Future Readiness Indicator
The Future Readiness Indicator is an indicator developed by the IMD Center for Future Readiness. It assesses large publicly listed companies on their preparedness for future trends using historical data to compare innovation, resilience, and growth. Companies receive a composite score and are ranked within their respective industries. It was developed by Howard Yu in 2021 and covers 182 companies across six different industries.
History
The Future Readiness Indicator was developed in 2021 by Howard Yu, with some rankings backdated to 2010 for analytical purposes only. The concept of corporate future readiness has been discussed in management literature as a firm’s capacity to anticipate disruption, invest in innovation, and adapt to structural market shifts.
Methodology
The ranking derives from seven primary, equally-weighted factors: financial indicators, projected growth, business diversification, workforce diversity/ESG, R&D, innovation outcomes, and liquidity/debt status, totaling 33 distinct variables.
The data is publicly accessible from company outlets, news sources, and thematic reports. Factiva, CrunchBase, Espacenet, Sustainalytics, and Google Trends also supplement data collection.
The indicator is calculated by collecting each company's historical data, performing computations for each variable, standardizing criteria data, aggregating variables into main factors, and assigning an overall ranking. Each company is ranked from 1 (best) to n (worst, n=sample size) on a 1-100 scale.
Automotive
Company |
2025 |
2024 |
2023 |
2022 |
2021 |
2020 |
2019 |
2018 |
2017 |
2016 |
2015 |
2014 |
2013 |
2012 |
2011 |
2010 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
BYD |
1 |
2 |
2 |
5 |
14 |
13 |
15 |
16 |
18 |
18 |
17 |
18 |
17 |
17 |
18 |
18 |
Tesla |
2 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
3 |
5 |
10 |
6 |
4 |
16 |
11 |
10 |
Geely |
3 |
17 |
17 |
10 |
9 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
Li Auto |
4 |
9 |
7 |
14 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
Kia Motors |
5 |
8 |
18 |
16 |
16 |
18 |
18 |
18 |
17 |
17 |
18 |
15 |
16 |
12 |
13 |
16 |
Volkswagen |
6 |
3 |
3 |
3 |
6 |
8 |
5 |
13 |
11 |
9 |
7 |
5 |
10 |
9 |
10 |
6 |
Toyota |
7 |
11 |
10 |
2 |
2 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
XPeng |
8 |
15 |
6 |
12 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
General Motors |
9 |
7 |
9 |
11 |
11 |
12 |
11 |
4 |
4 |
3 |
6 |
3 |
3 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
Ford Motors |
10 |
6 |
5 |
7 |
4 |
4 |
3 |
3 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
3 |
3 |
3 |
Consumer packaged goods
Company |
2025 |
2024 |
2023 |
|---|---|---|---|
L'Oréal |
1 |
1 |
3 |
Coca-Cola |
2 |
2 |
1 |
Unilever |
3 |
5 |
7 |
Procter & Gamble |
4 |
3 |
2 |
Nestlé |
5 |
4 |
4 |
Colgate-Palmolive |
6 |
9 |
11 |
Beiersdorf |
7 |
- |
- |
Diageo |
8 |
6 |
5 |
PepsiCo |
9 |
11 |
13 |
Monster Beverage |
10 |
12 |
18 |
Fashion
In the luxury and fashion sector, the index reported shifts in rankings among major global brands, reflecting changing competitive dynamics in digital strategy and sustainability performance.
Company |
2025 |
2024 |
2023 |
2022 |
2021 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
LVMH |
1 |
2 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
Inditex |
2 |
3 |
8 |
13 |
15 |
Hermès |
3 |
1 |
2 |
4 |
3 |
Adidas |
4 |
10 |
14 |
12 |
12 |
Nike |
5 |
4 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
Kering |
6 |
6 |
3 |
3 |
5 |
Moncler |
7 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
Lululemon |
8 |
5 |
7 |
2 |
1 |
Ralph Lauren |
9 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
Zalando |
10 |
9 |
5 |
7 |
- |
Financial services
Company |
2025 |
2024 |
2023 |
2022 |
2021 |
2020 |
2019 |
2018 |
2017 |
2016 |
2015 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Mastercard |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
DBS Bank |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
6 |
6 |
5 |
5 |
5 |
9 |
Visa |
3 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
JPMorgan Chase |
4 |
4 |
3 |
3 |
13 |
12 |
7 |
7 |
10 |
7 |
7 |
Coinbase |
5 |
8 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
Progressive |
6 |
12 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
HSBC |
7 |
6 |
10 |
14 |
22 |
21 |
22 |
19 |
20 |
18 |
22 |
Zurich Insurance |
8 |
9 |
8 |
13 |
8 |
- |
8 |
9 |
6 |
9 |
17 |
Allianz |
9 |
16 |
12 |
17 |
10 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
Block, Inc. |
10 |
10 |
6 |
6 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
Pharmaceutical
In the life sciences sector, the index identified leading pharmaceutical companies based on their ability to adapt to long-term industry transformation and innovation dynamics. Roche was ranked among the top pharmaceutical companies in terms of future readiness, highlighting its positioning within the global life sciences industry.
Company |
2025 |
2024 |
2023 |
2022 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Johnson & Johnson |
1 |
6 |
8 |
8 |
Roche |
2 |
1 |
5 |
1 |
AstraZeneca |
3 |
4 |
2 |
3 |
Novartis |
4 |
5 |
4 |
5 |
Eli Lilly and Company |
5 |
3 |
3 |
7 |
Merck & Co. |
6 |
8 |
9 |
9 |
Bristol Myers Squibb |
7 |
7 |
6 |
4 |
Sanofi |
8 |
13 |
15 |
16 |
GSK |
9 |
14 |
19 |
21 |
Pfizer |
10 |
9 |
1 |
2 |
Technology
The index has also been referenced in discussions of technology companies’ strategic positioning, particularly in relation to artificial intelligence and digital platform competitiveness.
Company |
2025 |
2024 |
2023 |
2022 |
2021 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nvidia |
1 |
1 |
2 |
3 |
6 |
Microsoft |
2 |
2 |
1 |
2 |
3 |
Alphabet |
3 |
4 |
4 |
1 |
1 |
Meta Platforms |
4 |
3 |
3 |
6 |
4 |
Apple |
5 |
5 |
5 |
5 |
9 |
Amazon |
6 |
6 |
10 |
4 |
2 |
Samsung Electronics |
7 |
20 |
27 |
16 |
25 |
AMD |
8 |
7 |
8 |
8 |
5 |
Cisco |
9 |
17 |
9 |
22 |
15 |
TSMC |
10 |
12 |
21 |
21 |
21 |
Travel
Company |
2025 |
|---|---|
Booking Holdings |
1 |
Airbnb |
2 |
Marriott |
3 |
Trip.com |
4 |
Hilton |
5 |
Expedia |
6 |
Delta Air Lines |
7 |
Royal Caribbean |
8 |
Carnival |
9 |
Ryanair |
10 |
IAG |
11 |
Singapore Airlines |
12 |
IHG Hotels & Resorts |
13 |
Turkish Airlines |
14 |
Hyatt |
15 |
United Airlines |
16 |
H World |
17 |
Accor |
18 |
easyJet |
19 |
Travel + Leisure |
20 |