Only eight companies from Europe are among the world’s 50 most innovative companies, half as many as two years ago. This is according to a survey by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG). According to the survey, only two European companies are in the top half of the ranking. On the contrary, the representation of Asian companies is growing significantly.
Seven companies from the US are in the top ten. As in previous years, Apple is the most innovative company. The study looks at how companies approach innovation, what obstacles they face and how a focus on innovation affects their business. It also takes a new look at climate protection and sustainability issues.
“European companies have long suffered from a more fragmented European market, less pressure to innovate and less investment capital. New, disruptive business models are then significantly harder to scale up and capitalise quickly in Europe compared to the US or China,” said Jiri Švejcar, partner at Boston Consulting Group.
Yet between 2018 and 2020, the number of European companies in the ranking was 15, almost double. The share of Asian companies is rising, with seven of the 50 most innovative companies last year coming from China and another eight from the rest of the Asia-Pacific region. Meanwhile, in 2018, the entire Asia-Pacific region, including China, had seven representatives in the rankings.
In second place behind Apple was Microsoft, which improved by two places, and Amazon came in third, as it did last year. Alphabet, Tesla, Samsung, Moderna, Huawei, Sony and IBM are also in the top ten. The jumpers of the year are Moderna, which jumped 35 places year-on-year, and Nvidia, which appeared in the rankings for the first time and immediately reached 15th place.
As in previous years, technology companies are the most represented in the rankings. A quarter of the most innovative companies (13) focus on hardware and technology equipment, and another tenth (6) are software manufacturers. There is also a significant representation of firms involved in wholesale and retail trade, with seven in the ranking.
Source: Boston Consulting Group and Reuters
