CFO Studio Magazine with Alison Cornell

G H G Mr. Caruso H L. to R.: Bill Curnan, Bob Barry, Michelle Findeis, Andrew Zezas I L. to R.: Donna Bernard, Craig Fallon, Elizabeth Miller J Montgomery Emmanuel K Kathleen McGowan CFO Studio hosts the Executive Dinner Series, including World-Class Companies CFO Dinners and Middle Market Companies CFO Dinners quarterly in New Jersey, Manhattan, Philadelphia, Chicago, San Francisco, and other markets around the U.S. CFO Studio hosts the CFO Breakfast Learning Series in multiple markets, as well, and hosts online Diginars, CFO Studio Receptions, the annual CFO Innovation Conference and the CFO Innovation Awards. The comments made by these guests are their own and may not reflect the opinions and/or policies of their companies or of CFO Studio and/or its promotional partners. “During his 10-year tenure as CFO, Johnson & Johnson’s share price has appreciated over 90 percent,” said Mr. Zezas. “Speaking as a shareholder, thank you, Dominic.” Finance’s Pillars In his remarks, Mr. Caruso said, “I owe a lot of credit to my predecessors. I’m fortunate to be in a long line of previous CFOs at Johnson & Johnson who have done outstanding work.” He went on to enumerate the four principles by which J&J’s Finance organization operates. These are: to drive competitive profitable growth, generate sustainable cash flow, allocate capital to maximize shareholder value, and manage enterprise risk. Regarding that third principle, allocating capital to maximize shareholder value, Mr. Caruso said, “We have very strict principles by which we do this. We have a set of hurdle rates and analysis that we use to ensure that each decision we’re making is maximizing the value that we set for the deployment of our capital.” Mr. Caruso runs a global finance team of 5,000. He spent part of his time at the microphone discussing the role of “the great financial people at Johnson & Johnson.” Finance professionals at J&J “are asked to do three things,” he said: “To drive sustainable, superior financial performance. And, I say that very clearly: to drive it, not to monitor it, or to measure it, or to report on it. To actually drive it. They’re also asked to develop great leaders,” he said. “And they’re asked to do one more thing, which is without compromise the most important thing that they do: To assure the financial integrity and compliance in what we do as a finance organization for Johnson & Johnson.” Mr. Caruso and the finance leaders at J&J have assured the company’s financial integrity such that Johnson & Johnson remains one of two companies in the world with a AAA credit rating. The CFOs in attendance gave him rousing applause for that accomplishment. C Q1 2017 WWW.CFOSTUDIO.COM 29 I J K