Global Communications

The Johnson & Johnson Procurement organization is a global organization. Each J&J company around the world has its own procurement organization that partners with a line management to create a supplier network. Johnson & Johnson has procurement centers in Asia, Canada, Latin America, Middle Eastern Europe & Africa. They also implement 13 category teams each with leaders who represent J&J operating companies. The product teams are organized by categories such as chemicals, external manufacturing and information technology. The teams work to strengthen the supplier network that provides J&J businesses exceptional quality products and services at low costs, innovative ideas & solutions, and tremendous supply continuity and suppliers with a focus on environmental social responsibility.

When you think of Johnson & Johnson, it is common knowledge that they are a global company helping millions of people all around the globe. When navigating their website, I found it quite difficult to find out about their global communications. The information above is as in depth as their website takes you when talking about their global operations. I came across one page that allowed you to choose which country you were from and than the website would be translated into that particular language. There were many reports on their worldwide contributions from previous years and many press releases about their philanthropic efforts as well.

One particular report I read was about their efforts with Africa. In Kenya, J&J partnered up with the Mission for Essential Drugs & Supplies (MEDS) and Project Mercy to provide a drug called Tibozole, which treats Oral Thrush, at significantly low prices to small, community based-groups who suffer from disease. Oral Thrush is a symptom of HIV which produces painful lesions in the mouth that can spread to the esophagus. In Kenya, 886,000 patients have received donations of the drugs from J&J, MEDS and Project Mercy. The income that MEDS accumulates from selling the drug is used to issue grants to local organizations in Kenya dedicated to improving community health. Johnson & Johnson then matches the grant amounts and donates it to non-profit organizations focused on HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention.

Despite their wide range of "giving", I expected to find more about how their business operations work globally. I think that they should make their web page easier to navigate when it comes to global communications. While exploring different areas of their site, they often mention "helping people all around the world", although I did not find it  easy to find what countries they actually do business in. I did find many stories of how they have contributed to specific countries, such as Hong Kong, Somalia and Pakistan, but other than that it seemed to only focus on the U.S. I think that they should have a tab on their main page that is strictly for global communications. This could go into specifics about where they have operations, who runs them and how they differ from the companies in the U.S, if they do at all. If a company is going to portray themselves as "global", it is vital to have an easy, accessible way to contain information about their global communications.