Apple is still the world’s most innovative company … but with OpenAI and DeepMind now challenging … as every company focuses more on innovation in fast-changing markets.

May 26, 2023

Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies ranking for 2023 is just out.

As always its a great curation of interesting stories from some of the world’s most inspiring, innovative companies shaking up fast-changing markets. While some rankings prefer to judge on factors like R&D spend, Fast Company’s analysis gives far more insights into the changing world, and also within over 50 sectors. It’s analysis is largely qualitative, a little US biased too, but sill interesting.

OpenAI is just one example of how advances in AI is reshaping every market, from drug discovery (DeepMind) to office work (Canva) to security (Robust Intelligence).

Healthcare is being made more equitable, for women (Maven Clinic), children (Hazel Health), and lower-income patients (Cityblock Health), by companies that are tailoring their offerings to communities that have traditionally been poorly served.

Iconic brands are changing how they communicate with fans, giving more power to creators and connecting with the culture (McDonald’s, Tiffany & Co.), while the entire world of restaurants and consumer packaged goods is being remade with content at its core (MrBeast).

Running shoes disruptors (Hoka and On) both make it into the top 20, shaking up a market traditionally dominated by Nike, Asics and others. Swiss brand On is particularly innovative, witness their Cyclon subscription-based shoe which you can send back and get a new pair anytime you want. Sustainable too.

On Earth, the soil is being fortified (Regrow Ag), the victims of climate disasters can now get a mobile grid to weather the disruption (Sesame Solar), and one of the world’s most influential brands, Patagonia, has made the planet its sole shareholder (Holdfast Collective).

Meanwhile, in space, public and private entities alike (NASA, Axiom Space) are advancing what’s possible in orbit.

Every year BCG also releases their Most Innovative Companies ranking.

Despite global economic uncertainty, innovation rose as a top corporate priority in 2023, with 79% of companies ranking it among their top three goals. The top areas of innovation emphasis are new products and exploring adjacent business models. Cost is a key driver for 62% of respondents and a top reason for innovation. Companies remain bullish on their innovation prospects: 42% expect to significantly increase spending this year, 16 percentage points over the last economic downturn in 2009.

Based on a survey of over 1,000 innovation executives polled in Dec. 2022 and Jan. 2023, BCG assessed a company’s performance on four dimensions:

  • Global mindshare: the number of votes received from all global innovation executives
  • Industry peer view: the number of votes received from executives in a company’s own industry
  • Industry disruption: the Diversity Index (Herfindahl-Hirschman) of votes across industries
  • Value creation: total shareholder return, including share buybacks, over the 3-year period from Jan. 2020 through Dec. 2022.

Apple is considered by BCG’s ranking as the most innovative company in the world in 2023. In fact, Apple has been top ranked every year since 2005 with the exception of 2019. Samsung, which spent over $17 billion (9% of annual sales) on R&D in 2021, making the South Korean conglomerate one of the world’s largest spenders on innovation. Samsung was also granted 6,300 U.S. patents in 2022, the most out of any company.

Bosch, the German engineering and technology company has a global R&D organization of 84,800 employees across 130 locations. Bosch has also maintained R&D spending (as a share of sales) at between 7.6% and 8.2% from 2018 through 2021.

McDonald’s is considered by BCG as the “restaurant industry frontrunner in technology innovation and investment”. It recently acquired Apprente, a startup that develops voice-based technologies, and Dynamic Yield, a firm specializing in creating customizable online experiences.The burger brand aims to leverage these technologies to improve ordering times and offer customers better choices.

Visual Capitalist has produced a simplified view of the BCG rankings:

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