Foreword
What makes a great business idea? How can we tell whether it will stand the test of time? And why do some new ideas have greater influence than others in shaping the environment that businesses operate in today?
These are the questions that a distinguished panel of judges have evaluated in drawing up a list of the 50 ideas that most shaped business today.
Innovation – new ideas, reforms and other forms of change – are, of course, vital in stimulating progress. The task of the panel was to weigh the merits of ideas whose impact informs us about the past, the present and the future.
The selection was based on suggestions from our readers, from the six judges (see page 58) and from FT writers around the world.
Some of the 50 top ideas that our judges agreed on would have made anyone’s list and are easily predictable. The effects of globalisation and China’s adoption of market reforms, for example, will reverberate through time.
The 50 ideas are too varied to present in the form of a hierarchical ranking – that would be the equivalent of comparing apples with pears. The list includes concepts as dissimilar as workplace diversity, barcodes and tax optimisation.
To make it easier for readers to navigate their way through our list, we have grouped the 50 ideas into separate themes, with an overview to each section by a senior FT writer.
Our panel of judges also took the step of identifying a handful of the most likely candidates for key ideas likely to shape tomorrow’s business world. You can find these towards the end of this magazine.
We do not expect that everyone will agree with all of our judges’ 50 top ideas, let alone the ones for the future. But if nothing else the list will, we hope, inform the crucial, continuing debate about how the world of business can become more effective, efficient and relevant.
We hope you enjoy the list – and do let us know if you feel there is anything significant we have omitted.
Lionel Barber
Editor