“The mark of the developed intellect is that it could accommodate two contradictory ideas at the same time.” Quote by John Kao
“It takes creativity at every stage to make the discontinuous leap from one level of knowledge to the next. These discontinuous leaps of understanding lead to insights that in turn lead to value creation.” ValuesTurnsNextUnderstandingLevelsCreativityStageCreationInsightLeap Author:John Kao
“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, we're going to create a data warehouse and we are going to invent a computerized filing system to get at all the stuff we know."” KnowsTryingMeanHardStuffProcessUnderstandingCompanyGenerationsAimInsightManageDataCorporateLeapConventionalConventional WisdomFilingWarehouseEnticement Author:John Kao
“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.” CompanyRiskApproachMusicianPerformancesJazzTunesJazz MusicJazz MusicianNew KnowledgeNew Approach Author:John Kao
“In a large pharmaceutical company, where it's a big bet, you're going to need finance people to be involved in the decision-making because the investment can run into the hundreds of millions of dollars. You're going to have to run scenarios. You might even need agreement from the C.E.O. to make that type of decision. If it's an incremental, low-cost decision in a marketing-oriented company, it may be a very different set of stakeholders a lot further down in the organization.” PeopleIfsNeedsMayDifferentBigsMightRunningDecisionCompanyMillionsTypeInvolvedCostLowsOrganizationDollarsInvestmentMarketingFinanceAgreementDecision MakingScenariosPharmaceuticalStakeholderPharmaceutical Companies Author:John Kao
“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.” MeanUseDecisionApproachManagementTagPostmodernPrice Tag Author:John Kao
“You need judgment, you need to utilize conventional resource-allocation analysis, you have to work backward from estimations of the market to the current investments and you have to do some benchmarking of your product and its potential against your competition.” NeedsProductsJudgmentResourcesCompetitionInvestmentCurrentsAnalysisConventionalEstimationAllocation Author:John Kao
“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.” DifferentSoundAnswersCreativeConditionsMethodAssetsConventionalSheetsRight AnswersAllocationWrong AnswersAsset AllocationSheet Music Author:John Kao
“Jamming - which follows rules but not individual notes - gives you a different result each time, depending upon the players and the conditions in which they find themselves. It is adaptable to changing conditions.” GivingDifferentIndividualResultsPlayerConditionsNotesAdaptable Author:John Kao
“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.” PeopleWantChallengesCreativeEnvironmentManageCreative PeopleOutput Author:John Kao
“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 in with a clipboard and check off boxes and figure out why something has not been done on schedule.” WayWantDoneKidsChallengesFiguresBoxesChecksAccountabilitySchedulesClipboards Author:John Kao
