On that note, I wanted to share the latest television commercial celebrating moms and all that they do, and to encourage everyone to share this commercial with all of the moms in your life.  So from Johnson & Johnson to every mother worldwide, Happy Mother’s Day!

The new episode of ennTV is out, and this one features some of the ways Johnson & Johnson companies are approaching corporate citizenship and caring for the world environmentally, economically and socially.  The first story is about the Earthwards™ recognized Neutrogena® Naturals line of products, which have natural, sustainable ingredients and packaging.  The second story takes a look at the Company’s partnership with the United Nations Population fund to improve health for women and children, and the third focuses on sustainability in health care through reducing equipment costs and environmental waste.

You can watch the entire episode here:

Or you can watch the longer features here:

Johnson & Johnson Sustainability: Caring for the Environment with Neutrogena® Naturals:

Johnson & Johnson/UNFPA partnership to promote health and equal opportunity:

SterilMed Reprocessing Helps Environment & Reduces Healthcare Costs:

Earlier today, we held our Annual Meeting of Shareholders, hosting approximately 1,800 shareholders, retirees and employees in New Brunswick, N.J.   You can watch a replay of the meeting on our website and read a recap of the voting results in an earlier blog post by our Corporate Secretary, Doug Chia.

This was my first opportunity to attend the meeting in person, but that wasn’t the only reason it was a historic event!  Johnson & Johnson welcomed its seventh CEO in our history as Alex Gorsky assumed responsibility of incoming CEO from Bill Weldon, who will remain Chairman of the Board.  It was a unique honor to be present for the transition from Mr. Weldon, who has led Johnson & Johnson steadfastly for the past 10 years to Mr. Gorsky, who promised to “bring all my heart and soul to the role of CEO.”  As he passed the leadership mantle, Weldon remarked that he is “confident that Johnson & Johnson will continue shaping and leading the future of health care and advancing the health and well being of people around the world.”

You can read more about our history of leadership on the Kilmer House blog.

Although the transition of leadership was the highlight of the meeting, we also shared news and notable achievements from our three business sectors, as well as looked ahead to Johnson & Johnson’s next chapter.  In addition, we announced that Johnson & Johnson will raise the quarterly dividend to shareholders for the 50th consecutive year.

A Vision for the Future
As incoming CEO, Alex took some time to share his vision for the future of the company, stressing first and foremost that “Our Credo will remain at the core of what drives our actions. It reflects our values, our beliefs, and our aspirations. It defines our core responsibilities to our stakeholders. It enables us to make a real, lasting and profound difference in the world.”

He recognized the dynamic nature of global healthcare and acknowledged the rapid and dramatic pace of change.  “How people around the world achieve good health in a sustainable manner is likely to be the most significant challenge for our generation.” He then outlined the central themes that will help us address the changing environment and stay successful for the long-term – bringing meaningful innovations to patients; staying true to our values; remaining dedicated to being broadly based in human healthcare; preserving decentralization as a way to stay close to patients and customers; and managing for the long term.

Sharing Stories
During the meeting, Alex shared several stories about patients, customers and our employees as a way of conveying the importance of what we do and what we stand for as a company.  You can watch some of these stories and see for yourself how they touch the essence of why we are so committed to the work we do every day:

Sarah Oliver: bouncing back strong after injury
Late last year Sarah Oliver was climbing a tree in her neighborhood, something she had done countless times before. But this time something went very wrong.

A husband’s gift: safeguarding a kidney transplant
Recently, surgeons at the University of California San Diego Medical Center successfully performed a life-saving kidney transplant — transferring a kidney from a husband to his wife.

Giving back: Ethicon supports Operation Smile
Operation Smile is a children’s charity that uses medical volunteers… …to provide free surgeries… to children around the world… born with severe cleft palette conditions

To see more stories, check out our Johnson & Johnson Health Channel on YouTube.

New Opportunities Ahead
“I am proud, humbled and extremely energized to have your confidence, trust and support in leading this great organization into the future,” Alex said as he closed out the meeting. “With Our Credo directing us and our employees providing the skill, knowledge and passion, the challenges of global health and well-being become opportunities for Johnson & Johnson.”

Today, Johnson & Johnson held its 124^th Annual Meeting of Shareholders in New Brunswick, NJ.  Today’s meeting held special significance in the history of Johnson & Johnson as it marked the transition of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) position for only the 7^th time since the company went public in 1944.  Bill Weldon, Chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO since 2002, handed the CEO title over to Alex Gorsky, previously Vice Chairman of the Executive Committee.  Bill will remain as Chairman of the Board.  Alex, like all of our previous CEOs, was promoted from within the company, demonstrating the stability of leadership of Johnson & Johnson over time.

Here is a recap of the official business from today’s meeting, including preliminary voting results:

1) Election of Directors:  All 13 Director nominees were elected to serve one-year terms on the Board of Directors with a range of support of 75.1 to 98.8 percent of the votes cast.  Bill Weldon (Chairman) received the support of 93.6 percent of the votes cast, and Alex Gorsky (CEO) received the support of 98.8 percent.  A full list of our Board members, including their biographies, can be found in the Corporate Governance section of the investor.jnj.com website.

2) Advisory Vote to Approve Named Executive Officer Compensation:  In this advisory vote, our shareholders approved the company’s executive compensation philosophy, policies and procedures and the compensation of the executive officers named in the 2012 Proxy Statement with the support of 56.8 percent of the votes cast.  As discussed in detail in our 2012 Proxy Statement, the Board of Directors made major changes to our executive compensation program after last year’s advisory vote.  The Board will analyze this year’s advisory vote and seriously consider specific and constructive feedback from shareholders in the coming year regarding our executive compensation program.

3) Approval of the Company’s 2012 Long-Term Incentive Plan:  Our shareholders approved a new long-term incentive plan with the support of 76.9 percent of the votes cast at today’s meeting.  This new plan will allow the company to continue to award equity-linked compensation to over 18,000 eligible employees, thus closely aligning management’s interests with those of our shareholders.

4) Ratification of Appointment of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm:  Our shareholders approved the appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP to serve as our independent auditors for 2012 with the support of 96.2 percent of the votes cast.

5) Shareholder Proposal on Independent Board Chairman:  This proposal, made by the AFSCME Employees Pension Plan of Washington, DC, beneficial owner of 19,868 shares, received the support of 42.9 percent of the votes cast.

6) Shareholder Proposal on Binding Vote on Political Contributions:  This proposal, made by Mr. James Mackie of Haverford, PA, beneficial owner of 3,950 shares, received the support of 4.7 percent of the votes cast.

7) Shareholder Proposal on Adopting Non-Animal Methods for Training:  This proposal, made for the second consecutive year by Ms. Jill Maynard of Peekskill, NY, beneficial owner of 1,000 shares, received the support of 4.4 percent of the votes cast.

The details of all of these proposals can be found in our 2012 Proxy Statement.  The final voting results will be disclosed in an upcoming SEC filing.  

Also announced at today’s meeting was the Board’s decision to increase the rate of the quarterly dividend to shareholders, from $0.57 per share to $0.61 per share, payable on June 12, 2012 to shareholders of record on May 29, 2012.  This marks the 50th consecutive year of dividend increases by Johnson & Johnson.

For more information about corporate governance at Johnson & Johnson, we encourage you to visit the Corporate Governance section of the investor.jnj.com website.

The Mobile Alliance for Maternal Action (MAMA) is a mobile phone health initiative partnership led by USAID and Johnson & Johnson, with support from BabyCenter, mHealth Alliance and the United Nations Foundation. Recently, members of the MAMA partnership conducted a series of site visits in Bangladesh. This blog post comes from MAMA Global Partnership Director, Kirsten Gagnaire, and is part of their blog tour series reporting on the site visits and experience in Bangladesh.  JNJBTW is happy to host one of the blog posts on that tour.

From Kirsten Gagnaire, MAMA Global Partnership Director

Pregnancy, birth and infancy.  These are some of the most important phases in life. In many cultures across the globe, decisions about how this critical time is addressed in daily life are guided by partners, mothers, fathers, mothers-in-law and other important community figures. These decision-making figures are often referred to as “gatekeepers” and have an important role in the pregnancy of someone for whom they are responsible.

An expecting mother in a developing country needs the same things as expecting mothers in any other part of the world. She needs more rest and she may need to be relieved of some of her duties, like hauling water and cooking over a smoky stove.  She may need money for transportation to get to the clinic for her antenatal checkups. In some areas, it is a local tradition that women give birth at home without medical care. There may be a local belief that babies should be given water and solid foods in early months. In Bangladesh, as in so many other countries across the globe, the new or expectant mom may not be the one that has the authority to make these decisions.

Aponjon, which means “trusted friend” in Bengali, is a service developed by the Mobile Alliance for Maternal Action (MAMA) partners in Bangladesh.  It focuses on providing moms with messages via mobile phones that share information on how to care for themselves and their babies throughout pregnancy and the first year of life. A unique aspect of Aponjon is that it has a service targeted specifically for gatekeepers, as they make decisions about the family’s care and finances.  Gatekeepers in Bangladesh are often partners, mothers, mothers-in-law, sisters and other figures in the community. The Aponjon messages for gatekeepers reinforce the messages the women receive through the mom-focused service, but emphasize the critical role they play in ensuring that pregnancy, birth and early childhood are healthy and happy experiences for their families.

While on a recent trip to Bangladesh, I was privileged to be invited into several homes – both rural and urban – where I talked with a spectrum of gatekeepers.  One grandmother in the slums of Dhaka was worried that her 19-year-old daughter wouldn’t know enough about how to raise a child, so she signed up for the service. As she rocked her new grandchild in her arms, she smiled and told us how she felt when she received these messages. “Getting the messages for my daughter brought back memories when I was a new mom and just learning how to take care of my own child.”

During our site visits, many fathers recounted stories of making different decisions about what foods to buy, based on what was recommended by Aponjon for optimal nutrition for their wives and babies.  A sister of one young mother said that receiving the messages helped her to better prepare to help her sister plan for and give birth safely.

Giving and sustaining life really does take a village. Aponjon recognizes this and has designed a service that meets the needs of not just moms, but also the gatekeepers who support them.

To learn more about MAMA, visit http://www.mobilemamaalliance.org/.

To read more posts from the blog tour series, please visit:

blogs.babycenter.com/mom_stories/mama-bangladesh-messages-for-moms-around-the-world

undispatch.com/mobile-phones-for-mdgs

blog.usaid.gov/tag/maternal-health/

healthunbound.org/content/educating-mama-need-global-learning

millionmomschallenge.org/stories/entry/2/481

As we celebrate Earth Day this Sunday, April 22, we’re all thinking of ways we can reduce our environmental impact and help sustain our planet for the future.  On this Earth Day, I wanted to share just a few of the many efforts across the Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies to reduce our impact on the environment.  It’s a commitment that’s not only reflected in Our Credo, it’s one that’s constantly brought home to me as an employee at our World Headquarters facility when I see the array of solar panels here on our campus in New Brunswick, or shop at the Farmer’s Market that visits our campus once a week during the spring and summer months to offer locally-grown fruits and vegetables to employees.

Commitment to the environment is a central tenet of Johnson & Johnson’s responsibility to the community.  In 1947, decades before sustainability was on most people’s radar, General Robert Wood Johnson, who was Chairman and CEO of Johnson & Johnson at that time, wrote:

“We must use our resources wisely, avoiding waste of both raw materials and scrap, while we seek substitutes for things already in short supply.  We must employ replaceable materials where we can, must let forests restore themselves as we cut, must prevent loss and pollution of water, and must halt wasteful erosion of soil…Sound business demands their employment, just as it demands reduction of waste in a factory or store.  (Or Forfeit Freedom, by Robert Wood Johnson, Doubleday & Company, Garden City, New York, 1947, pp. 37-38)

Today, we have a wide variety of efforts across the Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies to use recycled materials, reduce packaging, make our buildings and workplaces greener through the use of solar energy and many other efforts to reduce our environmental impact.

Here’s a really creative way to re-use lipstick packaging from our consumer business:

And here’s a story about our efforts to increase the sustainable use of palm oil, a valuable natural resource.

Here’s a time lapse video of the installation of solar panels at one of our operating companies in New Jersey.  It’s one of the largest solar panel arrays in the state:

At our operating companies, our EARTHWARDS™ program helps Johnson & Johnson operating companies understand and improve upon the environmental footprint of a product in the areas of materials use, waste reduction, water reduction, energy reduction, packaging, product innovation and positive social impact.  To date, a number of products from our operating companies have earned EARTHWARDS™  designation, and the goal is to have at least 60 products in that category by 2015.

Here’s a story about water conservation from one of our operating companies in India:

And here’s a story from our consumer company in Brazil about how they made packaging for BAND-AID® Brand Adhesive Bandages more sustainable:

If you’re interested in reading more about our commitment to the environment and our sustainability efforts, there’s more information on jnj.com’s Protecting the Environment section and on our Responsibility site.

It was an amazing few days at TEDMED last week. Johnson & Johnson has been a proud sponsor of TEDMED since the conference began, and I had heard from my colleagues that the event is uniquely impressive.  This was my first time attending and I was not disappointed.

Against the backdrop of the beautiful Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, my fellow delegates and I heard from doctors, engineers, artists, moms, researchers, entrepreneurs and dozens of other brilliant thinkers on topics that ranged from medical breakthroughs and organic farming to data management and public policy.  All in all, it was inspiring, enlightening, and a great chance to think about how we can – and perhaps more importantly, could — approach healthcare differently to get better outcomes.

Here are just a few of the talks and ideas that have stuck with me:

• Jacob Scott, a radiation oncologist and cancer theoretician, who asked, “Can we stop the imaginectomies?”  Jacob delivered a passionate and compelling argument for keeping imagination alive in medicine and medical research.  He called medical school a “backstage pass to everything that’s cool about the human body,” and infected the audience with his love for science.

•  Gregory Petsko, a neurology professor, who called for a sense of urgency about Alzheimer’s disease — which he pointed out is a disease of aging, not just the aged; and Reisa Sperling, Director of the Center for Alzheimer’s Research and Treatment at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, who shared her view of tools and tests that might help tell normal cognitive aging from the onset of Alzheimer’s.

•  A conversation between tennis legend Billie Jean King and newswoman/activist Katie Couric about everything from equality for women to the importance of exercise and nutrition in schools.

•  Mark Hyman, from the Institute of Functional Medicine, who brought new meaning to “social health” with examples of how peer support makes a difference in preventing and managing chronic diseases.  “Getting healthy is a team sport,” he said.

•  Virginia Breen, who shared her autistic daughter Elizabeth’s struggle to communicate.  Elizabeth can’t speak, but she hears and observes, then expresses herself through poetry.  Describing her relentless quest to find answers about her daughter’s condition, Virginia said one of the most inspiring things I heard all week: that there is a difference between “I don’t know” and “I don’t know yet.”

These are just some of the many fascinating and intriguing talks from the TEDMED stage.  You can read more recaps at the TEDMED blog and find bios of all the speakers on the TEDMED website.

In addition to the main stage, TEDMED also featured a Social Hub area where delegates could talk to some of the sponsors and speakers.  You can read stories from the TEDMED blog and from ABC News about some of the immersive technologies and demonstrations we and our fellow hosts shared in our booths.
Many thanks to all of the folks who made this year’s TEDMED possible.  Hope to see you next year!

Head Start and Johnson & Johnson both seem at home in a single sentence.  Both names evoke images of children and both organizations have the protection and nurturing of children at the core of their separate heritages.  But where does UCLA Anderson School of Management fit into the picture?  Let’s face it, we usually think of MBA programs as calculating, strategic, and a little cold.

At least that’s where I was mentally when I began my Head Start journey back in 1992.  I had accepted a temporary assignment in Corporate Contributions with the goal of doubling the size of the fledgling Johnson & Johnson Head Start Management Fellows Program at UCLA Anderson.  I understood the children needed teachers, nutritious food, and safe transport but I had not considered that these things entail human resources management, procurement, logistics and well-defined policies and procedures.  I quickly learned that Head Start Programs also serve as advocates for children and families and need strong communications and public relations to ensure adequate funding and community support.

In other words, I learned that running a Head Start program, sometimes serving thousands of America’s most disadvantaged families, is as much a management challenge as it is a social service challenge.  And while most Head Start managers have been educated in fields like education, early childhood development, and social work; they rarely have management training.

This is where UCLA Anderson enters the picture.  Because one key faculty member, Senior Associate Dean Alfred E. Osborne, believed that management education was as relevant in the world of community service as it was in the world of business, over 1400 Head Start managers have received an intensive two week experience at UCLA followed by real world application through a Management Improvement Project.  In this he truly led the field. In fact, the MIP concept has become a hallmark of Johnson & Johnson supported management education.

Head Start administrators attend a course at UCLA Anderson for the 2009 UCLA/Johnson & Johnson Head Start Management Fellows Program.

Over the past two decades UCLA Anderson has constantly refined and adjusted to meet the needs of today’s Head Start Director. 

Perhaps most significantly, the program has created an off shoot effort that helps train parents to be more effective health care providers to their children.  Professor Ariella Herman has touched over 45,000 families through this training and has demonstrated in peer reviewed publications that educating parents can bring better care to children.  Just as important, it brings a sense of empowerment and confidence to parents, many of whom have literacy challenges than make compliance to treatment plans difficult or even impossible.

Ariella Herman (right foreground), research director of the UCLA/Johnson & Johnson Health Care Institute, speaks to a group of Head Start administrators.

So, when you think of Management education, know that thanks to UCLA Anderson, it has helped non-profit executives provide more help, more efficiently, to more families for over 20 years.

Read more about this partnership in UCLA Anderson’s ASSET magazine.

Curt Weeden (left) and Conrad Person (right), the original and current leaders on the Johnson & Johnson side of the UCLA/Johnson & Johnson programs, participate in a panel discussion as part of the celebration of the partnership’s 20th anniversary.

Johnson & Johnson is proud to be a major sponsor of TEDMED this year and we’re gearing up to showcase some of our most innovative projects and inspiring leaders, all focused on the question: how can we partner to change the world? Some of things we’re most excited to share include:

• Interactive experiences that simulate some of the challenges of diseases like schizophrenia or rheumatoid arthritis
• Conversations with Dr. Scott Ratzan of our Global Health and Government Affairs & Policy team about how greater health literacy could help more people access and understand their health information to make better health decisions
• Discussions about new frontiers in neuroscience research with Dr. Husseini Manji from our Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies, and explorations about new mobile platforms for health with Dr. Diego Miralles, head of Janssen Healthcare Innovation
• Ideas about using technology and grassroots efforts to better the lives of those living with HIV with Dr. Paul Stoffels, our Worldwide Pharmaceuticals Chairman 

I’m packing up my mobile devices and heading to D.C. with the team so I can share the excitement, bring you the news, and make sure you see all the cool things we’ll be demonstrating in our social space. If you’d like to get all the latest updates, please follow @JNJComm on Twitter and check back here for more blog posts during the week and after the conference.

By Paul Stoffels, MD, Worldwide Chairman, Pharmaceuticals

Each year on April 7th, the World Health Organization celebrates World Health Day.  This year’s focus is on aging and health, which includes diseases and conditions that affect aging populations, such as Alzheimer’s disease.  In recognition of that focus, I wanted to share some of the work that Johnson & Johnson is doing and the partnerships we are engaged in to make progress against this disease.

This is a critical time for people facing Alzheimer’s disease (AD).  Approximately 31 million men and women worldwide have this devastating brain disease and estimated costs associated with treatment and care through 2050 are $20 trillion. Yet delaying the onset by as little as five years would reduce this cost to society by a third.  The emotional toll of Alzheimer’s is devastating.  AD is second only to cancer as the most feared health condition in the United States.

Progress in Alzheimer’s disease research during the past decade is culminating in a significant body of knowledge that could lead to earlier, more accurate detection of the disease and ways to slow its progression and possibly even prevent it. This scientific window of opportunity is prompting a diverse group of experts in AD to work together on unique ways to harness this new knowledge.

The Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia Leadership Council was founded by the New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS) with support from the One Mind for Research organization as well as several companies, including Johnson & Johnson. It is focused on using its collective wisdom to develop a plan and policy recommendations over the next year to accelerate the transfer of basic scientific discoveries into new methods for the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of Alzheimer’s disease.

The Leadership Council consists of scientists and stakeholders in Alzheimer’s disease research and development, including top academic experts; key leaders in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, information technology and diagnostic industries; and representation from government agencies, including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, as well as non-governmental research organizations such as the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation.
In addition to sharing knowledge and identifying innovative funding models, the Leadership Council will encourage innovative thinking by including organizations traditionally outside the AD research and development boundaries, for  or example, IBM and GE.  Promising young researchers also will be identified and welcomed into the alliance.

For Johnson & Johnson, working on this project  is an important way to marry our commitment to Alzheimer’s patients and our strong belief that we can make significant progress against this disease, and do so cost-effectively, by collaborating with great minds in the public-private sector. Our goal is to build a common foundation for research and development that includes a clearer understanding of the causes of Alzheimer’s disease and how to target the disease mechanisms, and the development of better tests to measure disease progress and whether therapies are having a meaningful impact.

This is a critical time for the science of Alzheimer’s disease. Brain science is expanding rapidly with new technology and new knowledge. But at the same time, many companies are discontinuing their CNS pipelines as costs of R&D continue to increase.  At Johnson & Johnson, we maintain our long-standing commitment to neuroscience research, and are currently have many ongoing projects and partnerships to further innovation in this therapeutic area.  We believe that the time is right to bring together the best minds in Alzheimer’s disease to overcome silos and use our collective expertise to break the barriers to progress in Alzheimer’s disease.