The World's 50 Most Innovative Companies

1. 1

   Apple

   For walking the talk

2. 2

   Facebook

   For 800 million reasons to share

3. 3

   Google

   For expanding its hit lineup

4. 4

   Amazon

   For playing the long game

5. 5

   Square

   For making magic out of the mercantile

6. 6

   Twitter

   For amplifying the global dialogue

7. 7

   Occupy Movement

   For embodying all the traits that make a Fast Company

8. 8

   Tencent

   For fueling China’s Internet boom--and boldly moving West

9. 9

   Life Technologies

   For speeding up genetic sequencing

10. 10

    SolarCity

    For brightening up the sun-power business

11. 11

    HBO

    For being the only TV network to delight with digital

12. 12

    Southern New Hampshire University

    For relentlessly reinventing higher ed, online and off

13. 13

    Tesla Motors

    For boosting the art and technology of electric vehicles

14. 14

    Patagonia

    For selling more by encouraging customers to buy less

15. 15

    NFL

    For stoking insatiable, year-round demand for professional football

16. 16

    National Marrow Donor Program

    For matching technology with critical transplant needs

17. 17

    Greenbox

    For inventing the next-generation Chinese fashion brand

18. 18

    Jawbone

    For rocking the mobile lifestyle

19. 19

    Airbnb

    For turning spare rooms into the world’s hottest hotel chain

20. 20

    72andSunny

    For winning at the intersection of Hollywood and Madison Avenue

21. 21

    Siemens AG

    For its R&D ambitions in energy, transportation, and health care

22. 22

    Dropbox

    For transforming file storage into a very big business

23. 23

    Kiva Systems

    For turning squat robots into e-commerce giants

24. 24

    Starbucks

    For infusing a steady stream of new ideas to revive its business

25. 25

    Genentech

    For making targeted, genetics-based cancer therapies

26. 26

    LegalZoom

    For bringing tech and accessibility to the hidebound legal industry

27. 27

    Tapjoy

    For driving advertiser engagement in a million-app world

28. 28

    Polyvore

    For turning everyone into a fashion editor

29. 29

    Red Bull Media House

    For showing what it really means to transform yourself into a media brand

30. 30

    LinkedIn

    For making itself useful even when you're not job searching

31. 31

    Liquid Robotics

    For going deep in ocean monitoring

32. 32

    Gogo

    For delivering first-class entertainment to the coach-bound masses

33. 33

    Bug Agentes Biológicos

    For breeding a natural alternative to harmful agricultural pesticides

34. 34

    Chipotle

    For exploding all the rules of fast food

35. 35

    James Corner Field Operations

    For creating intimate green spaces out of industrial urban blight

36. 36

    Narayana Hrudayalaya Hospitals

    For bringing medical care to the masses

37. 37

    Recyclebank

    For making eco-friendly behavior a big game

38. 38

    UPS

    For solving its customers' number-one pet peeve

39. 39

    Networked Insights

    For using real-time social data to make better products and advertising

40. 40

    Chobani

    For becoming a dairy superstar

41. 41

    Kickstarter

    For connecting creatives with fans to raise funds

42. 42

    SoundCloud

    For giving the Internet a voice

43. 43

    PayPal

    For recharging the sale

44. 44

    Berg

    For wildly imagining the marriage of the digital and physical worlds

45. 45

    Boo-box

    For pioneering social-media advertising in Latin America

46. 46

    Amyris

    For driving biofuels into the mainstream

47. 47

    Knewton

    For teaching education a thing or two

48. 48

    RedBus

    For taking the wheel of the $2.5 billion Indian bus-travel industry

49. 49

    OpenSky

    For creating a social, celebrity-powered shopping experience

50. 50

    Y Combinator

    For building the next great Silicon Valley mafia