The Bay Area is famous for its long history of leadership in computing, semiconductors, software, biotechnology, the Internet and other innovation-based industries. But what makes it unique, beyond its talent base and access to capital? What exactly is the often celebrated “West Coast culture of innovation”? In conjunction with its 2011 Global Innovation 1000 study, Booz & Company worked with the Bay Area Council Economic Institute, the strategic research arm of the Bay Area Council, a consortium of more than 275 companies in the San Francisco Bay Area, to identify the strategic, cultural, and organizational attributes that have led to the sustained success of this region. This effort included segmenting the survey results received from Bay Area companies in order to better understand what cultural and organizational elements make them different, and conducting supplementary interviews with Bay Area executives to deepen that understanding.
