The World's Top 10 Most Innovative Companies of 2024

Many of the world's most valuable companies are in computer or information technology. Apple and Microsoft are valued in the trillions of dollars. Apple and Microsoft are also responsible for some of today's most useful products, such as smartphones and computer operating systems.

Given their track record of producing very useful and innovative products, leading computer technology or information technology companies are likely to produce similarly useful and innovative products in the future.

In this article, we will look into the most influential and innovative companies in 2023/2024.

Top 10 Most Influential and Innovative Companies In The World 2024

1. Walmart Inc, United States

Walmart Inc, United States

President and CEO: Doug McMillon

Walmart may not come to mind when you think of innovative companies.

Walmart has invested heavily in its e-commerce and omnichannel offerings. For example, the company launched NextDay Delivery in 2020 and now provides one-day delivery to the vast majority of the United States' population. The company's stake in the Chinese e-commerce platform JD.com has increased from 5% to 12%.

2. Amazon.com, Inc, United States

President and Chief Executive Officer: Andy Jassy

Amazon.com, Inc. invests heavily in R&D due to its dominant cloud computing business. Amazon.com, Inc. is one of the world's largest R&D spenders, owing to how investing in innovation can help its e-commerce company grow. Amazon.com, Inc. spent $56.05 billion on R&D in 2021 and $42.74 billion in 2020, according to macrotrends.net. Amazon.com, Inc. ranks first on our list of the 15 Most Innovative Companies in the World, owing to significant revenues and significant R&D investments.

3. Apple Inc., United States

Chief Executive Officer: Tim Cook

Apple Inc. does not spend as much on R&D as some of its peers, spending $26.25 billion in R&D in the fiscal year ended September 24, 2022 and $21.91 billion in the fiscal year ended September 25, 2021. Nonetheless, due to its R&D efficiency, Apple Inc. remains the most profitable tech company in the world. Apple Inc. will most likely be able to develop new innovative products in the future if it continues to conduct R&D efficiently.

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4. CVS Health, United States

President and Chief Executive Officer: Karen S. Lynch

CVS Health, as a pharmacy-innovation company, is committed to finding new ways to help people on their path to better health, and I am very proud that our enterprise achievements are being recognized. ScriptPath, a first-of-its-kind prescription management system, was introduced by CVS Pharmacy in 2017. The new system was designed to improve patient understanding and patient safety by simplifying how patients take medications and how caregivers administer them using simple icons. A proprietary scientific system generates the personalized prescription schedule by automatically reviewing all of a patient's current CVS Pharmacy prescription information and prescribers' instructions and using clinical data to provide a schedule of the most effective times of day to take the medications.

5. Aramco, Saudi Arabia

President and Chief Executive Officer: Amin H. Nasser

The Saudi Arabian Oil Group, or simply Aramco, is a publicly traded Saudi oil and gas company headquartered in Dharan, Saudi Arabia. It became one of the world's largest companies in terms of revenue in 2022, consistently earning the highest annual profits in global corporate history. In addition to having the world's second-largest crude oil reserves, Saudi Arabia extracts the most oil per day of any oil-producing country, according to the OPEC 2022 annual statistical bulletin.

6. Morgan Stanley, United States

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer: James P. Gorman

Morgan Stanley was named the Best Workplace for Innovators 2023 in the banking and finance category by Fast Company. Morgan Stanley's Global Innovation Labs enable core infrastructure to be continuously innovated. Every developer and engineer has access to secure and compliant environments for technology development and experiential learning through the Labs. They also provide funding for over 280 open innovation projects, patentable opportunities, and comprehensive training programs: In 2022, over 10,000 technologists attended classroom or e-learning sessions.

7. Alphabet Inc., United States

Chief Executive Officer: Sundar Pichai

Alphabet Inc., as a research leader, spent $31.56 billion in research and development in 2021, up from $27.57 billion in 2020. Given the importance of AI in the future, Alphabet Inc. has most likely spent tens of billions of dollars on AI technology so far, and the company will most likely continue to invest tens of billions of dollars in the future. With AI, Alphabet Inc. could potentially produce autonomous vehicles in the future and improve its search.

8. Shell plc, United Kingdom

Chief Executive Officer: Wael Sawan

Shell, a key component of Big Oil, is the world's second largest investor-owned oil and gas company by revenue (after ExxonMobil), and one of the world's largest companies in any industry.

Shell has over 50 years of experience in gas treatment, and its licensed technology is used in over 1,200 plants around the world. Shell recently created a novel sour gas response: a simplified integrated gas processing design.

9. UnitedHealth Group, United States

Chief Executive Officer: Andrew Witty

UnitedHealth Group is the parent company of UnitedHealthcare, the country's largest commercial insurer, and Optum, an increasingly diverse company that offers physician services, pharmacy benefit management, and data analytics.

In addition to addressing healthcare fragmentation, UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty stated that the company is thinking about innovation in the long term. The company's goal is not to create a single new gadget, but rather to create solutions that work together in a larger ecosystem.

10. Exxon Mobil Corporation , United States

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer: Darren W. Woods

The company is investing heavily to make oil and gas as competitive as possible. The oil giant is the only nontech company among the top five most innovative in this year's Management Top 250, a list compiled by the Drucker Institute at Claremont Graduate University that employs the late management guru Peter Drucker's principles to identify the most effective.

Other influential and innovative companies in the world 2023/2024

Conclusion

Walmart Inc. was named the world's most influential and innovative company, with Amazon.com Inc. coming in second and Apple Inc. coming in third.CVS Health ranked fourth in the 2023 rankings of the world's most influential and innovative companies, ahead of Aramco in fifth, Morgan Stanley in sixth, and Alphabet Inc in seventh. The ranking does not imply that these are the most ethical companies; rather, it is an indication of the company's reputation and standing. The companies on the list are from a variety of industries, including finance, banking, health care, entertainment, and technology.

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