Pharma Veterans

Story of a Pharma Salesperson I – Blog Post #413 by Asrar Qureshi & Javed Akhtar Dear Colleagues!  This is Pharma Veterans Blog Post #413. Pharma Veterans welcomes sharing of knowledge and wisdom by Veterans for the benefit of Community at large. Pharma Veterans Blog is published by Asrar Qureshi on WordPress, the top blog site. Please email to asrar@asrarqureshi.com for publishing your contributions here. I started writing this script over two years ago. It is about making of a Pharma Salesperson, the proverbial Medical Rep/SPO. It is written in collaboration with Javed Akhtar, an old friend and colleague. Some parts were published here at that time. Javed and I started working as Medical Representative at the same time in 1975. We stayed in Pharma selling for several years and then were reallocated to other functions. Javed was finally Head of Training at GSK, from where he retired. He is currently running his own training house and offers public and corporate programs. I am ...

Employment Outlook 2020 – OECD report – Blog Post #412 by Asrar Qureshi Dear Colleagues!  This is Pharma Veterans Blog Post #412. Pharma Veterans welcomes sharing of knowledge and wisdom by Veterans for the benefit of Community at large. Pharma Veterans Blog is published by Asrar Qureshi on WordPress, the top blog site. Please email to asrar@asrarqureshi.com for publishing your contributions here. OECD – Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development was founded on September 30, 1961. The mission of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is to promote policies that will improve the economic and social well-being of people around the world. The OECD provides a forum in which governments can work together to share experiences and seek solutions to common problems. The OECD member countries include Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Neth...

Effect of Technology and Globalization on Corporate Jobs Part II – Blog Post #411 by Asrar Qureshi Dear Colleagues!  This is Pharma Veterans Blog Post #411. Pharma Veterans welcomes sharing of knowledge and wisdom by Veterans for the benefit of Community at large. Pharma Veterans Blog is published by Asrar Qureshi on WordPress, the top blog site. Please email to asrar@asrarqureshi.com for publishing your contributions here. This article is inspired by the INSEAD article, the link of which appears at the end. Continued from Previous…… We look at the two major factors causing employment polarization: Automation and Globalization. Automation [Quote] MIT Professor of Economics David H. Autor notes that automation has been going on for centuries, but in the last few decades it has become cheaper than ever with the ubiquity of computers and internet. [Unquote] The critical factor is the ever-decreasing cost and ever-increasing efficiency of technology. The jobs for which skilled blue-col...

Effect of Technology and Globalization on Corporate Jobs Part I – Blog Post #410 by Asrar Qureshi Dear Colleagues!  This is Pharma Veterans Blog Post #410. Pharma Veterans welcomes sharing of knowledge and wisdom by Veterans for the benefit of Community at large. Pharma Veterans Blog is published by Asrar Qureshi on WordPress, the top blog site. Please email to asrar@asrarqureshi.com for publishing your contributions here. This article is inspired by the INSEAD article, the link of which appears at the end. Technology and Globalization have been around since ages. Several hundred years ago, people traveled to far off places to find new resources. Many travelers settled in new countries in the hope of making their lives better. This was the earliest form of globalization. Similarly, technology has been evolving at all times, and was motivated by the need for making jobs easier and faster to achieve greater productivity. Development of technology has gained much higher pace in the la...

Business Education in Pakistan Part IV – Highs & Lows – Blog Post #409 by Asrar Qureshi Dear Colleagues!  This is Pharma Veterans Blog Post #409. Pharma Veterans welcomes sharing of knowledge and wisdom by Veterans for the benefit of Community at large. Pharma Veterans Blog is published by Asrar Qureshi on WordPress, the top blog site. Please email to asrar@asrarqureshi.com for publishing your contributions here. In the last part, we conclude our discussion on Business Education in Pakistan. I shall partake from an earlier study published by Anwar Khan, Ishaq Mad Shah and Kamran Azam, from University Technology, Malaysia. 1 [Quote] “Education is a systematic process of imparting knowledge through the improvement of knowledge & expertise in a particular area. It provides the tools to the users for getting things done in much organized way. Among the different forms of education, the professional education is of unique nature, as it helps the people in gaining professional sk...

Business Education in Pakistan Part III – Accreditation & Discrimination – Blog Post #408 by Asrar Qureshi Dear Colleagues!  This is Pharma Veterans Blog Post #408. Pharma Veterans welcomes sharing of knowledge and wisdom by Veterans for the benefit of Community at large. Pharma Veterans Blog is published by Asrar Qureshi on WordPress, the top blog site. Please email to asrar@asrarqureshi.com  for publishing your contributions here. The occurrence is increasing. The prevalence is becoming almost ubiquitous. More and more job ads requiring business graduates put "Master in Business Administration, from LUMS/IBA". Looks familiar? There must be few hundred business schools of various grades; some of them belonging to most prestigious universities such as Punjab University, Quaid-i-Azam University and the like. Why is there so much distrust about all of them except the chosen few? If the market does not wish to accept graduates from any school other than LUMS/IBA, why and for...

Business Education in Pakistan Part II – Quality & Relevance - Blog Post #407 by Asrar Qureshi Dear Colleagues!  This is Pharma Veterans Blog Post #407. Pharma Veterans welcomes sharing of knowledge and wisdom by Veterans for the benefit of Community at large. Pharma Veterans Blog is published by Asrar Qureshi on WordPress, the top blog site. Please email to asrar@asrarqureshi.com for publishing your contributions here. A Blogpost titled ‘Business Education in Pakistan’ was published by Wasio Ali Khan Abbasi2 when he himself was an MBA student at SZABIST Karachi. The contents are still valid as can be seen from excerpts below. [Quote] Universities, like Pan Shops, began to open all over the urban centers of Pakistan offering business education and throwing run-of-the-mill business graduates in the market… As anyone can guess, the teachings of these universities were highly disconnected with market demands and this phenomenon still plagues Pakistan’s academic circles. Nearly all...

Business Education in Pakistan Part I – Blog Post #406 by Asrar Qureshi Dear Colleagues!  This is Pharma Veterans Blog Post #406. Pharma Veterans welcomes sharing of knowledge and wisdom by Veterans for the benefit of Community at large. Pharma Veterans Blog is published by Asrar Qureshi on WordPress, the top blog site. Please email to asrar@asrarqureshi.com for publishing your contributions here. Business Education has been around in Pakistan for over six decades. The first business administration institute was established in Karachi with the name of Institute of Business Administration – IBA. It is still among the elite institutions in Pakistan. The Business Administration as a discipline evolved quite late; the initial focus was on Commerce and Accounting. Gradually, it shifted to business management and administration education.1 Business Administration vis-à-vis Commerce & Accounting Commerce as a discipline of education has a long history dating back to 1759 when first fo...

Thalidomide; Past and Present – Blog Post #405 by Asrar Qureshi Dear Colleagues!  This is Pharma Veterans Blog Post #405. Pharma Veterans welcomes sharing of knowledge and wisdom by Veterans for the benefit of Community at large. Pharma Veterans Blog is published by Asrar Qureshi on WordPress, the top blog site. Please email to asrar@asrarqureshi.com for publishing your contributions here. Thalidomide is known for its dark history. It remained off market for quite a number of years but has made appearance again as a drug for certain types of cancer and for thalassemia. Development and Marketing Thalidomide was probably developed by Ciba, a Swiss pharmaceutical company which later became Novartis. It was subsequently marketed by a German company Chemi Grunenthal by the brand name Contergan.  Thalidomide first entered the German market in 1957 as an over-the-counter remedy, based on the maker’s safety claims. They advertised their product as “completely safe” for everyone, inclu...

Small Issues in Organizations – Blog Post #404 by Asrar Qureshi Dear Colleagues!  This is Pharma Veterans Blog Post #404. Pharma Veterans welcomes sharing of knowledge and wisdom by Veterans for the benefit of Community at large. Pharma Veterans Blog is published by Asrar Qureshi on WordPress, the top blog site. Please email to asrar@asrarqureshi.com for publishing your contributions here. All managers, particularly senior managers, are quite interested in focusing and working on major issues. It makes sense. The major issues are likely to hamper the organization growth in a big way. At play, also is the fact that senior managers should only get involved in matters which are worthy enough to get their precious time and attention.  Granted. Let us for a moment change our perspective and look at small things which might actually be causing hurdles in the day to day operations. Collectively, these may be leading to more damage and wastage. Secondly, it is not every day that we en...

Story of Rubik’s Cube – Blog Post #403 by Asrar Qureshi Dear Colleagues!  This is Pharma Veterans Blog Post #403. Pharma Veterans welcomes sharing of knowledge and wisdom by Veterans for the benefit of Community at large. Pharma Veterans Blog is published by Asrar Qureshi on WordPress, the top blog site. Please email to asrar@asrarqureshi.com for publishing your contributions here. Rubik’s Cube is 3 x 3 (now other variations also) cube puzzle, since its introduction in 1980 has fascinated the generations. It became one of the most popular toys in history. Harvard Business Review, in its Nov-Dec 2020 issue has published an interview of the creator of Rubik Puzzle Mr. Ernö Rubik. The article is written by Alison Beard and is titled ‘Life’s Work: An Interview with Ernö Rubik’. Ernö Rubik was born in Budapest Hungary on 13 July 1944 and has lived all his life in Hungary. His father was a flight engineer at an aircraft factory and his mother was a poet. His father gained international r...

Women in the Workplace 2020 Part IV – McKinsey Report – Blog Post #402 by Asrar Qureshi Dear Colleagues!  This is Pharma Veterans Blog Post #402. Pharma Veterans welcomes sharing of knowledge and wisdom by Veterans for the benefit of Community at large. Pharma Veterans Blog is published by Asrar Qureshi on WordPress, the top blog site. Please email to asrar@asrarqureshi.com for publishing your contributions here. Continued from Previous…… In the last part, we see the recommendations for future. We have seen so far that despite progress, the inclusion of women in workforce, and their career growth remains a challenge. Though McKinsey report focuses on organizations in the US only, but other reports from Europe show similar issues. Among Asian countries, there are many variations. For example, Japanese women prefer to stay home, rather than pursue a career. In other East Asian countries, women work as a matter of routine along with men. Middle East and South Asia have more leaning to...

Women in the Workplace 2020 Part III – McKinsey Report – Blog Post #401 by Asrar Qureshi Dear Colleagues!  This is Pharma Veterans Blog Post #401. Pharma Veterans welcomes sharing of knowledge and wisdom by Veterans for the benefit of Community at large. Pharma Veterans Blog is published by Asrar Qureshi on WordPress, the top blog site. Please email to asrar@asrarqureshi.com for publishing your contributions here. Continued from Practice…… In the third part, we look at another important aspect; women in leadership. And we see the findings of McKinsey Report. There are several issues that have been highlighted. Senior women who are in leadership role are under enormous pressure. Their performance is under more critical review and they are subjected to more scrutiny than counterpart men. In the first place, men are not too happy to give women leadership roles. In Pakistan particularly, women are seen as women only, not as seniors and leaders. If at all they land a senior position, th...