By deploying corporate philanthropy dollars to tackle pressing social issues directly though customized programs at UCLA, Wharton, INSEAD and others, Johnson & Johnson’s initiatives go well beyond your father’s executive education.  

One of these customized programs at UCLA gives leaders of community-based organizations specialized management training to manage more effectively and strategically. The tools and skills these leaders acquire are more critical than ever as they wrestle with today’s unprecedented challenges, which could threaten not just the organizations’ abilities to serve communities but their very existence. From HIV/AIDS leaders in Africa to directors of Head Start agencies across the United States, UCLA has partnered with Johnson & Johnson for nearly two decades to give community leaders, health workers and others a big dose of entrepreneurial skills to enhance their organizations’ operations and impact. This proven model could herald a new era at the intersection of business, B-schools and society.   “True philanthropy must go beyond writing a check to make sustainable impact,” says Conrad Person, Director, Corporate Contributions at Johnson & Johnson.  “The sophisticated management tools this partnership offers benefit the organization longer than any grant could.” This novel idea is one manifestation of Johnson & Johnson’s overarching approach, which could be called “corporate philanthropic nurturer,” thanks to its deep and broad involvement in the many programs it designs or supports. It identified UCLA early on as the right partner, given its renowned expertise in social enterprise, particularly via its Price Center for Entrepreneurial Studies.  “The people we train through these partnerships have had no formal management education previously, but each oversees the equivalent of a small business – complete with the frustrations that come with operating an entrepreneurial venture, such as how to expand, get resources, and professionalize staff,” says Al Osborne, Senior Associate Dean at UCLA Anderson. Partnerships currently underway include:   Founded in 1991, the Head Start-Johnson & Johnson Management Fellows Program – the only such program of its kind – provides intensive training annually for Head Start directors and now boasts more than 1,100 graduates. An outgrowth of the Management Fellows Program, the UCLA/Johnson & Johnson Health Care Institute, was created in 2001 to train Head Start directors to educate and empower parents to treat everyday childhood ailments like fevers, colds and earaches at home. To date, the program has reached nearly 27,000 families nationwide, saving Medicaid millions of dollars annually in decreased ER/clinic visits, and continues to expand.       

The UCLA/Johnson & Johnson Health Care Executive Program trains leaders of community-based health care organizations, such as clinics providing care to the uninsured. The program has graduated more than 400 health care leaders since its founding in 2002.        Since its 2006 inception, the Johnson & Johnson/UCLA Management Development Institute for HIV/AIDS has worked with African universities to provide rigorous in-country management training to more than 250 leaders from organizations in Kenya and Ghana devoted to the care, treatment and support of those living with HIV/AIDS. “As a result of their experience, participants reshape their organizations and improve the quality of the services they provide, translating to real, tangible benefits to peoples’ lives around the world,” says Osborne.

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