Pfizer’s Excel and Exceed

If you are a soon-to-be-former employee at Sandwich, it is hard to find much fun in Pfizer’s hubris and strategic missteps over the last decade. The rest of us though will enjoy this video, a collection of the US pharma giant’s recent media highlights, set to its own stirring corporate theme tune.

The YouTube site carries a comment from a recently retired ex-employee at Sandwich: “Video would be funny if the events were not true.” I disagree. It’s funny, because they are true. The world would be a much sadder place if we lost our sense of irony. But the humour doesn’t lessen my sympathy for the people of Sandwich (and elsewhere in the Pfizer empire).

How might Pfizer have avoided f***ing up so royally? Is it a simple case of strategic planning and managing by the numbers, and who cares about the people, gone wrong? Or did they create a monster that stifled innovation and creative leadership such that it just blundered over the inevitable cliff? Or both?

If you enjoyed this, you will love 10 Hilarious Corporate Songs Commissioned by Drug Companies, a great blog by Jim Edwards.