Innovation: Big Spending on R&D Doesn’t Necessarily Mean Strong Innovation

You can't necessarily spend your way to success. That's one interpretation of the latest survey of global innovation. The top spenders on R&D don't feature as strongly as you might expect when it comes to a firm's reputation for innovation. For the third year running, Apple has been named as the world's most innovative company, followed by Google, 3M and Samsung. However, when it comes to the highest spenders on R&D, the list is headed by Toyota, Novartis, Roche and Pfizer.So consumer technology firms come highest in perception of innovation whereas automotive and health firms spend most on R&D. Of course, the two measures are somewhat different. You might reasonably expect firms like Apple, Google & Samsung to have very high awareness of their record on innovation given the nature of their new product development - they're hardly ever off our screens! The business and consumer media are less interested (I suspect) in the day-to-day innovations of drugs companies.

There is lots of useful data in the 2012 survey - which is carried out by Booz & Co. This video highlights the key findings: