World's Most Innovative Companies

Some companies keep adding new inventions and innovations on their product list. There are company who has slow pace of innovations whereas there are others who are desperately trying to make a change or make a difference. So on the basis of the average sales growth percentage in 5 years, net income growth percentage, enterprise value and innovation premium, Forbes has come up with the list of 10 most innovative companies in the world.

Salesforce.com

Salesforce.com best known for its customer relationship management product has expanded into the ‘social enterprise arena’. It is a global enterprise software company which is headquartered in San Francisco, United States. The company ranked 27^th in the Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work for in 2012. It was founded in 1999 and it specialised in software as a service. But it went public in 2004 on the New York stock Exchange and raised $110 million. Its services are translated into 16 different languages and has over 2,100,000 subscribers. The Customer relationship Management solution is divided into

sales cloud, service cloud, data cloud, collaboration cloud and custom cloud. The average sales growth of the company in the last 5 years is 39.5 percent, the net income is 78.7 percent, the enterprise value is $20.7 billion and innovation premium is 75.1 percent.

Amazon.com

It is an American multinational electronic commerce company which is headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United states and is the world’s largest online retailer. Amazon.com produces consumer electronics like Amazon Kindle, which is an e-book reader and is provider of cloud computing services. The company was incorporated by Jeff Bezos in 1994 and went online in 1995. Initially it started as an online bookstore but later it diversified into selling DVDs, CDs,MP3 downloads, software, video games, electronics, apparel, furniture, food, toys and jewelery. In 1999 it launched its web auction service which failed to compete against eBay. In 2007 they came up with AmazonFresh which is a grocery service offering both perishable and non-perishable food. In five years the company’s average sales growth is 32 percent, the net income growth is 37.6 percent, the enterprise value is $92.7 billion and the innovation premium is 58.9 percent.

Intuitive Surgical

This is the company that manufactures robotic surgical systems also known as ‘da Vinci surgical system’. The system allows surgery to be performed by robotic manipulators and has been installed worldwide. It is controlled by a surgeon from a console. There was a competitor of Intuitive Surgical in 2003 known as the Computer Motion. This system was created by a research institute SRI International in late 1990 and attracted attention of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. In 1994 Dr. Frederic Moll and John Freund established Intuitive Surgical Devices. In its first public offering they received $46 million and the same year the FDA also released. The company’s average sales growth in 5 years is 43.4 percent, the net income growth is 36.4 percent, the enterprise value is $13.4 billion and innovation premium is 57.6 percent.

Tencent Holdings

Tencent Holdings is a Chinese investment holding company whose subsidiaries provides Internet and mobile phone value-added services and operate online advertising services. There diverse services include social networks, web portals, e-commerce and multiplayer online games. It runs one of the largest web portals in China the QQ.com and also operates an instant messenger Tencent QQ. In 2010 it was regarded as the third largest Internet company in the world after Google and Amazon with 647.6 million users and $38 billion of market capitalisation. Initially they derived income from the advertising and premium users of QQ but lately the iconic penguin character became the income generator. It also earns profit from its sale of virtual goods. The average sales growth of the company from past 5 years is 69 percent, the net income growth is 75.4 percent, the enterprise value is $46.5 billion and the innovation premium is 52.3 percent.

Apple

This multinational company designs and sells consumer electronics, computer software and personal computers. The best known hardware products comprises of Macintosh computers, iPod, iPhone and iPad. The softwares includes Mac OS X operating system, iTunes, iLife, iWork, Aperture, Final Cut Studio, Logic Studio, Safari, iOS etc. Till 2011, Apple had 364 retail stores in 13 countries and an online store. It is the largest technology company in the world by revenue and profit and largest publicly traded company in the world by market capitalisation. From 2008 to 2012, Fortune magazine has regarded it as the most admired company in the world. At the time of establishment the company was named as Apple Computer but in 2007 the word ‘Computer’ was removed as their focus on personal computers moved towards consumer electronics. In last 5 years the company’s average sales growth is 35.1 percent, the net income growth is 60.7 percent, the enterprise value is $303.4 billion and the innovation premium is 48.2 percentage.

Hindustan Unilever

Hindustan Unilever is owned by the British Dutch company Unilever which controlls 52 percent of the stake in the HUL. It is India’s largest consumer goods company based in Mumbai and its products include foods, beverages, cleaning agents and personal care products. The HUL distribution covers over 2 million retail outlets across India and are also availabe in over 6.4 million outlets in the country. According to a market research done by the Nielsen market research data it was noticed that two out of every three Indians use HUL products. The company received the National Award for Excellence in Corporate Governance of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI) in 2011. In 2012, it emerged as the No.1 employer of choice for B-School students and it also retained the ‘Dream employer’ status for the 3^rd time in a row. The compny’s average sales growth in past 5 years is 10 percent, the net income growth is 4 percent, the enterprise value is $15.5 billion and the innovation premium is 47.7 percent.

Google

Google another big name in the internet related products and services and it provides services such as internet search, cloud computing, software and advertising technologies. The company’s profits are generated from the Adwords, the advertising revenue. The Stanford University students Larry Page and Sergey Brin were the founder of Google. Initially it was privately held company and its initial public offering was held in 2004. Due to the rapid growth many new chain of products, acquisitions and partnerships have come up. It offers online productivity software including email, an office suite and social networking. There other extending products are desktop, with applications for web browsing, organising and editing photos and instant messaging. It also leads in the development of the Android mobile operating system. In 2009 Alexa listed google.com as the most visited website. There average sales growth in the last 5 years is 35 percent, the net income growth is 37.1 percent, the enterprise value is $138.1 billion and the innovation premium is 44.9 percent.

Natura Cosmeticos

This is a Brazillian leading manufacturer and marketer of skin care, solar filters, cosmetics, perfume an hair care products and was founded in 1969. In 2004 it became a public company and was listed in the Sao Paulo Stock Exchange. The company adopted the direct sales model in 1974 and by 2008 it had more than 800,000 consultants from various countries like Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, France, Mexico and Peru. It focusses on its image as an eco-friendly company and claims to use natural products. The company is proud about its strong research and development activity. There advertisements projects ordinary women rather than supermodels. Some of their competitors in Brazil are O Boticario, Jequiti and Avon. The company’s average sales growth is 17 percent, the net income growth is 13.5 percent, the enterprise value is $10.2 billion and the innovation premium is 44.5 percent.

Bharat Heavy Electricals

This company is the one of the oldest and the largest state owned engineering and manufacturing enterprise in India. It deals with energy related and infrastructure sector which includes Power, Railways, Transmission and Distribution, Oil and Gas sectors etc. It is the 12^th largest power equipment manufacturer in the world and is placed 4^th in the Forbes Asia’s Fabulous 50 list of 2010. The company has been able to earn profit since many years and heve been continuously paying dividends. Almost 74 percent of the the total power generated in India is produced by the equipment manufactured by BHEL. It is the part of the Navratnas or ‘the nine jewels’.  In 2012 it commissioned a 250 MW power generating unit and so would add six million of electricity on a daily basis. Its average sales growth since past 5 years is 27.2 percent, the net income growth is 25 percent, the enterprise value is $19.5 and the innovation premium is 43.6 percent.

Monsanto

Monsato company is a multinational agriculture biotechnology corporation and is the world’s leading producer of the herbicide glyphosate. It is the second largest producer of genetically engineered seed and provides the technology in 49 percent of the seeds in the U.S. market. In 2005 it became the world’s largest conventional seed company as it purchased Seminis. The company has been a part of many controversies because of the development and marketing of genetically engineered seeds and bovine growth hormone as well as the aggressive litigation, political lobbying practices, seed commercialisation practices etc. Due to all these reasons it has also become the target of the alter globalisation movement and environmental activists. In 2009 it was under the scrutiny of the U.S. Justice Department for breaking anti-trust rules. The company’s average sales growth is 13.4 percent, the net income growth is 44.7 percent, the enterprise value is $41.3 billion and the innovation premium is 42.6 percent.