In the recent release of The Global Innovation 1000 report for 2016, Apple was voted the most innovative company . However its substantial margin has narrowed and it edged out Alphabet (formerly known as Google) this year by only a handful of votes.
Alphabet’s Google continues to make waves with initiatives such as its self-driving car project, while Apple focuses on its capabilities in gaining customer insights to improve popular, profitable products such as the iPhone. Interestingly, the two companies are now competing directly in one of the hot new software markets — connectivity platforms for cars — with the Apple CarPlay and Android Auto offerings going head-to-head.
3M moved up from sixth position last year to third in 2016, proving that the innovation executives who vote in our survey value the steady, long-term approach to innovation that the Minnesota-based company has long exemplified
Tesla joined the most innovative companies list in 2013 in ninth place, and has ascended to the number four position in 2016. It is the only auto company voted onto this year’s list, and that seems appropriate given the focus of this year’s Global Innovation 1000 study: the increasing shift of R&D investment to software and service offerings. Tesla has been an innovator in both areas, with such offerings as its Autopilot self-driving feature, which was delivered overnight — over the Internet — as a software update to 60,000 customers in October 2015.
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