Based on John Kao’s best-selling book, Jamming: The Art and Discipline of Business Creativity, this program explores the reality that creativity can be cultivated within organizations through innovative thinking. The point is clearly made that much of what passes for business on a daily basis can be compared to "reading the sheet music"—sticking to the plan. Now, watch the creative process unfold in case studies featuring small entrepreneurial firms. What Kao proposes is flexible improvisation, which eventually leads to the kind of creative thinking that helps companies survive in today’s fiercely competitive business environment. (41 minutes)

John Kao is academic director of the Managing Innovation executive program at Stanford. He is a former professor at Harvard Business School, where he taught MBA and Advanced Management courses and served as Program Chair for the Enhancing Corporate Creativity Program. Kao has founded several companies: Genzyme Tissue Repair, involved in advanced tissue engineering; Variagenics, a cancer diagnostics and therapeutics firm; and a film production company, Pacific Artists.