World Monitor Mag, Industrial Overview WM_November_2018_WEB_Version | Page 93

additional content
Inside the High-Leverage Innovators
We first conducted the high-leverage innovator analysis in 2006,
finding 94 companies that fit the criteria, and then created the
list again in 2007, identifying 118. For this year’s study (when
we found 88 such companies), we compared the list across
three years — 2007, 2012, and 2017 — to provide a 15-year
performance window (each list draws on the previous five
years of data). Only two companies qualified as high-leverage
innovators in all three years: Stanley Black & Decker and Apple
— Silicon Valley’s poster child for innovation excellence and the
perennial leader of our “10 Most Innovative Companies” list.
One of the notable changes to the high-leverage innovator
list since its earlier iterations has been the dramatic rise of
companies headquartered in China, from 3 percent of the total
in 2007 to 17 percent in 2017 — a net increase of more than
400 percent (see “China’s R&D Success Story”). The number of
high-leverage innovators in Europe also increased significantly,
from representing 18 percent of the total number in 2007 to
representing 30 percent in 2017. Meanwhile, the number of
high-leverage innovators fell 45 percent for North American
companies, 8 percent for Japanese companies, and 23 percent
for the “rest of world” countries.
Among industries, the number of high-leverage innovators rose
between 2007 and 2017 in telecommunications, consumer
goods, healthcare, industrials, autos, and aerospace and defense,
while the numbers fell in chemicals and energy, computing
and electronics, and software and Internet. Looking at all three
supported by EUROBAK
91