Great ride while it lasted, now Roche will define the new culture - Anonymous employee Genentech Employee Review

4.0
Mar 14, 2009
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Good products that actually help patients, many very smart people, excellent benefits, a lot of room to take initiative and recommend flexibility, many interesting projects. The sale and marketing arm and sales force is very well treated, rewarded and compensated. They're a bunch of especially happy campers.

Cons

Self-involved, siloed CXO level mgt, really bad IT, poor communication across lines of business. Another strange pattern observed year after year was how each business unit set incredibly detailed hierarchies of yearly goals and objectives from departments,to groups, to teams, to individuals etc., that were not integrated horizontally across the company at all. Dependencies that one department has on another were not managed, rewarded or highlighted. All top down and traditionally siloed. Budgets are allocated the same way, all top down. Therefore incentives are designed to optimize just your local team's results, rather to to maximize cross company initiatives.

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5.0
Jul 8, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great culture and work environment.

Cons

PhD is necessary oftentimes for advancement.

3.0
May 7, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Genentech's origin story and mission are genuinely inspiring — few companies can point to such a meaningful historical arc in medicine. Patient engagement is taken seriously and feels authentic, not performative. The campus is beautiful and the culture has real warmth.

Cons

DDA is operating with significant gaps. First, the foundational data infrastructure is not mature enough to support the ambitions being set for the team. Second, the measurement culture has gotten ahead of the methodology, and no one in a position of authority seems to be asking hard questions about whether the numbers actually mean what they're being presented as meaning. Third, some management feel disconnected from the work itself, lacking the knowledge, hands-on experience, or relevant credentials. Individually any one of these would be manageable. Together these create an environment where it's hard to do rigorous work, rather work is performative, and be recognized for it.

3
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