Consumers tend to associate Johnson & Johnson with Band-Aids and baby shampoo, but those well-known products are only part of a much larger picture, according to William Weldon, chairman and CEO of the New Brunswick, N.J.-based firm. In fact, Weldon has the mind-boggling task of overseeing more than 200 operating companies across three sectors, including the consumer products that have made Johnson & Johnson a household name; pharmaceuticals like Tylenol; and medical devices. On June 18, Weldon spoke at the 2008 Wharton Leadership Conference about the challenges of running the Johnson & Johnson family of companies. In an interview with Knowledge@Wharton, he elaborated on how J&J's decentralized structure informs his leadership style and what he sees as key issues for the health care industry in the coming decade, among other topics.
A transcript of this interview is available below.
Knowledge@Wharton: Many of our readers are familiar with Johnson & Johnson consumer products. But, they may not be familiar with the Johnson & Johnson family of companies and what that actually encompasses. Can you give us an overview?
Weldon: The way that we look at our organization is that we have three business segments we work in. One is the consumer business, which you alluded to, and it is a lot of the baby products, baby shampoo, baby powder, band-aids. But then it also includes Neutrogena and Aveeno and a lot of consumer companies that people would not know belong to the J&J family.
The second part of our business is our medical device and diagnostics business, which by itself is the largest medical device and diagnostics business in the world. That consists of everything from cardio-vascular products for stents to joint replacements for knees and hips to contact lenses with ACCUVUE, blood glucose meters, surgical Ethicon sutures and endoscopic instruments.
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