The film is about a crocodile,mouse,cat and elephant who are all trying to make their way up the career ladder, using all of the contradictory knowledge they have gleened from various management bestsellers. The crocodile, cat and elephant are actually fairly nice,although the crocodile likes to eat babies. The mouse is really mean.

"Peters Prinzip" is part of the short film reel "Mach doch, was du willst" (“Do Whatever You Want”), the result of a short film competition which was organized by the Federal Cultural Foundation in collaboration with the Hamburg Short Film Agency and ZDF/ARTE in spring 2006.