Learning from Business Week's top corporate innovators

Business Week often provides thoughtful news on technology though its prism of general management strategy. I read BW's April 20 annual survey of the 25 most innovative companies on the plane back from the NTC, and it got me thinking and counting. See the online version here.

Of the top 25, I counted 14 listed primarily or prominently because of one or another aspect of digital and electronic technology. Though Coca-Cola and McDonalds figure as big innovators in 2009 (!), in the top ten were Apple (1) , Google (2) , Microsoft (4), Nintendo (5), IBM (6), HP (7), RIM/Blackberry (13) and Nokia (9). That's pretty impressive in itself. And while Apple and Google kept their 1 and 2 from last year, the other five rose from last year's similar survey of senior managers worldwide. Tech rocks the world these days. (Surprisingly, Facebook was the only top 25 tech-oriented innovator from last year that dropped down and out of the top 25 this year.)

Then I categorized a bit. Of those 14 out of the 25, I counted five there highlighted this year primarily for innovations cell phone and mobile communications (Apple, RIM, Nokia, AT&T and Vodafone). Yup, this is a bit subjective, but I figured I needed to put everyone in one category, based on the article’s summary for that company. So, mobile tech accounted for one fifth of the most innovative companies in Business Week’s survey.

Back to my categories. For better or worse, four were listed for consumer electronics innovation--Nintendo, Sony, Samsung and Walt Disney (yes). Then, I counted three listed for global on-line services and integration—Google, IBM and Amazon.

Finally, only one each primarily there for traditional hardware and software innovation (HP and Microsoft). And even here, other coverage of Microsoft in the same issue of BW emphasizes it’s cloud computing services initiatives.

If you divided the 14 up just according to what their general line of business is, then you would likely have a more even distribution among hardware, software, consumer, mobile and some mix. But that doesn't reflect the trend of innovation.

I also looked at which companies gaining recognition had a significant commitment to Open Source, or as the NTC’s keynoter Eben Moglen would say, to a philosophy of sharing in technology innovation. For this, I figured to list Google, IBM, Nokia (it is in the process of open sourcing its Symbian phone software), and Vodafone.

A handful of spotlight features complemented the BW innovation survey, and Vodafone was one. Vodafone, whose mobile communications empire does not touch the US, was highlighted for tools it was providing mobile developers to encourage sharing and open innovation. That too seems a significant trend to me. Here is the vodafone spotlight.

Lessons, if any?

• Mobile computing will continue to grow. It’s cool to see that that corresponds with a significant strand of initiative in nonprofit tech circles this past year as well.
• Open standards, open innovation have become mainstream. You could contrast the articles comments about Vodafone versus Apple, where the focus rightfully centered on design and usability yet not so much collaborative innovation.
• And last: take note of Google, Amazon, IBM and Microsoft all for grappling with the realm of interconnected commerce and services. The dwindling down of focus on traditional installed hardware and software says something about what drives innovation in technology. From the global corporate elite surveyed by BW down to even the smallest of nonprofit organizations, I would say this has a message for what lies ahead in technology planning.

Check out the article on line. I know my categories are subjective. What do you think? And when should we expect to see a top innovator coming from or focusing on the social sector?

Of course, it’s not all sweetness and light. Insanely perhaps, five of the remaining 11 companies are auto companies, or conglomerates highlighted for a new car.