Innovation Program – Innovation and Commercialization – Module I
The Foundations of Innovation
Introduction and Reflection
The Innovation Program came at a time when many organizations were already experiencing growing tension between technology, markets, and organizational structures. Digitalization was beginning to shift power, accelerate the pace of change, and reshape expectations, yet the understanding of what innovation actually involved remained unclear—often reduced to either technological breakthroughs or creative brainstorming sessions. The program provided a necessary corrective to this simplified view.
From the outset, innovation was presented as something more demanding and more fundamental: a continuous, social, and often unpredictable process involving people, expertise, structures, and capital—over time. This also brought an important shift in perspective: innovation was not portrayed as a privilege reserved for entrepreneurs and startups, but as a core challenge for established organizations in both the private and public sectors.
Program Overview
The Innovation and Commercialization program was structured as a process-oriented learning journey spanning two semesters, with six sessions and an integrated study program in San Francisco and Silicon Valley. The first three sessions provided the academic and methodological foundation, establishing the key theories, models, and concepts.
The study program in California was not a break from the coursework, but a deliberate and challenging encounter between theory and practice. The final phase focused on follow-up work, reflection, and completion of the business development project. A central feature of the program was that participants worked on their own real-world challenges throughout the entire program. This ensured that the theory did not remain abstract, but was continuously tested against real organizational challenges.
Key Academic Themes
A recurring theme throughout the program was the understanding of innovation as a nonlinear process. Innovation was explicitly described as the result of complex and interactive collaboration rather than a sequential process from idea to market. This perspective, grounded in part in Van de Ven’s Innovation Journey, provided a more realistic picture of how innovation actually unfolds in practice—with setbacks, detours, and conflicting interests.
The distinction between innovation and commercialization was also clarified. Many organizations are capable of developing new solutions, but far fewer succeed in making them economically sustainable. Innovation was therefore considered complete only when new value had actually been realized in the market or in society.
A third key theme was expertise and learning as scarce resources. Knowledge, creativity, and the ability to continuously improve were emphasized as more important than access to capital alone. This became particularly clear in discussions of business clusters and dynamic industrial environments, where learning takes place collectively through interaction and knowledge spillovers.
Case Studies
The cases used in the program ranged from global companies such as IKEA and BIC to more context-specific examples from Norwegian business. What they had in common was that innovation was rarely about technological complexity, but rather about simplicity, timing, and an understanding of customer needs.
The story of the BIC pen illustrated how radical simplicity, combined with effective distribution, can create enormous value over time. The IKEA case, on the other hand, demonstrated how systems thinking, networks, and personal entrepreneurship can be combined in a global business model.
These cases were not presented as definitive answers, but as starting points for discussing why some innovations succeed—and why others fail despite seemingly favorable conditions.
Reflections and Discussion:
One of the program’s strengths was its clear emphasis on reflection and dialogue. Through group work, World Café discussions, and shared reflection, participants were challenged to consider their own role in innovation processes. Questions such as “To what extent do I see myself as a driver of innovation?” were not only raised, but also examined critically.
The discussions also revealed the tension between technology-oriented and market-oriented thinking. Many participants came from environments where technological quality was the primary measure of success. The program challenged this perspective by demonstrating that technological excellence without market understanding rarely leads to lasting value creation.
International Perspectives
The international perspective was gradually developed through theory, but gained its full significance through encounters with the innovation environments in California. Here, the differences between Norwegian and American approaches to risk, pace, and capital became clear. At the same time, it became evident that many of the same fundamental principles apply across geographies: learning, networks, and the ability to turn ideas into action.
The program also made it clear that international experience only creates value when it is placed in the context of one’s own organization and operating conditions. This was an important counterbalance to uncritical attempts to copy the “Silicon Valley model.”
What We Take Away from the Learning
The most important thing participants took away was not specific models or tools, but a changed mindset. A deeper understanding of innovation as a long-term, demanding, and collective endeavor—rather than a project with a clearly defined beginning and end.
Many also gained a stronger awareness of their own role as leaders or professionals: not as experts with all the answers, but as facilitators of learning, collaboration, and execution.
Relevance Today
Viewed in light of developments over the past 15–20 years, the Innovation Program remains remarkably relevant. Digitalization, artificial intelligence, and the platform economy have reinforced—not diminished—the need for the perspectives on which the program was based. Innovation is still not linear.
Learning remains a scarce resource. And the ability to turn ideas into real value remains the greatest challenge. Today, we can clearly see how both the public and private sectors struggle with execution, despite high levels of expertise and good access to capital. Many of the questions raised in 2005—about culture, structure, prioritization, and learning—are at least as relevant today. Perhaps even more so.
From Studies and Seminars to Today’s Knowledge Universe
The studies, seminars, and study trips documented on this page are part of the knowledge foundation behind The Invisible Capital. Topics such as customers, technology, innovation, digitalization, and value creation have shaped this journey over several decades—while these fields have continued to evolve.
At The Invisible Capital, we therefore continue exploring these questions through dedicated knowledge series. Here, earlier theories, research, and experiences are connected with more recent knowledge, emerging technologies, and the challenges facing people and organizations today.
Innovation
Innovation is not just about new ideas. Value is created when knowledge, technology, and ideas are developed into products, services, processes, organizational models, and business models that are actually put into use. The Innovation series spans from Schumpeter to modern innovation research and explores incremental, radical, disruptive, open, and user-driven innovation, among other approaches.
→ Explore the Innovation Series
The Customer
The customer is not simply the recipient of what an organization produces. In a competitive market, the customer plays a decisive role in determining whether an organization actually succeeds in creating value. The Customer series explores customer orientation, customer insight, customer experience, satisfaction, loyalty, trust, and human interactions in greater depth.
→ Explore the Customer Series
Value Creation
What does it really mean to create value—and who creates it? The Value Creation series spans from economic theory and leading researchers to a broader understanding of how people, expertise, institutions, businesses, and the public sector contribute to value creation.
→Explore the Value Creation Series
Digitalization
Digitalization has evolved from individual technologies into a fundamental part of how organizations operate and create value. The Digitalization from A to Z series traces this evolution through the internet, the web, e-commerce, search, UX, social media, mobile, omnichannel, cloud, data, platforms, and digital transformation—leading to today’s AI First development.
→Explore the Digitalization from A to Z Series
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence represents the next chapter in digital development. In our dedicated AI knowledge universe, we explore how artificial intelligence works, how AI finds and uses information, how it evaluates sources and websites, and what these developments could mean for people, organizations, and value creation.
→ Explore the Articles on Artificial Intelligence
Recommended Reading
How Breakthroughts Happen
A seminal book on innovation, creativity, and how new ideas emerge through connections between existing knowledge, people, and technology. Andrew Hargadon challenges the myth of the lone genius and shows how innovation is often created through collaboration, networks, and the ability to combine ideas in new ways.
