The world’s most innovative companies

US magazine FastCompany has come up with a list of the world’s 50 most innovative companies. Here is the top five:

1. Google: It has managed to continue to instill a sense of creative fearlessness and ambition, even as it has grown to more than 16,000 employees and $US14 billion in annual revenue.
2. Apple: In the past year three trailblazing products – iPhone, iPod Touch, and Leopard OS – fueled triple-digit revenue growth. The iPod alone changed the face of consumer electronics.
3. Facebook: 2007 was the year Facebook officially made it, despite the odd misstep, with a $15 billion valuation and Microsoft’s $240 million investment.
4. General Electric: Comes in at number four thanks to some whizzbang new products; a HD CT scanner that reduces radiation exposure by half, a reengineering of the best-selling CF34 jet engine for the booming Chinese aviation market, and a hybrid locomotive that cuts emissions by 50%.
5. IDEO: The Californian design firm has moved beyond the material world – although it still designs some very snazzy stuff – to design systems tackling problems such as childhood obesity and delivering clean water to the developing world.