Jazz is not about getting and playing whatever notes you want. It is about reworking themes in a manner that sounds good, that can be followed by the other musicians and that the audience enjoys. You cannot do that without first acquiring skills.

The creative process is different from the traditional production and work-flow process. It is not so linear.

If you come up with a new product, you can very easily track its contribution to the bottom line. But often the challenge can be both large and subtle.

The mark of the developed intellect is that it could accommodate two contradictory ideas at the same time.

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.

The larger the price tag, the more you have to adopt what I call the postmodern management approach. What I mean by that is that you have to use everything when you make a decision.

Tunes have notes and tempos and rules. If the tune is "All the Things You Are," you have to adhere to its structure and to the tradition behind that structure.