KONE has been ranked 42nd out of the top 100 most innovative companies in the world by the well-known business magazine, Forbes.
Out of all European companies listed this year, KONE was ranked an impressive sixth and is the only elevator and escalator Company to be featured on Forbes’ list this year.
“It’s a great honour to be recognised among the world’s most innovative companies for a fourth consecutive year,” said Henrik Ehrnrooth, President & CEO of KONE Corporation. “Innovation and technological advancement have been at the core of our company for decades, and will continue to be moving forward.”
KONE’s history as an industry forerunner is well documented. In 1996, KONE was the first Company in the industry to introduce machine-room-less elevators. KONE’s latest ground breaking solution is its new high-rise elevator hoisting technology, KONE UltraRope(TM), enabling future elevator travel heights of one kilometre; twice the distance currently feasible.
The technology will be used in Saudi Arabia’s Kingdom Tower, expected to be the world’s tallest building with a height rising over one kilometre once completed. Another innovation highlight is the KONE family of ‘People Flow Intelligence’ solutions, which makes navigation through buildings ever smoother and smarter.
Forbes magazine’s ranking is based on a metric called the ‘Innovation Premium’: the difference between their market capitalisation and a net present value of cash flows from existing businesses. One of the developers of the metric is Harvard Business School Professor, Clayton Christensen.
