Pharma Veterans

Recognition Gap Between Developed and Developing Economies – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1134 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1134 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans Blogs are published by Asrar Qureshi on its dedicated site https://pharmaveterans.com. Please email to pharmaveterans2017@gmail.com  for publishing your contributions here. Credit: Artem Podrez Credit: Edmond Dantés Preamble In the evolving world of work, talent is the engine of innovation, performance, and progress. While developed countries often champion a culture of meritocracy—where skills, ideas, and contributions are openly rewarded—developing countries frequently fall short in offering the same level of respect, recognition, and dignity to their workforce, especially their mid-tier talent. The consequences are visible: brain drain, employee disengagement, reduced productivity, and an underutilized human capital base. While a commonly cited reason is the lack of employment opportunities—whic...

The Middle Management is Squeezed and Struggling – Why and What Should be Done – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1132 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1132 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans Blogs are published by Asrar Qureshi on its dedicated site https://pharmaveterans.com. Please email to pharmaveterans2017@gmail.com  for publishing your contributions here. Credit: cottonbro studio Credit: Mikhail Nilov Preamble In the corporate hierarchy, middle managers have traditionally been the bridge between strategy and execution, vision and action, senior leaders and frontline teams. They are the interpreters, implementers, buffers, and stabilizers. But today, middle managers find themselves in an uncomfortable, often unsustainable position. With mounting responsibilities, increasing ambiguity, and little recognition, they are the most squeezed layer in modern organizations—and many are burning out.  What’s changed in the role of middle managers? Why the pressure is...

Evolving Role of Middle Managers – More Coaching – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #998 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #998 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans Blogs are published by Asrar Qureshi on its dedicated site https://pharmaveterans.com. Please email to aq.pharmaveterans@gmail.com for publishing your contributions here. Credit: Annushka Ahuja Credit: Antoni Shkraba Credit: Kampus Production This blogpost is inspired by HBS Working Knowledge article by Ben Rand, which is based on research by Letian Zhang, Assistant Professor of Business Administration. Most content is my own. Link to the article at the end. Hierarchies have become inflated and multilayered, and it has become difficult to identify if someone is a senior manager or a middle manager. When I joined pharma industry, the line management was a two-tier structure. There were the first line managers, and the national managers. The regional managers had different titles, district manager, zonal manager, re...

Managers and Employees Perceive Differently – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post 959 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post 959 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans Blogs are published by Asrar Qureshi on its dedicated site https://pharmaveterans.com. Please email to aq.pharmaveterans@gmail.com for publishing your contributions here. Credit: Liza Summer Credit: Koolshooters Credit: Vika Glitter This blog post has been inspired by Gallup® research on managers’ strengths, weaknesses, and blind spots, link to the article at the end. As a first line manager, I attended a management training course arranged by the company in collaboration with an external trainer. Among the many exercises we did, there was one where we, as managers, had to rate ourselves on various management parameters. Whatever we rated ourselves was not discussed individually, but collectively these were discussed. After returning to office, I, on an impulse, gave the same form to my team members and asked them to rat...

Why do Senior Managers Keep Repeating the Same Mistakes? Last Part – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #952 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #952 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans Blogs are published by Asrar Qureshi on its dedicated site https://pharmaveterans.com. Please email to aq.pharmaveterans@gmail.com for publishing your contributions here. Credit: Edmond Dantès Credit: fauxels Credit: Yan Krukau Continued from Previous …… With a heavy heart, KK typed his resignation, and emailed it to the DM, with copy to HR.  End of KK’s Story KK lasted less than a year on his second job, and he felt extremely bad about it. Losing the job under such circumstances was such a great blow to his ego that he could not absorb it. He somehow put up a courageous face, went to the DM office, took his leave, and bade farewell to him and his marketing team. He had no intention to see his peers in other departments. He silently walked out of the office. KK lived alone. His parents lived ...

Why do Senior Managers Keep Repeating the Same Mistakes? Part VIII – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #951 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #951 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans Blogs are published by Asrar Qureshi on its dedicated site https://pharmaveterans.com. Please email to aq.pharmaveterans@gmail.com for publishing your contributions here. Credit: Andrea Piacquadio Credit: Burst Continued from Previous …… The DM decided to intervene. The DM was a highly seasoned professional who believed in autonomy with defined limits, team building, and maintaining conducive work environment. He had been hearing about things happening in KK’s team but did not intervene as a matter of principle. He was the main member of the selection panel that had hired KK. He had liked KK for his profile and personal attributes that they could see during interview. He had given him this particular team which was stable in sales and more stable in working pattern. He wanted KK to change the pac...

Why do Senior Managers Keep Repeating the Same Mistakes? Part VII – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #950 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #950 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans Blogs are published by Asrar Qureshi on its dedicated site https://pharmaveterans.com. Please email to aq.pharmaveterans@gmail.com for publishing your contributions here. Credit: Daniel Frese Credit: Djordje  Credit: Lisa Fotios Continued from Previous …… Not every ZM was comforted with the talk of SPM. The SPM started rolling out his plan immediately. He talked first to the ZM who seemed more receptive to his idea. He had long discussion about their working, their customers, market, and any other relevant factor. The SPM then asked the ZM what his plan was to implement new working parameters and achieve the new targets. The ZM said he had asked his teammates to increase the number of doctors on calling lists and number of calls per day. It was easy to add doctors to the list but 16 calls a da...

Why do Senior Managers Keep Repeating the Same Mistakes? Part VI – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #949 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #949 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans Blogs are published by Asrar Qureshi on its dedicated site https://pharmaveterans.com. Please email to aq.pharmaveterans@gmail.com for publishing your contributions here. Credit: nappy Credit: Jonathan Borba Credit: olia danilevich Continued from Previous …… KK was perplexed but did not dare ask. After coming back to his own office, KK mulled over the last remarks of the DM. He tried to think as to what could go wrong with his plan but could not find any reason for concern. He thought he had nailed it right and the results shall keep coming. KK decided that he would not wait for the month to complete to see the results, he would rather monitor it weekly. He called in the SPM and asked him to tell ZMs to send the sales and distributors’ data every Monday. He asked the SPM that the same must be on hi...

Why do Senior Managers Keep Repeating the Same Mistakes? Part V – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #948 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #948 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans Blogs are published by Asrar Qureshi on its dedicated site https://pharmaveterans.com. Please email to aq.pharmaveterans@gmail.com for publishing your contributions here. Credit: Abdul Mohsin Credit: Joyce Toh Continued from Previous …… KK asked the marketing team to make aggressive marketing campaigns which should not be very costly. In addition, he decided to increase the workload of the team and their managers. He sent this notification to the entire team the same day: To,  All Team Members, X – Team As you all know that the market has become very competitive and generating business growth requires a mix of innovative marketing and above average amount of working. Effective immediately, I am going to take the following steps: 1. I have asked the marketing team to design innovative and aggre...