JE 4b-Misalignment

During the 2011 winter semester, I interned for Biosense Webster, a Johnson and Johnson company. In the healthcare industry, Johnson and Johnson is well-known and respected for its credo; not that the credo says anything more spectacular than what other firms state in their respective "credos", but rather how strictly JNJ follows it, even at the expense of market share and substantial sales revenues. This strictness in following the credo is part of a corporate culture, or "style" as defined in the 7S model, to "do the right thing"; the credo itself is the "share values" portion of the 7S model. As an example, you may recall the Tyenol incident in the 70's, in which a person outside of JNJ purposefully put cyanide into bottles of Tyenol. JNJ was not responsible for the incident, however in the interest in public safety, a massive recall was ordered, resulting in a loss in the hundreds of millions; consequently to this incident, JNJ devised the "safety seal". As a result of the actions of JNJ in the interest of public safety, and the development of the safety seal, several analysts have concluded that JNJ more than made up the losses in both revenues and market share from the Tyenol-cyanide incident. That was then; let me tell you about "the now."

Upon arrival to Los Angeles, I took the opportunity to re-read the JNJ credo, per the request of JNJ. When I reported to BWI Ops Finance, I saw something quite different from what I read. A part of the credo talks about how people are a key asset in the JNJ business model, the "staff" part of the 7S model; furthermore, the HR policy was to never assign difficult projects to personnel without providing training, if such training was needed. What I saw was a finance department vastly understaffed and overworked; I also saw department heads of other departments placing unrealistic demands upon the senior finance personnel. I got a vibe from the other finance personnel, including my direct report, of a mixture of "we have to do it or it's our behinds"; my peers often joked out loud "where the heck is the credo now?" A misalignment appeared to be between the expectations of personnel via how things were in the past, very closely followed credo internally, and how things were now.

This misalignment became ever more painfully apparent 6 weeks later: my direct report, an amazing and vital part of the finance team, quit to join a no-name company. This spread like a contagious disease as more resignations soon followed; I was left as the sole Operations Finance team member that was US based, as an intern! I had just completed a painstaking project of computer programming; a project that was very frustrating as a finance guy, and put a bad taste in my mouth; so much for that HR policy. I repeatedly stated that I didn't know how to do computer programming and the reply was simply, "get it done". I went to IT and had to repeatedly grovel to get help and finally, with ITs divine guidance and help from my direct report, before she quit, got the project done. Therefore, I quickly observed that a significant misalignment between their "shared values" of how to treat and help employees versus the reality of the work environment and the "structure", or how tasks should be divided, is what led to the sudden and quick departure of key senior financial analysts. I later learned that my IT project was similar to other projects given to the Ops Finance team that had no relevance to our defined roles in Ops Finance, and furthermore, was exacerbated by the lack of people to help lighten the load and pressure from upper-eschelon management.

This misalignment was more severely felt with the departure of several key analysts; my new direct report and Ops Finance colleague in Juarez, Mexico, could both feel the pain more than I could. Furthermore, my new direct report, a very talented and hard-working Israeli with whom I felt a close bond, felt under-appreciated. He had accomplished amazing projects from JNJ and took on a role that was not an easy role to fulfill. He had hoped, this would elevate him from "contractor" status, of which he had been in for a few years, to being hired as a permanent employee of Johnson and Johnson. When JNJ failed to do so, and even talked of letting the other Ops Finance colleague in Juarez, Mexico go (who was an excellent and needed team player), my new direct report confided in me he was going to switch companies. Furthermore, a break down in the "strategy" portion of the company seemed to be occurring across the US; several plants were shut down for federal manufacturing-compliance issues, and recall after recall plagued the company's market cap and market share.

It was an odd paradox; my colleagues highly-respected our immediate CEO, CFO, and President; the "style" of management was doing the best they could, and even I felt it a great privilege to learn from these great men, and saw that they took first-hand interest in our lives. However, it seemed like despite their acute awareness of finance shortage, things were not happening to correct the problem. This pattern may not have been unfamiliar territory for the seasoned employees I worked with; the jokes often abounded behind closed doors.

The purpose of this post has been to concentrate on the pain of misalignment, first-hand experienced, within an organization. When talking of pain, the focus will be mainly negative and seemingly depressing. I wish to emphasize I am grateful to JNJ and BWI for the internship opportunity and experience, for good and bad. I will state that the pain of misalignment outweighed the perceived benefits of higher salary and prestige of working for JNJ; upon leaving the internship, the VP of Operations asked if I was coming back. I just can't bear to put myself back in such an environment again; if they can get things better aligned, I'd consider it, but as of this moment, I want a firm that is better aligned internally. No company is perfect, and cannot be, with imperfect people composing and leading it, which is why the understanding and application of the basic 7S model is critical.