4/23/09 John Kao & Hatim Tyabji
Innovation Nation
How America Is Losing Its Innovation Edge, Why It Matters, and What We Can Do to Get It Back

John Kao is an authority on the intersecting subjects of corporate innovation and transformation, design, and the future of business. Dubbed a "serial innovator" and "Mr. Creativity" by The Economist, he has made a career out of helping organizations go from "getting" the importance of innovation to "getting innovation done."

He has worked with a wide range of Fortune 500 companies, startups, and government agencies around practical issues of strategic innovation and organizational transformation. Other nicknames he acquired from his clients include "the Innovation Sherpa" and "the Innovation Guru."

This presentation will draw on material from Kao's new book on the global dynamics of innovation. Titled Innovation Nation: How America Is Losing Its Innovation Edge, Why It Matters and How We Can Get It Back, it pays particular attention to what America's innovation posture needs to be in a world in which many countries are racing for the innovation high ground, such as Singapore, Denmark, Dubai, China, and Brazil.

Kao has a BA from Yale College, an MD from Yale Medical School and an MBA from Harvard Business School. In addition to his other accomplishments, John is an entrepreneur, best-selling author, Tony-nominated producer, and business pioneer. For 14 years, he taught at Harvard Business School, where he developed courses, lectures, and executive seminars that addressed the topics of entrepreneurship, venture management, innovation, leadership, and organizational change. He has also been a visiting professor at the MIT Media Lab as well as Distinguished Visiting Professor of Innovation at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey.

Examples of how organizations have utilized Kao's expertise:

For additional insights into Kao and his work, you can visit the Innovation Nation website:
www.innovationnation.org

For a video preview of John Kao, click on this link:
www.monitortalent.com/talent/John_Kao

What others are saying:

"The world's leading expert on business creativity." - Klause Schwab, Founder, World Economic Forum

"If Orson Welles and Peter Drucker were to mate, the progeny would resemble John Kao." - The Economist

Hatim Tyabji will address innovation from the perspective of a pioneering practitioner. As chairman and CEO of VeriFone (NYSE), Tyabji created one of the world's first virtual companies a decade before the advent of the Internet and two decades before the publication of Thomas L. Friedman's The World Is Flat.

He is a recipient of the Academy of Management's Distinguished Executive of the Year Award, the Silicon India Lifetime Achievement award, and the Point of Sale (POS) Industry's Lifetime Achievement award.

Tyabji is currently executive chairman of Bytemobile, progenitor of the Fourth Wave of Computing - the Mobile Internet. He is also chairman of Jasper Wireless, and serves on the boards of Best Buy (NYSE), four privately held companies, and the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance. He is ambassador-at-large for Benchmark Capital.

He holds a B.S. and a M.S. in Electrical Engineering and a M.B.A. in International Business. He is a graduate of the Stanford Executive Program and was awarded an honorary doctorate by the State University of New York.

In 2007, Tyabji published Husband, Wife & Company: An Honest Perspective on Success in Life and Work, a book on the complex interrelationships between family and career. Rich in human anecdotes, historical and literary metaphors, and real-world examples of corporate leadership, the book captures the spirit of Tyabji's personal and professional life. This spirit combines an abiding courage to dream with discipline, decisiveness, unshakable ethics, and integrity.

Here is a link to an audio file of Tyabji delivering a keynote at TiECON 2006 - www.podtech.net/home/search/Hatim+Tyabji.

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