Corporate culture in Pharma and Biotechs
Today a tweet from the GoToMeeting team caught my eye – they were tweeting about how companies can influence employees and customers under the #deliveringhappiness hashtag:
The list of Zappos core values they were referring to was as follows:
It amused me because while #8 is something I increasingly hear from pharma and biotech companies over the last 12-18 months, none of the others are things that seem very much to the forefront or the hearts and minds of Pharmaland. I would even go to so far as to say that #1 on the Zappos list is probably one of the last in Pharma. It shouldn’t be, but it certainly seems that way. Sadly, even biotechs seem to be coming more corporate and Pharma-like these days as more people move from one to the other and vague buzzword bingo becomes the norm.
Perhaps these kind of ideas should resonate more with Pharma, maybe a more cheerful work environment would make a difference to people’s lives, but it struck me how different the retail and drug industries really are – they’re a world apart, and not just in terms of regulations.
Thoughts?
4 Responses to “Corporate culture in Pharma and Biotechs”
As a researcher in biotech, definitely #9 to be Passionate and Determined is key. To be an effective scientist, I think you must feel passion for the area of research and you need the drive to keep going even when experiments fail or the data just aren’t working the way we imagined they would.
Love this, was really hoping there would be some passionate scientists out there!
Good point on keeping going – when things don’t work as expected, sometimes problem solving is key or we actually learn a lot from negative results about the biology.
#5 also happens in Pharma research-we are learning and (hopefully) using this new knowledge to grow, as is being open minded and creative (#4)
#3 about fun and wildness, we had a CEO who actually lectured the
directors during a programme development meeting that we needed to stop
being silly and be more professional at work. Frankly, we ignored him and within
months we had converted him–he learned that although a few jokes or
laughs may occur during a meeting, the meeting still accomplishes its
goal, and more importantly, we delivered on our objectives and managed
to do so in a fun atmosphere. We were laughing but we were not treating our work as a joke.
#10 I must admit is rare……
Love your story about the CEO – so glad you all ignored him! Life is too short not to have fun.
Recently, I was in Boston/Cambridge and was a little sad to see rather a lot of suits around – always thought biotech was more immune to that, but I guess as Pharma companies move into Cambridge the change towards more corporatism is inevitable.
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