全球創新企業50強 騰訊升至第12位

Innovation is an essential yet elusive ingredient in corporate success, and one that is notoriously difficult to measure.

創新對於企業的成功至關重要，但它往往難以實現，而且衆所周知，它也很難衡量。

But for the past decade, the Boston Consulting Group has picked up the challenge, publishing a ranking of the 50 most innovative companies in the world and an accompanying analysis of successful innovators. The 2015 ranking and report, published on Wednesday, shows the top two companies, Apple and Google, are the same pair as last year.

但是在過去十年，波士頓諮詢集團(Boston Consulting Group)直面這項挑戰，持續發佈全球最具創新力企業50強榜單，同時也對最成功的創新者進行分析。週三發佈的2015年榜單和報告顯示，排名最靠前的兩家公司，仍是去年高居榜首的蘋果(Apple)和谷歌(Google)。

American corporations account for six of the top 10. In addition to Apple and Google, they are Tesla (ranked third), Microsoft (fourth), Gilead Sciences (eighth) and Amazon (ninth). But the company that has climbed the most since last year, up 35 places to the 12th spot, is the Chinese company Tencent.

排名前十的公司，有六個都是美國公司。除了蘋果和谷歌，還有特斯拉（Tesla，排名第三）、微軟（Microsoft，第四）、吉利德科學(Gilead Sciences，第八)和亞馬遜（Amazon，第九）。但和去年相比，排名上升最快的是中國公司騰訊，它今年上升了35個位次，排名第12位。

Technology companies occupy the most slots at the top of the list, but car companies are a rising presence. Besides Tesla, the top auto innovators include Toyota (sixth), BMW (seventh) and Daimler (10th). The automotive ascent on the list has been evident for the last three years, said Andrew Taylor, a senior partner at Boston Consulting Group and co-author of the report.

榜單頂端的位置大多被科技企業佔據，但汽車廠商的排名正在上升。除了特斯拉，最具創新力的汽車企業還有豐田（Toyota，第六）、寶馬（BMW，第七）和戴姆勒（Daimler，第十）。波士頓諮詢集團高級合夥人、同時也是這份報告共同作者的安德魯·泰勒(Andrew Taylor)表示，過去三年，汽車企業排名上升非常明顯。

“Cars have become delivery systems for technology,” Mr. Taylor explained, including hybrid and electric power systems, driver-assisting safety features, heads-up displays and touch screens for entertainment and information. “The amount of consumer-facing technology is incredible compared with five years ago,” he added.

“汽車已經成爲技術應用的載體，”泰勒解釋說，比如混合動力和電力系統、安全駕駛輔助功能、平視顯示器和用來提供娛樂和信息的觸摸屏。“相比於五年前，面向消費者的技術數量之多，讓人難以置信，”他接着說。

The rankings are determined largely by a survey of 1,500 chief executives and senior executives worldwide. They are asked what companies in their own industry and in general they consider most innovative. They can’t name their own company. The rest of the ranking formula, 40 percent, is based on a company’s total return to shareholders over five years.

這些排名主要基於對全球1500名企業首席執行官和高管進行的問卷調查。他們需要回答在自己所在領域，以及在普遍意義上，哪些企業最具創新力，還需要將自己所在企業排除在外。剩餘40%的排名依據是各企業在過去五年的股東權益總回報率。

But the ranking questions are only a few of the dozens included in the annual survey. The Boston Consulting Group report is grounded mainly in answers to the wider set of responses, supplemented by the management consultant’s other research.

但有關排名的問題，只是這個年度問卷中出現的幾十個問題中的少數。波士頓諮詢集團的報告主要是基於高管們針對更廣泛問題的回答，然後再結合該諮詢公司的其他研究。

Reading the report, two themes seem most prominent: speed and technology. The executives were asked which of more than a dozen “areas of innovation, research and development or product development will have the most impact on your industry over the next three to five years?” The top three choices were “speed of adopting new technology,” “big-data analytics” and “technology platforms.”

這份報告似乎有兩個最爲顯著的主題：速度和技術。高管們被問到，在所列出的十多個“創新、研發或產品開發領域中，哪一個會在未來三五年對你所在行業產生最大影響？”被提到最多的前三個選項是“採用新技術的速度”、“大數據分析”和“技術平臺”。

In the survey and in follow-up interviews with executives, Mr. Taylor said, “The word that keeps coming up is speed” — accelerating traditional innovation processes to rapidly develop products and experiment with ideas.

泰勒表示，在對高管們進行的問卷調查和後續採訪中，“不斷被提到的詞是速度”——加速傳統創新過程，以快速開發產品和實踐新想法。

Technology, Mr. Taylor noted, opens the door to faster innovation — as even industrial companies, for example, use sensors and software to build more intelligence and flexibility into their products. And techniques originally employed by software engineers, like agile programming and quickly building prototypes and testing them on customers, are being embraced in many industries. “It’s all about learning fast,” Mr. Taylor said.

泰勒還指出，技術可以帶來更快的創新——比如，即使是工業公司，也可以利用傳感器和軟件使自己的產品更智能、更靈活。而且，原先只有軟件工程師使用的技術，如敏捷編程、快速建模和在消費者中進行測試，也正被很多行業採用。“重要的是快速學習，”泰勒說。

However achieved, innovation seems to be increasingly valued by senior executives. This year, 79 percent replied that innovation was either their company’s top priority or among the top three. That is the highest percentage since the survey began in 2005, when the innovation priority share was 66 percent.

無論以什麼方式實現，創新似乎都越來越被高管們看重。今年接受採訪的高管有79%都回答，創新是他們所在企業的第一要務，或者頭三要務之一。自2005年進行這項問卷調查以來，今年這個比例是最高的。在2005年，這個數字是66%。

Have they just browbeaten by the term over the years, so that nearly everyone would say yes? That is not the explanation Mr. Taylor offered.

是不是因爲他們在過去數年被創新這個詞給唬住了，所以幾乎所有人都給了肯定的回答？泰勒可不是這麼解釋的。

Instead, he suggested that so many of the other steps to create higher corporate value — like acquisitions, cost-cutting and outsourcing, restructuring and financial engineering — have run their course at many major companies. “As the toolkit gets narrower, innovation rises to the top,” he said. And Wall Street investors, he added, bid up the shares of companies that produce strong organic growth through innovation, like Apple and Google.

相反，他表示，很多其他的創造更高企業價值的方法，比如收購、削減成本、外包、重組和金融工程，都已經被很多大公司採用過。“當可選擇的工具選項減少時，創新就一躍成爲首選，”他說。他還表示，華爾街投資者也會擡高通過創新實現有機增長的企業的股價，比如蘋果和谷歌。