Business Week’s Top 50 Best Performing Companies from the S&P 500, as you might expect, has some pretty sobering news. Because it’s figured on a three-year average, some of the companies that made the list are now going through layoffs, reduced earnings and are trading at a fraction of last year’s share prices.

Oddly enough, however, only one was cited for its excellence in cost cutting.  The star performers in this group are the ones who have a strategy of innovation. And not just Google and Apple, but even staid Colgate-Palmolive, with their new disposable toothbrush with built-in toothpaste, or #1 Gilead, with a single-dose timed-release HIV drug.

In fact, recessions are precisely the time when companies get ahead by doing things better, cheaper and faster.  Pepsi gained huge market share against once-invincible Coke by selling in bigger bottles during the Depression. The iPod launched during the last recession.  And according to a McKinsey study, the companies that were most profitable over the last two decades were the ones that increased spending on R&D and acquisitions during recessions.

So whether you’re contemplating strategy for your own company, or looking to invest, now more than ever is the time to look toward disruptive innovation.

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