The 15 Most Innovative Companies In The World 2014

For the fourth consecutive year, Salesforce.com, the world’s leading customer-relationship software firm tops the 2014 list as the World’s Most Innovative Company by Forbes Magazine.

Alexion Pharmaceuticals ranked second among all companies, followed by the UK’s most prominent technology company, ARM Holdings in third place, Unilever Indonesia in fourth, and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, a leading science-based biopharmaceutical company in fifth position.

The “World’s Most Innovative Companies” list ranks top companies in the world that investors expect to be innovative today and in the future.

Here are the top 15 most innovative companies:

1) Salesforce.com, the cloud CRM (customer relationship management) software provider.
Market Cap – $35.87 B
Industry: Software & Programming
Founded: 1999
Country: United States
CEO: Marc Benioff
Employees: 13,300
Sales: $4.07 B

2) Alexion Pharmaceuticals
Market Cap $30.73 B
Industry: Biotechs
Founded: 1992
Country: United States
CEO: Leonard Bell
Employees: 1,774
Sales: $1.53 B

3) ARM Holdings
Market Cap $24.54 B
Industry: Semiconductors
Founded: 1990
Country: United Kingdom
CEO: Simon Segars
Employees: 2,833
Sales: $1.12 B
Headquarters: Cambridge

4) Unilever Indonesia
Industry: Household Products
Founded: 1930
Country: Indonesia

5) Regeneron Pharmaceuticals
Market Cap $30.67 B
Industry: Biotechs
Founded: 1988
Country: United States
CEO: Leonard Schleifer
Employees: 2,340
Sales: $2.11 B

6) Amazon.com
Market Cap $157.52 B
Industry: Internet & Catalog Retail
Founded: 1994
Country: United States
CEO: Jeffrey Bezos
Employees: 117,300
Sales: $74.45 B

7) BioMarin Pharmaceutical
Industry: Biotechnology
Country: United States
CEO: Pierre Lapalme

8) CP All
Market Cap $12.15 B
Industry: Specialty Stores
Founded: 1988
Country: Thailand
CEO: Kosak Chairatsamisak
Employees: 39,047
Sales: $8.86 B

9) VMware
Market Cap $48.16 B
Industry: Software & Programming
Founded: 1998
Country: United States
CEO: Patrick Gelsinger
Employees: 14,300
Sales: $5.21 B

10) Aspen Pharmacare Holdings
Market Cap $12.09 B
Industry: Pharmaceuticals
Founded: 1850
Country: South Africa
CEO: Stephen Saad
Employees: 7,177
Sales: $2.31 B

11) Vertex Pharmaceuticals
Market Cap $16.95 B
Industry: Biotechs
Country: United States
CEO: Jeffrey Leiden
Employees: 1,800
Sales: $1.21 B

12) Red Hat
Industry: Systems Software
Country: United States
CEO: James Whitehurst

13) Hermès International
Market Cap $34.84 B
Industry: Apparel/Accessories
Founded: 1837
Country: France
CEO: Patrick Thomas
Employees: 11,037
Sales: $4.99 B

14) Hindustan Unilever
Industry: Household Products
Country: India

15) Monster Beverage
Market Cap $11.85 B
Industry: Beverages
Founded: 1985
Country: United States
CEO: Rodney Sacks
Employees: 2,013
Sales: $2.25 B

The editors at Forbes uses a metric called the “Innovation Premium” to measure the premium the stock market has placed on the value of a company based on expectations of future innovations including new products, services and markets that will drive the business into the future — the difference between their market capitalization and a net present value of cash flows from existing businesses.