John is a past president of the North American Case Research Association (NACRA) and was editor of the Case Research Journal from 1992 through 1995. He is a Fellow of CASE, the Eastern Case Writers Association, and a member of six other case organizations. He originated the "Case Critique Colloquium" format for review and development of new cases at professional meetings, and serves as a regular panelist in Colloquia at the Academy of Management, the Eastern Academy, and the Northeast Decision Sciences Institute.

In the 22 years between his bachelors degree and the doctorate, he served as a consultant in worker-based improvement programs, as a research administrator, and as president of two small corporations (one a manufacturer, the other a data processing service bureau for large retailers). He has working experience as a public relations writer, information systems designer, finance director and controller, operations researcher, company treasurer, CEO, and director. He has worked in a variety of industries, including injection molding, brewing, light assembly, stationery, large-scale retailing and auto parts manufacturing (in England). He has taught in England, Germany, Brazil, Argentina, the Czech Republic and Slovakia and has presented faculty development workshops on case writing and teaching in half a dozen states.

His cases have described problems in Citibank, Xerox, Arthur D. Little, Polaroid, Lincoln Electric and AT&T among large companies, and many small technology start-ups and not-for-profit organizations among the small. His cases have been adopted for over 150 textbooks in half a dozen disciplines.