Johnson & Johnson Wrapping up Manufacturing Inquiry; Throws Party
Posted Sep 07 2010 6:27pm
Johnson & Johnson’s embattled CEO William Weldon has proclaimed that the company’s inquiry into gross manufacturing violations is nearly completed. Of course, J&J still has a long way to go to fix those problems. The final report on the company’s problems should be finished soon – but nobody will see it. Just like the initial reports on manufacturing woes at the Fort Washington plant, the company will likely issue a sanitized statement that doesn’t actually say anything and suppress the complete report that would actually prove informative.
While Weldon was missing in action for nearly the entire crisis getting his elective surgery (read cosmetic surgery), he seems to have emerged smelling like a rose granting numerous interviews over the last few weeks. One has to ask the simple question: where the hell has he been?
There have been 11 recalls of J&J products and Weldon has been completely MIA. I’ll say it once, I’ll say it again – Is there a single J&J product on the market that consumers can believe is safe? Consumers can have no assurance in the safety of J&J’s products.
It also seems that rumors of Weldon’s demise are premature. Sure, he steered the ship into the storm. Sure, he led the organization away from its core values and abandoned the Credo. Sure, he dismantled J&J’s quality control and patient safety organization that would have caught these problems (it was a cost cutting measure). Sure, he focused more on short-term profits than the safety of J&J’s products – and the health of its patients. But J&J’s Board of Directors thinks he’s doing such a terrific job they’re going to keep him on to clean up the mess he created. It’s like asking the fox to guard the hen house. There’s something to be said for letting Weldon wallow in the shit pile he created, but not at the risk of patient safety.
Meanwhile, it seems that nothing has changed at J&J. IT’S PARTY TIME! Instead of focusing on patient safety, J&J spent a fortune having teen sensation Demi Lovato perform at a pep rally at J&J’s Skillman, NJ facility for employees. Maybe J&J got a deal on Lovato’s time – she signed up earlier this summer to hawk J&J’s CLEAN & CLEAR® Skincare System. Oh sure, it’s part of some altruistic campaign called “ Join the Surge ” and in partnership with some group called DoSomething.org . Naturally, it’s all very altruistic - J&J’s great that way (like suing the American Red Cross). Of course, throwing a big party with a tween singing sensation is just what J&J employees need to take their attention away from things like patient safety and ensuring the company’s products are defect free. J&J’s management should have thought about the optics of throwing a big concert for employees.
But then again, there’s a lot that J&J’s management should have been doing -- like ensuring its products are safe and effective.
While Weldon was missing in action for nearly the entire crisis getting his elective surgery (read cosmetic surgery), he seems to have emerged smelling like a rose granting numerous interviews over the last few weeks. One has to ask the simple question: where the hell has he been?
There have been 11 recalls of J&J products and Weldon has been completely MIA. I’ll say it once, I’ll say it again – Is there a single J&J product on the market that consumers can believe is safe? Consumers can have no assurance in the safety of J&J’s products.
It also seems that rumors of Weldon’s demise are premature. Sure, he steered the ship into the storm. Sure, he led the organization away from its core values and abandoned the Credo. Sure, he dismantled J&J’s quality control and patient safety organization that would have caught these problems (it was a cost cutting measure). Sure, he focused more on short-term profits than the safety of J&J’s products – and the health of its patients. But J&J’s Board of Directors thinks he’s doing such a terrific job they’re going to keep him on to clean up the mess he created. It’s like asking the fox to guard the hen house. There’s something to be said for letting Weldon wallow in the shit pile he created, but not at the risk of patient safety.
Meanwhile, it seems that nothing has changed at J&J. IT’S PARTY TIME! Instead of focusing on patient safety, J&J spent a fortune having teen sensation Demi Lovato perform at a pep rally at J&J’s Skillman, NJ facility for employees. Maybe J&J got a deal on Lovato’s time – she signed up earlier this summer to hawk J&J’s CLEAN & CLEAR® Skincare System. Oh sure, it’s part of some altruistic campaign called “ Join the Surge ” and in partnership with some group called DoSomething.org . Naturally, it’s all very altruistic - J&J’s great that way (like suing the American Red Cross). Of course, throwing a big party with a tween singing sensation is just what J&J employees need to take their attention away from things like patient safety and ensuring the company’s products are defect free. J&J’s management should have thought about the optics of throwing a big concert for employees.
But then again, there’s a lot that J&J’s management should have been doing -- like ensuring its products are safe and effective.