What do you obsess about when you're CEO of Johnson & Johnson? Well, it's not Band-Aids. In an interview with the Financial Times, Bill Weldon (photo) admits to a fascination with technology. Perhaps that's one reason he's so determined to get new ideas from his so-called "Office of Strategy and Growth" set up in November. Could J&J soon partner up with the likes of, say, Google? "Who knows who it's going to be?" Weldon says.
The interview glances off controversy--Weldon briefly defends his decision to let Boston Scientific outbid J&J for device-maker Guidant, and all he says about suing the American Red Cross for trademark violation is that it was "the last thing we wanted to" do. It only mentions J&J's restructuring --and 4,000 layoffs-- in passing. But it gives Weldon plenty of space to talk over J&J's virtues, as he sees them, such as its approach to innovation and its decentralized management structure. Though the latter, he says, causes at least some people to wonder just how he spends his time in exchange for that his most recent annual paycheck of $28 million. "My son says I just sit around and drink coffee and go to meetings," he says.
- read the rest of the interview in the Financial Times