Robert E. Johnston, Jr. - Principal
Since 1983, Robert E. Johnston, Jr. has been at the pioneering edge of strategy innovation, a business planning methodology that enables a corporation to target new growth opportunities by defining and exploring a preferred future. Bob is a Founder of The Visterra Group, a Boston-based company dedicated to advancing the practice of strategy innovation in corporations.
Bob has worked with major global corporations like IBM, Procter & Gamble, 3M, BMW,
Eli Lilly, Nokia, Chevron and Zeiss; helping them to identify and pursue emerging industries or to elevate their existing practice for company wide innovation. He has been quoted on his work by Fortune, INC., Industry Week, Entrepreneur, the Journal of Creative Behavior, and CIO.
In addition to being a co-author of The Power of Strategy Innovation, Bob has written and published articles on the innovation imperative in developing new strategy and the role of future dislocations in spawning dramatic growth opportunities:
Johnston collaborated with Sidney J. Parnes, creative process guru, in the late 1970s to define “levels of brainstorming – incremental to breakthrough.” Later, Johnston was a founder of IdeaScope Associates where, for 15 years, he was the Managing Principal.
Bob has lectured on strategy innovation at the Harvard Business School and Brown University’s Entrepreneurship Program, among others. He also has presented at conferences on corporate innovation and creativity in Prague, Florence, Amsterdam and Monterrey (Mexico). He has served on the faculty of the Creative Problem Institute for twenty-nine years and was inducted into the Institute’s Hall of Fame in 2005.
Bob currently serves as the Secretary-Treasurer of the Board of Directors of the Product Development and Management Association (PDMA.org).
Robert E. Johnston, Jr.
115 Billings Street
Sharon, MA 02167
T (781) 784-7841
bjohnstonjr@yahoo.com
