The Most Innovative Companies

BCG's rankings of the most innovative companies are based on a survey of senior executives representing a wide variety of industries in every region. Before 2008, our rankings of the most innovative companies were based on a single criterion—respondents' picks. In 2008, we added three financial measures: three-year growth in total shareholder returns (TSR), revenue, and margins. (TSR includes stock price appreciation and dividends.) Respondents' votes counted for 80 percent of the ranking, TSRs for 10 percent, and revenue and margin growth for 5 percent each.

In 2015, on the tenth anniversary of the launch of BCG's list of most innovative companies, we chose to revisit our methodology to make the results more robust and reflective of top innovators across all industries. We asked respondents to rank the most innovative companies both inside and outside their industry. We also began using five-year growth in TSR to indicate performance over a longer time horizon. To create a better balance of subjective and objective measures, we made respondents' votes for companies within their industry count for 30 percent of the ranking, their votes for companies outside their industry for 30 percent, and—to simplify the financial inputs—three-year TSR for 40 percent.