As part of our ‘Female Leaders: Inspiring Together’ series, we interviewed Berit Lindholm – CEO for Bluefish Pharma – about how she started her career in pharmaceuticals, her greatest achievements and why she initially turned down a CEO role.
Thank you for taking the time to speak with us today, Berit. Firstly, can you tell us a bit about your current role and the company you work for?
I’m the CEO for a mid-sized generics company founded in Sweden called Bluefish Pharmaceuticals and it’s been the only Swedish generic company for a very long time now. We have eight subsidiaries in Europe, and we have a development site – where a lot of our QA pharmacovigilance and IT activities are taking place – in Bangalore, which is the biggest site we have.
What inspired you to start your career in the pharmaceutical industry?
I always loved chemistry and while I was studying, I was working with elderly people and going to the pharmacy to pick up drugs for them. I started to talk to the people in the pharmacy and I thought, well, perhaps that’s something for me. I applied for a school of pharmacy and it was as simple as that. Drugs can make a difference to many people’s lives. We hear a lot of negatives about medicines, but they cure people, prolong people’s lives and make pain bearable. I think medicines are so essential to us and the improvement they give to people’s quality of life is very rewarding.
What barriers have you encountered during your career growth and success as a female leader?
I think the toughest period was when I was young and, you know, I’m about 50 now, so it’s a while ago. But at that time the atmosphere was fairly sexist. There were lots of comments and people asking, ‘how can a young lady run such a big project’. Now, of course, I have a different position and I’m older, and thankfully I no longer hear those sorts of comments.
“I think the biggest barrier is when you join a company with a structure that is male-dominated. All of us, male or female, have a tendency to hire people that are like us and that we recognise or see potential in. If you’re a female reporting to male leaders, it’s harder to be recognised for your skills.”
I think the biggest barrier is when you join a company with a structure that is male-dominated. All of us, male or female, have a tendency to hire people that are like us and that we recognise or see potential in. If you’re a female reporting to male leaders, it’s harder to be recognised for your skills. Whilst I don’t feel that the whole industry is male-dominated, the top structure is, so as a female, you have to learn very quickly how the structure is set up, which can also be an advantage because you have to learn and understand how it works. Men take it for granted, so they might not see the subtleness in what’s going on in the power games, whereas women might, so it can also be an advantage to be a female.
How do you manage your work-life balance?
I think the trick for me is to accept that I can’t do everything. If you have small children and you have a career, perhaps you can’t be in perfect fitness and go to the gym all the time. Perhaps you can’t always join the girls’ weekends. You have to pause a part of your life if you choose to have children, for instance, or pause your career, if that’s what you want, but you have to accept that you can’t do everything. I think that’s the way to approach it.
What is an accomplishment that you are most proud of?
Very often when I have entered as a leader into a new group, my leadership team has been male-dominated when I’ve joined. But by the time I have left, I have always increased the number of female leaders quite significantly. I do as many men do with other men, I recognise female competence and tend to hire women. The women I have hired came across better in the interviews and deserved their roles but in the beginning of my career, I thought that maybe I needed to change and perhaps be more balanced, but then when I looked around, I knew we needed to be more female-oriented because of how male-dominated the top levels are.
I have found that the industry is quite equal in terms of male and female presence, but the further up you go, the more male-dominated it is and it was quite difficult finding women at CEO and general manager level to conduct these interviews with. Would you say there is a glass ceiling for women?
“People talk about the glass ceiling, that women get offered promotions and they turn it down, and I never believed it and I thought that’s just something they say. But honestly, I’ve done it a number of times myself for different reasons. “
People talk about the glass ceiling, that women get offered promotions and they turn it down, and I never believed it and I thought that’s just something they say. But honestly, I’ve done it a number of times myself for different reasons. Sometimes I didn’t like the offer I received, or I didn’t think it was my core and it didn’t trigger me and therefore, I turned it down. Without generalising too much, I think that’s where also perhaps men and women differ a bit; as women we need to love what we do in a different way. I can’t just take a higher position because I get a bigger car and a higher salary. I need to like what I do and I have to be passionate about it.
Do you ever felt from self-doubt, and if so, how do you manage that?
Yes, a lot and a lot more when I was younger. I have a lot of male friends and I remember the first managerial position I had. We were commuting on the train every day and I would raise my doubts about what I might have done wrong or trying to understand why a certain thing may have happened, and they looked at me and said, ‘I never think like that’. I had to decide that I’m good enough and have that confidence. Of course, I’m going to learn and develop, but I’m good enough as I am. I can’t keep changing because then I won’t be true to myself and if I’m not true to myself, I will give split signals as a leader as well. I think it is very important to accept who you are. I can improve, of course, but I can’t change my personality.
I think that’s a very good outlook to adopt. What do you think are the main challenges for women in this industry?
I think often it is creating visibility of what you are achieving. Many women think that the results will speak for themselves, and I think women need to be better at informing their managers and the business about what they’ve done and the success they are creating. Make sure you have your one-to-ones and voice what you have done. In my experience, men – in general – are a lot better at promoting themselves and selling themselves and we take for granted that people will see what we do, which is not always the case, unfortunately.
What is the best advice you have received in your career?
We were going through a tough time at work where we were having to make redundancies. I had a female manager at the time, and she said, ‘this is not personal’ and she reinforced that it wasn’t me as an individual who was doing this. This was a part of my job and my responsibilities and it was such a relief to be able to distinguish the difference. It was me as a leader in this position who had to execute these bad things. So, that’s absolutely the best advice I got.
What women have inspired you the most?
I have had two female leaders during my career, one quite early on, and then the second one who gave me the advice we just talked about. I think it is great to have good female leaders and I love leaders that I can learn from and see how they handle situations. I remember one situation with one of my female managers where we had a performance and pay review and I hardly got a pay rise, but the way she put it to me was the best way I have ever seen. I could then take that on and use it in my conversations with my staff. So, it’s in my work and especially female leaders where I have learned a lot from.
What do you think is the best way to encourage more women to work towards senior management and executive-level positions?
I think you have to make a choice as a woman on what you want and perhaps you can’t do everything at the same time and perhaps you need to consider that with any partner as well. Before we had children, I told my husband that if we are going to have children, we have to split the time equally otherwise it’s not for me. It might sound tough and hard, but we spend an equal amount of time with the kids. I took a year off with our first one and then he took a year off and then we repeated it with our second child. That made him closer to the kids and a part of their daily life. It’s so easy to become unequal when you have children. So, I think it is up to us as women to decide what we want to do and fight for that. Either you stand up and take that fight or you accept that, for example, you will spend five years with the kids and then it’s your turn, but do what makes you happy and what is right for you.
You’ve achieved a lot in your career and have now worked your way up into a CEO position, is there any advice you would give to women looking to progress into an executive-level role?
“Believe in yourself and even if you don’t know everything, you’re good enough.”
Believe in yourself and even if you don’t know everything, you’re good enough. When I was offered the CEO position, I turned it down. That was the immediate reaction and then the head of the board said, ‘why are you saying no? Now you’re being very female. Think about it.’ I started to think about it and I discussed it with my husband. I called her back on the Monday and said, ‘I’ll accept. Let’s see how it goes.’ So, I think generally we tend to have less confidence about our abilities, whilst men are generally more confident. They think they can handle it, or they will get help to handle it. There is always help out there, just make sure you are surrounded by good staff who can support you to deliver the right things and make use of consultants when you need to.
That sounds like great advice. Is there anything else you wanted to add, Berit?
Two things, I would like to say be true to yourself, be who you are. Your strength is also your weakness. But don’t try to change yourself so you lose your strength and also believe in yourself. I think that those are the most important things. Everyone has their own decisions, their own struggles. I also think it is worth adding that people very often claim that females are not good to each other, but I think we are. I have a female network of life science ladies and that network is like a lung for me at times. We go there, we talk about work – sometimes non-work topics – but it’s primarily a space where we can just be professionals and it’s fantastic.
Our ‘Female Leaders: Inspiring Together’ series is running throughout March with the aim of inspiring and supporting women to become future leaders in their respective industries. Follow our LinkedIn page to join the conversation and hear the insightful stories of our featured female leaders.
