The 50 Most Innovative Companies 2010 (Bloomberg Businessweek)

This is a useful reference (but really reflects business trends as opposed to individual traits)…

http://www.businessweek.com/interactive_reports/innovative_companies_2010.html?chan=magazine+channel_special+report

Apple is ranked #1. Google is #2. (Surprisingly) Microsoft is #3.

Amazon’s ranking at #6 is informative in that it is more challenging to distinguish innovative processes (Amazon’s forté) as opposed to innovative products (eg, Apple’s and Google’s forté).

Interestingly, if you compare this list with this article about Singapore having “government policies and corporate performance most encouraging to innovation”, no Singapore company is on the top 50 innovative companies list. Again, this reinforces the notion that if you focus on companies for innovation, you miss (and forget about) a lot of other innovation activity that is happening from personal levels. This supports the thought that youth are a tremendous innovation resource and largely un-recognized/un-respected.