Global executives admire Google, Apple and GE as the world's most innovative companies, a study from global management consultancy Arthur D. Little has revealed.  In its bi-annual survey of 400 global companies, the consultancy compared innovation capacity against the average by industry.
For each sector, a "top innovator" was identified based on the success of its sales and new product time to market against the industry average. The sectors covered are:

• Technology, Information, Media & Electronics
• Electrical Engineering & Electronics
• Chemicals & Pharmaceutical
• Engineering, Machinery and High-Tech
• Retail/FMCG
• Automotive
• Energy & Utilities
• Financial Services
• Logistics

Top innovators typically achieve up to twice as many sales as the industry average, realize higher EBIT, and roll out new products twice as fast as their competitors.  And while 87% of companies surveyed currently measure their innovation performance, the study reveals that the majority of respondents have significant potential to improve their innovation efforts. 
"Benchmarking R&D performance against peers and competitors is the best way to kick-start stagnant or underperforming innovation programs" said Per I. Nilsson, Global Head of the Technology and Innovation Management Practice at Arthur D. Little.  "With over a decade of data and in-depth experience upon which to benchmark businesses' innovation capacity, low performers can see precisely where and why their current efforts are failing to deliver."
The study found that strong innovation capacity will be critical this year as companies seek a return to pre-2008 profit levels.  As such, product, service and process innovation  ranked high in companies' 2010 strategic priorities - coming second only to cost cutting as a focus for this year.
Top innovators identified new business and new product development as their top strategic priorities, acknowledging that, post the financial crisis, they are unlikely to be selling the same set of products and services with similar degrees of success when compared to pre-crisis times. Top innovators all prefer an "open" approach to innovation - through partnerships and R&D outsourcing - and identified strategic management of the product and service portfolio, and strong idea management processes as the key to ongoing business success in the coming years.
The Innovation Excellence survey results are now available for download at
www.adl.com/InnoEx