Eric Ryan and Adam Lowry of Method | photo by Suzy Poling
The faces and voices of the world's most innovative company.
Careful readers of this magazine may be scratching their heads right now, in light of our recent cover story laying out the many challenges facing Apple. But the company has had, indisputably, one hell of a run. In the past year alone, three major new products -- iPhone, iPod Touch, and Leopard OS -- fueled triple-digit revenue growth. So while analysts forecast a more earthbound Apple in 2008, it deserves praise. And extra points for style.
In 2007, the social-networking juggernaut had variously impressed with its ability to reinvent the wheel (opening its platform to outside developers) and drawn cyberpickets with its boneheaded missteps (trying to sell advertising by telegraphing its users' every move). But after a year lived dangerously, Facebook is officially A-list, with a $15 billion valuation to boot, thanks to Microsoft's $240 million investment. That's nothing to throw a sheep at.
GE makes our list not on reputation but on the strength of its breakthrough products. Among them: an 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% -- evidence that Ecomagination is more than just marketing babble. Coming up, commercially viable OLED lighting by 2010.
Nobody can accuse the Palo Alto -- based design firm of taking on easy clients in 2007. The CDC asked Ideo to help tackle childhood obesity; the Acumen Fund enlisted the shop to collaborate on delivering clean water in the developing world; and the Red Cross hired it to help encourage blood donations. "As social issues increasingly become business issues," says Ideo CEO Tim Brown, "this will be a critical new direction for design." Of course, there were awards too. The company's designs for the Eclipse 500 Very Light Jet cabin and cockpit instrument panel won IDEA Gold medals, as did its LCD monitor for Samsung. But it was Ideo's "Keep the Change" campaign for Bank of America that had perhaps the most impact. Based on research showing that boomer women with kids tend to round up their financial transactions, Ideo developed a service that rounds up debit card purchases to the nearest dollar, then transfers the monetary difference from the customer's checking account to her savings. In its first year, 2.5 million customers signed up.
You expect fancy footwear from Nike. But its latest masterstroke is social networking, online and off. From events to the Web to unique retail hubs, Nike is blurring the line between brand and experience.Mark Borden
Read More: Consumer Experiences and Consumer Products
Once a maker of wood products and tires, the Finnish firm has thrived in the wireless world. Today, Nokia has a 37% (and growing) share of the global cell-phone market, more than twice that of its closest competitor, Motorola. How? A two-tiered design process that identifies the “remarkable similarities in what global consumers want and need in their mobile devices,” says senior design manager Rhys Newman, then adds local insight. Bright colors are key to success in India, China, and the Middle East, “where a phone can show status,” he says. Markets with low literacy rates get phones without written menus. The company’s next challenge is to gain momentum in the U.S., where it has less than 10% of the market. It’s betting big on the feature-rich N95 smartphone -- and a strategy of welcoming third-party apps.
When Alibaba went public last November and raised a stunning $1.5 billion -- the biggest Internet IPO since Google’s -- it also raised eyebrows around the world. But probably not those of founder Jack Ma, who back in 1999 recognized that China’s 42 million small and medium-size companies (the vast majority of businesses in the country) just might create some opportunities for e-commerce. Alibaba provides a point-and-click system for suppliers to get online and connect with distributors and consumers all over the world. The Chinese site today boasts 16 million users, and the English iteration has 9 million. Watch out, eBay.
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