Login
You are...
Products
Business account A professional account with far more comprehensive services than a traditional bank Collection Cash your customers quickly and easily Accounting Anytime provides invoicing software, facilitates your accounting and helps you with administrative formalities. Financing Discover a wide range of services to support your growth. Whether you're self-employed or a large company, our solutions are tailored to your needs. Cash Management View the banking position of all your activities in real time. Put in place an analytical vision of your flows and give meaning back to your banking operations.
Mastercard business cards Discover the services and Mastercard cards available to you. Corporate expense management Capped Mastercard cards with employee rights management. Managing association expenses The dedicated solution for associations to manage their business expenses. Insurance and legal protection Insurance is included in cards or packages, and meets the needs of both the self-employed and large companies. Chartered Accountants To make your life easier and avoid errors in your declarations, entrust your accounting to chartered accountants.
Expense management
Rates

France misses out on the ranking of most innovative companies

Published on April 16, 2021 - 2 mins reading time
Bank watch
As in every year since 2005, The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) has just published its ranking of the 50 most innovative companies in the world. No French company is included, and the top spots are occupied by American tech giants.

A ranking marked by the Covid-19 pandemic

Based not on the number of patents filed, but on the declarations of 1,600 company directors worldwide, this year's ranking of the 50 most innovative companies in the world is marked by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Pfizer breaks into the top 10, making a rapid and unprecedented ascent, and 10 pharmaceutical and MedTech companies join the top 50. There were only 4 in 2020, and 1 in 2010.

The top spots are occupied by American tech leaders, with Apple in first place, followed by Alphabet (Google), Amazon and Tesla.

While 4 companies from the automotive sector and 8 from the consumer goods sector are included in the ranking - sectors in which France is well represented - not a single French company made it into the world's 50 most innovative.

France missing from the top 50

Mikaël Le Mouëllic, Associate Director at BCG, points to a number of reasons for the lack of representation of French companies, despite the fact that France has more listed healthcare start-ups than Germany.

First explanation: deeptechs and all those startups specializing in disruptive innovations lack a real ecosystem in which to evolve, like Silicon Valley, but also Boston, the ecosystem that enabled Moderna to develop its vaccine against the Sars-CoV-2 virus.

Another explanation put forward by Mikaël Le Mouëllic relates to the need to align with the standards imposed by China, which, with Xiaomi, Huawei, Alibaba and Tencent, counts 4 companies in the top 50. Many companies consider it essential, for example, to align the schedules of their research and development centers with those in China.

Finally, we need to invent a new way of organizing companies in France, to enable innovation to flourish. Business leaders, rather than being in a position of control, would do better to let small teams steer innovation, if necessary including customers in the development and testing phases.