“I’m one of these who believes you have so much gray matter in your head. And if you take all your gray matter and you worry about what you can’t control, you’re wasting an awful lot of good gray matter, right?”
–Johnson & Johnson CEO Bill Weldon, in a recent interview with Fortune. The New Jersey-based maker of Band-Aids, knee replacements, and prescription drugs–and a bellwether for the health-care industry–announced mixed first-quarter results today. While quarterly earnings of $1.26 per share exceeded the Street’s expectations, revenue of $15 billion was down 7.2% from a year ago and fell short of estimates.
Pharma revenues took a hit from an expired patent on anti-psychotic drug Risperdal. So Weldon said that he told employees to focus on what J&J can control: “Let’s worry about the products we have, and let’s go out and make sure we are getting those out to the people who can use our products.” –Jessica Shambora