The Most Innovative Companies

BCG's annual ranking of the most innovative companies is based on a survey of senior executives who represent a wide variety of industries in every region worldwide, as well as an analysis of select financial metrics.

Before 2008, these rankings were based on a single criterion—respondents' picks. That year, we expanded the scope and added three financial measures: total shareholder return (TSR) as well as revenue and margin growth. Each measure reflected a three-year period, and TSR reflected stock price appreciation and dividends. Respondents' votes determined 80% of the ranking, TSR accounted for 10%, revenue growth determined 5%, and margin growth accounted for 5%.

In 2015, we revisited our methodology to make the results more robust and reflect the top innovators across all industries. We asked respondents to rank the most innovative companies both inside and outside their industry. To create a better balance of subjective and objective measures, respondents' votes for companies within their industry accounted for 30% of the ranking, their votes for companies outside their industry accounted for 30%, and—to simplify the financial inputs—three-year TSR accounted for 40%.

In 2016, we assigned startups a three-year TSR for the top-50 analysis to avoid disadvantaging new companies with high valuations that promised strong returns but had not had a public offering. We defined startups as private companies founded after 2001. The TSR we used reflected the average three-year TSR for companies that had a market capitalization of more than $1 billion, had an initial public offering between 2010 and 2012, and were founded after 2001.