Johnson & Johnson Uses Organizational Design to Integrate Marketing and

Purchasing
Johnson & Johnson, a global company known for high-quality products and brands, is showing
how the creative use of organizational design can promote integration between some important
supply chain groups. Supply management professionals, who are part of the support activity
called procurement, have a wide range of internal customers. One internal customer group is
marketing, which is responsible for activities that could benefit from the involvement of
professional supply managers.
Executive managers have assigned a sourcing manager to J&J’s corporate marketing and
promotion strategy team to support their efforts when developing contracts. Examples of service
areas where the marketing team requires contract support include printing, convention and
meeting space, media purchases, promotional displays and tradeshows, marketing research, and
advertising and promotion. For example, sourcing involvement resulted in a reduction of
companywide printing suppliers from 600 to 5.
By being part of the marketing strategy team, the sourcing professional adds value to the
marketing and promotion process. He verifies that every unit within the corporation is charged
the same best rate from suppliers and reserves the right to audit. He controls the buying of
advertising and media support while working to gain most-favored-customer status with media
suppliers. In short, He assumes a major part of the contracting process that marketing simply
does not want. This allows marketing professionals to focus on those areas where they can make
the greatest contribution. Although this sourcing manager currently supports only U.S.
marketing, his business plan calls for providing support to worldwide marketing units over the
next several years.
Questions:
1. Why they integrate the functions of marketing and Sourcing team
2. What are the benefits getting from the above decisions