World's 20 most innovative growth companies

New Delhi: New Zealand-based cloud accounting software developer Xero has topped Forbes list of the world's most innovative growth companies.Xero scored what Forbes calls an “Innovation Premium” of 91.7, ahead of cloud ERP developer Netsuite on 89 and UK-based mobile banking and payments company Monitise, on 85.6.The ratings measures market sentiment rather than an objective evaluation of innovation. Forbes describes the Innovation Premium as a “measure of how much investors have bid up the stock price of a company above the value of its existing business based on expectations of future innovative results (new products, services and markets).”Forbes ranked Xero's five year average sales growth at 210.2 per cent.Other companies in the top 10 of Forbes' list include UK-based online clothing retailer ASOS, Netsuite, Monitise, and M3 among others.Among the Indian companies, Godrej Consumer Products leads the pack and was ranked 31st globally on the list with an enterprise value of $4.25 billion.Godrej Consumer Products was founded on November 29, 2000 and its brands include Good knight, Cinthol, Godrej No 1, Expert and Ezee; and it has an innovation premium of 58.7 per cent.Other Indian firms on the list include ABB India, Marico, United Breweries, Siemens India, Asian Paints, Nestle India, Colgate Palmolive India and Divi's Labs.Only those companies were considered which have market value of less than USD 10 billion, spend at least 1 per cent of their asset base on R&D and have seven years of public data.The list excludes energy and mining firms, whose market value is tied more to commodity prices than to innovation.