DIVERSITY & INCLUSION

“You Belong”
An Interview with Wanda Bryant Hope, Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer, Johnson & Johnson

EDITORS’ NOTE Wanda Hope is Our first step was to create a situa- Having D&I as a business imperative is
responsible for globally advancing tion assessment, so we connected with so critical. If we can educate our organization on
J&J’s diversity and inclusion strategy, more than 7,000 J&J employees around the overall value and the importance of it and
strengthening D&I capabilities, improv- the world to ask them their thoughts on people really understand that, it starts to shift the
ing reputation, and driving innovation both diversity and inclusion. We also did way everyone thinks about D&I and starts to shift
and growth for future success. Prior to a pretty big external scan to figure out processes, systems and the way we operate on a
her current role, she served as the what was working and driving success day-to-day basis.
Vice President of Global Performance in some other organizations. Is this more difficult to do given the size
& Development, Vice President of From those, we found that while and global footprint of J&J?
Commercial Analytics, Development diversity may look different depending J&J is a massive, global organization with
& Operations, Vice President of Sales & upon what country you are in, every- about 140,000 employees in 80 or so different
Marketing, Surgery and Chronic Care body wanted to feel like they belonged. countries. Our D&I team only has 15 people, which
Franchises, National Sales Director, Wanda Bryant Hope Everybody wanted to feel like they had makes it difficult to engage each of those employ-
and Global Marketing Leader. She a voice and that they were being heard. ees, so the first thing that we needed to do was to
was recently recognized by Black Enterprise as one We then built a whole new strategy anchored engage our leaders.
of the Most Powerful Women in Diversity and has on inclusion because we know that by focusing on The impact that D&I has on our culture, on
received several awards including the Healthcare inclusion, we can engage every single employee at engagement and on innovation, is not owned only
Businesswomen’s Association’s Rising Star Award, J&J across the globe in this conversation. by the office of D&I. It belongs to every employee
the YWCA Tribute to Women in Industry Award, We have redefined D&I within J&J as a part across J&J. We felt it was critically important that we
and the National Sales Network Community Service of that effort, and our new definition is “You engaged our leaders around the world in owning
award. Hope received her B.S. in marketing from The belong.” Diversity at Johnson & Johnson is about and executing our D&I strategy.
Pennsylvania State University. your unique perspective. It is about you, your We started at the top, with our CEO, Alex
colleagues, and the world we care for. It involves Gorsky, and our executive committee. Alex, our
COMPANY BRIEF Johnson & Johnson (jnj.com), all backgrounds, beliefs and the entire range of Chief Human Resources Officer, Peter Fasolo and,
together with its subsidiaries, researches and devel- human experience coming together. Inclusion at quite frankly, our entire executive committee, are
ops, manufactures, and sells various products in the J&J is about creating a deep sense of belonging, a team of leaders that truly believe in diversity and
healthcare field worldwide through three divisions: where you are valued, your ideas are heard, and inclusion. They understand the value of what this
Consumer, Pharmaceutical and Medical Devices. you advance this culture for everyone. brings internally and externally for J&J. So when
The company markets its products to the gen- This helps our people understand the we shared the strategy with them and explained
eral public, retail outlets and distributors, as well responsibility that we each have in driving a what we were asking them to do as leaders to help
as distributes directly to wholesalers, hospitals, and more inclusive culture and what that does for us drive this, everyone was immediately onboard.
healthcare professionals for prescription use. us as an organization as well as for the patients, We then enlisted leaders around the world
Johnson & Johnson was incorporated in 1887 and the consumers and the customers that we serve to help us gather data and develop insights. We
is based in New Brunswick, New Jersey. around the world. split the world into four different regions – North
How does D&I fit into J&J’s talent pro- America; Asia-Pacific; Europe, Middle East, and
How does Johnson & Johnson address diver- cesses and business strategies? Africa; and Latin America. We created a diversity
sity and inclusion? As we looked at integrating D&I into our tal- and inclusion advisory board of individuals at very
At J&J, diversity and inclusion have always ent processes, we found that there is unconscious high levels and co-created strategies with them so
been a part of who we are and are embedded bias built into systems and processes that we they would share ownership of these strategies.
in our company’s Credo. When J&J was founded needed to mitigate. So we have actually started This meant we had a group of D&I ambassadors
more than 130 years ago, more than half of our first using artificial intelligence to help us tease out that was able to help us deliver these messages to
15 employees were women, which was unheard of phrases and words from our job descriptions that the people that they lead day-to-day.
at that point in time. So having diverse representa- we know are inherently biased against women. We Finally, we actually created a launch around
tion has always been a part of who we are. have developed training on how unconscious bias our new definition and way of thinking about diver-
When I stepped into the role, we took a step may impact our thinking and our decision-making sity and inclusion and reached out to all employ-
back and decided that we needed to think about during the interview process. We have also embed- ees through their leaders. We explained our new
D&I differently. Our heads and our hearts were ded more inclusive concepts into the way that we vision and talked about what this means for each
absolutely in the right place and it was embedded manage performance and development throughout individual as well as for patients, consumers and
into our culture, but we weren’t thinking about it the year. customers that we serve around the world.
as holistically as we could. We felt we needed to There are other ways to incorporate D&I into This enabled everyone to get engaged in
treat D&I the same way we would any business other parts of our business. For instance, we have this effort and to understand the value and the
challenge or any business opportunity and build a embedded multicultural marketing into many of importance and the individual role that they play,
strategic plan that we could align and incorporate our brands to ensure that we are connecting with whether they were a people leader or an individual
across all of J&J’s businesses. an audience in a way that resonates with them. contributor within J&J. •
VOLUME 42, NUMBER 3 POSTED WITH PERMISSION. COPYRIGHT © 2019 LEADERS MAGAZINE, LLC LEADERS 43