Pharma Veterans

Status of Pharmaceutical Business in Pakistan 2024 – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post 961 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post 961 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: Anna Shvets Credit: Anna Tarazevich Credit: Arda Kaykisiz Credit: RDNE Stock project I would like to comment on the current state of pharmaceutical business in Pakistan. Before that, I would like to put down the basics first. Pharmaceutical business is among key businesses in Pakistan for two reasons: one, it is directly related to the state of healthcare in the country; and two, it employs hundreds of thousands of people in various roles. For common understanding, I may list down the major stakeholders. Pharmaceutical Industry – comprises of around eight hundred manufacturers of pharmaceutical products and about six hundred manufacturers...

The Case for Business Growth – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post 960 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post 960 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: Antonius Ferret Credit: Ketut Subiyanto Credit: Pavel Danilyuk All businesses wish to grow and become big, some actively do things to grow, most do half-hearted measures. The other dimension is that achieving profitable and sustainable growth is even more challenging because various factors keep arising on the way. There are two major restrictions to growth: market, and competition. Any market, be it electronics, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, food etc., is the sum of all players in that market. The market expands because of two factors: addition of new products, and addition of new consumers. However, market expands at a slower rate in this way. The second rest...

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...

Cyberloafing at Workplaces – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post 958 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post 958 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: Jopwell Credit: Pixabay Cyberloafing Cyberloafing refers to the act of employees using their company's internet and digital resources for personal purposes during work hours. This can include activities such as browsing social media, shopping online, watching videos, or engaging in non-work-related communication. While seemingly innocuous, cyberloafing can significantly impact productivity and organizational efficiency. The issue becomes even more serious when the staff engages in watching immoral content.  Although internet technology is installed to increase organizational productivity, this is not the case in practice. Technologi...

Hubris and Narcissism in Management – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post 957 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post 957 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: Tima Miroshnichenko Credit: Kampus Production Credit: Kampus Production Credit: Maria Orlova Credit: Safa Bakirci In the realm of management and leadership, the traits of hubris and narcissism are often prevalent to varying degrees and can significantly shape leadership styles and organizational dynamics. It is essential to understand how these traits manifest in leaders, their impact on management practices, and possible ways to mitigate their negative effects. Hubris Hubris is an ancient Greek term, literally translating to ‘excess’.  It describes a state of exaggerated self-belief and arrogance. People suffering from hubris imagine that the way t...

‘Right to Disconnect’ Law – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #956 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #956 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: Antoni Shkraba Credit: cottonbro studio Credit: Mizuno K On Saturday evening, I forwarded couple of messages to a colleague and added a voice note requesting him to have a bit of research done on the links in the messages. He replied instantly that he would. This Saturday was an off day.  Did I do the right thing by asking to do something outside the office hours? Knowing that the world is considering that after-hours messages, emails, assignments must be discouraged or even forcefully prevented. No, I did not. This movement has been going on for a few years since we started boasting about ‘being connected 24/7’. I remember, Blackberry in its prime, had thi...

The Culture of Belonging – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #955 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #955 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: Alena Darmel Credit: Emtius Hasnat Credit: Helmy Zairy Credit: RDNE Stock Project Credit: Thirdman Many years ago, I witnessed an animated discussion between two senior managers, one of whom had spent his entire career in the same organization where we were sitting, the other had come after working in another MNC for several years. I was a junior manager who also came from another MNC. The topic was ‘sense of belonging’. The long serving manager was insisting that sense of belonging is nothing but a catchphrase. Our employment is a contract, we work and get paid, and the contract can be terminated any time. “Where does sense of belonging come in” he asked. The o...