Beautiful ideas of the world’s most innovative firms
Great ideas can arrive in a moment of inspiration, plucked out of the ether fully formed. More often, though, the muses don’t pick up the phone. Innovation is mess and toil, and often found outside your four walls. “No matter who you are,” said tech pioneer Bill Joy, “most of the smartest people work for someone else.” The world’s most innovative firms, whose ideas are featured here, will always admit brilliance is harder than it looks
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A cult classic compact
5-yr SaleS growth/ 5-yr total return: 138%/ 255%
Applying foundation is a pain. It’s hard to apply evenly and either cakes up or greasily slides down the face. Women in the West are only now discovering the wonders of the Color Control Cushion Compact, a blockbuster product invented in 2008 by Amorepacific, South Korea’s largest beauty care company. The presoaked sponge holds foundation pigment, skin fluid and sunblock in one formula, and dabs onto the skin smoothly. Amorepacific conducted more than 3,600 tests on some 200 types of sponges before releasing it. The inspiration came from the Asian tradition of stamping family surnames on paper using a pre-inked stone. More than 37 million $60 cushions have been sold globally so far this year
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Thinking inside the box
5-yr SaleS growth/ 5-yr total return: 33%/ 167%
What if someone gave you $1,000 to fund any idea you had? That’s what Adobe did with its Kickbox programme, which launched in late 2012. Employees are given a bright red box with a prepaid credit card, a Starbucks gift card, candy bars, exercises and instructions. After a training session they’re on their own. “Innovation can feel intangible, and I wanted to put something physical in people’s hands,” says Mark Randall, Adobe’s chief strategist. So far Adobe has distributed more than 1,100 boxes, and 24 ideas were good enough to get to the next level, where inventors receive the coveted blue box, with instructions specific to their idea. Two projects validated Adobe’s interest in buying stock-photo marketplace Fotolia. Another created Knowhow, an online learning platform for creatives
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World’s tallest laboratory
5-yr SaleS growth/ 5-yr total return: 42%/ 124%
The Finnish manufacturer of elevators and escalators has to keep up with the demands of developers seeking to erect ever taller buildings. One limit to superskyscrapers is the performance of steel ropes on which the elevators hang. Existing ropes are too stretchy and heavy and waste a lot of energy as they move. Elevators have to halt if buildings sway too much. Kone just made starchitects happier with its new superlight UltraRope, which can handle elevators traveling to heights up to 3,280 feet. Kone subsequently won the contract for Saudi Arabia’s Kingdom Tower, slated to become the world’s tallest building. Kone cooked up the UltraRope at its big R&D lab in Hyvinkaa, Finland, and perfected it at the Tytyri limestone mine, where Kone operates the world’s highest elevator test shaft. It can simulate elevators that reach 1,040 feet and flies cars up and down at a maximum speed of 38 miles an hour
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Fear of a bad dumpling
5-yr SaleS growth/ 5-yr total return: 991% / 117%
After recent scandals in China over restaurants using rancid, recycled cooking oil, Baidu last year unveiled its Smart Chopsticks prototype, with sensors that warn diners of the presence of overused oil. The Chinese search giant is also collaborating with Tsinghua University to create a device that will help the blind get information through Braille and voice input
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Trying on velvet sunglasses
5-yr SaleS growth/ 5-yr total return: 35%/ 194%
Italian eyewear giant Luxottica, which launches some 2,000 new models a year, has never been shy about experimentation. It was early into the trend of using aerospace materials to make frames lighter and is now trying out 3D printed frames in its factories. These new Ray-Bans come in denim (shown here), leather, wood and velvet. Its Prada Raw spring/summer 2015 collection has models made out of black walnut and Malabar ebony. Each pair is a unique creation. Luxottica’s Oakley brand is working with computer-chip maker Intel on a new line of smart eyewear due within the next year
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Get loud in the lobby
5-yr SaleS growth/ 5-yr total return: 29%/ 110%
Looking outside the hotel business for new ideas, Marriott recently collaborated with Netflix so guests at select hotels can stream their queue in-room and with GoPro to rent action cameras so tourists can record their adventures. Marriott and Universal Music Group set a roster of the label’s artistes to play exclusive performances in hotels around the globe. Ellie Goulding kicked things off in June with a raucous show at the St Pancras Renaissance in London
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Mr Iced coffee
5-yr SaleS growth/ 5-yr total return: 287%/ 156%
Keurig needs a hit after a sales slump of its K-cups and brew machines. All eyes are on the new KOLD drinkmaker, a joint effort with Coca-Cola and Dr Pepper that makes chilled drinks, going after SodaStream’s business. Expect it online and in selected stores this fall
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