The case illustrates how Johnson & Johnson, the world’s leading comprehensive manufacturer of health care products aligns its human resource practices with its global business strategy. The critical task is the development of a global mindset among J&J managers. The case describes in detail international recruitment and management development processes and examines opportunities and challenges facing J&J in this area. The case can also be used together with the following complementary cases “Developing a Global Mindset at Unilever – 1998” (GM 795) that describes another approach to the globalization of management, and “Developing Managers for a Global Business” (GM 790 & GM 794) which reviews the management development strategy at J&J and Unilever in the late 1980s.
