A Complete Vision

Conventional strategy plays the player. Strategy at a system level plays the board.

Blue Spoon is a new category of strategy consulting and strategic communications positioned with systems theory. The business is led by its founder and Executive Director, John G. Singer, a health industry contextualist who introduced 'ecosystem-centered market strategy' as a framework for large-scale innovation.  

He presented early versions of the concept in a series of articles published by Sloan Management Review entitled "Systems Marketing for the Information Age" , and "What Strategy is Not".  John predicted then that ecosystems were to become the primary unit of analysis for competition and market strategy; he was also the first to apply design thinking to reframe how the pharmaceutical industry approaches market strategy, a ground-breaking vision for 'system-level competition' published in the Journal of Consumer Behaviour.

His thought leadership resulted in the development of ‘Big Design’, a repeatable process to construct new economic systems (“ecosystems”). ‘Big Design’ braids systems theory, design thinking and creative leadership to achieve a difficult balancing act: strategic transformation across healthcare and life sciences markets. 

He brings a complete vision for health market innovation from 25+ years of deep, diverse and unique experience as a practitioner, business manager and senior leader in big technology, digital health, marketing and market development, innovation consulting, strategic communications and industry thought leadership across all dimensions of the global health sector, including pharmaceutical, medical device, biotechnology, payer and provider clients. He specializes in re-configuring markets and helping clients navigate the transition space to compete on health system value.

Market Innovation

Markets aren’t about “efficiency” — they’re about power and control. And market innovation is the deliberate process of finding and positioning power, of inventing leverage in an organized and persistent way. The end state is/are a new economic system (“ecosystem”) that becomes a control point, a way to displace an embedded economic network.

John has published new business thinking and ideas in some of the most influential media in the world, including MIT Sloan Management Review, the Wall Street Journal, the Journal of Business Strategy, and the Oxford Handbook of Innovation Management. His insights and thought leadership on the future of strategy and competition was used by the U.S. Army War College to position innovation initiatives and capability development for its Third Offset Strategy, a doctrine by the Department of Defense to achieve broad-based innovation across the spectrum of concepts, research and development, leadership education and business practices. 

John is also a guest speaker on market innovation and ecosystem-centered business strategy at leading professional organizations and business schools, including Athens University of Economics and Business, California Association of Physician Groups, Cambridge University, ESCP Europe, HEC Lausanne, ISPOR, McGill University, New York Medical College, New York University Stern School of Business, RAND Corporation, Rutgers University, Society for Clinical Data Management, Thomas Jefferson University Population Health Colloquium, and the VHA Innovation Experience.

In his most recent role as Chief Strategy Officer, Healthcare for Cognizant Technology Solutions (NYSE: CTSH), John led industry strategy, mergers and acquisitions, market development, strategic sales and executive engagement for new value propositions and emerging technologies across Cognizant’s $4 billion healthcare portfolio. Before joining Cognizant, John was the Global Head of Health Market Strategy, Innovation and Technology for Wipro (NYSE: WIT), a leading technology services company. Prior to Wipro, he led the U.S. Healthcare Practice at RAPP, a CXM/marketing service within Omnicom Group that helped clients deal with the emergence of a digital sixth sense. While at RAPP, John led digital strategy and consumer experience design for the launch of Solvadi, Gilead Sciences’ cure for Hepatitis C, directed the development of patient engagement as a strategic pillar for JNJ Diabetes Solutions, and managed the first e-commerce platform in the pharmaceutical industry.

His strategic history in the pharmaceutical market spans disease states, business contexts and industry milestones.