Quote

A pioneering and invaluable work about what it really takes to build innovation capability in society.

John Kao

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

John Kao
Age: 74
Born: 1950
Born: January 1
Author
Writer
Really
Pioneering
Invaluable
Capability
Innovation
Build
Takes
Society
Work

More quotes by John Kao

Image
All of these creative ideas and decisions about new ways to reach the consumer can be tracked with regard to how well they are working, whether and how they are building awareness for the product, how well they motivate the consumption of the product, and so on.
John Kao
Image
Communication is the essential medium of a creative culture: the communal sea in which we all swim. A company that can't communicate is like a jazz band without instruments: Music just isn't going to happen.
John Kao
Image
The capacity to creatively improvise is an important factor that differentiates successful companies - or teams - from those that are not successful.
John Kao
Image
Jazz musicians can be great teachers of business. Their creativity is not dependent on their mood, it does not have to be coaxed out of them, it has nothing to do with the phases of the moon or even how they feel that day. They go on stage and start playing. Being creative is their job.
John Kao
Image
Obviously businesses do not operate like an artists' commune. Business involves deploying finite resources to achieve goals in a competitive environment to make money. That is something creative people understand.
John Kao
Image
The imagination is like a muscle: it strengthens through use.
John Kao
Image
Creativity, my students learn, is as natural a function of the mind as breathing or digestion are natural functions of the body.
John Kao
Image
The head of a record label sets up structures, but he also defines the sound of the label, which is to describe what is desirable, what fits and what is quality for that label and then to create an environment where that sound can thrive.
John Kao
Image
Companies have to take risks to get new knowledge, in a manner similar to how jazz musicians take risks when they go after a new approach to a tune or a performance.
John Kao
Image
People must get respect for their new ideas.
John Kao
Image
The impresario functions as a bridge and a translator. He or she is a bridge between the creative point of view - which is often very focused on the creative task itself - and the resource-allocation process. The impresario has to make certain the funds and people required to get that task completed are available.
John Kao
Image
The traditional managerial mind-set is an analytical mind-set. It is about creating accountability and defining responsibilities.
John Kao
Image
The C.E.O.'s job in a creativity-driven company is to be an impresario, not a manager.
John Kao
Image
In the end it is the musician who actually plays the notes. The impresario - or the project leader - is only there to make sure that happens. That is a very different type of management mind-set.
John Kao
Image
The conventional asset-allocation method is like sheet music. It is prescribed, it has right answers and wrong answers and it sounds about the same every time. But jamming is different. Jamming is when you make the music. When you improvise and adapt to conditions. When you are creative.
John Kao
Image
The impresario's job is to pick the right people who can pick the right people. He picks the people who can pick artists and relate to them. People who know what the market craves.
John Kao
Image
Managing the creative process means selecting the best people and then letting them do their work. That means nurturing. It also means, from time to time, creating drama - even uncertainty - so that the creative environment has an edge to it, a charge, and does not run out of steam.
John Kao
Image
Coca-Cola can get really fresh output because it is getting people who are outside the traditional model and they are combining ideas in very novel ways.
John Kao
Image
The larger the price tag, the more you have to adopt what I call the postmodern management approach. What I mean by that is that you have to use everything when you make a decision.
John Kao
Image
The mark of the developed intellect is that it could accommodate two contradictory ideas at the same time.
John Kao