Access the following websites: - Johnson & Johnson (http://www.jnj.com/about-jnj
ID: 389634 • Letter: A
Question
Access the following websites:
- Johnson & Johnson (http://www.jnj.com/about-jnj)
- Johnson & Johnson CEO William Weldon: Leadership in a Decentralised Company (http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/johnson-johnson-ceo-william-weldon-leadership-in-a-decentralized-company/)
Write a response to these three questions.
· How would you describe J&J’s organisational structure?
· How does J&J balance globalisation with a local focus when needed?
· How can a company like J&J promote consistent ethical behaviour across all of its many autonomous operating companies?
Explanation / Answer
Johnson & Johnson has formed functional type of structure initial operation. With company’s globalization and involvement in complex products operation, Johnson & Johnson formed a divisional organization structure for better control and coordination. They have broadly divided the business into three categories, consumer, medical and iagonstic device and lastly pharmaceutical business. Johnson & Johnson consists of 180 separate operating units, including McNeil Consumer Products; Ortho Pharmaceuticals and J & J Consumer Product, the company that brings us Johnson’s Baby Shampoo and Band Aids, each division is a separately chartered and Johnson & Johnson Family Headquarters will oversee all the operations.
This decentralized structure of organization allows the employees growth and development. It is also helping in innovation to bring together different products and technologies to meet with the customer demands. A good strategy also will be constructed as a feedback to customer and market issues arose in each division. Usually, Johnson & Johnson companies around the world are coordinated by local people because they can understand the needs in those market and utilize themselves in those market.
Balance between Globalisation and Locus Focus: As mentioned in the earlier description, approach Johnson & Johnson kept n it's organisational structure was to employ local people, as they understood the local need and the market better than anyone else.
Consistant ethical behaviour across all of its many autonomous operating companies: As the CEO of Johnson and J0hnson meantions that the downside to decentralization or innovation is actually the coordination.
Johnson and Johnson try and bring people together, across the different groups, sometimes there is enough to do in their own group and now we are asking them to cross boundaries and work together. Sometimes they set up skunkwork groups, where we will send them off on their own. The ability to work across the boundaries that really brings true innovation, and is going to take some real breakthroughs. The real challenge faced in consitently maintaining the ethical behavious across to get people to get outside of the zone that they work in and work across the groups.