John Kao Joins BIF Research Advisory Council

Posted by Chris Flanagan on November 27, 2007

I'm thrilled to announce that John Kao has joined our research advisory council. Considered a leading authority on the subjects of innovation, organizational transformation and digital media, John was dubbed “Mr. Creativity” and a “serial innovator” by the Economist. He describes his job as an “instigator of new things.”

He's the author of best-selling Jamming: The Art and Discipline of Business Creativity. By training, he has a B.A. from Yale College, an M.D. from Yale Medical School, and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. He also taught at Harvard Business from 1982-1996, where he specialized in innovation and entrepreneurship. He has also held faculty appointments at the MIT Media Lab, Yale College, and the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School.

Not one to settle for anything less than transformative results, John is the consummate innovator’s educator. His new book is called Innovation Nation which presents a compelling case that culture, agility and vision are scalable phenomena. His focused and creative approaches to fueling innovation are based on years of experience marshalling vast resources of talent and infrastructure.

In Innovation Nation, John shows concern about America losing its global lead and becoming “the fat, complacent Detroit of nations." He points to warning signs, such as America's underinvestment in physical infrastructure, its slow start on broadband, its pitiful public schools and its frostiness toward immigrants since September 11th 2001—even though immigrants provided much of America's creativity. The rise of Asia's innovators is a “silent Sputnik”, he says. And what America needs is a big push by federal government to promote innovation, similar to the Apollo space project that put a man on the moon.

His book is fantastic and I know that his vision and commitment to building a national innovation strategy will add tremendous value to the BIF community. I'll be profiling John next month - stay tuned for my interview.