Johnson & Johnson began as a small family business, founded by three brothers. They started with the innovative and somewhat radical idea that medical products used to treat wounds and injuries should all be sterile. When they created this company, the Johnson brothers never imagined the success they would experience. Through generations of new innovations and product creations, Johnson & Johnson has been able to shape the United States economy and have far more influence than they ever imagined. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essayJohnson & Johnson began when one of three brothers, Robert Wood Johnson, heard a speech by Joseph Lister, an advocate of the production of antisepsis. Lister believed that ready-to-use surgical dressings would be much safer and sterile than the products used on-site by doctors and nurses of the time. James Wood Johnson, Edward Mead Johnson, and Robert Wood Johnson took this idea and put it into production, launching their first ready-to-use surgical dressings in 1886. The company was officially incorporated in 1886 and took off from there. 1886, Johnson & Johnson became the largest and most influential healthcare company. Starting with a small office based in New Brunswick, NJ, Johnson & Johnson expanded to Canada in 1919 and to England in 1924. In the 1940s and 1960s Johnson & Johnson continued to experience tremendous international growth ranging from places like Zimbabwe up to Portugal and Spain. In the 1980s, mergers and acquisitions of new companies began to aid their rapid expansion. In addition to seeking to make a profit, Johnson & Johnson has made countless efforts to conduct its business ethically, impacting society in a positive way. The first example of these efforts was the creation of their disaster relief program in 1906, which sent volunteers and trains full of medical supplies to San Francisco just hours after the great earthquake and fire to help provide aid to the victims and the survivors. Furthermore, in 1982, Johnson & Johnson received enormous praise for its extraordinary handling of the Chicago Tylenol murder case. After bottles of Extra Strength Tylenol were tampered with and laced with potassium cyanide in Chicago, seven people died from consuming the pills. Although it was largely believed to be an accidental event, concentrated in Chicago, Johnson & Johnson chose to remove all of their capsules from shelves and issued a nationwide recall on all of their Tylenol products. Rather than worry about having to recall 31 million bottles, worth $100 million, Tylenol chose the ethical path, protecting the safety of the American people. Although their shares fell 38% to 5% during the scare, the media praise they received for their handling of the situation helped them recover within a year. This is an amazing recovery, as many businesses would have gone bankrupt due to this incident. Furthermore, by placing ethics before profit, Johnson & Johnson has a mission to maintain an environmentally friendly company. They have drastically reduced their consumption of water, energy and waste. They recently changed the type of packaging they use in their plastic bottles due to harmful chemicals discovered during the manufacturing process. By working with the EPA, Johnson & Johnson is committed to setting a good example for other companies and reducing greenhouse gases. Striving to consistently help the American people is a serious goal, and Johnson & Johnson has arrived.