The world’s most innovative company in 2015 might surprise you. According to Forbes’ annual ranking, the most innovative company today isn’t Apple (which ranked second on the list), and it’s not Google (which ranked fourth). It’s not Facebook or Twitter (neither company ranked in the list of the 50 most innovative companies, although Facebook’s Instagram did rank in fifth place).
So which company is the most innovative in 2015?
In 2015, the most innovative company in the world is Warby Parker, an eyewear company that started as an ecommerce startup and today has retail locations around the United States with $100 million in revenue. The CEOs of Warby Parker attribute the company’s success to their “deliberate” prioritization of the brand.
Here are the top 10 most innovative brands of 2015 according to the Forbes ranking:
- Warby Parker
- Apple
- Alibaba
- Color of Change
- HBO
- Virgin America
- IndiGo
- Slack
This year’s list of the most innovative companies in the world includes companies from every continent except Antarctica making it a truly global list. The list features newcomers like WeWork and American Giant as well as global companies like Toyota, L’Oreal, and Tesla and Kickstarter companies like Oculus VR and Kano.
Forbes shared 20 lessons of innovation for 2015 that its staff learned while developing this year’s list of the most innovative companies. You can follow the link to read all of the lessons (it’s well worth it!). Five lessons that really caught my attention are:
- Innovation requires speed, and velocity of change can make or break innovation.
- Every company is a tech company regardless of the industry they operate in.
- Platforms are powerful and can drive innovation execution.
- Innovation follows the traditional bell-curve lifecycle, which means companies that fall off of the list of the most innovative companies can get back on the list as their innovations mature.
- Collaborative disruption facilitates innovation and partnerships are becoming more common as companies realize the benefits of collaborative innovation.
You can follow the link at the beginning of this article to see the full list of the 50 most innovative companies of 2015 as well as a breakdown of the companies by sector. One thing is certain, it’s great to see a variety of companies on this list rather than the same “innovative” companies that always appear on these lists like Apple and Google.
What do you think? Are you surprised by any of the companies that made the list this year or any of the companies that didn’t make the 2015 list? Leave a comment and share your thoughts on the 50 most innovative companies of 2015.
Image: Raja R
Susan Gunelius is the author of 10 marketing, social media, branding, copywriting, and technology books, and she is President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc., a marketing communications company. She also owns Women on Business, an award-wining blog for business women. She is a featured columnist for Entrepreneur.com and Forbes.com, and her marketing-related articles have appeared on websites such as MSNBC.com, BusinessWeek.com, TodayShow.com, and more.
She has over 20 years of experience in the marketing field having spent the first decade of her career directing marketing programs for some of the largest companies in the world, including divisions of AT&T and HSBC. Today, her clients include large and small companies around the world and household brands like Citigroup, Cox Communications, Intuit, and more. Susan is frequently interviewed about marketing and branding by television, radio, print, and online media organizations, and she speaks about these topics at events around the world. You can connect with her on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Google+.
