Joaquin Duato, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Johnson &amp; Johnson, joined Economic Club Chairman David M. Rubenstein to explore Johnson &amp; Johnson’s strategy for driving the next era of healthcare innovation and what it takes to lead a global enterprise through an accelerating transformation in medicine.

Joaquin Duato, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Johnson & Johnson

Washington Welcomes

You're listening to The Economic Club of Washington, D.C. Speaker Series, the premier forum for leaders. And now, Economic Club Chairman David Rubenstein. Preparing for this, I did some research and I was disappointed to learn that the Band-Aids I've been using all these years are no longer owned by Johnson & Johnson.

What happened to the Band-Aids? I mean, I thought Band-Aids were Johnson & Johnson. And how come you became CEO and you got rid of the Band-Aids? So, it's not only you. I think many retirees of the company are sending me mail regarding that same feeling. And many of them work in our consumer sector. And even today, when I tell people I'm the CEO of Johnson & Johnson, they tell me the baby shampoo company. All the time. All the time.

So, you became the CEO and then within a year or two of that, you spun out your entire consumer division. All the kind of products that I'm the one that I buy those things at the drugstore. And all those things you got rid of. Why did you do that? Yeah. We wanted to be more focused on medical innovation. And the consumer business has departed from medical innovation. We were more on areas, more connected with cosmetics or over-the-counter medication.

And it didn't fit in the overall umbrella on trying to bring medical innovation to treat tough, difficult conditions like oncology, cardiovascular or dementia. So, we wanted to be a more focused company dedicated to medical innovation. And we were deliberate about separating the consumer company. And it's good for companies like Johnson & Johnson to reinvent ourselves. All right. Since you did that, has your stock gone up or gone down?

Joaquin Duato, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Johnson & Johnson

Read the full transcript

The candid version is on a podcast,
not the earnings call.

Joaquin Duato, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Johnson & Johnson

Read the full transcript

The candid version is on a podcast, not the earnings call.

The candid version is on a podcast,
not the earnings call.