Pharma Veterans

WEF Global Gender Gap Report 2025 – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1284 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1284 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: Anna Nekrashevich Credit: Koolshooters Credit: In Story Credit: Werner Pfennig Preamble This blog post is based on World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2025 which has been released recently. Link at the end. Closing the Gender Gap: Why Equality Is One of the Smartest Investments a Nation Can Make Gender equality is often discussed as a moral issue, a question of fairness, justice, and human rights. These dimensions are undeniably important. Every individual deserves equal opportunities to learn, work, lead, and thrive regardless of gender. But there is another equally compelling reason to pursue gender equality. It is one of the smart...

Leadership Lesson from Women CEOs – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1236 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1236 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: Alexander Andreev Credit: Michael Wismierski Credit: Olia Danilevich Preamble This blog post is based on a recent McKinsey article. Link at the end. The Inner Game of Women CEOs: Leadership Lessons for the Modern Executive Leadership research often focuses on strategy, financial performance, and operational excellence. But an emerging body of research suggests that what happens inside the mind of a leader, their beliefs, mindset, and internal discipline; may be just as important as external decisions. The research draws on conversations with several early-tenure women CEOs across industries such as banking, energy, infrastructure, and manufactur...

Beyond the Flowers: What International Women’s Day 2026 Is Really Asking of Us – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1235 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1235 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: August de Richelieu Credit: Bave Pictures Credit: Viridiana Rivera Preamble International Women’s Day fell on Sunday March 8, as happens annually. This post is dedicated to Women.  Every year on March 8, the world marks International Women’s Day with speeches, social media campaigns, and well-meaning gestures. But behind the celebration lies a more urgent conversation, one that the world’s leading gender experts are demanding we have, honestly and without flinching. The numbers alone make the case. Approximately 130 million girls and young women around the world are currently out of school. More ...

Female CEOs Shortage – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1225 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1225 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: Alena Darmel Credit: Theo Decker Preamble This blog post is based on a recent INSEAD article. Link at the end. Why the Female CEO Shortage Persists – and What Leaders Must Do About It Despite decades of diversity commitments, women remain dramatically under-represented in the world’s top corporate seat. Even in major markets in 2025, women hold only a small fraction of CEO roles across leading companies such as the FTSE 100 and FTSE 250, a stagnation that persists despite a clear pipeline of capable female leaders. This gap isn’t due to a lack of talent. High-performing women are already delivering results at senior levels. The real challenge lies in how org...

WOMEN IN THE WORKPLACE REPORT 2025 – Part 1 – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1198 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1198 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: Anna Tarazevich Preamble This 2-part blog post is based on Women in the Workplace report 2025, which is prepared by McKinsey & Co. and LeanIn.org. This report is in the 11th year of publication. Link to full report here. https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/mckinsey/business%20functions/people%20and%20organizational%20performance/our%20insights/women%20in%20the%20workplace%202025/women%20in%20the%20workplace%202025_final.pdf?shouldIndex=false  Part I: Corporate Gender Equality at a Crossroads in 2025 Introduction: A Decade of Progress Meets New Challenges In 2025, Women in the Workplace, the largest annual study of women’s represe...

Broken Rung for Women in the Workplace – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1106 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1106 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: Antoni Shkraba Studio Credit: RDNE Stock Project Credit: Vlada Karpovich Preamble The journey of professional advancement is rarely linear, especially for women. Despite strides in education and employment, one stubborn barrier continues to hinder women’s rise in the workplace: the broken rung. This metaphorical broken step on the career ladder represents the first critical promotion from entry-level roles to management—and it is where women’s progress often falters. In their insightful book, *The Broken Rung: When the Career Ladder Breaks for Women—and How They Can Succeed in Spite of It*, McKinsey senior partners Kweilin Ellingrud, Larein...

Women in the Workplace 2024 – The 10th Anniversary Report – Gender Parity and Equity – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1010 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1010 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: Jopwell Credit: Ron Lach Preamble Women in the workplace is the largest study on the state of women in corporate America. The findings however can be applied with some variations to other countries. Europe is behind already, and Asian/ African countries are far behind in working towards equal participation of women across the line of command. The study was launched in 2015 by LeanIn.org and McKinsey & Co.; current report is the 10th anniversary report. Over the last 10 years, more than 1,000 companies have participated in the study, and over 480,000 people were surveyed on th...

Persistent Rise of Bad Bosses – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #953 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #953 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: Pavel Danilyuk Credit: Tima Miroshnichenko Credit: Yan Krukau This blogpost is based on a talk of Lucia Rahilly of McKinsey with Dr. Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, author of ‘Why Do So Many Incompetent Men Become Leaders?: (And How to Fix it) (HBR Press 2019). It is common observation that too many incompetent men rise to leadership positions, which is serious, and in many cases, devastating issue. True, that men also suffer the consequences of bad leadership, but the damage to people and organizations may be much bigger.  Tomas says their research was focused on abilities, competencies, interests, and personalities, but they also collected data on age, gende...