All of these creative ideas and decisions about new ways to reach the consumer can be tracked with regard to how well they are working, whether and how they are building awareness for the product, how well they motivate the consumption of the product, and so on.

The impresario's job is to pick the right people who can pick the right people. He picks the people who can pick artists and relate to them. People who know what the market craves.

Improvisation in the jazz sense - like the business sense - is not formless. It is built on a skill set. Jazz, for example, involves selecting a tune.

Creativity, my students learn, is as natural a function of the mind as breathing or digestion are natural functions of the body.

The capacity to creatively improvise is an important factor that differentiates successful companies - or teams - from those that are not successful.

All of these creative ideas and decisions about new ways to reach the consumer can be tracked with regard to how well they are working, whether and how they are building awareness for the product, how well they motivate the consumption of the product, and so on.

The traditional managerial mind-set is an analytical mind-set. It is about creating accountability and defining responsibilities.