OPERATING WITH AGILITY ON A BASE OF STRONG VALUES
Just as important as the way we innovate is the way we operate. We have focused on improving our operations to reflect our commitment to delivering high-quality products and to adapt to the rapidly evolving marketplace.
Beyond meaningful innovations and agility, the foundation of our decades of sustained growth remains an unwavering commitment to our operating model and values.
The tenets of Our Credo provide a clear focus for how we approach each decision: patients and customers first, then our employees, our communities, and our shareholders.
The last few years have offered significant challenges, but our commitment to Our Credo has remained the foundation of our response. It provides a common set of values that hold together our approximately 118,000 employees in 60 countries and more than 250 operating companies.
Our responsibility as a global citizen is rooted in Our Credo. For more than 125 years our innovations and philanthropy have touched the lives of billions of people, particularly in areas of the world where access to basic health care is a challenge.
In 2011, we were honored to be recognized by the United Nations as Humanitarian of the Year for our work in this regard. We reported strong progress in the inaugural year of our five-year pledge to help save and improve the lives of 120 million women and children annually in developing countries as part of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.
We are proud of this and the many other programs driven by the passion of our employees and hundreds of equally passionate partners around the world.
OUR COMMITMENT TO YOU
It has been an honor and a privilege to serve as your Chief Executive Officer for these past 10 years. Our success in developing outstanding leaders from within Johnson & Johnson is reflected in the selection of Alex Gorsky as the next CEO to lead our great company forward, effective on April 26, 2012, the date of our Annual Meeting of Shareholders. The decision involved a rigorous, thorough and formal
multi-year process.
Alex is an experienced and disciplined leader who will take the reins of our company during a turbulent time for health care but a very promising time for Johnson & Johnson.
I can assure you, our shareholders, that Johnson & Johnson will continue to shape and lead the future of health care. We will do this by delivering meaningful innovations to patients and customers, building a more agile business to seize new market opportunities, and remaining committed to a proven operating model and set of values, embodied by Our Credo, that make all of us proud.
Thanks to the extraordinary achievements and dedication of our people, Johnson & Johnson is better positioned today than at any time in recent history to deliver sustainable growth for you, our loyal shareholders.
William C. Weldon
Chairman, Board of Directors, and Chief Executive Officer
March 14, 2012