What's
Right?
Johnson & Johnson's
Credo is perhaps the finest example of a corporate mission statement
we've ever read. We're not fans of mission statements, because crafting
them often becomes a nightmare of vocabulary, but we do like clear
missions, and we like the hard work being clear requires.
Recently, J&J recalled
some products, and we were reminded of the Tylenol poisoning scare of
1986, where J&J immediately removed all Tylenol products from
all retailers. They knew it would hurt their sales terribly, but they
did it because their leadership believed was the right thing to
do. And, as so often happens when one does the right thing, the short
term hurt was far outweighed by the long term benefit. J&J was
lauded as a model corporate citizen then, and still is today. Tylenol
continues to be a successful product.
One wonders today whether or not
many financial firms have as clear a sense of mission as they need
to...or if they do, whether they live it as well as J&J did and
does. (Lest we think the financial crisis is bigger than the Tylenol
scare, remember that people died in 1986).
The J&J credo is long,
WAY longer than most mission statements, but it's still a fairly spare
document. Consider how it starts:
We
believe our first responsibility is to the doctors, nurses and
patients, to mothers and fathers and all others who use our products
and services.
HUNDREDS of words later, it ends
with what J&J considers least important:
When
we operate according to these principles, the stockholders should
realize a fair return.
Let's remember, in our day to
day professional lives, that our decisions and actions ought to be more
than tactically efficient or profitable.
Let's
ask, what's right?
A
pdf of J&J's corporate credo can be found here.
Midyear
Reviews
Since we're coming up to
mid-year, we thought we'd remind you about a podcast that will help
with your midyear preparation: Midyear Goals Review Part
1 and Part
2. Even if you're not having an
official review, a personal review of the first part of the year will
be very helpful in your self-development and making sure you hit your
end of year goals.
Mark is reading right now a book called Get Rid Of the Performance Review (Amazon link). He's sure he'll disagree with it, but nonetheless, he's reading it.
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