Quotes from John Kao

The imagination is like a muscle: it strengthens through use.

People must get respect for their new ideas.

Creativity is the crucial variable in the process of turning knowledge into value

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.

The mark of the developed intellect is that it could accommodate two contradictory ideas at the same time.

The challenge is to manage creative people so that the output is fruitful. The challenge is not to have an open environment and simply let them do whatever they want.

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

Jazz has to work. It has to play with the audience and with the marketplace. I think that is relevant to business.

The creative process is different from the traditional production and work-flow process. It is not so linear.

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.

The manager's job - the impresario's job - is to preside over the company's efforts to jam so the business runs really well.