Jamming: The Art and Discipline of Business Creativity

What value does your company put on creativity?

IBM didn't pay $3.5 billion for Lotus just to get its software. Spielberg, Geffen, and Katzenberg didn't estimate Dreamworks' worth at $2.7 billion based on traditional capital assets - it had none.

What these companies are banking their bottom line on are the explosive ideas and innovative talents that are required not just to survive, but to triumph.

And it's not just media and high-tech businesses that have to invest in creativity. From corporations that make cars and socks to accounting firms and airlines, every company - every organization - must make creativity its top priority if it is to last beyond the next reporting period.

For the past fourteen years, in his Harvard Business School lectures and executive seminars, John Kao has challenged management to exploit the most valuable asset in the corporation: the creative minds of its people. Like jazz musicians in a jam session - playing off one another to create new sounds, at once unpredictable and harmonious - managers themselves must master the skills of creativity to reap unprecedented returns.

In Jamming, Kao shows how high-performance companies around the world have learned the lessons of creativity to leap ahead of their obsolete competitors. They have learned to make creativity tangible and actionable, they practice a new managerial mindset, and they have learned to leverage information technology to enhance creative collaboration.

By following Kao's vision of the creative organization, even managers who may never before have made creativity a priority can get a jump on the future by learning to engage their employees' minds, stimulate their imaginations, organize their processes, and - by giving people the opportunity to use their talents - assure their loyalty.

From clearing the obstacles to organizational creativity, to conducting a "creativity audit" that assesses the current value of creativity in your company, Jamming shows business leaders, managers, and entrepreneurs how to take their companies to an entirely new level of success and growth by fostering an environment that will anticipate tomorrow's needs. Undercut this potential and you endanger tomorrow's opportunities.

Create or fail.