Seattle, WA, USA--(Jobwerx News)--International trends among top global innovators with detailed profiles and their respective innovation drivers.

Now in its seventh year of compilation, the latest list of 2004's top global innovation leaders has just been published, including detailed profiles of the world's top 1,000 companies and their respective sector's innovation drivers. This most recent list contains a mix of well-established innovators, such as Samsung, Toyota and Nokia, along with relative newcomers Reckitt Benckiser, DSM, and Time Warner. In addition, the analysis includes top-level international trends among these global innovators. Of note is a 40% reduction in the number of US-based leaders on the list, which is offset by an increase in UK-registered firms and a rise in the number of European firms that are performing well in several sectors.

Innovaro’s annual Innovation Leadership analysis assesses the performance of a wide selection of global companies during 2004 against a number of criteria. These include:
• Growth in market capitalisation, revenues and profits
• Average margin
• Investment in R&D, marketing and HR activities
• Recent IP (patent and trademark) performance
• Brand value / human capital growth
• Major new product launches
• Peer review It provides what we see as an accurate as possible view on which companies are the most effective innovators in each sector and the key competitive strengths.

Innovaro's analysis includes a review of how these companies have performed according to the many varied elements that contribute to "innovation success", such as cultivating a culture of innovation, strategic focus, and investments in R&D, as well as the number of new products successfully released to market, average product margin, growth management, and brand impact. Equipped with this information, Innovaro has put together some key insights that can be gleaned from those that have achieved innovation leadership and the implications for those aspiring to improve innovation performance. More specifically, the analysis includes what it is that innovation leaders are doing, why and how they're achieving success, and the lessons to be learned from their example.

Across the twenty sectors assessed, there are inevitably some major variations in the innovation drivers at play. For example, what supports BP's ability to maintain a good reserve replacement ratio is significantly different from how H&M manages to deliver quality mass-market fashion to the savvy High-Street customer. That said, there are also a number of common cross-sector factors as well.

Excellent clarity of focus is a common trait among companies as diverse as Canon, Novo Nordisk, RBS, Samsung, Tesco, Time Warner, and UPS, all of whom are continuing to demonstrate sector-leading revenue and margin growth. While each is driven by different innovation priorities, all have better focus than their close competitors. In addition, Pepsico has shown bold responsive strategic refocus in its delivery of a range of healthier product lines, and Medtronic's market-making moves have helped it capture two-thirds of its revenue from products launched in the last year.

From an organizational point-of-view, Microsoft's attractive work environment and culture, BP's internal performance contracts, and Tesco's margin management prowess continue to deliver dividends. In addition, H&M's ability to effectively manage new market entry and fast product delivery, Honeywell's development of long-term innovation partnerships, and Nokia's willingness and ability to quickly restructure itself to better address changing market dynamics are all underpinned by strong yet flexible innovation cultures. Moreover, Time Warner's cross-business sharing of concepts and DSM's successful adoption of an open-innovation approach are both organization-driven differentiators that few of their respective industry peers can currently match.

In terms of innovation delivery, there are several companies - including Nokia, Reckitt Benckiser, Tesco, UPS and Virgin Atlantic - who are all making the most of their leading-edge consumer and market insight capabilities. Adidas, Canon, H&M, Logitech, Medtronic, Nokia, Samsung, Toyota, and Virgin are each using world-leading and award-winning product design at the center of their respective innovation activities. Lastly, and in different ways, class-leading service delivery is playing a major role for RBS, Time Warner, Toyota, UPS and, yet again, Virgin.

The lessons from these insights are clear: None of the innovation leaders are succeeding in just one area; they are all masters of strategic focus and organizational development. Across the spectrum, to be a successful, innovative company requires a full integration of consumer insights, leading-edge design, and the timely delivery of a product or service that is market-driven.

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Innovaro is a UK-based consulting and insight firm working with organizations to help improve innovation performance and build innovation capability. For more information or to download the summary table of this year's list of global innovation leaders, go to www.innovaro.com.