The World's 50 Most Innovative Companies

2007 Rank	2006 Rank	Company Name	HQ CITY	HQ COUNTRY	HQ CONTINENT	STOCK RETURNS 2001-2006*	REVENUE GROWTH 2001-2006*	MARGIN GROWTH 2001-2006*	PATENT CITATION INDEX**
1	1	APPLE	Cupertino, CA	USA	N America	50.60	29.21	NA***	34
2	2	GOOGLE	Mountain View, CA	USA	N America	NA^	NA^	NA^	1
3	4	TOYOTA MOTOR	Toyota	Japan	Asia	20.50	8.30	5.21	361
4	6	GENERAL ELECTRIC	Fairfield, CT	USA	N America	1.11	5.06	1.36	155
5	5	MICROSOFT	Redmond, WA	USA	N America	0.83	11.85	-3.04	174
6	7	PROCTER & GAMBLE	Cincinnati, OH	USA	N America	12.20	11.69	3.70	105
7	3	3M	St. Paul, MN	USA	N America	7.77	7.35	5.49	57
8	43	WALT DISNEY CO.	Burbank, CA	USA	N America	11.71	6.29	7.35	8
9	10	IBM	Armonk, NY	USA	N America	-3.48	1.26	4.97	94
10	13	SONY	Tokyo	Japan	Asia	-2.62	0.60	1.14	418
11	20	WAL-MART	Bentonville, AR	USA	N America	-3.35	9.79	3.54	0
12	23	HONDA MOTOR	Tokyo	Japan	Asia	13.61	7.40	0.38	377
13	8	NOKIA	Espoo	Finland	Europe	-9.24	5.68	4.37	287
14	9	STARBUCKS	Seattle, WA	USA	N America	30.04	24.07	1.51	2
15	22	TARGET	Minneapolis, MN	USA	N America	7.55	8.32	4.23	0
16	16	BMW	Munich	Germany	Europe	4.30	4.96	-1.23	84
17	12	SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS	Seoul	S Korea	Asia	36.24	4.60	8.07	1000
18	11	VIRGIN GROUP	London	UK	Europe	Private	Private	Private	0
19	17	INTEL	Santa Clara, CA	USA	N America	-7.57	5.92	12.55	216
20	21	AMAZON.COM	Seattle, WA	USA	N America	29.53	27.96	NA***	0
21	70	BOEING	Chicago, IL	USA	N America	19.91	1.12	-4.23	59
22	14	DELL	Round Rock, TX	USA	N America	-1.59	12.87	-5.24	16
23	27	GENENTECH	South San Francisco, CA	USA	N America	24.50	34.85	32.40	4
24	18	EBAY	San Jose, CA	USA	N America	12.45	51.47	4.91	1
25	28	CISCO SYSTEMS	San Jose, CA	USA	N America	8.58	5.02	205.04	20
26	30	MOTOROLA	Schaumburg, IL	USA	N America	10.10	7.40	NA***	466
27	25	SOUTHWEST AIRLINES	Dallas, TX	USA	N America	-3.57	10.34	-1.98	0
28	15	IDEO	Palo Alto, CA	USA	N America	Private	Private	Private	1
28	19	IKEA	Helsingborg	Sweden	Europe	Private	Private	Private	0
30	31	DAIMLER- CHRYSLER	Stuttgart	Germany	Europe	4.22	-0.16	19.00	181
31	42	HEWLETT- PACKARD	Palo Alto, CA	USA	N America	16.70	15.17	10.47	258
32	29	NIKE	Beaverton, OR	USA	N America	13.21	9.58	3.78	822
33	40	BP	London	UK	Europe	11.80	8.52	3.49	2
34	24	RESEARCH IN MOTION	Waterloo	Canada	N America	NA^	NA^	NA^	34
35	NR	AT&T	San Antonio, TX	USA	N America	3.00	6.55	-7.27	16
36	NR	CITIGROUP	New York, NY	USA	N America	6.70	5.57	3.81	1
37	NR	VERIZON	New York, NY,	USA	N America	0.20	5.58	-6.80	5
38	67	ROYAL PHILIPS ELECTRONICS	Amsterdam	Holland	Europe	-1.10	-3.56	NA***	97
39	NR	NINTENDO	Kyoto	Japan	Asia	7.80	2.60	0.30	8
40	84	COSTCO WHOLESALE	Issaquah, WA	USA	N America	4.07	11.57	-1.44	0
41	NR	VOLKSWAGEN	Wolfsburg	Germany	Europe	14.66	3.44	-18.88	4
42	55	PFIZER	New York, NY	USA	N America	-5.89	8.56	-4.36	15
43	NR	BEST BUY	Richfield, MN	USA	N America	8.86	10.71	3.20	0
44	53	JOHNSON & JOHNSON	New Brunswick, NJ	USA	N America	4.14	10.02	1.33	31
45	87	AMGEN	Thousand Oaks, CA	USA	N America	3.89	28.86	-4.33	1
46	NR	MERCK	Whitehouse Station, NJ	USA	N America	-1.20	-13.86	6.16	7
47	NR	NEWS CORPORATION	New York, NY	USA	N America	11.00	14.19	4.18	0
48	100	MCDONALD'S	Oak Brook, IL	USA	N America	12.87	7.74	1.61	0
49	85	LG ELECTRONICS	Seoul	S Korea	Asia	NA^	NA^	NA^	394
50	51	EXXONMOBIL	Irving, TX	USA	N America	16.75	15.03	9.09	17

Methodology

The BusinessWeek-Boston Consulting Group 2007 list of the World’s Most Innovative Companies is based on a senior management survey about innovation and was distributed electronically to executives worldwide in late 2006. In October, surveys were sent to the 1,500 largest global corporations, determined by market capitalization in U.S. dollars, with instructions to send the survey to their top 10 executives in charge of innovation. We also distributed the survey to senior management members of the BusinessWeek Market Advisory Board, an online panel consisting of BusinessWeek readers, and via the Knowledge@Wharton e-mail newsletter. Survey participation was voluntary and anonymous, and the survey closed in March, 2007. The survey consisted of 20 general questions on innovation and an optional 12 questions focused on innovation metrics.

A total of 2,468 executives answered the survey. Of those indicating their location, 77% were from N America, 12% were from Europe, and 9% were from Asia or the Pacific region. A larger share of N American voters this year may explain some movement in the rankings of some companies on our list.

Analysis and data provided in collaboration with the innovation practice of The Boston Consulting Group, BCG-ValueScience, along with Standard & Poor's Compustat data and company reports, and the Delphion patent database. We broke ties by comparing one-year total shareholder returns between 12/30/05 and 12/29/06. In ties between a public and a private company, we assumed the private company's shareholder return to be equal to the average return of the public companies on the list, or 19.6%. Ties remain only where two or more private companies receive the same number of votes.

*Stock returns are annualized,12/31/01 to 12/29/06, and account for price appreciation and dividends. Compound growth rates for revenues and operating margins are based on 2001-2006 fiscal year data as it was originally stated. Operating margin is earnings before interest and taxes as a percentage of revenue. Where possible, quarterly and semi-annual data are being used to bring performance for pre-June year ends closer to December 2006. Financial figures are calculated in local currency.

**The patent citation index reflects how often the company's patents filed over the past five years have been cited as a basis for other innovation. The number is calculated by adding, for all patents filed between 2001 and 2005, the number of times each patent or application has been cited or mentioned by other patents up until December 31, 2006. We then adjusted the citation counts for patent age, since older patents have a greater likelihood of being cited than more recent ones. The age-adjusted counts were then indexed to a linear scale

***Calculating five-year compound annual growth rate for operating margins was not possible when either figure was negative.

^Insufficient data.