“These Growth Priorities are what we believe our businesses need to focus on. They are:

Innovative Products – Our growth has always been based on scientific innovations that serve unmet patient and customer needs in a meaningful way. This has led us to be a market leader, #1 or #2, in many of our businesses. We will stay focused on bringing forth innovative, accessible and effective products – and entirely new business models — that address the most prevalent health care needs of the day.

Robust Pipelines – We must continuously target, invest and manage the development of a robust pipeline of new medicines, devices and products. We plan to use a mix of internal and external sources to sustain pipelines that provide a competitive advantage. We fully expect the new products coming out of our pipeline today to accelerate the proportion of our sales driven by newer products.

Global Presence – As a global health care leader, we must continue to expand our presence and execute our strategies in the appropriate way for diverse markets and customers. Our approach will be strategic, effective and cost-efficient to address the local needs.

Talented People – Our extraordinary and diverse workforce is still our cornerstone and we must develop our people, challenge them, motivate them and reward them to achieve success.”

In his remarks to analysts today to discuss the fourth quarter 2009 earnings, Chairman and CEO Bill Weldon took a look back at what was said back in 2008 and then to see what the company has accomplished. So what exactly were those accomplishments?

You can listen to a replay of the earnings call – including Bill’s remarks – but I thought it would be of interest to share what he covered for those checking out JNJBTW. During the call today, Bill said the following:

“When we met with this group in January 2008, we looked ahead at the business challenges we would see over the next two years, we spoke about building our foundation of growth and we discussed many of the steps we were taking to do that:

We were in the midst of completing a restructuring of our Pharmaceuticals and Cordis businesses to deal with significant patent expirations and competitive pressures. Those restructurings were completed.

We were completing the integration of the Pfizer Consumer Healthcare business with our Consumer and OTC businesses, and looking ahead to further developing iconic brands like Listerine and Zyrtec. These integrated Consumer businesses are seeing solid performance.

We were continuing to make investments in emerging markets, including the traditional BRIC markets – Brazil, Russia, India and China, as well as other fast-growing developing markets like Mexico and Turkey.

We continued to advance our pipeline of pharmaceutical and medical device products, with many of those we highlighted now in the market or nearing approval.

We continued to identify white spaces in health care, investing in two acquisitions as cornerstones to a new Wellness and Prevention business.

Beyond that, we’ve made 8 major acquisitions since the beginning of 2008 and invested in several strategic licensing or collaboration agreements over that same period. These deals are complementary to our internal pipelines and bring us new capabilities or access to new growth platforms. “

WHYY’s health and science reporter, Kerry Grens, did a short, yet thoughtful piece on the complexities faced by companies in the highly regulated pharmaceutical industry as they try to use social media to interact with the people who use their products.

Through a series of interviews, some of which were conducted at the recent ePharma conference in Philly (that’s where she interviewd me and Steve Woodruff) Kerry explained that as people increasingly trust health information provided by other like-minded individuals online rather than more traditional advertising or marketing messages, companies are trying to get their arms around how best they too can be part of those online conversations.

It isn’t easy. As Kerry pointed out, one big hurdle is “something called adverse event reporting” that companies need to report to the Food and Drug Administration.

Now those who read this blog know that I’ve often discussed approaches taken by Johnson & Johnson, our operating companies and others to get involved online . (here, here and here, for instance) Getting involved not only requires an understanding of the risks, but also new processes to handle adverse event reports and ensuring there are people involved who can respond quickly to questions or new developments.

As I’ve said before, though, it is only by experimenting and trying out new approaches (perhaps by first taking small steps ) that you can get a true understanding of the risks and how best to mitigate them. Yet it is also important for people who are looking for information and connections online to understand the limitations that companies in highly-regulated industries are under — and that what may look like “baby steps” are really earnest efforts to get involved.

The complete podcast of the segment is available on WHYY’s site.

I’ve been working with the Office of Strategy & Growth since it began its efforts to identify new opportunities for Johnson & Johnson. The good news is that, in a $4 trillion global healthcare market, there is roughly $2.8 trillion dollars of opportunity in areas where we aren’t currently competing. But the bad news is that there is roughly $2.8 trillion dollars of opportunity, and finding those places within it that make sense for Johnson & Johnson takes effort.

So it felt good earlier this week to declare a new space for future growth - wellness and prevention. It’s gratifying to me personally because we – people from within the Office of Strategy & Growth and others “borrowed” from throughout Johnson & Johnson — have worked very hard over the last 10 months to define the opportunity and define a strategy. But mostly, it’s gratifying to me because I have come to appreciate how important the healthcare space is before disease is diagnosed – to individuals, to employers, to payers, to governments – to everyone participating in the struggle to find a way to get efficient healthcare for all the people who need it.

Because the fact is that healthcare is much more efficient before people get sick. Our research tells us that every dollar invested in wellness and prevention returns $5 to $6 in healthcare and productivity savings. There will not likely be a shortage of people with serious illnesses any time soon, and there will always be plenty of room for innovation in pharmaceuticals, devices and diagnostics. But the problem is that there are too many people dealing with chronic disease that could be prevented, usually with lifestyle changes like better diets, more physical activity, and limiting the use of tobacco. Those are the people we want to reach with our wellness and prevention effort.

In our “journey to wellness,” we’ve met a lot of people who might surprise you with their idea of being well. That’s because, as we’ve learned, wellness is defined very personally, and it doesn’t take the absence of illness. Wellness seems to be a synergy between a person’s physical, mental, emotional, and even spiritual states.

People have different motivations for working at wellness. We met a young woman who stays fit, active and healthy, who’s trying to help her mom deal with diabetes, and who is working to ensure she’s not destined for the same disease. For some people, wellness is relative. We met a gentle old grandmother who deals with daily aches and pains, and occasional forgetfulness, but who considers herself well because she’s not confined to a wheelchair like some of her fellow churchgoers she tries to help. And, we met a man with diabetes who measures his wellness by how many doctor visits he makes – he once went to the doctor two to six times a week, but now goes only once every four months and considers himself well.

One of the interesting by-products of this “journey” is the conversion of some of my own colleagues into what you might call “wellness evangelists.” We’re all thinking twice about what we eat, and there are a lot more pedometers in place and miles to run before we sleep than there were when we started. I’m hoping the passion is contagious, and that it is something we will see catching on with people who can really benefit from lifestyle changes for the better.

SOD MILK

SOD PROTEIN MILK

BEAUTY DAY CREAM

(Oh, and in case you are wondering, the bag is made of 100% recycled materials…)

Of course, if you’d like to catch what was said at the meeting, which provides a great snapshot of the state of the business and a sense of how the company will grow in the coming years (among other things, expansion in emerging markets, the convergence between our different broadly-based business segments, and the identification of new business models were all mentioned) the entire event is webcast on the Johnson & Johnson website.

After learning of these changes, three words sprung to my mind: “People,” “Convergence” and “Reinvention.”

I’ll start with convergence.

Ever since I joined Johnson & Johnson, I’ve heard about how the company is uniquely positioned. Let’s face it — how many other healthcare companies can boast of a portfolio of products that range from skin care products to sophisticated medical device and diagnostic tools to prescription medications? Since each operating company or business unit has a wealth of consumer and scientific knowledge in many different fields, perhaps one of the greatest opportunities for the company is to take advantage of this expertise to create innovative new products or approaches to patient care.

That’s a great objective, and recently the folks here in New Brunswick and at the company’s operating units have been talking a lot about how the company can enhance how it leverages these strengths to better serve patients, caregivers and customers amid changes that are leading people to take a more active role in their healthcare needs.

That’s where people come in.

When you take a good hard look at the trend for more consumer-driven healthcare (something that’s been touched on a few times on JNJBTW), you find that patients, medical professionals and others think about treatment in terms of the entire continuum of care – not just on a product by product basis.

This trend is one of the reasons behind the creation of what’s being called the Surgical Care Group. Today, most Johnson & Johnson products touch the surgical patient at just one moment in time – during surgery. But the surgical patient can also benefit from products sold by other J&J medical device companies.

Orthopedic surgery provides a great example of this — and I know this first hand. When I broke my hip while skiing seven years ago (don’t ask…) I not only had implants in my leg, I was then sutured up, and underwent a lengthy recovery that involved other treatments and therapy to get me on my feet (and the slopes) again. The Surgical Care Group will look at care through the patient’s eyes to see if there are identify products and services that they can provide a more complete package for surgical patients – that can also help improve outcomes.

Thinking about people was also behind the creation of the Comprehensive Care Group. Those businesses are going to look at conditions and chronic diseases, such as metabolic disorders, from the patient’s perspective to find more opportunities for all of Johnson & Johnson’s businesses.

For example, metabolic disorders include chronic conditions like diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease — and the breadth and scope of Johnson & Johnson’s business puts the company in a great position to provide comprehensive care to patients.

In fact, this was a point made by Nick Valeriani during last month’s third quarter earnings call. To illustrate how different parts the business can help management diabetes, during our third quarter conference call Nick Valeriani described the use of biomarkers to detect diseases and medical conditions earlier than before, including a new gene-based test that’s been approved to detect if breast cancer had spread to the lymph nodes. These novel new approaches were made possible through collaboration between the company’s pharmaceutical and medical diagnostics businesses.

As part of last week’s changes, Nick was given responsibility for an entirely new function for Johnson & Johnson — the Office of Strategy and Growth – which is charged with looking at new technology platforms and strategic opportunities outside of businesses the company is in now. This all reminded me of a post my colleague Bill Price put together some time ago – about how one of Johnson & Johnson’s strengths was how it would periodically reinvent itself – and that this reinvention has helped Johnson & Johnson grow and prosper as the market and industry has changed over time.

You could say that in this regard, Nick’s new role is nothing really new – it’s just another part of the ongoing reinvention of the company.