The World's Most Innovative Companies

Smart ideas for tough times: The 50 companies that make up our annual ranking nurture cultures that value creative people in good times and bad

BusinessWeek, April 17, 2008 — Suddenly, innovation has a bull's-eye on its back. As the recession debate shifts from "what if" to "how long," slashing research and development budgets just got a lot more tempting. That high-risk product in your pipeline? It's about to get much more scrutiny. And the "chief innovation officer" your CEO brought in last year to show his commitment to creativity? He'd better start proving his worth. Outside consultants are starting to pick up on the effects of such belt-tightening. "I'm seeing it in my business," says Jeneanne Rae, president of Alexandria (Va.)-based consulting firm Peer Insight. "There's this sense of which shoe's going to drop next."

Others are seeing two camps emerge. "One is saying times are tough, so it's the most important time for us to innovate,"