In: Economics
Johnson and Johnson (J&J) is one of the biggest international brands today. Set up in 1886 by the Johnson brothers, the company asserted its pharmaceutical presence in 1973. Over the period of over a century since its inception, J&J has acquired many smaller companies. Acquisition in the early 1960s was not a largely common phenomena- and J&J's acquisition of Belgium company Janssen in 1961 was a bold move and has been one of the most succesful J&J moves till date.
J&J can be considered a participant of (if not the pioneer of) two big movements in industry- one acquisition and the other increased investment on R&D development. From different kinds of baby creams to bandages to medical devices- product diversification has been another one of the succesul moves by J&J since the early years.
However, no company progresses overnight- there is hard work and struggle involved. The most important part of success is how and what you learn from the failures. I am of the personal view that J&J has few of the best products on the market- creams for babies that work on adults as well. It is one of the few major players in the market that offer completely water proof band-aids.