Home of the Innovation Index
Most of the Innovators in the Innovation Index are prestigious companies including GE, 3M, HP, IBM, and Proctor & Gamble that have created numerous innovations and shaped our world over the past fifty plus years. Some leaders are better known by their innovative product brands - Blackberry by Research In Motion, iPod and iMac by Apple, online shopping by Amazon.com, Windows and Office by Microsoft, Microprocessor powered by Intel. The list also includes leaders whose creativity and brands have become synonymous to markets: networks by Cisco, computers by Dell, e-commerce trade by eBay, hot coffee and cappuccino by Starbucks, fashionable clothing by Target, discount shopping by Wal-Mart, low airline fares by Southwest Airlines, and search nirvana by Google. America Movil and Yahoo! Inc. were added to create the Top 20 Innovators for 2007. Six Innovators were added in 2008.
New Innovators are chosen at the end of each calendar year for hypothetical investment; some, none or all of the existing innovators may remain in the new list.
Founding Philosophy
The following are the principles that guide hypothetical investments in the top innovators.
Investment Principles
1. Isolate top Innovators that have demonstrated a solid history of innovations, revenue and earnings growth.
2. Conduct a thorough analysis based on facts to determine the intrinsic value of each selected Innovator relative to its market.
3. Track and invest in top Innovators (without principle), so that investments can be made when their stock is available at a discounted price compared to intrinsic value so that a "margin of safety" exists.
4. Increase or decrease investment in a particular Innovator based on appreciation or depreciation in its stock performance, changes in current or projected earnings or revenue growth, changes in management or other market factors.
5. Liquidate an investment in a particular Innovator based on set triggers for performance gains or losses, or change in top Innovators at the end of each calendar year.
The Innovation Index Group is grounded on the belief that Top Innovators who have demonstrated a solid history of innovations, revenue and earnings growth are most likely to produce the highest stock market returns in the future. These Innovators need not be the top company by market cap for a particular sector; rather they could very well be challengers or “disrupters” that have demonstrated a real market for their products or services, are growing faster than the rate of the market (at times creating new markets altogether) and possibly grabbing market share from other competitors.
Differentiating Principles
The following principles differentiate our hypothetical investment methodology from other fund and investment managers:
1. Hypothetical Investments are limited to the crème de la crème– the best Innovators in their respective markets and industries are chosen after a complete, factual analysis as described earlier.
2. Each innovator must have annual revenue of $2 billion and market cap of at least
$10 billion. Thus, investments are limited to those Innovators who have grown into companies with a significant market capitalization and have demonstrated a superior history of revenue and earnings growth.
3. Hypothetical Investments for each Innovator are weighted based on the each Innovator’s launched innovations in the previous year, announced innovations for the upcoming year, market capitalization, earnings growth, revenue growth, projected earnings and revenue growth, analyst recommendations, historical and projected stock performance, current stock price, market fluctuations and its impact on the current stock price, “margin of safety,” and other micro and macro economic factors that could impact the growth of the innovator in the coming year.
4. Hypothetical Investments are limited to the top 20 Innovators, because we believe on focusing on a select group of companies with the most growth potential.
Management
Sanjay Dalal
Sanjay Dalal introduced The Innovation Index in December 2006 at his blog - http://creativityandinnovation.blogspot.com- and has been publishing regular reports on The Innovation Index.
Sanjay has recently published the Creativity and Innovation in Business Definitive Guide.
Sanjay has over ten years technology experience at emerging Silicon Valley companies in key positions of business development, products and marketing. At WebEx Communications, Inc., Sanjay, in his role as a product manager and product director, introduced two innovative web collaboration products, WebEx Training Center and WebEx Sales Center, that became market share leaders in their category generating millions of dollars in new business. Sanjay filed joint U.S. Patent for "System and Method for Managing Remote Computer Labs" for WebEx Training Center. Sanjay led the first two acquisitions for WebEx, and participated in over 30 strategic partnerships.
Sanjay helped grow software product line revenue from launch to seventy plus million dollars in annual business. Prior to WebEx, Sanjay worked in strategic product management roles at eComLive, as an engineer at IBM, and engineering and business projects at Honeywell Bull.
Sanjay is a graduate of The University of Texas at Austin in Electrical Engineering (Dean’s Honor Roll, Engineering Scholar, President’s Honor Roll at OU), pursued graduate education at Arizona State University in Computer Science, and completed professional certification on Leading Management Teams at Cornell University. Sanjay received the first position in the 50th William Lowell Putnam Math Competition.
In his spare time, Sanjay coached and mentored his son’s 7th grade school Rancho, NJB and IYBL basketball teams. He also volunteerd as an Art Master for his daughter’s 2nd grade class at Turtle Rock and participates in the School Site Council for raising the performance of the elementary school students. In 2006-2007, Sanjay was the appointed member by the Board of Education for the Technology Advisory Committee for the entire Fremont School District. Sanjay is an active Rotarian, member of Rotary club of Newport-Irvine, Board member of Asian Business Association of Orange County, and Treasurer of Turtle Rock PTA.
Sanjay is married and resides with his wife and children in Irvine, California.
Irving R. Katz
Irving Katz served as an Adviser to Innovation Index Group. Mr Katz has been a Financial Strategist for over 38 years and is the CEO of Katz Financial LLC. Over the years, Katz's clients have retained him for his expertise, and his ability to remain current.
Mr. Katz specializes in Retirement Planning, Wealth Creation, Wealth Retention and Estate planning for his Business Owner clients.
* To implement the best plans for his clients, Mr. Katz teams with the client’s accountant, and attorney to ensure all of his clients key advisors are on the same page. Mr. Katz practices advisor collaboration.
* Most recently Mr. Katz has taught business building workshops for his clients and their strategic partners. These include Client Acquisition, Outperforming the Competition and Business Planning.
* Mr Katz’s focus is on helping his clients create, preserve and distribute business and personal assets. His success has been guided by a strong commitment to meeting each client’s business and personal financial needs.
Irving Katz, MBA, MSFS, CHFE, CLU received his MBA in Finance & Marketing from the Kelly School of Business at Indiana University. He is a Registered Investment Advisor, Chartered Life Underwriter, Life Analyst and a Chartered Financial Consultant.