The State of Innovation 2015
by John Kao
The Innova State of tion 20 15 by John
Kao
the pocket version (for extremely busy people)
The Economist called John Kao “Mr. Creativity.� He has made a career out of creating compelling innovation learning experiences that led to the founding of EdgeMakers. He is a Yamaha concert artist, a serial entrepreneur, a best-selling author, an occasional film producer and a former Harvard Business School professor. He also founded and chairs the Institute for Large Scale Innovation, which addresses innovation challenges and opportunities at a societal scale.
www.johnkao.com twitter: @johnkao
Various management thinkers have explored the tools and techniques of leadership and collaboration employed in this style of jazz. Arguably the greatest single volume ever written on the leadership of business creativity, John Kao’s essential and pioneering Jamming, takes its title from and consistently returns to the musical form in discussing how to inspire and guide innovative thinking and performance.
David Slocum Berlin School of Creative Leadership February 19, 2015
TOPICS
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Finding 1
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Finding 2
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Finding 3 3
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So What – Implications4
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Reimagining the Deep Dive 4
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Learn about EdgeMakers
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Engage John
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Produce an Innovation Concert
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About John Kao
The State of Innovation 2015
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Finding 1 – In 2015, Innovation Requires an Edge
Few agendas are as important or as poorly understood as innovation.
No matter whether you’re a country, a company, an entrepreneur or a citizen with a new idea, there is no 3-ring binder for innovation that contains all the answers. Rather, everyone needs to write their own playbook. Everyone needs to find their own edge.
We need to bring innovation to innovation.
The traditional industrial and information models for businesses and society are not disappearing any time soon.
But now we are moving into an age of innovation, in which competitiveness is increasingly defined by the ability to generate new sources of value, define new business models and amplify them with digital technology, catch new demographic and social waves, mobilize entrepreneurial energy, and read weak signals before they become trends.
On the following pages I’d like to share what that edge looks like, and what I’ve found in my recent work with nations, businesses, artists and global youth.
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Finding 2 – We Need to Bring Innovation to Innovation
Why? Because innovation is not yet a discipline with consistent standards of practice and measurements. Too often, innovation is seen as a cultural “mood” activated by a set of exhortations, rather than a strategic set of capabilities acquired through effort. In truth, we are only about five minutes into the innovation movie. We are all required to “think different” about innovation.
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Finding 3 – We Each Need to Find Our Own Edge
WHO
IMPERATIVE
Societies
Must Build the Capacity to Innovate Because It Defines the New Wealth – It is a Central Driver of Economic and Social Development.
Businesses
Must Develop Strategically Significant Enterprise Innovation Capabilities that Include Applied Creativity.
However, certain things are clear.
Young People
Must Have a Seat at the Table to Realize the Value of Their Creativity and Fresh Perspectives.
Creative Industries
Must be Acknowledged as a Key Driver of Economic Development as Well as Social Health and Well Being.
SOCIETIES Must Build the Capacity
to Innovate Because It Defines the New Wealth – It is a Central Driver of Economic and Social Development.
Today there are over 50 countries with national innovation agendas and substantial budgets to back them up. Yet there is no consensus on best practices, metrics or learning regimes when it comes to innovation. Even the idea of what a national innovation agenda should be is up for grabs.
I coined the term “Large Scale Innovation� to refer to innovation at societal scale. My Institute for Large Scale Innovation has been a voice for a new approach to innovation stewardship and strategy in countries, regions and cities.
(www.largescaleinnovation.com)
More sophisticated forms of stewardship are needed to guide innovation as the key to addressing societal grand challenges.
Some leading countries have installed chief innovation officers, national innovation narratives and agendas, and major innovation initiatives that put them ahead in the global innovation game.
Young people worldwide are key stakeholders, along with businesses and institutions, in large scale innovation. To date, they have been largely ignored in national innovation agendas. In 2015 and beyond, this must change.
BUSINESSES Must Develop Strategically Significant Enterprise Innovation Capabilities that include Applied Creativity. There is a big difference between skills and capabilities.
Skills can be learned from a quick-start manual; capabilities require years of practice.
Relevant capabilities for innovation include the ability to communicate for effect, to mobilize digital tools to achieve leverage, to design and execute an appropriate stewardship model for innovation, and to bring applied creativity to every aspect of the work.
The central strategic challenge for all is how to develop strategically relevant innovation capabilities.
YOUNG PEOPLE Must Have a Seat at
the Table to Realize the Value of Their Creativity and Fresh Perspectives.
The creativity and passion of young people are some of the most underutilized resources on the planet.
I have long been engaged In creating learning regimes for innovation. As I like to say, if you want innovation, you need people who know how to do it, and if you want people who know how to do it, you need to help them learn how to do it.
It’s no exaggeration to say that our educational system is struggling to keep pace with the phenomenal changes taking place in our economy, our society, our world.
The gap between what our young people are learning and what they actually need to know in an “innovation world” is getting wider.
YOUNG PEOPLE Have an Appetite to
CREATIVE INDUSTRIES Must be
Today’s students need to build edge capacities that drive entrepreneurship and innovation. These include:
Bruce Springsteen once said “We’re all broken, somewhere. Artists are the repairmen.” That could be said not just for individuals but for economies. John Maeda, former President of the Rhode Island School of Design added “A” to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) to make STEAM. My contribution has been to add the i of innovation and integration to create STEAMi.
Express Their Creativity and Become Entrepreneurs. New Learning Regimes Empower the Young People to Innovate and Make a Difference
Creativity and Innovation
Character & Collaboration
Storytelling & Changemaking
Design
Entrepreneurship Digital Fluency & Start-ups Movement
Imagine a world filled with young people - EdgeMakers - who have acquired these capacities at an early age and are now ready to drive constructive change worldwide. Many institutions worldwide are beginning to wake up to this phenomenon as an opportunity.
Acknowledged as a Key Driver of Economic Development as Well as Social Health and Well Being
(STEAMi White Paper)
In 2015 we will see: A greater integration between brands, businesses and the arts. For example, Yamaha showcases its innovation by having an Innovation Artist in Residence.
(Yamaha & John)
We will see a greater focus on the power of the arts, and their relevance to your organization’s innovation strategy. In fact, the export value of creative industries worldwide is estimated at more than 4% of global GDP or over $3 trillion dollars as of 2011.
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So What – Implications
When you want to make strategic innovation agendas meaningful and sustained, you have to connect the dots, be conceptually clear and end the confusion that has traditionally surrounded the notion of innovation.
A sustainable strategy touches on every aspect of an organization and a society.
It requires commitment, determination and a long-term view to succeed.
And you have to write the book, not read it.
That is why the ability to find your edge, or what I call EdgeMaking, is of such fundamental importance.
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Reimagining the Deep Dive
In 2014 I outfitted an innovation studio within the famed Miraval Resort and Spa in Tucson, Arizona to provide a unique venue for intense, small group collaboration.
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Learn about EdgeMakers
EdgeMakers is a new initiative that I launched in 2013. It is a unique learning system for innovation designed to address the real challenges of the 21st century, and empowers young people everywhere to become innovators in service of societal needs.
It is a capability that organizations can insource to practice innovation at a deeper level.
EdgeMakers integrates knowledge and best practices from disciplines such as behavioral science, ethnography, business and design. Based on 30 years of experience, my team and I have created a curriculum that integrates a range of methodologies.
It is a venue that powerfully amplifies the impact of my deep dive and executive program sessions. It is a way for senior teams to test drive the latest methods and technologies related to collaboration.
We see EdgeMaking as a new discipline, organized into new kinds of learning experiences that integrate the fields of innovation, design, entrepreneurship and digital fluency.
My innovation studio is a showcase for the latest facilitation methods and related technologies. It is a “museum of the future.�
EdgeMakers is now being launched worldwide. It represents a unique sponsorship opportunity for companies that want to align themselves with young people, pursue an innovative approach to customer acquisition, and increase employability standards in their country. For information, contact: info@edgemakers.com
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Engage John
Keynote speeches that sometimes use improvised music to dramatize innovation as a capability.
Two day “deep dives” that focus on targeted strategic questions, building innovation capability, crafting an innovation strategy, designing an approach to innovation stewardship. These may be held in my innovation Hub in Tucson, Arizona or at my main office in San Francisco.
Executive programs modeled after my well known executive programs that were first developed during my time on the Harvard Business School faculty. This innovation experience can involve your senior management team or your clients. For information, contact: info@johnkao.com
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Produce an Innovation Concert
I have long been engaged in musical performance. I started as a classical pianist, was an apprentice to rock legend Frank Zappa in the summer of 1969. My fascination with jazz led to my best-selling book “Jamming, The Art and Discipline of Business Creativity. Now I am Yamaha’s first ever “Artist in Innovation.” My “innovation concerts” are well known for their powerful ability to illustrate the principles of “how” innovation is practiced. The example of jazz provides ample illustration of creative collaboration, learning and “performance.” I have also woven my work as a performing artist with my focus on creative industries. My credits in Broadway theater (Tony nominee) as well as film (Palme d’Or) equipped me to provide advice to the governments of Singapore, Dubai and Abu Dhabi on their national media strategies. Now I can make the power of the creative industries and the arts they are based on, relevant to your organization’s innovation strategy.
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About John Kao
I have been a Harvard Business School Professor, a producer in Hollywood and on Broadway, a best selling author (Jamming, Innovation Nation, China: the Next Innovation Nation), and a trusted advisor to nations and organizations. I am the founder and CEO of EdgeMakers.
“Mr. Creativity;” a “serial innovator” The Economist A “national treasure” Senior Executive Service of the US Federal government The “Innovation Maven” CNN “The Jacques Monnet of Innovation” Peter Droell, Head of Innovation Policy, European Union
john@johnkao.com
“The world’s leading expert on business creativity” Klaus Schwab, Founder and CEO, World Economic Forum
www.johnkao.com