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- Fast Company has
announced our Second Annual

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Best Workplaces for Innovators honorees.

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The list identifies company
cultures that empower employees

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at all levels to improve processes,

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create new products or invent
new ways of doing business.

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Over 865 applicants were
reviewed by Fast Company editors

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and our research partners, Accenture.

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With much of the world
recovering from crisis right now,

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innovation remains crucial as ever.

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Here are three examples of
companies that lead the way

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over the last year.

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Two colleagues at the Johns Hopkins

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Applied Physics Laboratory decided

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to enter a multi-disciplinary

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innovation competition dubbed MoshPit.

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Their idea involved combining research

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into navigational planning in brains

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with autonomous robotics swabs.

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The goal is to be able
to teach groups of robots

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to automatically adapt to
changes in environments.

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The same way a rat knows how
to detour around an obstacle.

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The research could have
an important impact

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as technology like medical nano robots,

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and drone delivery services
become a part of everyday life.

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After winning the funding
the researchers scored

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an additional grant from the
National Science Foundation.

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Investing in innovation is not only

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for huge multinational companies,

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it's for companies of all sizes.

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Avocados from Mexico is
a small marketing firm

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of less than 50 employees.

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Founded to increase American
interest in you guessed it,

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Mexican avocados you may
have heard their jingles.

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♪ Avocados from Mexico ♪

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This year they invested in
a custom innovation workshop

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developed by Yale University

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which every employee will participate in.

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And the company's commitment
to innovation seems

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to be paying dividends.

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According to the group
over 2.5 billion pounds

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of avocados are consumed
every year in the US alone.

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The number one company on the list

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is the American Lebanese
Syrian Associated Charities

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and St. Jude's hospital.

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The ALSAC was founded back in 1957

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by the entertainer Danny Thomas.

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Since then it has raised money

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for St. Jude's Children's
Research Hospital,

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and helped the survival rate
for childhood cancer patients

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skyrocket from 20% to 80.

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One of the keys to their
fundraising success

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was the brainchild of Zach Whitten,

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a developer at ALSAC.

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Zach wanted to tap into
the industry a video game.

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The idea was to broadcast
professional gamers

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from around the world and
to solicit small donations

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from followers during a Live stream.

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The program brought in
$500,000 in its first year,

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and over $26 million dollars in total

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to help fight childhood cancer.

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You can find a link to the
full list in the description

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of this video.

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(upbeat music)

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(bass guitar music)