Jazz sprinkled with pearls of wisdom in Abu Dhabi

The Life: Meet John Kao, or as The Economist likes to call him, "Mr Creativity." He discusses what jazz has to do with innovation ahead of a performance and talk in Abu Dhabi.

John Kao believes jazz is a useful metaphor for understanding the process of innovation. Derick Hingle / Bloomberg News
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John Kao will be seated at a grand piano, where he will play jazz at an Emirates Palace gala this evening, but he will also talk about innovation between musical sets.

Mr Kao, who has been dubbed "Mr Creativity" by The Economist magazine and is a former Harvard Business School professor, argues that jazz is a useful metaphor for understanding the process of innovation and that leaders can learn a lot from jazz musicians.

"The concert should be pretty interesting," says Mr Kao, who is the chairman of the Institute for Large Scale Innovation, which assists the innovation agendas of governments around the world.

He delivered a similar music-and-speech presentation at the World Economic Forum in Davos this year and was recently named the "Artist in Innovation" at Yamaha's piano-manufacturing division.

But why is Mr Kao in Abu Dhabi, and now in particular? He is coordinating the first i20 Summit to be held outside of the United States.

The event takes place in Abu Dhabi today, bringing together chief "innovation czars" from more than 40 countries for discussions on the future of science and technology.

"Innovation is considered to be very important these days, not only for companies but countries," says Mr Kao, who likens the i20 to a "club" with an association of leaders. "It is not hard to understand why leaders of those countries would be interested in [innovation], because it promises social and economic development."

Mr Kao is also collaborating with the Advanced Technology Investment Company (Atic), which is wholly owned by Mubadala Development.

Mubadala is a strategic investment company owned by the Abu Dhabi Government.

In an invitation-only event today at Atic, Mr Kao plans to discuss best practices and trends in global innovation, as well as Abu Dhabi's agenda in this area.

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