The Johnson & Johnson Company Credo

I don’t know how closely this document is followed these days, but I am posting because I like the order of importance that the Johnson & Johnson Credo spells out: consumer, employee, community—then, investor.

In other words: as a company, our first focus is servicing consumers (you know, the people whose money is ultimately the most important source of money?). Then, we’ll look at the needs of the people who make these products. Afterward, we’ll ensure that our business practices make us good citizens of our community.

And investors, if this statement of our business practices seems interesting to you, please invest your money to help us accomplish our goals.

After writing a book about fearmongering in the workforce during the first decade of the millennium, I will say that a key source of current workplace negativity is that the investors have moved up the chain in terms of importance in a company’s overall operations.

It’s not investors overall that are keeping our country from truly recovering economically. But some investors and their quest for the short-term sure thing have ruined more than one company and cost people their jobs. 

Company CEOs need to answer to their customers again. Too many investors don’t care about long-term business strategies or the overall growth of an enterprise—Wall Street is now a gambling casino. 

In their quest to remove the sense of uncertainty from the investment world and create an artificial sense of expectations, the business community threw the customer and the worker under the bus.

And a key proponent of this way of operating is running for President.

He’s got a binder full of women.