Summary
- The MIT Top 50 Smartest Companies is a list put together each year by the editors of the MIT Technology Review magazine, a product of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
- The list identifies global companies that are creating new opportunities by combining important technologies and are business savvy.
- Jumia Group, due to its online platform that has consolidated all its consumer web services — shopping, travel, food delivery, real estate sales, and car rentals—under one name, was ranked at position 44, up from 47 last year.
Online company Jumia Group early this
month, was named among the MIT Top 50 Smartest Companies for the second
consecutive year in a ranking that can play an important role in
building consumer trust in the brand, according to research.
“A
company ranked, for instance among MIT’s Top 50 Smartest, has its
innovativeness tried and tested and its impact felt globally. It is an
assurance of its value in the market it operates, having exhibited
astute business leadership over the years under observation. It presents
the company with an opportunity to receive further recognition from
prospective customers and investors, thus profitable new growth,” said
Cyrus Onyiego, Country Manager for Jumia Travel Kenya.
The
MIT Top 50 Smartest Companies is a list put together each year by the
editors of the MIT Technology Review magazine, a product of the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
The institution is a private university in the US that specialises in research in the physical sciences and engineering.
The
list identifies global companies that are creating new opportunities by
combining important technologies and are business savvy.
Space X, Amazon and Alphabet were among the top five companies on the MIT list this year.
Jumia
Group, due to its online platform that has consolidated all its
consumer web services — shopping, travel, food delivery, real estate
sales, and car rentals—under one name, was ranked at position 44, up
from 47 last year.
This
year’s recognition comes after the company in April this year, reported
a net loss of Sh12.4 billion for the year to December, and a reduction
in its customer numbers, although its total transactions grew by 4.3 per
cent. The ranking, therefore, is expected to lift the company’s
fortunes.
“We are proud for the recognition of our
persistence in fully harnessing Africa’s untapped digital potential. We
believe that through technological innovations, we drive our commitment
to inject feasible solutions into Africa’s economy,” said Sacha
Poignonnec, Jumia Group’s co-founder.
For companies,
such rankings are an opportunity to increase brand awareness and
visibility, which can have a positive effect on sales.
According
to Robert Schindler, a professor of marketing at the Rutgers School of
Business–Camden, the rankings illustrate the quality of a product and
increase the desire by customers to purchase the better product.
“Ranked
lists represent a quick summary of a lot of information. At a glance,
consumers can see where the items they are looking at fall in comparison
to other products. They use that information to make judgments on
products and respective companies” he said.
In a
study Schindler conducted titled, The Top 10 Effect: Why Consumers
Depend on Rankings, he found that rankings affect product sales, as
products ranked on lists generally sell better than those that are not
ranked, with consumers forming a bias towards the ranked products.
In
the case of Jumia Group, it experienced improved results when it was
ranked 47 in last year’s MIT’s Top 50 Smartest Companies.
Its Jumia Travel platform recorded a 55 per cent rise on consumer traffic to its website within the period June 2016/2017.
“...the
ranking has also resulted in improved trust of the online booking
services, with a 40 per cent growth in the conversion rate, compared to
the previous year. The global recognition acted as a guarantor to Jumia
travel’s legitimacy, in turn boosting confidence in online payment with
40 per cent of customers paying online as opposed to 20 per cent in
2016,” said Onyiego.
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