Stategy + Business

STRATEGY + BUSINESS

In a similar survey that I found on the 2011 Most Innovative Companies what I found interesting was that Twitter ranked #2. On the article’s list, it was Google. In 2011, Google fell to a ranking of number 6. In addition, beating out Google was Facebook, Nissan, and Groupon. Google continues to develop a wide array of technologies, that I am not sure how these companies would out rank them. It seems to me that Google would be the top innovator with the broad spectrum of technologies that they develop. From their mapping and world imaging, to their social media sites so on and so forth. Facebook and Twitter really on have focus on one aspect which is social media and advertising. They have come up with an extraordinary new way to communicate on the web. It has definitely swept the nation. The other company that I find surprising as well is Groupon. It is amazing the differences in the types of companies that are now on the top list versus just 2 years ago. In the article that we read, there were mostly big name companies that have been established for quite some time. These companies would have poured large amounts of research and development dollars to develop the products or services that would have put them on this list. Now we have ideas, like in the case of Facebook, stemmed from a college kids idea.

One of the surprises that I see in the exhibit 11 is the amount of Research and Development that Microsoft spends versus what Apple spends. Microsoft spent over 9 Million dollars on R&D whereas Apple only spent 1.33 Million. Microsoft’s R&D spending as a percentage of sales was also the highest in the top 10. They spent 15.4% of the sales dollars on R&D, and yet, we do not see Microsoft on the top 10 list for 2011. However, Apple only spent 3.1% of its sales dollars on R&D, yet it continues to be #1 even in 2011. I would have to say that Apple is much more coherent in its spending than Microsoft. Being in...