Today it is very common to find rankings of more innovative, sustainable companies, with a higher level of customer satisfaction, etc. This time, we focus on the innovative aspect.

There are many magazines and consultancies that each year draw up a list of the most innovative companies in the world, and in this case, we have based ourselves on the information collected from five of these sources: Forbes, Fast Company, Booz Allen Hamilton, Thomson Reuters, and 24/7 Wall St.

Each ranking is based on different variables and indicators and, because of this, there are slight differences between the lists. In this short article we explain the variables analyzed by each journal/consultant, thus making it possible to understand these rankings. Next, we describe the variables and indicators analyzed in each ranking:

24/7 WallSt: You can see the ranking here

This Delaware corporation runs a financial news and opinion publication with content distributed over the Internet. His articles are republished and mentioned by many of the world’s leading news portals, including MSN Money, Yahoo! Finance, MarketWatch, Time.com, USA Today and The Huffington Post. To elaborate its particular ranking, it has been based on the following indicators:

  • Number of patents granted to the company (Source: IFI Claims Patent Services)
  • Number of patents granted to the company in previous years (Source: IFI Claims Patent Services)
  • Investment in R&D (Source: Company data or failing that, Google Finance)
  • Financial data (Source: Company data or failing that, Google Finance)

Thomson Reuters: To see the list, click here

It is the world’s leading source of intelligent information for businesses and professionals. They combine industry expertise with innovative technology to deliver essential information to leaders and managers in the financial and risk markets, legal, tax and accounting, intellectual property, and scientific and media markets, powered by the most trusted news organization. of the world. Unlike most innovation rankings, Thomson Reuters takes into account rare factors, such as the impact of innovations or the level of patent protection. The variables taken into account are shown below:

  • Volume: Number of basic patents (named after the Derwent World Patents Index, DWPI): First publications of documents on technological, pharmaceutical, business process patents, etc.
  • Success: Percentage of patent applications that pass the relevant processes and are granted.
  • Global: Level of protection in the major markets (Chinese Patent Office, the European Patent Office, the Japanese Patent Office and the United States Patent & Trademark Office) of a company’s patent portfolio.
  • Influence: The impact of the invention, measured by the number of mentions of that innovation by other companies when describing their products.

Booz Allen Hamilton: Visible ranking here

This is an American management and consulting company headquartered in < span style="color: #000000;">Tysons Corner, Virginia, bases its core business on providing consulting, management, technology and security, providing services primarily to civilian government agencies as a government contractor and to defense and intelligence agencies as a defense contractor. When drawing up their innovation ranking, the aspect they have taken into account the most is R&D spending, without forgetting other indicators that make the difference between companies that mainly invest in R&D and truly innovative companies, such as the different phases of the innovation process:

  • It is essential to have published R&D investment accounts.
  • Total investment in R&D, including for the calculation the amortization of capitalized R&D expenses of the most recent fiscal years.
  • Key financial indicators for the last 5 fiscal years such as sales, gross profit, operating profit, net profit, R&D investment for the previous years, and market capitalization. (Sources: Bloomberg and Capital IQ)
  • Phases of the innovation process: they consider the innovation process as a kind of value chain, made up of 4 phases or stages: ideation stage (basic research and conception); project selection (the decision to invest); product development (in tune with the rest of the company’s products); and marketing (adapting the product to market demands). Many of the great innovative companies are known for their success in the final stages of the process. Apple, for example, is particularly adept at selecting projects and marketing products.

In this case, they highlight the difference between companies with greater investment in R&D and more innovative companies. The company that invests the most in R&D does not necessarily have to be the most innovative. Furthermore, in 2014, the 10 most innovative companies significantly outperformed the Top 10 companies investing in R&D, in terms of market capitalization and profitability.

Fast Company: If you want to see the list, click here

Fast Company aims to build a list that reflects the most creative role models and most forward-thinking cultures. In fact, as you can see, many of the listed companies are small or medium-sized and not well known (at the moment) to the general public. While on the one hand this ranking offers a new and different perspective to innovation leaders such as Apple or Google, it is also worth noting that Fast Company’s methodology is based on the personal opinion of its editorial staff (subjective method). Unlike the other rankings (more technical and scientific), their intention is to discover alternative companies, and they are nothing more than recommendations from the magazine.

Forbes: Click here to see the ranking

Perhaps it is the most famous and prestigious magazine as far as lists of companies/companies/companies are concerned. They classify companies according to varied and multiple variables such as sustainability, innovation, billing, etc. Companies are rated based on their “innovation premium”: the difference between market capitalization and net present value of cash flows from existing companies (based on a formula proprietary to Credit Suisse HOLT). The difference between them is the bonus given by equity investors in the face of a well-founded feeling or premonition that the company will continue to achieve profitable growth.