As I look back on 2025, I find myself reflecting on both personal milestones, like being named one of this year’s Thinkers50, and the ongoing conversations with strategists each year that continue to push my thinking forward. It was a year that invited reflection not just on what changed, but on what truly matters in strategy.
The year itself was defined by volatility, acceleration, surprise, and contradiction. Markets moved faster than forecasts. Technologies matured faster than organizations. Some companies stumbled, while others seemed to generate momentum almost effortlessly. What stood out to me most was not who reacted the fastest, but who remained focused, adaptable, and strategically coherent amid the noise.
That reflection is what makes the Outthinker List 2025 one of the accomplishments I am most proud of from last year. Not because of the companies on it, impressive as they are, but because of what the list represents. It is the culmination of years of research, thousands of hours of analysis, and a persistent question that has guided my work for decades.
Why do some organizations consistently outperform while others, equally talented and well resourced, fall behind? The Outthinker List is our most rigorous attempt yet to answer that question.
Studying Strategic Outperformance
We began with more than 7000 publicly traded companies and applied a disciplined quantitative screen to identify those that consistently outperform their peers across the fundamentals that matter most over time. We looked at five years of book value growth, sales growth, and earnings per share growth, as well as current profit and operating margins, all evaluated relative to industry peers. This alone narrowed the field to a small group of high performers. But strong numbers are not enough. Performance without strategy is often temporary.
So we went deeper.
We reviewed leadership decisions, business model choices, capital allocation patterns, and operating behaviors to understand whether results were driven by deliberate strategy or by favorable but fleeting conditions. We looked for evidence of four signs of strategic strength: product market fit that could be sustained, pricing power that could endure, organizational alignment that translated strategy into action, and capital discipline that signaled long-term thinking. We tested for performance persistence and investor confidence. Only then did we arrive at the final list of 45 companies.
What emerged was not a list of the loudest or most celebrated organizations of the year. It wasn’t a ranking of the hottest companies of the moment. It was a list of companies that quietly and consistently do the hard work of strategy well.
Across industries and geographies, these companies share a common ability to manage four forces simultaneously. They design business models that compound value rather than leak it. They execute with speed and reliability through aligned teams. They read external shifts early and position themselves to benefit from tailwinds while mitigating headwinds. And they make clear choices about where to focus and where not to play. When these forces move together, momentum builds. When they do not, even strong companies stall.
Some names on the Outthinker List 2025 will surprise no one.
Clear Winners
Adobe is a clear example. While its stock is down roughly 20% over the past 12 months, its continued presence among top performers reflects more than short-term market sentiment or brand strength. It reflects a decade-long strategic evolution from packaged software to a subscription-based, cloud-enabled ecosystem that delivers recurring value to customers and predictable growth for the company. Adobe’s ability to integrate new technologies, including artificial intelligence, without losing strategic coherence is a textbook example of disciplined adaptation. It is not chasing trends. It is shaping them.
Others on the list are equally dominant but often misunderstood.
NVIDIA’s performance, for instance, is frequently attributed to being in the right place at the right time with artificial intelligence. Our research tells a different story. NVIDIA made long-term architectural bets, invested relentlessly in research and development, and built an ecosystem that extends far beyond chips. Its advantage is not just technology. It is strategic patience combined with execution excellence.
What excites me most about the Outthinker List, however, are the companies that challenge our assumptions about where strategy lives.
Surprising Standouts
John Deere stands out not as a manufacturer of equipment, but as a builder of a precision-agriculture ecosystem. As highlighted in my 2024 Harvard Business Review article on strategic concepts that set high-performing companies apart, ecosystem-based competition is one of the approaches that winning companies are embracing today. By integrating hardware, software, data, and services, Deere has created durable pricing power and deep customer relationships in an industry not typically associated with digital leadership. This is strategy applied patiently in a traditionally slow-moving sector, and it is working.
e.l.f. Beauty is another unexpected standout. In a crowded and volatile consumer category, the company has built a business that combines cultural relevance, digital fluency, and operational discipline. Its performance is not accidental. It reflects a clear understanding of its customer, a scalable distribution strategy, and a willingness to focus rather than sprawl.
United Rentals offers a similar lesson from industrial services. Through disciplined acquisition, digital optimization of its fleet, and a focus on utilization and customer experience, the company has built a business model that scales efficiently while remaining resilient. It is a reminder that strategy is not confined to technology or consumer brands. It applies wherever leaders are willing to make and execute hard choices.
Another under the radar giant is PulteGroup. Homebuilding is often seen as cyclical and commoditized, yet PulteGroup has consistently outperformed peers through disciplined capital allocation, operational efficiency, and a clear understanding of customer segments. Rather than chasing volume at all costs, the company has focused on returns, balance sheet strength, and adaptability across market cycles. It is a reminder that strong strategy matters just as much in traditional industries as it does in technology.
Looking across the full Outthinker List 2025, several themes recur. The most successful companies build ecosystems, not just products, which is an idea reinforced in my Harvard Business Review article on the strategic concepts that set high-performing companies apart. As we have been pointing out for years, technology has dramatically lowered coordination costs, making it efficient for firms to collaborate with partners in entirely new ways.
These companies favor recurring revenue and long-term relationships over one-time wins, a shift enabled by the digitization of the customer. They invest ahead of demand rather than chase it. And they treat strategy not as an annual planning exercise, but as an ongoing discipline embedded in how decisions are made.
The Year Ahead
As we begin 2026, the value of this list is not retrospective. It is forward looking.
These 45 companies have demonstrated the ability to sustain advantage through uncertainty. That does not guarantee future success. Strategy never does. But it does make them worth learning from and watching closely in the year ahead. The conditions of 2026 will be different. New technologies will mature. New constraints will emerge. New competitors will surface. What matters is how these organizations respond.
My hope is that the Outthinker List continues to serve not only as recognition, but as a learning tool. A way to study real companies, making real decisions, under real pressure. Because in the end, strategy is not about prediction. It is about preparation.
So, as we step into 2026, let’s watch these companies closely, not just for what they achieve, but for how they think, choose, and adapt. There is no better way to learn how to outthink the future than to study those who are already doing it.
And as we begin to shape the Outthinker List 2026, the real question is which companies will emerge next and why. What organizations do you think we missed this year? And what lessons from this list matter most as we look ahead?
Add your voice to the conversation by sharing your perspective on LinkedIn or X. Your insights will help shape the questions we ask and the companies we examine as we build the Outthinker List 2026.
Learn to create strategy that shapes the future by joining us today at Outthinker.com.