Six of top 10 World’s Most Innovative Companies 2014 have Irish presence

In a recent article by Silicon Republic, Tina Contanza reported that six of the top 10 companies on Forbes magazine’s list of The World’s Most Innovative Companies 2014 have Irish operations, with Salesforce.com coming in at No 1.“

The San Francisco, California-based enterprise cloud computing applications provider, that has offices in Sandyford, Dublin, has received the recognition for the fourth year in a row now.

Forbes ranks companies on its World’s Most Innovative Companies list by what it calls the companies’ ‘innovation premium’.

“(This premium is) the difference between their market capitalisation and a net present value of cash flows from existing businesses (based on a proprietary formula from Credit Suisse HOLT),” Forbes states.

“The difference between them is the bonus given by equity investors on the educated hunch that the company will continue to come up with profitable new growth.”

Pharmaceuticals feature

Hot on the heels on Salesforce.com at No 2 on the list is Cheshire, Connecticut-based Alexion Pharmaceuticals. The biopharmaceutical company is building facilities in Dublin and Athlone.

In fifth place is biopharmaceutical company Regeneron Pharmaceuticals. Based in Tarrytown, New York, the firm is to establish a production facility in Limerick.

E-commerce giant Amazon.com, which is sixth on the list, has a development centre in Dublin.

Behind Amazon.com on the list is BioMarin Pharmaceutical, which has operations in Co Cork. Headquartered in San Rafael, California, the company develops and commercialises pharmaceuticals for serious diseases and medical conditions.

VMware is ninth on the list. The virtualisation infrastructure solutions provider is headquartered in Palo Alto, California, and has offices in Dublin and Cork.

It is very encouraging to see that Ireland still is an attractive location to do business for six of the ten most innovative companies according to Forbes,”

“Companies such as BioMarin, Regeneron and Alexion have recognised the value from investing their Irish operations to tap into the strong graduate pool and demographic.”

Ken Murphy, Director of CareerWise Recruitment

Two fully Irish companies also made it onto Forbes’ list of The World’s Most Innovative Companies 2014.

Dublin-based global healthcare supplier Perrigo is in at No 45, and global information services company Experian, also based in the Irish capital, is No 97 on the list.

This article was originally published by Silicone Republic

Joe Robbins

(Director) BBS (Hons), MBPICS – Shannon Office

Joe Robbins is co-founder of CareerWise Recruitment. A graduate of the University of Limerick (Degree in Business Studies, 1985), Joe worked in the UK for five years where he specialised in materials management, production management and plant management for a number of companies.

He returned to Ireland in 1992 to become Operations Manager for a Cork-based start-up, FMC Automotive Division which was subsequently taken over by Snap-on Equipment. Joe managed the business re-location of this company to Shannon in 1997 before setting up CareerWise Recruitment in 1999.

He is a committee member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) Mid-West region, and a former Director and Vice President of the Shannon Chamber of Commerce. Joe is former Chairperson of the Sixmilebridge Camogie Club and current Chairperson of the Clare County Camogie Board.

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