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The 2007 special report "World Most Innovative companies" was published last week as a cover story by US publication, BusinessWeek.
Compared to 2006 there was not much change in the top three in the list
of companies perceived as leaders in innovation. Globally Apple is at
the top, again. Google is second, again. Toyota moved up a notch to
third place. But reading on there are new developments.
This is BusinessWeek's third annual report on the topic and involved a survey of 2,500 senior executives in Asia, Europe and North America.
Rising stars in innovation
Compared to prior years, shooting up in the top 25 ranks in the accompanying BusinessWeek 2007 list were Boeing, Genentech and Cisco. Another rising star was Disney, which ate the little fish Pixar for US$7.4 billion in January 2006. Disney seems to have since enjoyed a Steve Jobs bounce.
Innovation malcontents
From speaking to executives, the BusinessWeek writers observe a growing climate of "innovation fatigue"
and "disillusionment". BusinessWeek executive managing editor, John
Byrne and associate editor Jena McGregor use these expressions in a
podcast discussing the survey results. They note that 23% of
respondents regarded innovation as their company's top priory, compared
to 32% in 2006.
In addition to this fall, as compared to 2006 there was:
- a lower degree of satisfaction regarding innovation efforts; and
- a greater number who said their spending on innovation would not increase.
For clues on causes of innovation fatigue, there is the BusinessWeek graphic (right). BusinessWeek provides it to list stated "obstacles to innovation". As shown in 2007 the obstacle most often noted by respondents was "risk-averse culture".
Turning to other things, the BusinessWeek list of companies in three continents evidences the extent of globalisation. Note the commonality of perceptions across continents as to which companies are innovative.
Something else that strikes us at Lightbulb is how reputation translates into perceptions
of innovation. Moreover, here branding is playing a critical role.
Making a living from translating reputation into deals
Many of the listed companies legally register, practically feature and strongly market their central brand and they obviously do so well.
The reputation then earned helps them build a perception of being innovative. This then helps them do deals.
This helped Apple in its innovation with the
iPod. Napster, Morpheus, Grokster and KaZaA - even though some had the so-called first mover advantage, and even though some reformed into law-abiding white hat citizens,
could not have done it. They built unsuitable reputations.
Ms McGregor tells a story in the BusinessWeek podcast about her telephone conversation with Andy Grove while researching her story. Andy Grove is of course the co-founder of Intel. She says Grove queried or tested her about what was so innovative about the iPod. She replied that the innovation was the lightbulb realisation by
someone that songs could be sold for US$0.99 legally, music companies
could be won over to sign up, and this could be spun together into a
music copying, buying, distribution and identification system around the iPod and iTunes. She does
not use this exact phrase but that's the spirit of what she says. Her encapsulation is excellent and contrasts with views that fixate on the iPod's
groovy look and feel and ease of use.
What Mr Grove is reported to have said in the phone call about "innovation" perhaps helps diagnose the innovation fatigue mood of the times. He said people are
over-simplifying business needs down to one word, such as "innovation". We seem to have also caught that innovation zeitgeist in Innovation
defined and redefined.
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Further reading
Brain food and ideas to overcome innovation fatigue:
The (growing)
importance of IP strategy
Garage culture puts
fun to work
The IT landscape in
2007
The business of
making money from IP
Grappling with
fallacies: music formats and DRM
Wisdom for
Commercialisation of Social Networking Websites
Special Collection:
Trade Marks
Improving
Creative Destruction by Brand Managers [PDF]
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