Fast Company today announced its annual ranking of the world’s 50 Most Innovative Companies (MIC) for 2018, honoring leading enterprises and rising newcomers that exemplify the best in business and innovation.
Earning the No. 1 spot on the list this year is Apple for releasing a slew of exciting products from AirPods to iPhone X, maintaining its staying power in an era of rapid change. Notably, Apple is the only company to have earned a spot every year on the Most Innovative Company list since its inception in 2008.
The top ten companies on this year’s list are:
1. Apple
2. Netflix
3. Square
4. Tencent
5. Amazon
6. Patagonia
7. CVS Health
8. Washington Post Company
9. Spotify
10. NBA
Nearly 30 companies appear on this year’s list for the first time, including: Stitch Fix, Diamond Foundry, Patreon, and Ford Foundation.
Additionally, only six companies have the distinction of being recognized on both the 2017 and 2018 lists: Apple, Tencent, Amazon, Netflix, Spotify, and Slack.
The 50 Most Innovative Companies were curated from Fast Company’s Top 10 lists, which recognize pioneering companies across 36 categories, from artificial intelligence to wellness. More than three dozen Fast Company editors, reporters, and contributors surveyed thousands of companies—many of which were identified by a new MIC submission process—to create these lists.
Most Innovative Companies is Fast Company’s signature franchise and one of its most highly anticipated editorial efforts of the year. It provides both a snapshot and a road map for the future of innovation across the most dynamic sectors of the economy. “This year’s MIC list is an inspiring and insightful window into how many companies have embraced innovation and are working to make meaningful change,” said Fast Company deputy editor David Lidsky, who oversaw the issue with senior editor Amy Farley, in a statement.
Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies issue (March-April 2018) is now available online at www.fastcompany.com/MIC, as well as in app form via iTunes and on newsstands beginning February 27.
Source: Fast Company
MacDailyNews Note: Fast Company’s Apple Inc. write-up includes:
For a company slagged for not having had a hit since the iPad in 2010, Apple had a notable 2017: Its wireless AirPods became ubiquitous around the country; the Apple Watch Series 3 is a bestseller; developers embraced ARKit, its AR framework; and even skeptics were blown away by the iPhone X. Apple became the world’s most valuable company by being its preeminent maker of computing devices, from those you stick on a desk (Macs) to ones you strap to your wrist (the Apple Watch). So when people talk about the company as a creative force, they tend to assess its newest devices and judge how strikingly they improve on their predecessors.
But creativity is more than skin deep—and Apple’s approach to the hardware and software engineering that creates its experiences has never been more ambitious. Other makers of phones and tablets buy the same off-the-shelf chips as their competitors. Apple, by contrast, designs its own chips—so an iPhone packs a processor designed specifically optimized for Apple’s operating system, apps, display, camera, and touch sensor. The company has gotten so good at chip design that the A10 Fusion inside the iPhone 7 trounces rival processors in independent speed benchmarks.
Cofounded in 1976 by the revered tech entrepreneur and inventor Steve Jobs and engineer Steve Wozniak in Cupertino, California, Apple has continually revolutionized the consumer electronics industry. The company helped usher in the age of the personal computer in the 1980s with the sleek, affordable Macintosh; bolstered the age of digital-music listening with the iPod and iTunes in 2001; and laid the groundwork for the current smartphone landscape with 2007’s iPhone and iOS operating system. Under Jobs’s purview as Apple’s CEO from 1997 until shortly before his death in 2011, the company became known for its intense focus on design. The British designer Jony Ive, who was hired in 1992 and later became Apple’s chief design officer, is largely responsible for much of the company’s iconic visual appeal: sleek (often white) minimalism and an emphasis on unparalleled user experience.
Read more in the full article here.
SEE ALSO:
Fast Company’s World’s Most Innovative Companies 2017: Apple #4 – February 13, 2017
Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies of 2016: Apple #7 – February 16, 2016
After reading all of Apple’s value-points, I admit my criticisms of Apple have been without full appreciation of all that’s really been accomplished. Tim, Phil. Jony, I’m sorry for my attitude. Eddy, I’ll speak with you when you return from vacation.
Seriously, the award verbiage lays it out quite powerfully,
Everyone says Apple can’t innovate, yet it shows up at #1 on at least one list. One would think that any company that’s at least in the top five on several lists would definitely be able to innovate, so why Apple keeps getting criticized about not innovating doesn’t really make much sense to me. Sure, I think they could do better with all the R&D they’re doing but throwing money at R&D doesn’t necessarily guarantee innovative consumer products. Innovation is a tricky metric to evaluate.
This is about the last inch of the “laurels” seat to sit on
Way to much “catch up” if you ask me, but sure, I’ll wear some rosy glasses, why not.. #1?,, sure, cool, I’ll take it.
So, it seems that “more than three dozen” people from all over the planet made this list with no description how data were collected, collated, compared, contrasted, and analyzed. This report is a bit skimpy on the details of the methods.
Do you ever NOT complain?
Do you not ever think for yourself?