'It was never my plan to be the boss of a huge company'

When Vas Narasimhan was told he was being considered for the top job at Swiss drugs giant Novartis, he thought there had been a mistake.

"It didn't seem plausible, at the time I was only 40," he says.

Vas, a US citizen, had been with the Swiss firm for 12 years, and while he was global head of drug development, he was still a long way down the pecking order.

Yet in 2018, soon after turning 41, he became chief executive of the drugs giant, which had annual revenues of more than $50bn (£41bn) that year and 125,000 employees around the world.

"I was shocked," says Vas. "At first I didn't really know what to make of it... it was never in my plan to become the CEO of a huge company.

"And then I felt exhilarated. Yes, it was scary as well but I was motivated to tackle this challenge. And then I dived right into thinking 'OK, what can we do with Novartis under new leadership":[]}