Say it aint so. I'm feeling the jelly swirling around in my head.By now I've spent a full year honing a carefully crafted cynical persona and suddenly that rock-solid image melts with one word.
I'm accused of empathy!
Empathy.
Empathy?
Empathy!
Fortune Magazine Touches on a Secret of Peter Rost’s Blog Success: Empathy
Posted by pharmamanufacturing
John Mack once suggested that some pharma bloggers write about Peter Rost in the hope of “riding in his wake,” and increasing their own site traffic and links. It might seem that way, but, let’s face it. Rost has been one of the most enigmatic figures in the industry for quite a few years, and his story only continues to become more interesting.
The latest evidence? Fortune just published a sympathetic, yet balanced piece on Rost and his blog.
Of course Rost’s Question Authority is serving the public by calling attention to questionable industry marketing practices, but there’s another reason why it is so effective: Empathy.
I was glad that Fortune picked up on this, because empathy is what makes me want to read Question Authority. Between the “self marketing” posts that Fortune referred to (and that Mack had teased Rost for—the marketing of the Question Authority clothing line, for example) and the rants against Pfizer, its CEO and management, Rost has listened to marginalized “outsiders on the inside”—-whether Ashok Idnani of India, or “Jane Roe, “and brought their stories to the world. For this alone, he deserves praise. And there are, no doubt, many more stories out there waiting to be told.
Rost may not have become a pharma CEO but has become something more interesting (More on critics who love pharma here)
As Mack observed, Rost needs no promotion and most people surfing the Net will find his blog immediately. But, like many others, I’ll continue to post updates on his story—out of sheer interest, and for some of our core readers who are distanced from marketing and corporate functions. Here’s a link from his site to the Fortune article.
3 comments:
Dr. Rost, No one goes through what you, as a whistleblower, went through, without considerable moral and ethical character. And yes, even empathy. At times you may even empathize with some of the executives within Big Pharma. That doesn't mean you won't rip them to shreds if you find they are corrupt...which all too many of them are.
Altogether the Fortune article was an outstanding example of how one human being can change an industry. Dr. Rost is only 48, so we've got another 52 years of whistleblowing to look forward to....
No jellyfish. A herring, I would say. Keep on blogging. This is the only way we have to keep from being swallowed by the sharks and bleeding in the water. It is also the only way to keep some semblance of a democracy here, where the *populus* has some input and can be heard.
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