A look inside Johnson & Johnson's new Asia Pacific headquarters in Singapore

“We solve for the full continuum of care, from prevention and intervention to cure and management. We can only raise the bar when we partner with healthcare professionals, scientists, governments and etc to care for the world,” a Johnson & Johnson spokesperson tells The Drum.

“Johnson & Johnson, as an organisation, act as a convener and connecter of care, bringing together brilliant minds to address Asia Pacific’s most pressing health challenges.”

Located within the new HQ is Johnson & Johnson’s first global Leadership Lab, which is a think tank of healthcare leaders within the ecosystem, from medical, technology, engineering to research and policy making experts, to help author and shape the next generation of healthcare innovation.

According to the spokesperson, the Leadership Lab marks Johnson & Johnson’s commitment to develop the future leaders of healthcare in Asia. The Lab will train not only the company’s leaders, but all leaders within the healthcare ecosystem by delivering 200 leadership development classes to 4,000 Asian leaders annually.

As a think-tank, the Leadership Lab will also create links with universities, research groups, governments, healthcare organisations and other partners to co-create new healthcare models and solutions to prototype capabilities required to author the next chapter of healthcare innovation in Asia.

“Asia Pacific is the next growth driver for Johnson & Johnson. Having leaders from Asia who understand Asia is critical in driving our business forward and to lead the next evolution in Asia’s healthcare industry,” the spokesperson explains.

“We strongly believe the synergy across our enterprise capabilities across our businesses, markets and categories together with the healthcare talents in Asia Pacific, we are able to co-create new healthcare models and solutions to solve not only regional but also global health challenges.”

Also located in the HQ is Johnson & Johnson’s Design Lab, which the company has brought out of the United States for the first time. According to the spokesperson, by establishing a design lab in Singapore, it allows the Johnson & Johnson to move closer to its stakeholders in the APAC region.

Another reason Singapore was chosen as Johnson & Johnson’s first design lab out of the US, explains the spokesperson, was because the city-state is an ideal base to leverage pan-Asian innovations and connect into the APAC design ecosystem as the company wants to be able to respond to consumer and healthcare trends, that are relevant to Asia, with greater speed and agility.

“We have shaped health and wellbeing for more than 130 years. A focus on Design and Innovation has always been an integral part of our commitment to pioneering, world changing, mind opening healthcare solutions,” says the spokesperson. “Design thinking is at the center of all our innovation and brand experience efforts. We apply design thinking framework to develop and deliver “care-centered design” solution.”

Aside from researching on leadership and design, workplace wellness is also a topic Johnson & Johnson will deep dive into in its APAC headquarters as workforces in Asia often rank low in global wellbeing indexes, explains the spokesperson, also pointing out that there is a rising demand among corporations to improve their employees’ health and wellbeing, as well as reduce burnout.

That is why it has set up its Human Performance Institute beside its Leadership and Design, as health and wellness is one of the three core pillars of Johnson & Johnson. The company has also set an ambitious goal to help over 100,000 employees across the world to be at their personal best when it comes to their health and well-being by 2020.

The spokesperson claims the Institute is backed by decades of scientific research, with Olympic Gold medalists, the military Special Forces, Fortune 500 CEOs, surgeons and hostage rescue teams, with the company finding that there are benefits of having its employees undergo proper energy management training as offered by the Institute.

“Employees who have been trained by our trainers from the Human Performance Institute are able to achieve sustained high performance. They are able to better manage stress, expand their energy in the right areas of their lives and are able to sustain long-term behavior change,” the spokesperson explains.

“This in turn positively impact their work and personal life, and they are at their personal best every single day. At Johnson & Johnson, health is first and everything else follows.”