A Look Inside Pfizer's Corporate Jets, Now Up for Sale

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  1

  zazuekitty

  06/03/09 | Report as spam

  RE: A Look Inside Pfizer's Corporate Jets, Now Up for Sale

  Dear Jim,
  
  Thanks so much for again giving corporate aviation negative publicity. As if the industry needed any more. I especially appreciated how you slanted your article to ensure that it sounded as if the only use for the Pfizer jet was "joyriding." Not mentioning anything about how much the company would have had to pay their chief executives had they had to wait in a commerical airport for hours to hopefully make their flight to make it to the meetings on time.
  You also neglected to talk about the productivity that happens on the corporate jet. Oh, but you probably did not know that. Have you ever been on a commercial flight and tried to have your confidential business information spread out before you to make a decision on a new idea? Or work on the project at hand?
  There is a lot of publicity about financial professionals lacking integrity in this country. We need to also focus on our journalists.

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  2

  Manabozho

  06/03/09 | Report as spam

  RE: A Look Inside Pfizer's Corporate Jets, Now Up for Sale

  Just to keep the innuendo straight--is the blurry photo from of the bare-midriff performers actually from any of the corporate jets mentioned herein? And if so, how obtained?
  
  The San Jose Mercury did a harsh piece about the corporate jet at Borland, a software company, and CEO Phillipe Kahn's use and involvement. They ran a photo of Kahn, an aviation hobbyist, in an old, fleece-lined flight jacket, smiling in front of his personal flame-painted aerobatics plane. It did a great job of rousing the passions of the readership, creating a devil-may-care impression at a time when Borland was in trouble. Only problem--it wasn't corporate, it wasn't a jet, and it certainly wasn't the plane that was the subject of the article.
  
  When I called (I have no connection with Borland or Kahn) to protest the piling-on effect of the inaccurate image, the Merc printed a retraction.
  
  If the pole-dancer image in the article isn't really from one of the corporate jets in the article--and is only intended to show your readers what a DVD player does (!)--perhaps a retraction is on order.

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  3

  memery26

  06/03/09 | Report as spam

  RE: A Look Inside Pfizer's Corporate Jets, Now Up for Sale

  Zazuekitty,
  
  On the plus side, now that Pfizer's CEO will be flying like a mere mortal, he'll have more time to dream up the next big campaign to market products to consumers who cannot legally buy them.
  
  - Joe Camel

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  4

  BNET's Jim Edwards

  06/03/09 | Report as spam

  RE: A Look Inside Pfizer's Corporate Jets, Now Up for Sale

  @zazuekitty: Point taken. However, let's admit that the cost of having Kindler wait in line for business class at the airport (in terms of his salary) is the same as it for him boarding a Gulfstream. So selling the plane still saves PFE money.
  
  Certainly, Kindler may be more "productive" in the quiet of a corporate jet -- but for many readers this issue isn't about productivity. It's about the 19,000 people that Kindler laid off in Pfizer's merger with Wyeth while he jets around like a 21st Century King Louis XIV.
  
  The fact that Kindler is selling his jets and going commercial will give him a slightly more realistic view of what it is like to be one of his customers or employers.
  
  Of course, that's only if the jets are sold. Right now, they aren't.

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  5

  BNET's Jim Edwards

  06/03/09 | Report as spam

  RE: A Look Inside Pfizer's Corporate Jets, Now Up for Sale

  @Manabozho: The image is clearly marked as a still from Iron Man, in which Tony Stark's plane has an on-board stripper pole.

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  6

  il128

  06/03/09 | Report as spam

  RE: A Look Inside Pfizer's Corporate Jets, Now Up for Sale

  We used a Corporate jet to go from Terre Haute, Indiana to New York, New york... Three times. No work was done. We did however get drunk every time. The bar was very well stocked.
  
  Jeff wasn't a very good host. He just sat there and got hammered in silence on Vodka that he called a "Martini".
  
  Hank? Hank was a great host. He talked and joked with us the whole flight. He was a good guy, down to earth.
  
  Funny that. The corporate jet has a bar. What's Pfizer's "on the job alcohol use" policy? Oh wait, that's for the mortals.

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  7

  zazuekitty

  06/04/09 | Report as spam

  RE: A Look Inside Pfizer's Corporate Jets, Now Up for Sale

  Jim,
  
  If this article was intended to express Pfizer's God-like life-style while people suffer, I missed it. I have reread it and don't see anything communicated that even hints about the number of people Pfizer laid off. However you stated, "?but for many readers this issue isn't about productivity. It's about the 19,000 people that Kindler laid off in Pfizer's merger..." If this is true, where is your research that readers don't consider productivity on an airplane? That is simply YOUR opinion and not only is it your opinion; you are assuming your readers are going to have that conclusion from this article. I am not even going to address the picture of the stripper pole?(again where is the honesty in journalism?)
  
  There will always be people and companies that do not act with the best of integrity that take advantage of resources. Obviously the above reader, il128, is one of them. But please don't use these companies as a vehicle to take down business aviation as some sort of personal vendetta because you simply do not know enough about it. Business aviation contributes a mass amount of revenue to our economy and these negative attacks during this economically challenged time are fueling further job losses. Please don?t contribute to that especially if you don?t have all of the facts.
  

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  8

  BNET's Jim Edwards

  06/04/09 | Report as spam

  RE: A Look Inside Pfizer's Corporate Jets, Now Up for Sale

  I've mentioned the layoffs at Pfizer ad nauseam, but for the record, here it is again:
  
  http://industry.bnet.com/pharma/1000909/as-layoffs-begin-wyeth-execs-get-75-million-severance-package/
  
  As for the idea that flying in a private jet makes you more productive: If this were true then CEOs would demand that every employee travel by Gulfstream. Strangely, CEOs always conclude that only themselves and their wives are more productive on private jets -- everyone else gets coach and business class.

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  9

  zazuekitty

  06/05/09 | Report as spam

  RE: A Look Inside Pfizer's Corporate Jets, Now Up for Sale

  Hi Jim,
  
  Thanks for the layoff website however it was not the actual layoffs that I was disputing. Again in your blog above you are incorrect. ?Eighty-six percent of business aviation flights carry marketing and sales personnel, technical experts, other company representatives and customers ? not top company executives,? Ed Bolan, NBAA President and CEO.
  
  This is the problem I am trying to point out to you. Journalists are writing from tribal knowledge and perceptions. These falsehoods continue to be exploited by the media and threaten over 1.2 million corporate aviation manufacturing and service jobs in the United States. Not to mention the other businesses, such as, hotels, restaurants, hospitals, and retail that are all supported due to business aviation.
  
  I am begging you to be a responsible journalist. Don't sell out, don't print rumors to hurt others and don't jump on the bandwagon and use yourself as a microphone to spew lies where others can't defend themselves. Did professors not stress this to you when you were in journalism school?
  
  Please go to NBAA.com for more information and facts about aviation. Also, please watch this newscast as it will support more findings. It features Richard Santulli, creator of NetJets.
  http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232video=1140335760&play=1
  

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  10

  zazuekitty

  06/05/09 | Report as spam

  RE: A Look Inside Pfizer's Corporate Jets, Now Up for Sale

  Previous Post included question marks where quotation marks should have been. I apologize and have attempted to correct.
  
  Hi Jim,
  
  Thanks for the layoff website however it was not the actual layoffs that I was disputing. Again in your blog above you are incorrect. "Eighty-six percent of business aviation flights carry marketing and sales personnel, technical experts, other company representatives and customers-not top company executives," Ed Bolan, NBAA President and CEO.
  
  This is the problem I am trying to point out to you. Journalists are writing from tribal knowledge and perceptions. These falsehoods continue to be exploited by the media and threaten over 1.2 million corporate aviation manufacturing and service jobs in the United States. Not to mention the other businesses, such as, hotels, restaurants, hospitals, and retail that are all supported due to business aviation.
  
  I am begging you to be a responsible journalist. Don't sell out, don't print rumors to hurt others and don't jump on the bandwagon and use yourself as a microphone to spew lies where others can't defend themselves. Did professors not stress this to you when you were in journalism school?
  
  Please go to NBAA.com for more information and facts about aviation. Also, please watch this newscast as it will support more findings. It features Richard Santulli, creator of NetJets.
  http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232video=1140335760&play=1
  
  

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  pharmaguru

  06/10/09 | Report as spam

  One of the displaced employees

  I am among the 19,000 employees displaced this year. Pfizer used terminology like displaced to make the bitter pill more palatable. Whatever they call it, many of my colleagues and I witnessed our corporate leadership make mistake after mistake. We, the loyal employees, always paid the price. In my decade plus years of service, the companies stock has dropped from $52 to $14. This article touched a nerve with me. Pfizer corporate leadership was spending billions on failed mergers, lobbying, and living it up while we, the investors and work force, took it on the chin. Last June, I attended a Pfizer Sales Meeting in Nevis, and Mr. Kindler and Mr. Read were there. They brought their wives and entourages along for a company paid vacation. Of course, they flew down in one of these luxurious planes. They joked about it at one of the dinners. Living like rock stars does make for good stories. I wonder if some of that important (secret) business talk on board the plane included a discussion around the company?s third major downsizing in 4 years.

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  12

  zazuekitty

  06/10/09 | Report as spam

  RE: A Look Inside Pfizer's Corporate Jets, Now Up for Sale

  Pharmaguru,
  
  I appreciate your testimony and am sorry you suffered from the irresponsible actions of the company in which you worked.
  
  As I stated above, "There will always be people and companies that do not act with the best of integrity that take advantage of resources." It is no secret that these companies have come to light in the last few months along with various other entities. We are all suffering from decisions that people made that were void of integrity. We all KNOW that there are people who acted with greed. That is not an argument or debate on the table.
  
  However, the media is treating the companies that have taken advantage of others and cheated their investors as the sole example of business avaiation. These examples should not reflect the whole.