In the daily grind so many of us get caught up in, it’s often exhilarating to lift our heads for a moment and discover some of the amazing ways good companies are working to change the world. Change may sometimes seem slow, but there are many out there who are creating and innovating, bringing world-changing products and services to the market.
These 10 companies are the most innovative of the last decade, and are the ones to watch in the years to come if you want to see incredible things happening in the market.
1. Apple
Love them or hate them, Apple is the king of innovation as far as companies go. Fast Company included Apple on their Most Innovative Companies 2013 list for their retina displays, but the company deserves the accolade for consistently delivering top-of-the-line products that are beautiful, intuitive and creative. How could the company who brought the world the iPod, iPhone, and MacBook Airs not be considered among the most innovative of a generation? Boston Consulting Group has even lauded Apple as the single most innovative company in the entire world every year since 2005, and whether or not it’s true they are definitely the most valuable - and they certainly didn’t earn that title by being unoriginal.
Although they are undoubtedly guilty of making some snail-pace upgrades that force consumers to purchase their newer products and boost sales, Apple is worth US$104.3 billion and is worth almost twice as much as any other brand in the world.
2. Uber
To say Uber is a breath of fresh air when it comes to needing a cab is the understatement of the year. The private, reasonably priced car service provides a consistently easy and pleasant experience, a stark contrast to desperately flagging down a taxi and then shuffling through your purse while hanging halfway out the taxi door. When you download the Uber app, you input your debit card information, so you never have to worry about fishing for cash for the ride or tip. Everything is calculated and charged when your ride is complete. The app allows you to track your driver’s progress once you’ve put in a request, see their user rating and easily contact them if necessary. The cars are clean, new vehicles – no more smelly, out-dated vehicles for your ride. The customer service is top notch, and the experience could revolutionize the taxi industry. Fast Company named Uber one of the most innovative companies of 2013.
3. Github
Beloved by developers, Github allows greater, easier collaboration when developing software and websites - ambitious writers can also use it for writing and editing their books, though the set-up process is usually more involved than most authors would want to engage in. Another company on Fast Company’s list, the publication noted that Github is used by developers at Facebook and LinkedIn, which is a pretty big endorsements of the product. They also quoted founder and CEO Tom Preston-Werner as saying, “We’ve changed the way software is developed by lowering the barrier to entry.”
The Atlantic even accuses Wikis of becoming obsolete in the presence of Github, which allows users to compile a “family tree” of images, codes and data on everything from taco recipes to healthcare information. Github is currently encouraging the White House to open source Healthcare.gov to help improve what has been called “a mess” of a site and “a poster child for the federal government’s ineptitude” by critics.
4. Amazon
Businessweek declared Amazon one the most innovative businesses of the last decade, thanks not only to its status as one of the few businesses to successfully survive the dot-com bubble but also to its unique “customer value proposition”. It’s also willing to shift when it sees new opportunities, to create profit in unique ways and adapt easily to market demands. This goes far beyond their production of wildly popular Kindle e-readers. Amazon started with books, moved on to cater to third-party sellers, then the IT crowd, and eventually went on to become an OEM (original equipment manufacturer) when producing Kindles.
At its core, Amazon is committed to anticipating and providing what customers want in an accessible, appealing way, and its ability to do that makes it a company to watch for years to come.
5. Google
So much more than an incredibly popular search engine, Google consistently pushes the envelope on improving their current products and inventing new ones. They are ceaselessly trying new things, and whether they fail or succeed, the company keeps innovating and pushing new ideas forward. Up next for the company are driverless cars, which may sound dangerous but have so far driven over half a million miles without any accidents. Self-driving cars may be available as soon as 2017 and Google is even considering developing robo-taxis, sure to put thousands out of work. After lobbying in Florida, Nevada and California, the three states have legalized the driverless cars which utilize safety features to focus on data what help them decide what to do when drivers are distracted or hesitant.
And let’s not forget Google Glass, which involves optical computers worn on the head in the form of admittedly awkward-looking glasses that will allow the user to be quietly distracted from any conversation by engaging in apps and texting right on their face instead of having to gaze down at a smartphone.
6. Tesla Motors
Tesla is the pioneer in developing and building electric cars that can be made widely available to the general public. The Model S sedan currently has a five-star safety rating across all categories, and the company has worked strenuously to raise the profile of electric cars. TechCrunch reported that Tesla also creates its own IT and e-commerce systems, as well as innovating on automobiles. As concern increases over environmental issues and finding sustainable alternatives to our everyday uses of resources such as gas and oil, Tesla could be paving the way for the future.
7. Epocrates
There’s plenty to complain about when it comes to the health care industry, but businesses like Epocrates give reason for hope. Selected by the Washington Post as one of the top innovative health care companies, Epocrates provides mobile solutions for doctors that allows them to instantly access information on a wide range of treatments and drug interactions. The digitizing of the health care industry is an essential area for progress, and companies like Epocrates are pushing that forward; one of the most unsettling things about visiting the doctor is the amount of paperwork and textbooks lying around, and no one wants to wait for a doctor to thumb through books or turn to Google for a solution when one isn’t immediately known.
8. Neurovigil
Another pick from the Washington Post’s list, Neurovigil created the iBrain sleep headband that tracks your sleep patterns and brain activity. Why is this important? In addition to providing valuable information about what’s happening in your brain while you sleep, it can be used to predict disease patterns and help you improve your health. This is an incredibly useful product for the hundreds of sleep studies constantly conducted around the world. Their product iBrain has been used by Stephen Hawking in an attempt to help Dr. Hawking communicate using only his thoughts, a solution for the paralyzed which has only been a dream for many for dozens of years. Not only will this revolutionize the way the paralyzed communicate, but aforementioned sleep studies can be conducted from the patient’s home instead of requiring one to sleep in a lab hooked up to a machine with multiple wires.
9. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals is making incredible medical advances through an innovative drug-testing process that allows the company to inject the medicines into specially bred mice whose immune systems are almost identical to that of a human, enabling them to more quickly test and develop the products for human consumption. Regeneron’s efforts are being led by chief scientific officer George Yancopoulos, whose significant studies on the human nervous system got him elected to both the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Forbes praised Regeneron’s forward-thinking practices and potential developments, as well as their savvy business models that allows them to be a successful and humane company.
10. Instagram
Now owned by Facebook, Instagram was created in 2010 as a simple app that allowed people to share photos with friends - plain and simple. Unlike other social media networks that have a number of functions, Instagram focused primarily on photo sharing and did so in an elegant and effective way. According to Gigaom, who listed Instagram as one of their Most Innovative Companies of 2012, the photo sharing app “turned photos into a kind of mobile language that imparted feelings and a sense of a place through geo-tags, which prompted immediate feedback from users.” Instagram’s simple, sleek and innovative app created a whole new way for smartphone owners to waste their time, sucking in 80 million users (including celebrities such as Drake and Rihanna) and selling for a whopping US$1 billion dollars.
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