Like every year, since the last six years, one of the world’s most reputable business magazines, Forbes releases a ranking of the companies based on their level of innovation performed, both in-house and released to the public with the help of a term they call “Innovation Premium”, but before I bore you with the financial and technical aspects of the ranking, let’s just lead to the real deal.
As mentioned earlier on, it is an annual ranking, which has been released by them for the last six years and out of those six, Salesforce.com got hold of the top position for straight four years, since the rankings’ inception. Until last year, when an automotive brand dethroned it to the second spot. An auto company? From an industry, which many have accused of being dead and without having much room for innovation, top a ranking based on “change.” As the featured image of my piece and a little premise suggest, the company I am talking about here is unquestionably Tesla Motors, who recently announced the 100kWh batteries for their cars, which made Model S, the fastest production car on the planet. But that’s not the only reason behind its top spot, so let’s back up a bit.
Also Read: MIT Names Toyota & Tesla in its 50 Smartest Companies of 2016 List
Tesla Starts off Well!
This year has been a mixed affair for Tesla Motors and its CEO Elon Musk. It initially started off well with the successful debut of Model 3 – A car, which as Tesla and Elon Musk themselves say is the reason why the company was made in the first place. To their relief, Model 3 in its reservation stage has been a success with Tesla being able to tank around half a million of those.
Read More: This July, Tesla and Elon Musk are on A Bumpy Ride!
Ride starts to get a little bumpy
An excellent launch of Model 3 was followed by skeptic remarks made by various analysts on Tesla’s ability to deliver the truckload of cars, it has promised to handover, by the end of next year, seeing Tesla’s past not-so-convincing track-record of missing out on deadlines. Other than that, came successive claims of accidents caused by Tesla’s all so ambitious “Autopilot” while the initial claims were rejected by both, the company and the CEO, Tesla finally admitted when Autopilot missed an eighteen wheeler leading towards what many call as the first fatality to take place in a semi-autonomous vehicle crash.
Have a Look: A Driver Killed While His Tesla Was on Autopilot!
Elon Musk and Co. Silences Critics after a timely Giga-Factory completion and new Battery Packs!
Following the autopilot malfunctions and doubts over the system’s operating capacity came a ‘comeback’ in the form of Tesla’s announcement of commencing production at its ambitious Giga-factory on 29th of July, only two years after its groundbreaking. Giga-factory’s timely completion also somehow helped alleviate the pressures of meeting demand of Model 3. In between that, Tesla got hold of the fourth place on MIT Technology Review’s Top 50 Smartest Companies of 2016 Ranking. And as a cherry on the top, just this week, Tesla broke the 500Km range barrier for their cars, by announcing new 100kWh batteries, which as mentioned before now enable Model S and Model X to sprint from standstill to 100Km/h in a matter of 2.5 seconds and 2.9 seconds respectively; making the already ludicrous mode more ludicrous!
Now coming to the ‘Top Chart’, Tesla, last year too, topped Forbes Most Innovative Company Rankings and this year stays no different. Including Tesla, eight more companies to make it to the top 10, are from the United States of America with Unilever Indonesia being the only exception. Another surprise is the absence of mainstream tech brands like Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, Facebook and Amazon instead of them, companies extensively working on “biotech” populated the chart making almost half of it.
Also Read: Tesla Launches Model S P100D – The Fastest Car Anyone Can Buy!
While it is nice to see that the auto industry with the help of Tesla Motors is reshaping, what is your take on Tesla topping out Forbes Most Innovative Companies Ranking, after what it has gone through over the course of 2016? Do you feel some other brand deserved the spot? Comment below to let us know!
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