The word ‘genius’ is thrown around all too often. Don’t forget, Donald Trump once called himself a ‘very stable genius’, which is when it officially lost all meaning.

That shouldn’t detract from the impressive list of companies that have landed on TIME’s list of ‘Genius Companies 2018’, where they have handpicked 50 companies from around the world that are “inventing the future”.

Companies were evaluated on a wide variety of factors, including originality, influence, success and ambition.

You’ll find many familiar names on the list – Amazon, Disney, GoFundMe, Nintendo, Slack and Spotify to list a few – but for now, let’s focus on Wonderbag.

The South African company is the brainchild of Sarah Collins, with the factory located in KZN. Whilst many of the companies on the list are tech wizards, Wonderbag is something far simpler.

Here’s the TIME blurb:

The Wonderbag is a heavily insulated container that functions as a non-electric, go-anywhere slow cooker. After users boil a pot of food over a stove or fire, they can move it into the Wonderbag, which retains heat so the meal can continue to cook. It’s an elegant approach to solving multiple problems in sub-Saharan Africa: how do you reduce dependence on fossil fuels, while also freeing up women in those societies from time in the kitchen so they can pursue education and employment?

From manufacturing a handful of Wonderbags a week 10 years ago, Collins has steadily expanded to the point where this year will mark 1.5 million in use worldwide. Wonderbag has also helped increase the income of over 500,000 women across 20 countries, many of whom sell or make the bag, or use it as part of their catering businesses.

This year, the company partnered with the Red Cross to bring Wonderbags to refugee camps in Uganda and Rwanda. “Food is the one thing that unites the world,” Collins says. “Often we need to look out of the box to look at change.”

Damn, that is one very impressive write-up, and what a boost to be associated with those household names we have already mentioned.

One company we did leave out was Apple, which obviously made that top 50. You don’t crack a trillion-dollar evaluation without featuring on lists like this.

Here’s the TIME blurb on Apple:

Apple has a virtually unmatched history of inventing category-defining gadgets that we suddenly can’t live without. Lately some critics have wondered if the company has lost its knack—it’s been three years since its last major new product, the Apple Watch. But Apple just keeps growing, reliably earning upwards of $10 billion in net income per quarter and, in August, becoming the first publicly traded American company in history to top $1 trillion in market capitalization.

Steady improvements in the flagship iPhones command ever-higher prices. And the company is innovating in smaller but nonetheless profound ways. The latest Apple Watch, unveiled Sept. 12, is able to measure the electric signals of a wearer’s heart by generating electrocardiogram readings—producing data that can then be analyzed for potential health issues or shared with a medical professional. In other words, it could save lives.

When people are talking about your products saving lives, you’re doing something right.

If you’re thinking about grabbing the new Apple Watch Series 4, here’s a handy tip. You can actually trade in your older Apple products (iPhones, iPads and Apple Watches) at Digicape, and use that moola towards your next purchase.

Here’s what you’re starting at:

South Africa’s largest independent Apple retailer also have the full range of iPhones, at the following prices:

The iPhone XS 64GB will go for R21 899, and the iPhone XS Max, which boasts the largest screen of any iPhone to date, will start from R23 999 for the 64GB option.

Again, you can trade in your older goodies in order to knock those prices down, which is far better than letting them gather dust in that drawer at home.

It doesn’t take a ‘very stable genius’ to work that out.

[source:time&businesstech]