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CONTENTS March 2017 Drone Racing League melds sports, tech, and entertainment into a memorable spectacle. See page 90. THE WORLD’S 50 MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANIES Our annual guide to the businesses that matter the most. Begins on page 24 HIGHLIGHTS Innovation Lessons for 2017 18 How to achieve impact in a time of constant change. By Robert Safian Most Innovative Alumni 20 Updates on Target, Moleskine, Boeing, and more. Top 10 Lists 92 The most innovative compa- nies in 28 sectors, from adver- tising to virtual reality. The Future Is Here 108 Ten past Most Innovative honorees that signaled busi- ness and cultural develop- ments to come. On the cover: Photograph by Peter Hapak Production: Ville Gobi Andersson Gobi Ville Production: This page: Photograph by Tobias Hutzler March 2017 FastCompany.com 7 CONTENTS HIGHLIGHTS No. 1 / Prime Time for Amazon 26 The e-commerce giant is amping up its membership program and taking bold leaps into the real world. By Noah Robischon No. 2 / Google Pictures Perfect 32 With the help of unparalleled computing resources and a dash of AI, your photographic memo- ries are becoming searchable. No. 5 / Snap, Crackle, Pop 34 Snapchat’s future is so bright, it had to make its own shades. By Mark Wilson No. 7 / Netflix Streams Ahead 42 The entertainment empire is bringing the serendipity back to channel surfing. “Snapchat is nice because it isn’t a bul- letin board of now- irrelevant things like Twitter is,” says screenwriter and Snapchat star Kelly Oxford. “It disap- pears.” See page 36. 10 FastCompany.com March 2017 Photograph by Aaron Feaver CONTENTS HIGHLIGHTS Nos. 11–16 / China Leads the Way 46 How Alibaba, Tencent, Xiaomi, BBK Electronics, Huawei, and Dalian Wanda are setting the global standard for big ideas. By Austin Carr Nos. 24–28 / Conversation Theory 56 Glossier, Kenzo, Clique Media Group, Hypebeast, and Reward- Style convert personality-driven content into sales. No. 29 / The Internet’s Good Samaritan 66 GoFundMe spreads positivity to help deserving fundrais- ing campaigns go viral. By Ainsley Harris No. 31 / Microsoft Makes the Honor Roll 71 Minecraft allows the company to turn learning into an other- worldly adventure. No. 36 / Casper Goes to the Mattresses 76 The fast-growing startup is launching a playful assault on sleepless nights. By Jonathan Ringen Glossier founder Emily Weiss uses social media to bring her customers into cosmetics creation. See page 56. 12 FastCompany.com March 2017 Photograph by Shae DeTar GOOD HELP THESE DAYS IS HARD TO… OH WAIT… THERE IT IS. HR IS LIVE. With SAP® SuccessFactors® and SAP Fieldglass® solutions, you can attract the right people, at the right time, for the right role – across your entire workforce. And reward them instantly. So you can take constant care of the heartbeat of your business – your people. sap.com/livebusiness )'(-J8GJ<fiXeJ8GX]Ôc`Xk\ZfdgXep%8cci`^_kji\j\im\[% MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANIES 2017 Top 50 Most Innovative Companies Index Bandier CJ 4DPlex ESPN General Motors HTC Kenzo A–C New York Seoul Bristol, Connecticut Detroit New Taipei City, Paris PAGE 93 PAGE 95 PAGE 96 PAGE 97 Taiwan PAGES 56, 95 Abbott PAGE 97 Chicago BBK Electronics Clique Media Esri Get Schooled Kobalt PAGE 92 Dongguan, China Group Redlands, California New York Huawei New York PAGES 46, 92 Los Angeles PAGE 93 PAGE 94 Shenzhen, China PAGE 95 ABB Robotics PAGE 56 PAGES 46, 92 Shanghai Beautiful Ethereum GiveDirectly Kymeta PAGE 96 Destinations Color Genomics Zug, Switzerland New York Hulu Redmond, New York Burlingame, PAGE 93 PAGE 95 Los Angeles Washington AccorHotels PAGE 97 California PAGES 94, 97 PAGE 96 Issy-les-Moulineaux, PAGE 92 Etho Capital Global Kinetics France Beyond Meat Pittsburgh Corporation Hypebeast Lenny PAGE 97 El Segundo, Ctrip PAGE 93 Cape Town, Hong Kong Brooklyn California Shanghai South Africa PAGE 56 PAGE 95 Activision PAGES 89, 94 PAGES 92, 97 Facebook PAGE 94 Blizzard Menlo Park, IBM Levita Santa Monica, Blue Origin CyPhy Works California Glossier Armonk, New York Magnetics California Kent, Washington Danvers, PAGES 40, 95, 96, 97 New York PAGES 54, 92 San Mateo, PAGE 94 PAGE 96 Massachusetts PAGES 56, 96 California PAGE 96 Farmers Business iCarbonX PAGE 94 Adobe Blue River Network GoEuro Shenzhen, China San Jose Technology San Carlos, California Berlin PAGE 92 Livspace PAGES 74, 93 Sunnyvale, California D–F PAGES 74, 94 PAGE 97 Bangalore, India PAGE 96 IEX PAGE 94 Airbnb Dalian Wanda FieldLevel GoFundMe New York San Francisco Boom Beijing Pacific Palisades, San Diego PAGE 93 Lola PAGES 50, 93, 97 Centennial, Colorado PAGES 46, 92, 94 California PAGES 66, 96 New York PAGE 97 PAGE 96 Illumina PAGE 97 Alibaba DataKind Goldman Sachs San Diego Hangzhou, China Braeburn New York Fitwel New York PAGE 92 L’Oréal PAGES 46, 92, 94 Pharmaceuticals PAGE 95 London PAGE 93 New York Princeton, PAGE 96 Illumination PAGE 93 AliveCor New Jersey Descartes Labs GolfTEC Entertainment Mountain View, PAGE 92 Los Alamos, FocusMotion Centennial, Colorado Santa Monica, M–O California New Mexico Los Angeles PAGE 96 California PAGE 94 BuzzFeed PAGE 92 PAGE 96 PAGES 52, 94 New York Good Ventures Madison Amazon PAGES 50, 95, 97 Didi Chuxing Forerunner San Francisco Ingo Stockholm Wells Media Seattle Beijing Ventures PAGE 95 Stockholm Chicago PAGE 26 Byju’s PAGE 92 San Francisco PAGE 95 PAGE 94 Bangalore, India PAGE 93 Google Ammunition PAGE 94 Digit Mountain View, Instagram MailChimp San Francisco San Francisco Foursquare California Menlo Park, Atlanta PAGE 93 Carnival Cruise PAGE 93 New York PAGES 32, 92, 93, California PAGE 89 Line PAGE 93 96, 97 PAGE 95 Andela Miami Disney Marriott New York PAGES 93, 97 Burbank, California Foxconn Greencopper Intuit Bethesda, PAGE 92 PAGES 94, 97 New Taipei City, Montreal Mountain View, Maryland Casper Taiwan PAGE 95 California PAGES 81, 97 Anki New York DJI PAGE 96 PAGE 93 San Francisco PAGE 76 Shenzhen, China Green Mountain Medtronic PAGE 96 PAGE 96 Frog Power Iris AI Dublin Celmatix San Francisco Colchester, Vermont Oslo PAGES 82, 92 PAGE 93 Ant Financial New York DNAFit PAGE 93 PAGE 92 Hangzhou, China PAGES 88, 92 London MFS Africa PAGE 93 PAGE 93 Fulwell 73 Gro Intelligence iRobot Johannesburg Chan Zuckerberg London New York Bedford, PAGE 92 PAGE 92 Apple Initiative Domino’s PAGE 94 Massachusetts Cupertino Menlo Park, California Ann Arbor, PAGE 96 Microsoft PAGES 33, 94 PAGE 95 Michigan Fund for Public The Guardian Redmond, PAGE 94 Housing London Iroko Washington PAGE 93 Astroscale The Charity New York Lagos, Nigeria PAGE 71 Singapore Network Droga5 PAGE 95 PAGE 92 PAGE 96 New York New York Halo Neuroscience Moog Music PAGE 95 PAGE 95 FX Networks San Francisco Asheville, North PAGE 93 J–L Atlantic Los Angeles Carolina Records Cheddar Drone Racing PAGES 94, 95 PAGE 95 New York New York League Headspace Johnson & PAGE 95 PAGE 95 New York Santa Monica, Johnson Moon Express PAGES 90, 96 G–I California New Brunswick, Cape Canaveral, PAGES 85, 93 Baidu China Aerospace New Jersey Florida Beijing Science and Duolingo GE PAGE 92 PAGE 96 PAGE 92 Technology Pittsburgh Fairfield, Connecticut Hive Beijing PAGE 96 PAGE 93 New York Kaiser The Movement PAGE 96 PAGE 95 Bandcamp Permanente for Black Lives San Francisco Dyson GE Healthcare Oakland, Nationwide PAGE 95 Chobani Malmesbury, England Little Chalfont, The Home Depot California PAGE 95 Norwich, New York PAGE 93 England Atlanta PAGE 94 PAGES 44, 94, 96 PAGE 94 PAGE 84 14 FastCompany.com March 2017 Absolutely igniting. 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