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… — John Kao Copy Share Image
Now jamming - which is about collaborative improvisation - has to do with getting people together to be creative musically. But it is a very powerful metaphor for understanding the grammar of the creative process. It applies to business and… — John Kao Copy Share Image
The impresario function is about intervening with the company's more administrative management structure. It is about trying to establish a sense of boundaries and… — John Kao Copy Share Image
The traditional model for a company like Coca-Cola is to hire one big advertising agency and essentially outsource all of its creativity in that… — John Kao Copy Share Image
If you are at Coca-Cola, the creative challenge is one of maintaining - rather than creating - a tremendous level of consumption for your… — John Kao Copy Share Image
In a corporate context, companies have to try very hard to oppose the enticements of conventional wisdom. They must aim for the leaps, which… — John Kao Copy Share 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… — John Kao Copy Share 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… — John Kao Copy Share Image
If you come up with a new product, you can very easily track its contribution to the bottom line. But often the challenge can… — John Kao Copy Share 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… — John Kao Copy Share Image
Performers may play in the studio, but they need to go out and tour every once in a while to keep their edge, or… — John Kao Copy Share Image
You would not let your kids do whatever they want. So the challenge is to create accountability in a non-mechanistic way. You cannot come… — John Kao Copy Share Image
There's real "right brain" creativity that goes into all of the organizational processes that a company utilizes and must continually reinvent in order to… — John Kao Copy Share Image
Instead of command and control, managing the creative process is about facilitating and permitting. — John Kao Copy Share Image
Rather than managing by clarifying events, the creative process may require raising the level of uncertainty. Sometimes this can be done by issuing a… — John Kao Copy Share 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… — John Kao Copy Share Image
