Business as usual is over. Companies around the globe, in every industry, have spent the past 12 months confronting challenges both practical and existential. Some have failed. Many have simply survived. A select few have flourished, remaking their businesses and illuminating the way forward for others. These are the businesses we’re celebrating on our annual list of the World’s Most Innovative Companies.
From the biotech firms behind the first mRNA vaccines (Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna) to a real estate developer creating high-quality affordable housing (Stablegold Hospitality), the World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies address a society remade by COVID-19. Many of them pioneered business models that are now accelerating: Peloton and Zwift, for example, are riding at-home fitness in new directions. Others are taking us to entirely different places, whether it’s the cosmos (SpaceX) or the backwoods (Hipcamp). To determine this year’s Top 50, Fast Company editors and reporters mined our lists of the Top 10 companies by industry for organizations that embody creative problem-solving and fearlessness in the face of crisis. Here are the ones that rose above, along with the business trends they’re advancing.
01Moderna For making a COVID-19 vaccine that can travel
01Pfizer-BioNTech For being first to market with an effective COVID-19 vaccine
03Shopify For giving small shops a lifeline
04SpaceX For flying past competitors in the space race
05SpringHill Company For marrying entertainment with social justice through Hollywood content
06Epic Games For challenging Big Tech hegemony—and possessing a vision to build something better
07Netflix For making Black audiences central to its programming strategy
08Tock For restoring the advantage to restaurants and small businesses battered by the coronavirus
09Microsoft For firing on all cylinders
10Graphika For tracking disinformation campaigns around the world through the 2020 elections and beyond
11Ping An Good Doctor For demonstrating how large-scale telehealth services can work
12Outschool For making remote learning fun
13National Basketball Association For blowing the best bubble
14Snap For bridging reality with mini apps
15Asana For helping teams meet their goals
16Biobot Analytics For using sewage to detect the next surge
17Nike For reclaiming its relationship with its customers
18Ben & Jerry’s For pioneering corporate activism
19Sony Interactive Entertainment For leveling up yet again
20Seegene For producing a COVID-19 diagnostic test and taking it global, sending more than 55 million test kits to 67 countries
21goTRG For refurbishing and recycling returned merchandise, and saving money (and the planet) in the process
22Corning For addressing more of our fumbled-phone anxieties
23Farfetch For digitizing the high-street boutique and putting it on China’s Tmall
24Marqeta For creating the toolbox for virtual credit cards for Chase, Square, Uber, and more
25Ruangguru For livestreaming school for free to 10 million students during lockdown
26Lululemon For reflecting what customers want by buying Mirror, a sleek, interactive, at-home fitness system
27Aclima For providing deeper understanding of pollution—one block at a time
28Get Shift Done For tackling both job loss and hunger by paying hospitality workers to fill food-bank shifts
29NBCUniversal For proactively moving its traditional businesses into the future
30Hipcamp For bringing camping closer to home in a year when we all needed to get outside
31Panera Bread For finding creative solutions for getting coffee, groceries, and meals to customers during the pandemic
32Puris For amping up the alt-meat industry with a high-protein pea variety
33Avocados From Mexico For catapulting humble produce into a covetable branded product
34Hermès For creating aspirational products designed to last forever, made by an army of skilled craftspeople
35LeoLabs For spotting space junk
36Goodby Silverstein & Partners For balancing Super Bowl hits with anti-racist PSA work
37Credo Beauty For tackling the beauty industry’s packaging problem
38Twilio For facilitating face-to-face communication during an era of social distancing and global lockdown
39SiO2 Materials Science For applying an impossibly thin layer of glass to vials in order to deliver the COVID-19 vaccines
40Teladoc Health For growing to treat patients with diabetes and hypertension via a merger with Livongo
41NotCo For bringing plant-based milk and meat to the masses
42Peloton For motivating consumers to keep working out, even after weeks and months at home
43Snowflake For letting businesses unlock the power of data, no matter what business they’re in
44Brandlive For helping the Biden campaign and others capture the live TV experience
45Substack For giving writers a profitable refuge from the shipwreck of old and new media
46Frubana For digitizing farm-to-table food sourcing
47Getaway For redefining the outdoor retreat
48Zwift For racing into esports
49Skillshare For giving creatives and hobbyists a pandemic outlet
50Stablegold Hospitality For knitting together a housing safety net in struggling cities
https://www.fastcompany.com/90603436/the-worlds-most-innovative-companies-2021
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