The innovation imperative

The way I approach teaching is very focused and intentional; there is a structure and a curriculum. I typically use a lot of case studies. I use a lot of video. I show behavior, I show phenomena, I show what people are doing, I show what the challenges are. Then we discuss how the principles or the phenomena may be seen applied to the world they live in. Then we explore the relevance of the case studies. I actually almost prefer cases that show failure as opposed to success, because I think you can learn a lot more from situations where the fabric is unraveling.

Individual creativity is very intimate and personal. So, it’s important to learn how to listen to your own instincts, to listen to your inner voice—or find your inner voice—so that your self-expression becomes authentic and grounded and not simply a function of what you think people want to hear, what’s fashionable or what you think you should do as a life-long task. We all deal with that in terms of our personal development and careers.

It’s very much a part of the biology of artists and how they come to terms with their chosen material and way of working at its deepest level. Creativity is very much about being intimate with yourself, but also a number of things that, frankly, are difficult, if not sometimes impossible, to articulate.

Q. KMWorld: What are you focusing on these days? In what direction is your restless curiosity headed right now?

A. Kao: I’m working on a project to establish a venture fund that is going to, in a sense, help execute some of the ideas that I presented in Innovation Nation, about the power of linking hot spots on a global basis to pursue opportunities. I’m also doing a fair amount of policy work on innovation.

I’ve been doing advisory work for a couple of countries in Europe and for state government and for a city government in the U.S. to kind of help them formulate their approach to an innovation strategy for that particular part of the world. And that’s been extremely rewarding because this whole notion of looking at innovation as societal, not exclusively enterprise-based, is new. There’s something always very invigorating about being on the edge of something in an emerging field. So, while people have described science policy and other facets of innovation policy, I’m now pretty immersed in looking at innovation from a holistic, societal perspective.

Q. KMWorld: It would seem natural to have a nationwide innovation strategy that has some real substance to it rather than empty rhetoric. But with the problems we’re facing economically, there is less money to support that kind of initiative when it’s needed the most. Can you address that problem?

A. Kao: Companies are often tempted to throttle back on investment and innovation during recessions, and experience shows that that’s often the best time to ratchet innovation efforts up. There are myriad examples of companies that have come through that fallow period with a slew of new engines for value creation, and that it’s been very important for their continued success. So, I think that a country—or an organization—is never off the hook in terms of innovation. There is not a moment when anyone can say, "Well, we don’t have time to do this." Or, "We can’t afford it." Innovation has to be done on an ongoing basis.

Americans spend about 50 percent of all the money that’s spent for R&D in the world. We have a lot of resources pouring into the innovation agenda. I think the problem is that, for many years, we’ve been operating under the assumption that we didn’t need an innovation strategy, we didn’t need an innovation policy. Many people are almost allergic to big-government and top-down bureaucratic solutions—a sentiment, by the way, I share.

We need an agenda. We have to be able to connect the dots between education policy, venture capital and cost structure. All these other things fit together that either create a kind of harmonious picture or do not. And if it’s not harmonious, we have to figure out how to change it. But right now the core problem is that not only do we think we don’t have a problem in this area, but there’s nobody who’s really responsible. There’s no steward, as I like to call it, for the innovation agenda.

So, in this country, we need to overcome our denial about our competitive position and how our innovation roots and capabilities are faring. Basically, we need to water the roots. And then we need to figure out who’s going to be responsible, and we need to give them the aegis to be able to figure out a plan and to start building the necessary actions to implement that plan.

Otherwise, we’re just going to muddle through. These days, that is not an acceptable option. It won’t do us justice. We have a lot to offer in the innovation game. In many respects, we’re still the hub of many networks. If we’re smart, we can continue to do good things for ourselves and for the world. If we don’t, I think it will just hasten our decline.

John Kao, author of Innovation Nation, is the opening keynote speaker at the KMWorld & Intranets conference Sept. 23 to 25 in San Jose.

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Drawing on an unusual combination of talent in venture creation, business education, innovation management and artistic experience, John Kao has made a career out of helping leading companies and countries "get innovation done." Current activities include advising the government of Singapore on its national strategy for developing its digital interactive media industry, as well as senior U.S. government officials, cutting-edge entrepreneurs and corporate leaders.

Kao developed and taught a course on innovation at the Harvard Business School for 14 years, and he has also served as a visiting professor at the MIT Media Lab, and as distinguished visiting professor of innovation at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif.

Kao has been dubbed "Mr. Creativity" by The Economist, and has honed his skills working with everyone from Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention (he played keyboards) to the most senior leadership of our national security apparatus (he is on the Transformation Advisory Group of the Department of Defense). He was recently named one of the 1,000 most creative Americans and one of the 200 top management authorities worldwide. His deep and broad experience also includes founding companies in life sciences, digital media and innovation services.

As a well known thought leader and speaker in the innovation field, Kao wrote Jamming: The Art and Discipline of Business Creativity, a BusinessWeek best-seller that has been published in 12 languages, and Innovation Nation, selected by BusinessWeek as one of the 10 best business books of 2007. He is also a Tony-nominated film and theater producer whose credits include Sex, lies & videotape and Golden Child.

Kao serves as VP of arts & business in the U.K. and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Art. In 1995, he chaired the Aspen Design Conference, which took up the question of reinventing the relationship between design and business.

Born in Chicago, Kao was trained in philosophy (B.A., Yale College), psychiatry (M.D., Yale Medical School; residency, Harvard Medical School) and business (M.B.A., Harvard Business School).