Tech giants lag way behind lesser known brands in Forbes' most innovative companies list

Forbes list of the world's most innovative companies has placed cloud computing company Salesforce.com at the top spot for the thirst consecutive year, while tech giants lag desperately behind.

Ranked number two is Alexion Pharmaceuticals, a company who focuses on treating rare diseases followed by VMware and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals.

At number six is China's search engine giant Baidu followed by Jeff Bezos's Amazon.

When it comes to tech giants, well known for their flashy offices and fat profit to investors, they fall almost to the middle of the list of 100 companies where Google is at the disappointing position of 47 and Apple yet behind at 79.

Interestingly, the lesser known brands have got a thumbs up for their innovation as coffeechain Starbucks has been placed at number 19 and chocolate maker Hershey is at number 28.

Yahoo Japan is at position number 38 while Infosys has been ranked 53.

Other companies on the list include PepsiCo. at 58, Unilever NV at 63, sports brand Adidas at 92 and Daikin Industries at the last spot.

Forbes authors Jeff Dyer and Hal Gregersen who compiled the list, said that the reason so many of the companies are unknown is their specific formula which assigns companies an 'innovation premium' described as the difference between the market capitalisation and value of cash flows from existing businesses.