Before taking the company public, Robert Wood Johnson II worried that shareholder pressure might eventually overwhelm the company's values. To prevent this, he created the famous Johnson & Johnson Credo, which established the company's priorities:
- Patients, doctors, and nurses
- Employees
- Communities
- Shareholders
He believed these priorities were so important that he had the Credo carved into massive limestone monuments placed at company headquarters.
For decades, this philosophy helped guide the company.
Eventually, however, later generations of leadership abandoned it.