Updated February 21, 2013
Fast Company magazine is a publication that is for innovative thinkers about innovative ideas. So it's only logical that each year Fast Company would recognize the companies that are the leaders in innovation with its World's Most Innovative Companies list.
It's a fascinating list, as well as a highly subjective list created by the Fast Company editorial team. Perhaps the Fast Company pickers and rankers use some methodology that is more scientific than because-we-said-so, but if they do, it's not a methodology that they feel is worth publishing.
But ranking fairness and scientific logic aside, the Most Innovative list always includes companies that are doing it differently, doing it better, and doing it in ways that seemed impossible to everybody else, whatever their "it" is.
For the global retail industry companies (and companies with significant retail operations) named as a Most Innovative Company, their "it" is both the "what" and the "how" of getting products to end users. These days that requires a whole lot more than just buying wholesale and pricing retail. These days, innovation is what grabs the attention of the retail consumer even more than the retail products themselves.
In 2012, the list of Most Innovative Retailers is a mix of enviable success and relative obscurity. It's not a surprise that the hottest, most successful, economy-defying companies are also the world's most innovative. It leads to the conclusion that the small retail companies with innovations big enough to share the list with Apple, Google, and Amazon, are the retail companies to watch, emulate, and steal from in the near future.
What follows is the list of 2012 Most Innovative Retailers, according to the secret, mystical, magical formula used by the FastCompany picking and ranking team. The number in the left column is the ranking giving to each company, out of a total of 50 innovative companies in all industries throughout the world.
2012 World’s Most Innovative Retail Companies:
1 Apple
3 Google
4 Amazon
13 Tesla Motors
14 Patagonia
17 Greenbox (China, Children's Clothing)
24 Starbucks
34 Chipotle
49 OpenSky
More "Most Innovative Retail Companies” >>
Trending Retail Topics | Free Retail Newsletter | E-mail Quote of the Day
| Pinteresting Retail Pins | Follow on Twitter | "Like" on Facebook |
