Large organizations have basically earned a reputation for moving like molasses. You know the stereotype: too many layers, too much bureaucracy, too much resistance to change. Well, the winners of this year's Top 10 Innovator - Enterprise category from the 2026 BIG Innovation Awards just absolutely shredded that assumption.
These aren't startups in someone's garage. Actually, these are organizations with thousands of employees, complex supply chains, and regulatory requirements that would make your head spin. Yet somehow, they managed to innovate at a pace that would make many smaller companies jealous.
The BIG Innovation Awards recognize excellence across all organization sizes, and the enterprise category is typically where we see innovation that genuinely transforms entire industries. This year's winners didn't disappoint. From healthcare to cybersecurity to sustainable agriculture, these organizations proved that when you combine resources with vision, incredible things happen.
I've spent decades watching companies try to innovate. Some succeed, most stumble. The common thread among this year's winners? They didn't just implement new technology for the sake of it. They actually solved real problems that matter.
About the BIG Innovation Awards Enterprise Category
The Top 10 Innovator - Enterprise category, part of the Business Intelligence Group's BIG Innovation Awards program, recognizes organizations with 1,000+ employees that demonstrate breakthrough innovation. Winners are selected through a transparent, crowd-sourced judging process involving industry peers and customers. The 2026 program received nominations from companies across healthcare, technology, government, manufacturing, and business services sectors.
Award Designation Context:
- Overall Winner: Highest scoring nomination in the category
- Top 10 Winner: Top 10 performers selected from qualified nominees
- Winner Product: Innovation in a specific product or solution
- Winner Organization: Innovation across enterprise operations or strategy
Winner Individual: Personal leadership driving innovation breakthrough
2026 Top 10 Innovator - Enterprise Winners at a Glance
Measurable Innovation Impact
The 2026 enterprise winners delivered quantifiable results across healthcare, technology, and operations:
- Healthcare Efficiency: Alcon's UNITY VCS enables more cataract and vitreoretinal surgeries per day while maintaining patient safety standards
- Infection Reduction: Crothall Healthcare's expanded UV-C deployment achieved measurable decline in Healthcare Associated Infections (HAIs) and major gains in Top Box HCAHPS cleanliness scores
- Enterprise AI Adoption: eBay's DeepSights Gen-AI platform provides instant, trusted access to collective consumer knowledge for 10,000+ employees
- Educational Scale: Infosys's Springboard platform served 10 million learners globally
- Healthcare Screening: Infosys's SightConnect screened 191,000 patients through AI-enabled systems
- Support Efficiency: Infosys's FinacleSLM reduced customer support resolution time by 30%
- Patent Innovation: Dr. Tina Srivastava holds 30+ patents in identity security and cryptography
- Manufacturing Productivity: Research published by McKinsey & Company analyzing hundreds of manufacturing operations found that companies successfully implementing artificial intelligence across production systems achieve productivity gains ranging from 25% to 45% compared to baseline operations
Healthcare Innovation That Saves Lives and Time
Alcon UNITY VCS - Overall Winner
Innovation: UNITY® VCS
Industry: Healthcare (Ophthalmology)
Key Leader: Franck Leveiller
Impact: Enables more surgeries per day without compromising patient safety
Alcon took home the Overall Winner designation in this category, and honestly, when you look at what they accomplished with UNITY® VCS, it's pretty clear why. They created a combined vision system for cataract and vitreoretinal surgery with over a dozen first-ever innovations and safety features. The aging population is basically placing tremendous strain on healthcare systems worldwide, especially in eye care. Unity VCS enables more surgeries per day without compromising safety. That's the kind of innovation that literally changes lives.
Learn more: Alcon's website
Crothall Healthcare - Winner
Innovation: Expanded UV-C Light Deployment
Industry: Healthcare (Hospital Support Services)
Key Leader: Sophia McCrae, VP of Operational Strategy, Crothall Healthcare
Impact: Significant decline in Healthcare Associated Infections, major gains in cleanliness scores
Crothall Healthcare approached a different but equally critical healthcare challenge. Sophia McCrae and Crothall operational teams expanded the use ofUltraviolet-C light throughout hospitals, moving beyond just contact isolation rooms. The results? Healthcare Associated Infections (HAIs) experienced a significant decline, and Top Box room cleanliness HCAHPS scores made major gains. When you're talking about reducing infections that impacts thousands of people annually, that's innovation with real teeth.
Learn more: Crothall Healthcare
Cybersecurity Gets Personal
Badge Inc - Winner
Innovation: Badge Inc Identity Platform
Industry: Cybersecurity/Software
Key Leader: Dr. Tina P. Srivastava
Impact: Eliminates stored credentials, removing primary target of database breach attacks
Dr. Tina P. Srivastava actually turned a personal violation into a mission that could redefine identity security. After experiencing the 2015 Office of Personnel Management (OPM) breach firsthand, this MIT-trained aerospace engineer, pilot, author, and 15-patent inventor cofounded Badge Inc. Their Identity without Secrets™ technology eliminates stored credentials entirely. Think about that for a second. No more massive database breaches exposing millions of passwords. The technology simply removes the target.
Learn more: Badge Inc
Dr. Tina P. Srivastava - Winner (Individual)
Innovation: Cryptographic Identity Systems
Industry: Software/Cybersecurity
Key Leader: Dr. Tina P. Srivastava
Impact: 30+ patents, breakthrough cybersecurity technology protecting national security
Dr. Tina Srivastava, an MIT-trained rocket scientist, drives breakthrough cybersecurity innovation with Badge's Identity without Secrets™ approach. With 30+ patents and leadership spanning defense, startups, and academia, she is a trailblazer redefining privacy and safeguarding national security through cryptographic systems that fundamentally change how identity verification works.
Learn more: Badge Inc
Government Gets Agile
Ali Essa / Dubai Government - Winner
Innovation: RPA Virtual Employee
Industry: Government (Procurement)
Key Leader: Ali Essa
Impact: First RPA system defined as employee with full functional capabilities
Ali Essa and the Dubai government basically created something I never thought I'd see: a virtual employee powered by Robotic Process Automation (RPA) technology with full access, functional capabilities, system definitions, employee ID, and executive authority to manage tasks within procurement functions. This isn't just automation. This is the first application to define RPA technology as an employee, exhibiting human-like traits in performing assigned tasks. Government agencies worldwide are actually watching this closely.
Learn more: Dubai Government
Making the Complex Collaborative
3DLive - Winner
Innovation: 3DLive Spatial Computing Platform
Industry: Software (Enterprise Collaboration)
Key Leader: Tom Acland, CEO, 3DEXCITE
Impact: Life-size, real-time virtual twins enable natural team interaction and faster innovation
Tom Acland and the 3DEXCITE team at 3DLive brought fully immersive, spatial computing-powered collaboration to enterprise design, engineering, and decision-making. Integrated with the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, it delivers life-size, real-time virtual twins - scientifically accurate 3D representations of products and systems - directly into physical space. Teams can interact naturally, accelerate innovation, and make more informed decisions earlier in the design process. That's basically like bringing science fiction into the conference room.
Learn more: 3DLive
Data Intelligence That Actually Works
ABM - Winner
Innovation: ABM Connect, ABM’s AI-Powered Data Intelligence Platform
Industry: Facility Management
Key Leader: Scott Salmirs, President & CEO
Impact: Bringing together real-time facility, equipment, service, and third-party data into one dashboard to accelerate decision making for facility leaders and drive efficiencies and savings.
ABM developed ABM Connect, by unifying data from IoT sensors, work orders, and mobile apps into a single “command center” dashboard. They’ve moved facility management from a reactive, manual model to an AI-powered predictive strategy. With over 100,000 frontline workers feeding real-time data into the system, leaders gain total transparency into operations and sustainability goals.
Learn more: ABM
When Enterprise AI Gets Strategic
eBay - Winner
Innovation: DeepSights Gen-AI Intelligence Layer
Industry: E-Commerce/Retail
Key Leaders: Seth Mandl, Ellen Morton, Jared Pulham, Yoga Ettiyappan
Impact: 10,000+ employees with instant access to collective consumer knowledge
The team at eBay, led by Seth Mandl, Ellen Morton, Jared Pulham, and Yoga Ettiyappan, created DeepSights, the Gen-AI intelligence layer built on top of eBay's Insights Central platform. All 10,000+ employees now have instant, trusted access to the company's collective consumer knowledge. Users simply ask a question and instantly see everything eBay knows, driving consumer-centric decision-making across the organization. That's enterprise AI done right.
Learn more: eBay Inc
AI That Serves Real Needs
Infosys - Winner
Innovation: AI Applications at scale
Industry: Business Services
Key Leader: Mohammed Rafee Tarafdar, CTO, Infosys
Impact: 10M learners, 191K patients screened, 30% support time reduction
Infosys delivered what I'd call precision AI at scale when industries basically stalled under costly and generic solutions. They put 10 million learners on Springboard, screened 191,000 patients via SightConnect, and cut support time by 30% with FinacleSLM. BankingSLM, ADEPT, and autonomous logistics aren't improving systems - they're reshaping them entirely.
Learn more: Infosys
Sustainable Operations at Scale
Cargill - Winner
Innovation: Smart Manufacturing Operations Transformation
Industry: Agriculture
Key Leader: Brian Sikes
Impact: More sustainable, efficient, and resilient operations from factory floor to global supply chains
Brian Sikes and Cargill reimagined operations from the factory floor to global supply chains using smart manufacturing, automation, robotics, AI, and predictive analytics. According to research by McKinsey, companies that successfully implement AI across operations see productivity gains of 25-45% in manufacturing environments. Operations of the future are here, and they're more sustainable, efficient, and resilient than what came before.
Learn more: Cargill
What These Enterprise Innovation Leaders Share
Looking across these enterprise innovation leaders, several patterns emerge. First, they didn't innovate for innovation's sake. Every single winner solved a specific, measurable problem. Second, they leveraged their scale as an advantage rather than letting it become an anchor. Third, they combined emerging technologies with deep domain expertise.
Having worked in technology companies and observed countless innovation initiatives, I can tell you that executing at enterprise scale is genuinely hard. The coordination alone can kill momentum. These winners found ways to move fast despite their size, and that's actually the most impressive innovation of all.
The transparent, crowd-sourced judging process of the BIG Innovation Awards ensures that winners like these earned their recognition through real-world impact, not marketing spin. When you see an organization transform healthcare delivery, eliminate entire categories of cybersecurity risk, or make government procurement genuinely efficient, you know you're witnessing innovation that matters.
Frequently Asked Questions
What makes the BIG Innovation Awards different from other business awards?
The Business Intelligence Group uses a transparent, crowd-sourced judging model where recognition is driven by real-world customer experiences and industry peer evaluation, not pay-to-play models. Judges include industry experts who evaluate nominations based on measurable impact and innovation.
What is the Enterprise category in the BIG Innovation Awards?
The Top 10 Innovator - Enterprise category recognizes large organizations (typically 1,000+ employees) that demonstrate breakthrough innovation in products, organizational transformation, or individual leadership. The category received nominations across healthcare, technology, government, manufacturing, and business services in 2026.
Who won Overall Winner in the 2026 Enterprise category?
Alcon won Overall Winner for their UNITY VCS combined vision system that enables more cataract and vitreoretinal surgeries per day without compromising patient safety, addressing critical healthcare capacity challenges from aging populations.
How does Badge Inc's Identity without Secrets work?
Badge Inc, founded by Dr. Tina P. Srivastava, developed cryptographic technology that eliminates the need for stored credentials. By removing stored passwords and credentials from databases, the technology removes the primary target of traditional database breach attacks that expose millions of user credentials.
What industries are represented in the 2026 Enterprise winners?
The 2026 enterprise winners span healthcare (Alcon, Crothall Healthcare), cybersecurity and software (Badge Inc, Dr. Tina Srivastava, 3DLive), government (Dubai/Ali Essa), facility management (ABM), e-commerce (eBay), business services (Infosys), and agriculture (Cargill).
How are BIG Innovation Awards winners selected?
Winners are selected through a crowd-sourced judging process involving industry peers and customers. Judges evaluate nominations based on innovation impact, measurable outcomes, market differentiation, and real-world application. The process emphasizes transparency and credible evaluation over pay-to-play models.
Related Topics and Technologies
This article covers enterprise innovation across multiple domains: healthcare technology innovation, cybersecurity credential management, generative AI in enterprise software, government digital transformation, spatial computing applications, facility management IoT platforms, sustainable agriculture technology, and business process automation.
Key technologies discussed include: artificial intelligence, machine learning, ultraviolet-C disinfection systems, cryptographic identity systems, robotic process automation (RPA), spatial computing, Internet of Things (IoT) sensors, generative AI, predictive analytics, smart manufacturing, and enterprise data intelligence platforms.
These enterprise innovators prove that size can be an advantage when you combine resources with vision, urgency with strategy, and technology with purpose. The next time someone tells you that big companies can't innovate, just point them to this list.