Brazil's Top 10 Most Innovative Companies

Believe or not in the new corporate mantra: Innovate or Die, here is a list of companies promising rapid growth that you must have on your radar. The top 10 most Innovative Companies in Brazil:

1. Bug Agentes Biologicos
   

   Brazil's Top 10 Most Innovative Companies - @Fastcompany
   
   
2. Boo-box
3. Grupo EBX
4. Stefanini
5. Embraer
6. Petrobras
7. Predicta
8. F*Hits
9. Apontador
10. Vostu

The list was compiled by Fast Company magazine. Launched in 1995 by two former Harvard Business Review editors, Fast Company is one of the main reference in the business of innovation, with over 434 thousand followers on twitter ( @fastcompany ).
Only Bug Agentes Biologicos and Boo-box, the top two Brazilian most innovative companies, made to the Top 50 Most Innovative Companies worldwide. Both expect significant growth in the very near future:
Boo-Box, advertising system for social media, is the 45^th most innovative company worldwide: with 31 thousand publishers and 280 thousand websites , it shows 3 billion ads every month to 65 million people and expects to grow exponentially by having a stronger presence in Latin America.
Bug Agentes Biologicos, ranking 33^rd worldwide, is a  supplier of predatory insect eggs and parasitoids used for natural protection of crops. It presents a natural alternative to harmful agricultural pesticides and aims Brazil’s $7 billion pesticide market:

Bug’s timing feels right. Brazil is the world’s third-largest agricultural exporter (behind the United States and EU); it recently passed the U.S. as the largest consumer of pesticides. Yet the country has begun to phase out the more noxious chemical pesticides Brazilian farmers use despite diminishing effectiveness. Bug has the only alternative approved by Brazilian agricultural, health, and environmental ministries. It’s currently at 100% capacity with plans in 2012 to double the acreage it covers.

Other than these polemic lists, one of my favorite Fast Company ventures is the 30secondmba website. Although the name is self-explanatory, here is a sample of 30secondMBA : “ Mark Zuckerberg answers How do you generate innovation?”
Besides introducing 30secondsMBA , Zuckerberg’s speech reinforces the idea that innovating does not necessarily include doing something really new; that would be invention. Many entrepreneurs wanna-be focus on inventing instead of innovating. They want to create something really new to launch their startups. Well, it is not really necessary to do so! To prove my point let’s take a look at the top 10 Brazilian startups:

1. Peixe Urbano (collective shopping site)
2. LikeStore (enabling purchases via Facebook)
3. SambaTech (online video)
4. BuscaPe (price comparison and owner of a chain of ecommerce websites)
5. Baby (children’s items ecommerce)
6. OQVestir (ecommerce- women’s clothing)
7. Clickon (collective shopping site)
8. Shoes4You (shoes rental)
9. ViajeNet (tool for booking travels online)
10. Vostu (games on social networks)

The list was compiled by American Business insider, one of the best 25 Best Financial Blogs in 2011 according to Time.
Brazil’s hottest startup, Peixe Urbano, which means “Urban Fish” in Portuguese, is innovative but not inventive.  Described by Techcrunch as Groupon Clone, Peixe Urbano was one of the first collective shopping site in Brazil. The three Brazilian  co-founders, including Julio Vasconcellos, a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and Stanford Business School, admit they were inspired by Groupon.
Today, Peixe Urbano is so successful that it won one of Silicon Valley’s most prestigious prizes early this year, the Best International Startup Crunchies award.
My point is: entrepreneurs wanna-be, keep on mind the difference between innovating and inventing. Creating something new is not always necessary when launching a startup.  Improving a process or refining the original concept instead of focusing in the next BIG idea may be the surest way to succeed.
In case one argues that innovating is not as appreciated as inventing, let’s remember that the prize of the Best International Startup was given by Techcrunch, the same entity that described Peixe Urbano a Groupon Clone.



http://www.forbes.com/sites/ricardogeromel/2012/02/21/brazils-top-10-most-innovative-companies/