San Francisco 2011
Best Practices and Emerging Trends
Introduction and context
San Francisco 2011 marked a natural high point in the BI program's journey from e-business and multichannel strategy to a holistic focus on innovation and entrepreneurship. Where previous seminars had dealt with the tools and effects of digitalization, 2011 was about the nature of innovation – how ideas turn into action, and how interactions between people, organizations, and society form the basis for new value.
The seminar started poetically with the quote: “Creativity is thinking up new things. Innovation is doing new things.” – Theodore Levitt
This phrase became a guiding theme throughout the week. Participants moved between technology environments, academic lectures and companies such as Netflix, Pixar and Cisco. At the same time, the public sector, health technology and sustainable services were given considerable space. The OECD report The New Nature of Innovation served as a professional framework. It described a paradigm shift: innovation no longer occurs primarily in laboratories, but in networks of users, suppliers and societal actors.
Program overview
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March 27 – Napa Valley:
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Informal networking day, where participants shared experiences from their own projects in Norway.
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28 March – Innovation and Public Services (CITRIS):
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Steve DeMello presented how technology and health policy combine to increase patient independence.
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March 29 - The Innovative Organization (Amabile, Haykin):
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About creativity, culture and leadership – how organizations build space for experimentation.
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March 30 – Design Thinking, Social Media & Mobile Disruption:
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Cuthbertson, Ezell, Kalyanam and Amar presented methods for service innovation and new business models.
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March 31 - Commercializing Innovation (UC Berkeley):
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Jennifer Chatman and Venrock VC provided insight into how innovation culture and venture capital connect.
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Main academic topics
Innovation in the public sector
Steve DeMello (CITRIS, UC Berkeley) showed how health and care services can be renewed through technology and user insights. The goal was not just efficiency, but dignity and security – giving older people “one year longer at home”.
Creativity and organizational culture
Teresa Amabile (Harvard Business School) and Bill Haykin (The Napa Group) highlighted the human being as a catalyst for innovation. In The 6 Myths of Creativity, Amabile shows that creativity requires neither solitude nor time pressure – but security, autonomy and real support from management.
Technology and business models
Richard Cuthbertson and Stephen Ezell presented Service Innovation Strategies and What Makes an Effective Service Artifact. They showed how valuable services are often shaped by small, sensory details – physical, visual or digital – that enhance the user experience and trust.
Business model innovation
Alexander Osterwalder and Business Model Generation provided a structure for describing, testing, and innovating value creation. The model made it possible to connect technology, customer insights, and organization into one holistic framework.
Digital disruption and social platforms
Kirthi Kalyanam (Santa Clara University) described 2011 as a “Sputnik moment” for retail: mobile, data and social media radically changed the competition.
Michael Amar (iFeelGoods) and PowerReviews demonstrated how Facebook Credits and user-generated recommendations created new forms of loyalty – early precursors to today's influencer economy.
Case studies
Netflix – freedom and responsibility:
Netflix's model was built on radical trust. Employees were given great freedom, but also responsibility for results. This stood as a textbook example of culture as an innovation engine.
Gilt & iFeelGoods - Social Commerce:
These two companies illustrated the shift from traditional marketing to digital sharing. Rewards, gamification, and real-time feedback became new loyalty tools.
Peer Insight / Service Design:
Through Cuthbertson and Ezell's work, it was seen how “service artifacts” – from a welcome message to packaging – can trigger emotional value and recognition.
CITRIS / UC Davis – welfare technology:
Health technology solutions were used to reduce costs while simultaneously increasing quality of life. This pointed towards today's welfare innovation in the public sector.
Reflections and discussion:
The common denominator throughout the seminar was the recognition that innovation is socially organized work.
Haykin emphasized the balance between structure and freedom – organizations must cultivate experimentation without losing direction.
Amabile pointed out that fear and time pressure are the biggest obstacles to creativity.
DeMello reminded that the public sector must be measured by human value, not just cost-effectiveness.
OECD findings supported this: future competitiveness is built on user-driven innovation – collaboration across sectors, cultures and professions.
International perspectives
Silicon Valley represents risk and capital, but also a culture of sharing.
Europe and the Nordic countries bring in a different premise: long-termism, welfare and social sustainability. The seminar showed how these two traditions can complement each other – experimentation meets social responsibility.
What do we take home with us?
Design Thinking as a common language for innovation.
New tools to connect technology, user and business model.
Insight into how culture and trust create lasting change.
A deeper understanding of how the public sector can learn from business – without losing its human mandate.
Peder Inge Furseth
Peder Inge Furseth was a central academic driving force behind the San Francisco seminars and helped make the meeting with Silicon Valley relevant for Norwegian and European businesses. Through his role as professor at BI and as academic director of the program, he helped the participants put the lectures into a larger context – where technology, innovation, business development and people had to be seen in context.
In San Francisco, participants met entrepreneurs, researchers, technology leaders and investors from some of the world's most innovative environments. Furseth's strength was his ability to connect these experiences to practical challenges and opportunities in Norwegian businesses. He helped translate Silicon Valley's ideas and working methods into a Nordic context where collaboration, trust and long-term value creation are strong.
Throughout the entire seminar series, he was an important bridge builder between research, business and technology. 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.
Read more about Peder Inge Furseth here
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 the development through internet, web, e-commerce, search, UX, social, mobile, omnichannel, cloud, data, platforms and digital transformation – up to today’s AI First development.
→ 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
Creative Confidence: Unleashing the Creative Potential Within Us All
Tom Kelley and David Kelley from IDEO show how creativity, design thinking, and experimentation can be used to develop innovation in both people and organizations. The book explains how collaboration, curiosity, and the courage to test new ideas create the foundation for the services, products, and businesses of the future.
