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“R&D’s readers select their favorite companies based on the R&D performance, reputation, growth, and service of these technology leaders to the community”.

The above and other interesting charts can be retrieved from this month’s issue of R&D Magazine. Note that Google, Microsoft, Genentech and Dow also showed up in the 2007 Fortune 100 Best Companies To Work For.

This report also delivers the list of the top 10 best R&D companies in the World:

• 1-3: Top tier based on research volume performed:
  • IBM
  • General Electric
  • DuPont
• 3-7: Middle tier based on dramatic growth over the past years
  • 3M
  • Toyota
  • Google
  • Apple
• 8-10: Lower tier formed by large well respected R&D and proven long term innovation
  • Microsoft
  • Genetech
  • Dow Chemical

The metrics yielding the above list include:

• R&D spending as a function of percent of revenues
• number of patents received
• number of new products as a percent of sales
• changes in R&D headcount
• the number of new products in the pipeline
• the organization’s overall interest in new product development
• financial growth
• community service
• R&D Magazine’s readers survey

The following are the innovation rankings I blogged about earlier in the year. I have used the “bold” letter style to draw your attention to the two companies which are consistently featured by all of these reports:

Masters of innovation and technology, The Wired 40:

1. Google
2. Apple
3. Genentech
4. Samsung
5. News Corp
6. Nintendo
7. Salesforce.com
8. Cisco
9. General Electric
10. Nvidia

Top 25 Most innovative companies by BusinessWeek and Boston Consulting Group

1. Apple
2. Google
3. Toyota
4. General Electric
5. Microsoft
6. 6 Procter & Gamble
7. 3M
8. Walt Disney
9. IBM
10. Sony

Fortune’s most innovative companies

1. Apple
2. Google
3. FedEx
4. Genentech
5. Nike
6. Whole Foods Market
7. Proctor & Gamble
8. Network Appliance
9. Herman Miller
10. Starbucks

As R&D Magazine happens to refer to Fortune’s list of the best companies to work for, which is based on the report from the Great Place To Work Institute, I am now adding the top 10 from that list. This time though. I am using bold just to show what companies made any of the above innovation ratings:

1. Google
2. Network Appliance
3. Genetech
4. S.C. Johnson & Son
5. Wegmans Food Markets
6. Boston Consulting Group
7. Container Store
8. Methodist Hospital System
9. Whole Foods Market
10. W.L. Gore & Associates

Sanjay Dalal’s Innovation Index is showing a 56% gain for the year and his blog points to x4 performance when compared to 2006 results. This is the list of companies in that index, sorted into alphabetical order. I have used bold to highlight the company names appearing on any of the above “top 10″ lists:

• 3M Company - (NYSE: MMM)
• Amazon.com, Inc. - (NASDAQ: AMZN)
• America Movil - (NYSE: AMX)
• Apple Inc. - (NASDAQ: AAPL)
• Cisco Systems, Inc. - (NASDAQ: CSCO)
• Dell Inc. - (NASDAQ: DELL)
• eBay Inc. - (NASDAQ: EBAY)
• General Electric Co. - (NYSE: GE)
• Google Inc. - (NASDAQ: GOOG)
• Hewlett-Packard Co. - (NYSE: HPQ)
• Intel Corporation - (NYSE: INTC)
• IBM, International Business Machines Corp. - (NYSE: IBM)
• Microsoft Corporation - (NASDAQ: MSFT)
• Research In Motion Limited - (NASDAQ: RIMM)
• Southwest Airlines Co. - (NYSE: LUV)
• Starbucks Corporation - (NASDAQ: SBUX)
• Target Corp. - (NYSE: TGT)
• The Proctor & Gamble Company - (NYSE: PG)
• Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. - (NYSE: WMT)
• Yahoo! Inc. - (NASDAQ: YHO

I am mostly interested in innovation related ratings and how they are crafted (e.g. what’s actually measured). But, it’s often worth cross-checking the above listings with a variety of other metrics. So, these are some other 2007 lists of interest:

• R&D Magazine’s Oscars Of Invention
• Always On’s AO100 Top Companies (focus on high tech)
• Forbes’ The 200 Best Small Companies
• Forbes’ America’s Largest Private Companies
• Forbes’ The Worlds Largest Public Companies
• INC’s 5000 The Fastest Growing Private Companies In America
• IndustryWeek 50 Best Manufacturing Companies
• Fortune’s 500 America’s Largest Corporations
• Financial Time’s Global 500 (with links to US, Europe, UK, and Japan rankings)