According to the newly unveiled American Innovation Index, (AII) each company has earned a reputation for being innovative from the ultimate authority: customers.

On Tuesday, Oct. 16, the Gabelli School of Business will host a daylong conference dedicated to exploring how these companies manage to constantly stay ahead of the curve. In addition to a keynote presentation by Malcom Frank, author of What To Do When Machines Do Everything: How to Get Ahead in a World of AI, Algorithms, Bots, and Big Data (Wiley, 2017), the conference will feature a panel discussion with senior executives from Southwest Airlines, Goodyear, Amazon, eBay, and John Deere.

Lerzan Aksoy, Ph.D., associate dean of undergraduate studies and professor of marketing at the Gabelli School, said the index, jointly created by Fordham, the Norwegian School of Economics, and market research firm Rockbridge Associates, is the first large-scale, scientifically vetted survey in the U.S. that measures a company’s innovativeness based on customers’ experiences.

“There are a lot of innovation indices out there. Most of these rely on macroeconomic indicators, or self-reports from managers or experts. But none of these indices gauge innovativeness from the customer’s perspective.  The American Innovation Index is the only national measure of customers’ perceptions of innovation,” said Aksoy, who helped develop the methodology for measuring customers’ responses.

The Top Ten

The survey, which was conducted in May, gathered the input of 7,429 consumers, and resulted in a ranking of 200 companies. The top 10 brands were Apple, Amazon, Ikea, Toyota, Netflix, Honda, John Deere, Southwest Airlines, Airbnb, and Samsung.

Aksoy said one of the biggest surprises was the dearth of technology companies among the high scorers. Apple and Netflix were the only ones to crack the top 10, while Google placed 19th, Facebook was 56th, and Twitter ranked 63rd.

“When we traditionally think about innovation, we think about technology, but it’s so much more than that. It’s about how you innovate in your industry. Maybe you break the boundaries of what your industry is, like Amazon, which is number one in the general merchandise retailer category,” she said.

“Or maybe you’re IKEA, which is innovative in getting affordable solutions that are also great designs into people’s homes. They’re also very environmentally conscious and socially innovative as well. It’s also about how you innovate when it comes to serving your customers and their needs.”

Social Innovation is Key

In addition to an AII rank, the survey also measured the degree to which companies are perceived to innovate in ways that benefit society and the environment. That Social Innovation Index (SII) score was calculated based on how customers answered three questions: How do a brands’ offerings benefit society and the environment, how much of a priority is it to the company, and how routinely does the company unveil innovative solutions to social and environmental problems. Four of the top 10 companies in the AII index were also given high marks for social innovation. John Deere, for instance, took the top spot for SII; Southwest Airlines and Ikea also scored high.

Aksoy said the survey provides a template for anyone in business who wants to be innovative, whether they’re in the C-suite, marketing, or research and development.

“I think it shows that it’s not just this one single department who is responsible for innovation, but it’s the entire organization working together to send that message,” she said.

It reinforces the importance of communication, because while the top-rated companies might be inherently innovative, this survey says they are also perceived that way by customers, she said. Aksoy said the concept of a socially innovative company is also something firms are increasingly embracing.

“It’s not just about giving to a charity; it’s about changing the DNA of your organization and the way that people think about these problems. That’s another very important lesson to be learned from this sort of an index,” she said.

“Finally, I would say it’s helpful for students who are just starting their careers. How do you pick where you’re going to work? What organizations fit who you are and the kind of an impact you want to have in the world? This is a great showcase of some of the best companies in America.”

To register for the conference, visit the American Innovation Index website.

The Fordham network of students, faculty, alumni, and community members promoting innovative solutions to these challenges is called the Social Innovation Collaboratory. This group has already sponsored workshops on three different themes, with more being planned. Each workshop allows students to apply their academic knowledge and passion for creating social value to solving a specific problem.

Members of the Clean Cookstoves workshop partner with the United Nations’ Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves in an effort to reduce the economic, climate, and health risks of inefficient stoves and dangerous cooking methods used in many countries around the world. The Food and Enterprise students collaborate with Slow Money NYC to examine how to evaluate and rate local sustainable food and farm initiatives. And the Urban Mobility team focuses on enhancing BMW’s new electric vehicles to expand sustainable transportation options for college students and New Yorkers.

Students from all backgrounds have joined the three workshops—from freshmen to graduate students, business majors to psychology majors, native New Yorkers to international students.

Brendan Dagher, a Fordham College at Rose Hill senior, helped design all three of the workshops. He says the diversity is one of their greatest strengths. “It encourages the kind of integrated thinking that creates novel solutions to deep-rooted problems.”

Though some students have no previous experience in the area of sustainability, others, like freshman Olivia Greenspan, participated in local sustainability projects while still in high school. At Fordham, Greenspan is an active executive board member of St. Rose’s Garden, the Rose Hill campus’s community garden. In her first semester, she proposed using a method of hydroponics (growing plants without soil) that is already being implemented by the group.

And she’s expanding her sustainability focus from food to transportation by joining the Urban Mobility workshop. “Every time I get more involved with sustainability I just see more and more value in it, and I see how feasible it is with the technology we have,” she says. “I feel like if I don’t contribute, it just might not happen. And when I’m doing it, I feel like I’m part of a larger movement.”

Carey Weiss, Fordham’s director of sustainability initiatives and social innovation, leads all three workshops. She says that one of the best things about these projects is how students in each of the workshops divide into small teams where everyone is an equal partner. They brainstorm together, and they’re all encouraged to share their unique perspective. Graduate students learn from freshmen, English students learn from biology students, and so on.

Weiss says that this format allows the workshops to “draw on the students’ individual passions, and they bring their whole selves to the table.”

This model not only gives students an inside glance at leading organizations, it expands students’ opportunities for valuable networking. And, according to Weiss, it promotes new and innovative ways of thinking.

“It’s action-oriented, and it’s impact-oriented,” she says, “and it stems from the Jesuit idea of being men and women for others.”

This spring, Greenspan and the other Urban Mobility students will pitch their finalized concepts to the team at BMW, and the company will choose which ideas to implement.

Greenspan says that working with the team has been an enriching experience, both academically and personally.

She has also received several summer internship offers because of her involvement with the workshop. “I’m not just making connections between what I learn in my classes and sustainable solutions,” she says. “I also have constant access to these amazing companies and internship opportunities.

“And I have a real sense of what it’s like to work on a productive, kind, and caring team.”

But having a bulky contraption attached to her hip was cumbersome for an athlete like Logan. So, she did what any innovator would do: she made her own solution.

Logan, a rising junior at the Gabelli School of Business, is the founder of Pumpstash, LLC, a company that creates spandex shorts for women and girls with Type 1 diabetes who use an insulin pump and a continuous glucose monitor.

The shorts are fitted with pockets that keep the pump securely in place so that athletic apparel or skirts and dresses can be worn unimpeded.

The idea came to Logan while playing for her high school lacrosse team. During games and practice, her insulin pump would frequently get loose and bounce around.

“There were some options keep it attached, such as fanny packs or arm or thigh pouches—but nothing that would either stay in place or that me as a 16-year-old girl would be caught dead in,” said Logan, a business administration major with a minor in sustainable business. “I started to take it off during practice and games, but that wasn’t good for my numbers.”

Inspired by a pair of running pants that had a pocket to store keys, Logan wondered whether she could combine the sturdiness of her spandex lacrosse shorts with the convenience of a pocket.

She and her mom produced some sketches and took their design to a seamstress, who created the prototype. The Pumpstash shorts were born.

Logan is raising money through a Kickstarter campaign to fund the manufacturing process and get Pumpstash shorts onto the market.

“The Foundry has been a huge help and support system,” she said. “It’s a great community, because everyone has their own thing and their own expertise, so we’re not competing against one another. Everyone wants everyone else to succeed.”

The shorts are 79 percent polyester and 21 percent spandex and are made with antibacterial and wicking properties. A pocket in the back—which is made from a stronger material, 80 percent nylon and 20 percent spandex—keeps the pump secure, while a pocket in the front provides storage for ordinary objects such as keys or a cell phone. Ten percent of the profits from each pair sold is donated to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

It is important to continue funding research toward an eventual cure, Logan said. In the meantime, there are steps that can be taken to improve the quality of life for diabetics.

“Depending on how you look at it, I’m lucky or unlucky because I’ve never known life without it. It’s basically second nature to me,” she said. “But it can be really frustrating, especially if you’re in a situation that’s not a daily routine.”

Having that insider’s view of living with diabetes is at the heart of Pumpstash, Logan said, and is what drives her business model.

“It was important to me that this project be in the hands of someone dealing with [diabetes], rather than a bigger company. A big company isn’t necessarily thinking of little inconveniences that aren’t medically problematic but which could be fixed to make day-to-day life easier.”