In 1943, a year before he took the company public — and generations before company culture and corporate responsibility became buzzwords — Gen. Robert Wood Johnson wrote down a company credo for Johnson & Johnson.
The credo, which has dictated the course of action for the company for decades, included five key responsibilities:
- To the doctors, nurses, hospitals and mothers who use our products;
- To the company’s employees;
- To the company’s management;
- To the communities in which the company operated;
- And to the stockholders.
While the concept was new to the business world, the beliefs were not new to Johnson & Johnson. The company had been living by them for nearly 60 years. The general just wanted to ensure they became engrained in the public company that was about to be created.
So said J&J historian Margaret Gurowitz, who has been with the company for nearly four decades.
“Gen. Robert Wood Johnson wanted to ensure that the values that had guided the company since we were founded would continue to guide Johnson & Johnson as the company grew globally and evolved for the future to meet more needs for patients and communities around the world in the future,” she said. “He wanted to ensure that the values remain intact.”
Those values still work today. In fact, they may still be ahead of their time. Tap below to continue reading on ROI-NJ.com
Thank you, everyone, for your kind comments - we appreciate it!