cycle that is meticulously aligned to corporate strategy. These companies are obsessed over their core innovation capabilities at all levels of the development phase. But what specifically are these companies most obsessed about?

We can thank the Booz & Company survey for also revealing the critical capabilities that each of the most innovative companies consider the most, and least, important at each stage of product development. The results:

Development Stage	Rank	Critical Capability
Ideation	Most -	Deep consumer and customer insights and analytics
	Least -	Supplier and distributor engagement in ideation process
Project Selection	Most -	Ongoing assessment of market potential
	Least -	Strategic disruption decision making and transition plan
Product Development	Most -	Engagement with customers to prove real-world feasibility
	Least -	Reverse engineering
Commercialization	Most -	Pilot-user selection / controlled rollouts
	Least -	Diverse user group management and production ramp-up

Source: Booz & Company (Strategy & Business, 2010, Pg.58)

This should raise some questions about your own organization. No?

Reference: Jaruzelski, Barry and Dehoff, Kevin. 2010. How the Top Innovators Keep Winning; The Global Innovation 1000. Strategy & Business. Issue 61 (Winter), Pg. 48 - 61.