Pfizer’s Activist Investor Drama, How Your Social Media Can Impact Your Career, and Scott’s Guide to London

Scott discusses Pfizer’s battle with Starboard, specifically why he’s hopeful that Pfizer’s stock will recover. He then gives advice to those early in their career on how to be thoughtful and err on the side of caution when it comes to social media. He wraps up with his tips to a listener who is traveling to London soon. Music: https://www.davidcuttermusic.com / @dcuttermusic Subscribe to No Mercy / No Malice Buy "The Algebra of Wealth," out now. Follow the podcast across socials @profgpod: Instagram Threads X Reddit Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:31Speaker 01

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• 1:01Speaker 02

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• 1:28Scott Galloway?

  Welcome to the Prof G Pods Office Hours. This is the part of the show where we answer your questions about business, tech, entrepreneurship, and whatever else is on your mind. Hey, Prof G. Hey, Scott and team. Hey, Scott. Hi, Prof G. Hey, Prof G. Hey, Prof G.

• 1:40Speaker 04

  Hi, Professor G.

• 1:41Scott Galloway?

  If you'd like to submit a question, please email a voice recording to [email protected]. Again, that's [email protected]. So with that, first question.

• 1:52Speaker 04

  Hi Prof G, this is Carrie from New York City and I'm 54 years old. Thank you so much for all of the years of insights that I've gotten from your podcast. I'm calling today to ask if you have any commentary about the latest drama that's unfolding with Pfizer's investor activists and its former executives who were originally trying to help the activists and seems like are now not helping them. I don't imagine that this is normal, but I don't have any experience, so your insights would greatly help. I'm an investor advisor and so I wanted to find out if you have any advice for me.

• 2:34Speaker 04

  And also, I'm greatly worried for my friends who work there. Do you have any advice for them? Thank you so much and I would love to hear your prediction. Bye.

• 2:45Scott Galloway?

  So thanks very much for the question Carrie and I think it's nice that you would take the time to ask a question because you're worried about your friend. We covered this on Prof G Markets a couple of weeks ago, but as a quick refresher, activist investor Starboard Capital has taken a $1 billion stake in Pfizer. The fund reportedly reached out to two former Pfizer executives, the former CEO Ian Reid and former CFO Frank DiAmelio, to support its agenda. However, things got a little twisted when Reid and DiAmelio unexpectedly changed their stance and decided to back the current Pfizer CEO. There's real drama there. The drama escalated when Borla learned about Starboard's plan by accident. He received an incomplete email from DiAmelio, which included a representative from Starboard CC'd to the email.

• 3:29Scott Galloway?

  That's how Borla found out that Starboard was preparing to announce its investment publicly at a conference. In terms of the numbers, Pfizer's stock has been cut in half since its record high in 2021, probably largely on the back of expectation around their vaccines. And it's flat this year, though it rose 3% on the news of Starboard taking an activist investor stake. The stock has cratered as demand for its COVID vaccine and Paxlovid treatment have fallen faster than expected. By the way, I love both those things. Pfizer's revenue fell 10% and net income dropping almost 60% in the first half. The company has announced cost cutting campaigns that are expected to save $5.5 billion by 2027. So effectively, what's happened is they benefited from the sugar high of vaccines, and that's still probably a great long-term business.

• 4:14Scott Galloway?

  But the world wants GLP-1. Over the past three years, Pfizer and Moderna have declined 22% and 81% respectively, while Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly have soared 163% and 305%. And investors are sort of, what have you done for me lately? And lately needs to be GLP-1. And Pfizer tried to get into the GLP-1 industry and stubbed its toe. And quite frankly, it didn't work. It estimated the pill could have been a $10 billion product with a potential $90 billion market. And instead, it just doesn't look like it's worked. Starboard is taken very seriously. They took a stake in Salesforce in 2022. It's the company that cut costs. The stock has done really well since then.

• 4:53Scott Galloway?

  They did the same thing at Starbucks. So, look, they will probably give the CEO cloud cover to make some cost cuts. An activist probably at Starboard thinks, okay, if the guy gets his act together, the stock goes up, we go away, leave him alone. And if it continues to go down or sideways, we get some seats on the board and come in and make some changes ourself. But I doubt that happens. Pfizer's a fantastic company. I would imagine they have good leadership. I don't know much about this individual. I would bet he's going to make some cost cuts. And that, I don't know, and that the stock probably recovers. That's not financial advice. But again, thanks for the question. Question number two.

• 5:31Speaker 05

  Hey Scott, this is Reid from San Diego. I took your advice from an Office Hours episode around a year ago and started making TikToks on my interests in finance and economics. It's been a fantastic creative outlet for me, and the reception has been beyond my wildest expectations. So, thank you for the inspiration. My question has to do with how young professionals should balance a social media presence with professionalism. I often make comparisons to relationships, substances, and sex in my videos. Can you tell I'm a fan of yours? But it seems to appeal to my demo of 18 to 26 year old men in finance. While not super explicit, the jokes are definitely unprofessional.

• 6:15Speaker 05

  I know you go back and forth on the dilemma of being family friendly. So if you were young today, how would you weigh the benefits and risks of making content and sharing your honest thoughts and jokes online? Thanks for all you do.

• 6:27Scott Galloway?

  This is a really interesting question. I get questions a lot from people saying, I admire how provocative you are. And I even notice sometimes when people on my podcast are more profane than they are elsewhere, because I'm profane and they think it gives them cloud cover to be more profane. What I would say is I have the luxury and the privilege of being economically secure and having people who love me unconditionally. Not that you don't have people who love you unconditionally, but I can be profane. I can be vulgar. Quite frankly, I can fuck up. And on a risk adjusted basis, being profane or vulgar in any professional situation, on a risk adjusted basis, is just a bad idea. Because you might say something really inarticulate, or really inelegant, or just plain fucking stupid, and it can really hurt your career.

• 7:09Scott Galloway?

  I'm at a point right now, I actually have a strategic objective around my profanity and vulgarity. Well, two. One, it's authentic. I am generally a profane and vulgar person, and I think more people are than I like to admit. And two, I consider myself a proud progressive. And one of the things I do not like about the Democratic Party is that we have become fucking humorless. And that is, we, you know, everything's sensitive, all the sensitivity training, anything you say could offend people. Well, guess what? Part of getting to a point of equality is having the confidence and the affection for each other to make fun of our differences. One of the things I love about my partnership with Kara Swisher, who's actually coming over for coffee right now, is that I make fun of her sexuality and she makes fun of mine.

• 7:53Scott Galloway?

  I make fun of her height and she makes fun of my hair, her abs, and stirrup, because we like each other, we're confident around each other. And I just don't like an environment where we've become so starched and so humorless that we are just too sensitive walking on made shells around us. I think that kind of gave rise to Trump, where he just came in and started being offensive and everyone was sort of ready for it. You need to be thoughtful at a young age about being profane and vulgar. As it relates to social media, I know that several big firms, when they're hiring someone, check their social media. I can't get over the people who have jobs and are constantly posting images of themselves at Mykonos and Ibiza. It's like, if I was your boss, I hate to say this, I'd be like, do you make any time for work? So I think

• 8:37Scott Galloway?

  you have to be very thoughtful about the image you put out there because that is your interview before the interview. Now, if you're balancing that with being a creator, I think being authentic is one thing, but I think as a younger person, you want to match, you really want to be more about substance and heft and domain expertise and creativity and keep err on the side of being less profane and less vulgar than you would naturally. Because the reality is, I don't want to say I can't be canceled, but if the advertisers flee from me, or Vox finally gets fed up and kicks me to the curb, or I say something and people take it out of context and just run with it and, you know, I lose, like I

• 9:17Scott Galloway?

  said, advertisers or my distribution agreements, or some employees quit, I'm going to be fine. If that had happened to me 20 years ago, I would not have been fine. So before you have economic security, and I hate to say this, you have to be measured. And I don't, I don't think that's a good thing. I'm not saying that's the way the world should be, but that is the way the world is. We have one quick break before our final question. Stay with us.

• 9:45Scott Galloway?

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• 10:30Scott Galloway?

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• 10:48Scott Galloway?

  Support for the show comes from Upwork. Trying to scale your business? At some point, you're probably going to hit a point where you need some help. Sometimes the best way to break through that is bringing in the right talent at the right time. Upwork can help. Upwork is a one-stop platform where you can find, hire, and pay expert freelancers across more than 125 categories. Whether you need specialized skills for a single project or extra support to keep up with demand, it's easy to connect with experienced professionals, review their work, and find the right fit. You can move faster without taking on the commitment of full-time hires. And for businesses that need the very best talent, Upwork Business Plus provides access to the top 1% of freelancers on the platform. AI-powered matching connects you with qualified candidates in under six hours, cutting down the time spent searching.

• 11:31Scott Galloway?

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• 11:59Scott Galloway?

  Support for the show comes from Vanta. As AI adoption grows, so does your company's security risks and requirements. New frameworks, audits, and vendors keep piling on, but your team isn't getting any bigger. Most compliance tools promise automation, but you're really stuck doing all the work by hand, chasing screenshots, validating controls, and playing catch-up when audit season comes around again. Vanta works differently. The regentech trust platform is built to scale with you, not slow you down. With over 1,400 automated tests across 400-plus integrations, Vanta collects evidence and monitors your controls year-round, cutting your audit prep by 82%. Plus, you can access the Vanta agent everywhere you work, whether your team is in Vanta every day or living in tools including Claude or Cursor. Want proof?

• 12:44Scott Galloway?

  Over 16,000 fast-growing companies like Ramp, Ryder, and Harvey save time and resources while scaling fast with Vanta. Learn more at vanta.com/profg and get $1,000 off. That's spelled V-A-N-T-A dot com slash prof G for $1,000 off. Welcome back. Question number three.

• 13:08Speaker 06

  Prof G, this is Glenn from New Orleans. My girlfriend and I are late 30s, early 40s, and are set to take a week-long vacation to London in mid-November. We're both divorced, and we both have young children we're leaving behind to go on this trip. We're really looking forward to this opportunity together, as we've only been dating for a few months, and we both love exploring cities. Do you have any recommendations for a newish couple with a good-sized expense budget to make the most of our time together? We're staying in Notting Hill, and I've already put Granger & Co. Restaurant on our list. Thanks so much for providing so much entertainment and insight across all your podcasts.

• 13:44Scott Galloway?

  Oh, Glenn, that's just so wonderful. And first off, this sounds passe, but go to AI, type in everything about you and what you want, what you just said to me, and say, "Please, please arrange a seven-day itinerary for us." And a bunch of that will not be relevant for you, but a bunch of it will, and it's fun. I'm not good at this because I'm a creature of habit, but I'll tell you a few things. I would... Go see that new ABBA kind of hologram 3D thing. I think that's really cool. I would, oh, absolutely, a must. You gotta go see a Premier League game. I hope you're in town for one, but I don't care if it's Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspurs, or my team Arsenal. It is just so much fun.

• 14:28Scott Galloway?

  I would walk around Soho. In terms of pubs, I would specifically go to this one pub, actually owned by Guy Ritchie, called Lore of the Land for their Sunday roast. I took my son, who just turned 17, for his first kind of legal beer. And I'm, you know, I like to do it every week. I just think it was so nice. And my son, I get these monosyllabic answers from him, but when he has a beer, this probably sounds weird, he kind of opens up, which I love. I would go do a great tea service at a fancy hotel like the Barclay or the Connet. I think that is a ton of fun, or very British, if you will. I would do a night out at Soho Farmhouse in the Cotswolds. When I moved to New York, and people said we had beautiful beaches here, I never believed them because I thought, well, I'm from California, and the beaches and the Hamptons are beautiful.

• 15:13Scott Galloway?

  And people told me, oh, the countryside, the British countryside's beautiful. I didn't believe them. I went out there, it's incredible. And Soho Farmhouse is just spectacular. And if, also, along the same lines, Maison Estelle has a sister property out in the Cotswolds called Estelle Manor, which is just like down in Abbey, rehabbed with a bunch of money by people with better tastes than the Abbeys or whoever they were that operated down in Abbey. Anyways, great restaurants. Also, just pick a neighborhood and just absolutely just walk around. I think it's fun to go to Selfridges and have dim sum there. I love those high-end malls that my kids, for some whatever reason, love. I think Westfield's is kind of, am I telling you to go to malls? Maybe you don't have kids, maybe you don't, maybe you don't need to do this.

• 15:56Scott Galloway?

  But anyways, Glenn from New Orleans, you're gonna have a fantastic time. Sorry, wasn't more help here. That's all for this episode. If you'd like to submit a question, please email a voice recording to [email protected]. Again, that's [email protected].

• 16:19Scott Galloway?

  This episode was produced by Jennifer Sanchez and Caroline Shageran. And Drew Burrows is our technical director. Thank you for listening to the Prop G Pod and the Vox Media Podcast Network. We will catch you on Saturday for No Mercy, No Malice, as read by George Hahn. And please follow our Prop G Markets Pod wherever you get your pods for new episodes every Monday and Thursday.