America’s Most Admired Companies for Innovation

It is always refreshing to note that the commenters criticizing the article rankings and suggesting Toyota and SONY, didn’t pay attention to the article headline, “America’s Most Admired Companies.” One would think this was obvious, but wouldn’t those companies be more appropriately included in the list for “Japan’s Most Admired Companies.”

Innovation is incrediby important, but executives can sometimes get so enamored with “innovation” that they lose sight of the fact that it’s just a tool, not the ultimate objective. Don’t get me wrong, it can be a very powerful tool, but it needs to be used to support the strategy.

You can seem more about my point of view on my blog:
Customer Experience Matters

Be interested to see if this is posted. But I think it is an interesting bit of news pertaining to the no. 1 hottest Co in the Valley. Apple is a lot of things including cold and uncaring. Why you ask? Apple recently forced, yes forced many of it’s top suppliers to drop their sales reps for a direct relationship. The funny thing is, in the electronics industry working with the Manufacturers rep has always been considered a direct relationship. I can only speak for myself, but this decision has cost me my job. It took me 5 hard yrs of work to grow business enough to make a good salary for the past 2 years. Because of the volume of business the manufacturer I represented insisted I manage only their line and only Apple. Now I am looking for work, I will most likely loose my home, most if not all of my retirement who knows what will happen. It’s sad a decision like this can be made with no regard how it might effect some peoples lives. Sour Apples!!!

I know Michigan is having a hard time right now as a “Rust Belt” state. But we do have some good companies and intelligent people. I’d like to see Michigan get some credit where credit is due, Herman Miller, along with all the other major office furniture companies are based in Michigan, not Wisconsin as the report cited. Most of the design and engineering are done in Western Michigan, the office furniture capital of the US.

What about a company like Ideo? A company that actually innovates. A company that think actually innovates.

Not sure that I would classify all these companies as “innovative.” Seems like they were focused on the current and future operating environments and developed strategies that put them ahead of their competitors. The strategies MAY sometimes involve innovation, but frequently they are just sound business decisions on investment mixes (technologies / people / real estate / etc.), market niches to be developed and pursued, and incentivising good workers to become better / responsibly empowered (response-able).

I am most curious about when Herman Miller moved from Zeeland Michigan to somewhere in Wisconsin ???

I work for an innovation/ideation firm that contracts with larger companies to help them create new products. So my question is: how often are these companies lauded for work that was done for them?

The good news is: for the most innovative companies, a greater portion of their ideas start and end within the company. And so I’ll agree with a lot of the choices on this list… Apple is notorious for refusing to outsource their innovation.

Seems like too many of these companies are all about marketing and consumption.
Surely the innovation we praise should be about novel products and not simply a better mouse trap as is the case even for Apple.
The kind of innovative product we should praise is original concepts, such as DARPA’s Internet.
Money makers would do well to remember this simple truth.

Actually, it was Steve Jobs himself who pushed Pixar, not Apple.

Worst “most” ever. Ever heard of Google? Toyota? Facebook? The only innovative company in this list is apple. Obviously whoever came up with this list has no concept of what innovation is.

What were you guys thinking? What about the companies like SONY that changed TV’s for ever. Big, Flat Screen, HD companies that have now gone on to Blu-RAY and made major chages in the market. Or VISZO that showed they could be built cheaper and still keep the Quality.