Where are the Brits?

This month BusinessWeek published their special report on The World's Most Innovative Companies. In looking at the top 50 table, I see that only 2 of the companies are registered in the UK: Virgin and BP. When you delve a little deeper and look at the sector breakdown, things start to get a little more interesting.

Previously unmentioned Tesco comes in at number 9 in Retail and Virgin quite naturally appears near the top (no 2) in Travel/Tourism/Hospitality.

But in the Energy category, the UK starts to shine a little more:
No 1: BP
No 3: Royal Dutch Shell
No 10: EDF Energy

I'm not sure what measures BusinessWeek are using to come up with the results, but it's interesting to see British companies making such a strong showing in the Energy category.

For an excellent commentary that delves beneath the results, have a look at Jena McGregor's piece for Yahoo!

Comments

[Alan Mortonn]

Miko

How British are the companies you name? BP has large overseas assets. Until recently Shell had an unusual structure with both Dutch and British arms. And EDF is very assuredly French (all those nuclear power stations) though it has been buying assets abroad.

[Miko Coffey]

Yes, it's true that all 3 companies have international connections. My basis for "Britishness" was in terms of the headquarters of their operation combined with the history of the company. With a name like "British Petroleum" I don't think anyone will dispute the origins of BP. Shell is more hazy, with the Royal Dutch connections, but I'd say it's definitely as much British as anything else due to the history of the company stretching back to 1907 and the fact that their HQ is in Britain.

Although EDF Energy is now owned by EDF SA, EDF Energy is the trading name of EDF Energy Customers plc, which is wholly made up of the mergers of British energy companies and only supplies UK customers with gas & electricity. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edf_energy

I guess it may be stretching the point a bit to say these guys are 100% British, but what is? In this global economy, I think the lines are always a bit blurred. Even the bastion of Britishness, Harrod's, is owned by an Egyptian. I'm American born, but half Japanese, and having lived in the UK for over 11 years, starting to feel a little British myself. Tea, anyone?