John Kao
President
Institute for Large Scale Innovation
John Kao is a leading authority on innovation, business creativity, organizational transformation, and emerging technologies who has been dubbed “Mr. Creativity” and “a serial innovator” by The Economist. John has been a trusted advisor to senior leaders of both public and private sector organizations; he has advised numerous countries including Finland and Singapore on their innovation strategies as well as leading firms such as Nike, Intel, and BASF. He is the author of the best-selling books Innovation Nation and Jamming: The Art and Discipline of Business Creativity. By training, Dr. Kao has a BA from Yale College, an MD from Yale Medical School, and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He taught at HBS from 1982-96, where he specialized in innovation and entrepreneurship. He has also held faculty appointments at the MIT Media Lab, Yale College, and the US Naval Postgraduate School. John is also a jazz pianist and a Tony-nominated producer on film and stage: he was producer of the Broadway play, Golden Child, and executive producer of Mr. Baseball
Recent Publications
Five Bold Steps Toward a Reimagined American Innovation Agenda
There is a growing sense something is amiss with the U.S. innovation system. It’s time for a vigorous initiative to restore belief in innovation’s potential as a force for social and economic progress, for the benefit of America and the world.
Recent Events and Presentations
Scaling Innovation: How the European Innovation Council Bolsters Europe’s Competitiveness
ITIF hosted an expert panel discussion featuring European Commission, Deputy Director-General for Research and Innovation, Signe Ratso, on the thinking and inspiration behind the European Innovation Council, how it will work in practice, and how it is expected to change the face of European innovation over the next decade.
The Atlantic Century: Benchmarking U.S. and EU Innovation and Competitiveness
Five countries—Singapore, Sweden, Luxembourg, Denmark, and South Korea—outperform the United States in international competitiveness and innovation, according to The Atlantic Century: Benchmarking EU & U.S. Innovation and Competitiveness released on February 24th by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) and the European-American Business Council (EABC). Several developing nations are lagging behind in the transition into globally competitive, innovative economies with India, Mexico, and Brazil the bottom three ranked countries of those analyzed, in reverse order. Although economic competitiveness is not a given for Europe with Cyprus and Greece finishing 4th and 5th from the bottom, respectively.The unprecedented geographical freedom afforded to firms due to advanced transportation and communication technologies and the corresponding rise of global competition is well known. Less well known is which countries have taken advantage of these technologies and global opportunities and which have fallen behind.
