Improvisation in the jazz sense - like the business sense - is not formless. It is built on a skill set. Jazz, for example, involves selecting a tune. — 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 budgets and milestones and so forth on a project that does not necessarily lend itself to milestones. It is about translating between the intimate interior environment of the creative work team and the company's need to… — John Kao Copy Share
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 area. But Coca-Cola does not do it that way. It knows how to manage creative people and creative teams and it has been quite adept at building a network that includes the Creative Artists Agency in… — John Kao Copy Share
If you are at Coca-Cola, the creative challenge is one of maintaining - rather than creating - a tremendous level of consumption for your products. — John Kao Copy Share
In a corporate context, companies have to try very hard to oppose the enticements of conventional wisdom. They must aim for the leaps, which means that companies have to do more than simply manage their knowledge, which is composed of the insights and understandings they already know. They also have to manage the knowledge-generation process. It's not just about, "Oh,… — John Kao Copy Share
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
