“We set out to create something very different with the World’s Most Innovative Companies list, using the wisdom of the crowd. Our method relies on investors’ ability to identify firms they expect to be innovative now and in the future.” – How We Rank The Top World’s Most Innovative Companies 2013 by Jeff Dyer and Hal Gregersen.

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Forbes displays a ranking metric known by “innovation premium”,” which is the difference between:

• market capitalization
• net present value of cash flows from existing business

That value is interpreted as a “bonus” that signals investors’ confidence in the company’s prospects. These companies are what we might like to call as “serial innovators” given their endurance: shares publicly traded for seven or more years and market values in excess of $10 billion. Forbes is also screening R&D spending levels as a percentage of sales (2.5% at least) and cash flow and ROI projections for the next two years. That calculation takes advantage of an undisclosed formula created at HOLT/Credit Suisse and estimates from selected analysts. IBES, Institutional Brokers’ Estimate System, database is also leveraged for this exercise.

Forbes’s top 100 most innovative companies can be found on: “innovative companies list”

• 01-10 : Salesforce.com, Alexion Pharmaceuticals, VMware, Regeneron Phasmaceuticals, ARM Holdings, Baidu, Amazon.com, Intuitive Surgical, Rakuten, Natura Cosmeticos
• 11-20 : Henan Shuanghui Investment & Development, Coloplast, Cerner, Unicharm, Estee Lauder Cos, Jeronimo Martins, FMC Technologies, Tencent Holdings, Starbucks, Pernod Ricard
• 21-30 : Bean, Perrigo, Essilor International, Beiersdorf, Grifols, Fanue, Diageo, Hershey, Danone, Procter & Gamble
• 31-40 : Dassault Systemes, Colgate-Palmolive, Ecolab, Monsanto, Reckitt Benckiser Group, Keyence, Kone, Yahoo Japan, BRF-Brasil Foods, Tat Consultancy Services
• 41-50 : Yum! Brands, Teradata, Praxair, CSL, Anheuser-Busch InBev, Kweichow Moutai, Google, L’Oreal, Sherwin-Williams, Citrix Systems
• 51-60 : Smith & Nephew, Mondelez International, Infosys, Kellogg, Ultrapar Participacoes, Intuit, Technip, Pepsico, Schlumberger, Fresenius Medical Care
• 61-70: SMC Corp, Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl, Unilever NV, China Oilfield Services, Automatic Data Processing, Covidien, Bajaj Auto, Tyco International, Novo Nordisk
• 71-80 : Johnson Controls, SAP, Amphenol, Sandvik, LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, Roper Industries, ASML Holding, Assa Abloy, Apple, Air Products & Chemicals
• 81-90 : Tenaris, Precision Castparts, Rockwell Automation, Nintendo, Cameron International, Secom, Schindler Holding, Campbell Soup, Kubota, Mylan
• 91-100 : BG Group, Adidas, Henkel, Atlas Copco, Syngenta, Pentair, Kao, Fidelity National Information Services, MediaTek, Daikin Industries

Forbe’s sources are: “HOLT, a division of Credit Suisse, in collaboration with Innovator’s DNA LLC; Interactive Data, Thomson Reuters Fundamentals and Worldscope via FactSet Research Systems; Bloomberg.”