BusinessWeek, which is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, announced on Thursday the results of its survey of the most innovative companies, leaders and inventions since 1929. The company surveyed 500 senior-level business executives, allowing them more than one choice per category, and found that Apple Computer Inc. was named by 35 percent of them as the most innovative company, followed closely by Microsoft at 32 percent and Pixar at 31 percent. However, Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who also runs Pixar, lost out to Microsoft CEO Bill Gates for most innovative corporate leader, with the former racking up 47 percent of the votes and the latter snaring 50 percent.
The personal computer and the Internet garnered 56 and 51 percent of the choices, respectively, for greatest innovation, followed by the discovery of DNA at 49 percent and the television at 34 percent. When considering business leaders who would pick up the executives’ vote for President, Warren Buffett led the list at 60 percent, with Gates coming in fourth at 29 percent. And among “esteemed personalities and individuals” they considered most innovative, 65 percent of the respondents selected Steven Spielberg while World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee came in second at 55 percent, winning out over such people as Madonna and Oprah Winfrey.