Oxford Seminar 2011

– The Power to Act - Innovation, service logic and human learning

Illustration inspired by the traditional Oxford punting – the characteristic flat boats that glide calmly through the rivers and canals surrounding the university city. The motif symbolizes reflection, academic tradition and the distinctive student culture that has characterized Oxford for centuries. The punt also represents the journey through knowledge, the exchange of ideas and academic immersion in peaceful and historic surroundings.

Introduction and reflection

Oxford 2011 was in many ways the culmination of the entire academic and practical journey that had been underway since Oxford 2003. Over almost ten years, participants had developed an increasingly deeper understanding of digitalization, value creation, and innovation — but 2011 represented a real paradigm shift: the focus shifted from what we do to how we do it.

The theme of the seminar, “The Power to Act,” stood as a symbol of this shift.
Innovation was no longer just a question of ideas, technology or business models — it was about the ability to translate knowledge into action. Oxford 2011 sought to find the answer to why so many organizations have great resources and good strategies, but still lack the drive to act.

Over three intensive days at Saïd Business School and Templeton College, the concept of Innovation Ability was explored from multiple angles — theoretical, practical and cultural. The academic platform was the Service Innovation Triangle, developed at the Oxford Institute of Retail Management (OXIRM), which spotlighted how value creation occurs at the intersection of people, systems and management.

Furseth and Cuthbertson began by reminding participants that service innovation is not just a business process, but a societal task. Service innovation is about improving lives, creating meaning, and enabling organizations to deliver value in new ways.

Program overview

Organizer: Oxford Institute of Retail Management (OXIRM), Saïd Business School, University of Oxford Theme: Value Driven Service Innovation – The Power to Act. The seminar was a continuation of the VDSI program launched in 2010. While the 2010 focus was on Innovation Capability, 2011 addressed Innovation Ability – the practical and human ability to realize change.

Among the keynote speakers were:

Peder Inge Furseth (BI/OXIRM) – introduced the concept of Power to Act and the human dimension of innovation.
Richard Cuthbertson (OXIRM) – presented The Innovation Triangle and value-based innovation logic.
Jonathan Reynolds (OXIRM) – analyzed The Dynamic Digital Landscape and the implications for modern business models.
Stéphane Girod (Accenture/OXIRM) – described how innovation requires new operating models and forms of management.
Malobi Kar – focused on Customer Experience Management and emotional dimensions of value.
Cicero Consulting – contributed insights from the financial sector on trust, data and personalization.
NSB (now Vy) – shared practical experience with customer segmentation and digital customer insights in the Norwegian transport sector.

The participant group consisted of leaders and professionals from both the private and public sectors in the Nordic region, and the discussions were characterized by interdisciplinary nature and a desire to understand innovation as a social phenomenon – not just as a corporate strategy.

Main academic topics

From technology to action

Peder Inge Furseth set the tone in his opening speech: “The Power to Act” is not about the potential of technology, but about human capacity.

He reminded that innovation often stops because organizations lack interaction between intention and capacity.

They know what they should do, but they lack the ability to act in a coordinated and purposeful manner.

“Strategies are static; the ability to act is dynamic.” – PI Furseth

Furseth drew parallels to both the public sector and the business sector. In healthcare, public transport and retail, we find the same patterns: technology is introduced to increase efficiency, but without work processes and culture accompanying it. The ability to act – power to act – thus becomes a measure of the organization’s maturity. He also introduced a model where innovation is understood as an interaction between resources, processes and culture.
Innovative ability arises where these three overlap, not in one of them alone.

A traditional punter stands balanced in a narrow wooden boat, calmly propelling himself forward with a long pole through the still waters of Oxford. Around the river lie green parks, large trees and hanging willows bathed in soft summer light. The motif is inspired by the classic punting tradition at Oxford University, where students and visitors move quietly through the river landscape between historic college grounds and old academic environments. The image conveys calm, reflection and academic immersion, symbolizing the slow journey through knowledge, culture and learning that characterizes Oxford seminars.

The Innovation Triangle

Richard Cuthbertson's talk was the heart of the seminar. Through 37 pages of transcribed dialogue, he showed how The Innovation Triangle provides a holistic picture of how value creation occurs.

Each corner of the triangle represents a foundation:

Value Proposition – what need do we meet, and why is it valuable?
Business Model – how do we create, deliver and capture value?
Service Operations – how do we organize the processes and people that make it possible?

Cuthbertson used examples from Apple, Walmart, Colgate India and Mendeley to show how a balance between value creation, structure and delivery creates sustainable innovation.
Too much focus on one corner, he warned, leads to imbalance: technology without a foundation in human value becomes short-lived, while culture without a system leads to chaos.
“Innovation doesn’t happen

The digital landscape and new business models

Jonathan Reynolds continued in the same vein, but lifted the perspective into the global and digital.

In his presentation Dynamic Digital Landscape, he described how network effects and digitalization are challenging established business models. He used the humorous example of the BlackBerry & Apple Crumble to illustrate how entire societies can be paralyzed when one technological platform fails.

Reynolds emphasized that the role of technology must be understood as a facilitator, not a goal. In an increasingly interconnected world, vulnerability increases. The more data we share, the greater the need for trust and governance.

"The more connected we are, the more vulnerable we become." — J. Reynolds

He concluded with a reminder that the winners of the future are not necessarily those with the best technology, but those who create trust through technology.

Innovation-driven operating models

Dr. Stéphane Girod of Accenture/OXIRM presented findings from his research on organizations that successfully integrate innovation into their very structure. He described four characteristics of innovation-driven organizations:

Innovation responsibility anchored in line management, not in a separate department.
Decentralized decision-making power that enables quick action.
Systematic experimentation and learning.
Collaboration across disciplines and levels.

"Innovation is an operating model – not a project." - S. Girod

He pointed out that traditional management models often inhibit the ability to learn.

The organizations of the future must cultivate agility and a culture of experimentation rather than detail-oriented management.

Customer experience and emotional innovation

Dr. Malobi Kar led an engaging workshop on Customer Experience Management.
She challenged participants to see the customer as a co-producer of value, not as a recipient of services.

Using examples from telecom and banking, she showed how small adjustments in service experience create big effects in loyalty. Kar emphasized that loyalty is an emotional bond, not a rational calculation. Innovation is therefore also about empathy and human contact.

A lone punter stands still in a narrow wooden boat, calmly pushing himself forward with a long pole through the mirror-like waters of Oxford at sunset. The silhouette of the boat and the person are darkly outlined against the warm evening light, while the sun reflects softly in the river and the surroundings disappear into hazy, golden tones. The motif is inspired by the traditional punting culture at Oxford University, where the rivers Cherwell and Isis have been a part of student life and the academic atmosphere for generations. The image symbolizes reflection, slow learning, contemplation and the journey through knowledge. The calm atmosphere and warm light evoke associations with the quiet moments between lectures, discussions and academic immersion that characterize Oxford seminars.

Case studies

NSB – Customer segmentation in practice

NSB presented a case that was a highlight for many participants. They had analyzed their entire customer base based on travel frequency and motivation – not traditional demographics.

This resulted in four segments:

Have two – commuters with low price sensitivity, but a requirement for punctuality.
Able to – flexible travelers, open to digital solutions.
Going to – long-haul travelers with a focus on comfort and price.
Want to – loyalty-driven customers who want experience and environmental profile.
Through this division, NSB was able to target both communication, product development and customer dialogue.

This was an early example of how data-driven segmentation can be used to strengthen both the user experience and the business model.

Cicero Consulting – Financial services in transition

Cicero Consulting described how digitalization, regulation, and customer trust are impacting the financial sector. They highlighted that the banks of the future must build long-term relationships, not just sell products. Innovation in finance is therefore about transparency, simplification, and demonstrating real customer value.

"Value creation in financial services depends on trust — not transactions."

Reflections and discussion

The discussions along the way and in plenary were marked by a new realization:

Digitalization is not a separate discipline, but a dimension of all work.
Several participants pointed out that the gap between strategy and implementation is often not about competence, but about culture and leadership.

The group discussions focused on how organizations can create a culture of learning, share knowledge across disciplines, and make innovation a natural part of everyday life. It was highlighted that digital innovation in the public sector faces the same challenges as in business: lack of collaboration and short-term incentives.

A traditional punter navigates calmly through a quiet river in Oxford in the warm afternoon light. The man stands balanced in a narrow wooden boat and pushes the boat forward with a long pole, surrounded by green parks, large trees and hanging willows that reflect in the water. The golden light and calm atmosphere give the subject a classic English atmosphere inspired by the Cherwell and Isis rivers at Oxford University. The image symbolizes reflection, academic immersion and the slow journey through knowledge and experience. The tradition of punting has been a part of student life in Oxford for generations and represents both culture, history and the unique tranquility that characterizes the university's surroundings.

International perspectives

Oxford 2011 confirmed that innovation follows different tracks globally:

In Asia, innovation is driven by technology adoption and payment solutions.
In North America, experimentation and scaling dominate.
In Europe, the focus is on sustainability, ethics and trust.

The seminar made it clear that Norway and the Nordic region have a unique strength in their trust-based social model – a competitive advantage in the global knowledge economy.

The interior of the historic Randolph Hotel in Oxford bathed in warm evening light after a long day of seminars. The image shows a classic English hotel lounge with high arched ceilings, dark wood paneling, bookshelves and soft armchairs that create a calm and academic atmosphere. On the table is a pint of beer next to an open laptop, notebook and pen – a quiet moment for reflection, summarization and academic notes after the day's lectures and discussions. The motif symbolizes the combination of learning, contemplation and social community that characterized the Oxford seminars, where the evenings often continued with conversations about innovation, leadership and digitalization in traditional and historic settings.

What do we take home with us?

Innovation is human – it happens in interaction, not in systems.
The Service Innovation Triangle provides a practical framework for learning and development.
Culture, learning and collaboration trump structure and process.
Organizations need to build capability, not just strategy.
Trust is both the starting point and the goal of modern innovation.

A lone punter moves quietly through the river in Oxford at dusk, surrounded by dark trees and mirror-like water bathed in warm evening tones. The sun is low above the horizon and is reflected as a golden trace in the water's surface, while the person in the narrow wooden boat propels himself calmly forward with a long pole. The motif is inspired by the traditional punting culture at Oxford University and conveys an atmosphere of reflection, calm and academic contemplation. The image symbolizes the slow journey through knowledge and experience, where learning is not about rushing, but about perspective, immersion and time to think. The darker evening scene also gives associations to the end of a long day of study, where conversations, ideas and impressions have time to sink into the silence along the river.

Relevance today

In 2025, many businesses are facing the same challenges described in 2011.
Artificial intelligence, data-driven insights and automation have created enormous opportunities – but also increased the distance between man and machine.

Therefore, Oxford's message has never been more relevant: Technology enables, but humans act. Service-dominant logic has also gained a foothold in the public sector – in health, education and municipal services – and the principle of “the user as co-creator” has now become the norm.

The professionals behind the Oxford seminars

The Oxford Seminars were more than a series of lectures. They were meeting places between research, business and practice, where leading international professionals contributed insights on innovation, trade, technology, management and value creation. Over the years, participants had the opportunity to meet some of the foremost researchers and thinkers in their fields.

Peder Inge Furseth

Peder Inge Furseth was a central academic driving force behind the Oxford seminars and helped make international research relevant to Norwegian and European businesses. As a professor at BI and academic director of the program, he helped participants put the lectures into a larger context where technology, innovation, business development and people had to be seen in connection.

Through the seminars, he served as a bridge builder between research, business and practice. For many participants, he therefore became more than a professional leader – he also became a mentor who inspired new thinking about innovation, digitalization and commercialization.

Jonathan Reynolds

Jonathan Reynolds is a professor at the University of Oxford and has been a key figure at the Oxford Seminars for many years. He is internationally recognized for his research in commerce, customer experience, innovation and business development.

Throughout the seminars, Reynolds contributed research-based insights into how businesses can create competitive advantage through a better understanding of customers, markets, and value chains. His ability to combine academic rigor with practical examples made him one of the most highly regarded speakers in the seminar series.

Richard Cuthbertson

Richard Cuthbertson has been an important academic contributor to the Oxford Seminars for several years. As a researcher at the University of Oxford, he has worked on topics such as trade, distribution, supply chains, innovation and technological development.

Through his lectures, he helped to connect research and practice, and showed how businesses can meet new challenges through innovation, collaboration and a better understanding of the markets in which they operate.

From studies and seminars to today's professional universe

The studies, seminars and field trips documented on this page are part of the knowledge base behind The Invisible Capital. Topics such as customers, technology, innovation, digitalization and value creation have followed developments over several decades – but the disciplines have also continued to develop.

At The Invisible Capital, we are therefore continuing to work on these questions in our own subject series. Here, we connect previous theory, research and experiences with newer knowledge, new technologies and today's challenges for people and businesses.

Innovation

Innovation is not just about new ideas. Value is created when knowledge, technology and ideas are developed into products, services, processes, organizational forms and business models that are actually used. The series on innovation goes from Schumpeter to modern innovation research and covers, among other things, incremental, radical, disruptive, open and user-driven innovation.

→ Explore the Innovation Series

The customer

The customer is not just the recipient of what the business produces. In a competitive market, the customer is a crucial determinant of whether the business actually succeeds in creating value. The series about the customer goes deeper into customer orientation, customer insight, customer experience, satisfaction, loyalty, trust and the encounter between people.

→ Read the customer series

Value creation

What does it really mean to create value – and who creates it? The series on value creation moves from economic theory and key researchers to a broader understanding of how people, expertise, institutions, businesses and the public sector contribute to value creation.

→ Read the series on value creation

Digitization

Digitalization has evolved from stand-alone technologies to a fundamental part of how businesses work and create value. The Digitalization from A–Z series follows developments through internet, web, e-commerce, search, UX, social, mobile, omnichannel, cloud, data, platforms and digital transformation – up to today’s AI First developments.

→ Read the series Digitization from A–Z

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence represents the next chapter in digital evolution. In our own AI universe, we investigate how artificial intelligence works, how AI finds and uses information, how it evaluates sources and websites, and what the development can mean for people, businesses, and value creation.

→ Go to the articles about artificial intelligence

Recommended literature

The New Edge in Knowledge: How Knowledge Management Is Changing the Way We Do Business

This book describes how modern businesses create competitive advantage through knowledge sharing, insight, customer experience and innovation across organizations. The authors show how technology, analytics and human expertise must be combined to create value in a digital economy. The themes fit very well with the 2011 Oxford seminar, where the lectures dealt with innovation, customer insight, personalization and the human dimension of digital transformation.