Does James Burke experience a defining moment while at Johnson and Johnson? Explain.
1. Does James Burke experience a defining moment while at Johnson and Johnson? Explain.
I think James Burke’s experience at Johnson and Johnson (J&J) is definitely a defining moment. His experience in J& J had a lots of ups and downs in his career. He even had to quit and rejoin J& J . He had failures before he had success in his career. His newly launched product named Liquiprin was fairly successful but his other three products viz a nose drop, a cough medicine and a chest rub marketed under the Arrestin trademark was a complete failure. But he learned from his failure to improve for the next time. In my view point the major leadership lesson Burke learned was from the General when he said, “ What business is all about is making decisions, and you don’t make decisions without making mistakes. Now, don’t ever make that mistake again, but please make sure you make other mistakes.” These words of inspiration from the General truly demonstrated how a leader directs and drives passion in his followers. Burke’s successful leadership and demonstrated integrity promoted him to become President of J& J Co. During this time he challenged the General’s 30 years old Credo. I think at this point he had a distinct vision to drive the future of the company . “The leader needs two intellectual abilities that are not formally assessed in an academic way: he needs to have a sense for the unknowable and be able to foresee the unforeseeable “( Greenleaf,1991, p. 14). True to this remark, Burke had a peer vision to foresee the unforeseeable and react early to any future change. When he became the CEO of the J& J he had a challenging job of strengthening the market for J&J. The early Challenge for Burke was the moving of Tylenol from a prescription analgesic to an over the counter pain medication. In this context he went through various strategic marketing plans to compete with the competitors. His work was once again challenged here by the Tylenol Poisoning case in 1982. He personally took charge of the management of crisis at corporate level. These experiences of leadership were definitely defining moments.
