FastCompany magazine just listed The World’s Most Innovative Companies 2014. In the introduction to the list of top innovators, Robert Safian writes:
If you Google the phrase “faith-based businesses,” the results point to companies that pursue a religious agenda. But there’s another kind of faith in business: the belief that a product or service can radically remake an industry, change consumer habits, challenge economic assumptions.
In this annual list of “the businesses that matter most” FastCompany identifies 12 “rising trends” among these leading innovators. We thought there were a number of rising trends that were worth noting. Some of these trends are self-explanatory, others require some explanation. According to FastCompany:
- EXCEPTIONAL IS EXPECTED
- MAKING MONEY MATTERS
- SUSTAINABILITY HAS FOUND A NEW GEAR– According to the article, sustainability is not something to which businesses are paying lip service. Decisions that involve energy efficiency investments or resource re-use are integral to building good successful businesses.
- PASSION IS UNDERRATED
- CONFLICT ISN’T REQUIRED As the article notes: “How do you make meaningful change in the face of calcified institutions? Sometimes you just have to go around them.”
- HAPPY CUSTOMERS MAKE YOU HAPPY
- SOFTWARE BEATS HARDWARE “…software is the key source of progress today.”
- DREAMING BIG ISN’T FOLLY; IT’S REQUIRED
The companies identified in the FastCompany list are exceptional. They’re stand outs. What they’ve accomplished in their fields is extraordinary in many many ways. But this trend list got us thinking about how these trends relate to the business of energy. We should all be able to identify some of these great qualities in our energy companies. Energy, power, gas, electricity, fuel oil is so critical to how our economy functions, how we operate as families, households, businesses. There are so many critical issues that energy companies touch: issues of sustainability, climate change, technological innovation, cost, infrastructure issues, etc.
Shouldn’t we expect to see at least some of these innovation trends in our energy companies?
What do you love about your utility? What do you love about your electricity supplier? What do you love about your energy consultant or broker? Tell us. We want to know.