strategic management at Johnson & Johnson

Strategic managers exercise control when they attempt to deploy the tools of management to achieve long-range organizational goals in relation to the rest of the industry. A way of understanding strategic as opposed to purely managerial control might be to think of an organization such as Johnson & Johnson as a thermostat. A heater heats the room when the temperature falls below a certain level. Management in general decides when that low temperature has been reached and what mechanisms should be set into motion to enable the heater to heat the room, but a strategic manager alone determines the optimum temperature, of when a market environment is too cool or too hot.

Diversity of purpose and regional control of international branches are the 'temperatures' at which Johnson & Johnson has set its strategic control thermostat. For instance, as a "control" in maintaining strategic dominance of the drug and healthcare industry, the company has set the fundamental strategic direction to remain a broadly-based human health care company for the consumer, pharmaceutical and medical device and diagnostics markets. (J & J. Official Website, 2005) This is a wise description in that, rather than specializing in one arena of health care, Johnson and Johnson's diversity of products and character buffets it against some of the specific regulatory turmoil that has affected largely pharmaceutically-based health care companies, such as Pfizer and Merck. The stress on local managerial control also allows the company's diversity to be regionally specific and focused, tailored to the needs of its environment. Its lack of directive control is a calculated strategic decision of control that allows regional branches of J&J both to take advantage of J&J's diversity as a company and to tailor the company's resources to the region commercially.

Works Cited

Strategic Control." (2004) Johnson & Johnson Official Investor Website. Retrieved 1 Jan 2005 at http://www.investor.jnj.com/strategic.cfm