Just as 1960s counterculture was responsible for the '80s high-tech explosion, the revolutionary wave sweeping the Middle East will trigger a boom in entrepreneurship—but this time the change will be measured in months, not decades.
Dubbed "Mr. Creativity" by The Economist, John Kao is a contributing editor at The Daily Beast and an adviser to both public—and private—sector leaders. He is chairman of the Institute for Large Scale Innovation, whose i20 group is an association of national innovation "czars." He wrote Jamming: The Art and Discipline of Business Creativity, a BusinessWeek bestseller, and Innovation Nation. Join John on his personal blog, Riffs from the front line of innovation, Facebook and on twitter @johnkao.
It’s not just the bumper-to-bumper Mercedes-Benzes at an event preaching energy efficiency, writes John Kao from the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting—it’s the elites hell-bent on social innovation.
Through its stunningly successful rescue of 33 miners, Chile provided a lesson in crisis management. John Kao on what the rest of the world can learn.
Gone is the clear moral universe of Oliver Stone’s hero in the Wall Street sequel. Now we’ve got a humble reformed crook who’s also a sleek alpha male. John Kao on Gekko’s crisis of indecision.
The entertainment pioneer taught the world, in the most fun way possible, how to innovate, but his namesake company has fallen victim to the same attitude holding back the U.S. economy. So what would Uncle Walt do?
Singapore has a city within a city designed to make that country a science leader. America? A new Iron Man contest. John Kao on the battle between internal rewards and external recognition.
The Gulf oil spill just highlights a national problem: the need for a national innovation panel to tackle our increasingly sticky problems.
The “marriage” of David Cameron and Nick Clegg offers Britain a chance to avoid America’s polarized politics—and get truly creative in solving the country’s problems.
With Hewlett-Packard's recent acquisition of Palm, the lines are being drawn for an epic showdown over the future of smartphones and tablets. The Daily Beast's John Kao on how consumers stand to benefit.