Tencent, Huawei and Lenovo enter list of world's 50 most innovative companies

NEW YORK - Chinese companies clinched three spots in the Boston Consulting Group's 10th annual global survey of the 50 most innovative companies released on Wednesday.

The group published a ranking of 50 most innovative companies in the world based on the survey of 1,500 executives. Apple, Google, and Tesla Motors are top three on the list.

Chinese online media company Tencent is at 12, and Huawei and Lenovo are at 45 and 50, respectively. This is an increase from a decade ago, when there were no Chinese companies on the list, the report's co-author Andrew Taylor said.

A global group is comprised of the list: 29 companies from the United States, 11 from Europe, and 10 from Asia. Emerging markets also make their presence felt: there are three companies from China and one from India.

Innovation gained an increasing importance in corporate success. In the annual global survey, 79 percent of respondents ranked innovation as either the top-most priority or a top-three priority at their company, the highest percentage since the question was asked in 2005.

Meanwhile, science and technology continue to be seen as increasingly important underpinnings of innovation, enabling four attributes that many executives identify as critical: an emphasis on speed, well-run R&D processes, the use of technological platforms, and the systematic exploration of adjacent markets.

Given the strong impact of technological developments such as mobile technology and social media in the last decade, one might expect technology companies to have shoved aside their more traditional counterparts.

"Yet we still see plenty of traditional companies on the list. They, too, have used technological advances to their own innovative ends. Five of the top ten companies in 2015 are non-tech. On the larger list of the 50 most innovative companies, 38 (76 percent) are non-tech companies," the report said.