That's because Merck is no exception: most drug companies have what's known as a pipeline problem.
Bousted suggests schools-based teacher-training has exacerbated the pipeline problem for recruiting minority ethnic teachers.
"It is a pipeline problem and we have to solve it at an education level," she says.
"There's a huge talent pipeline problem," says Van Jones, the former special advisor for green jobs to the Obama administration.
The academy has long attributed the slow progress in diversifying faculty to a "pipeline problem" -- an undersupply of women and minorities enrolled in graduate programs.
Jim Steel, director of commodity research at Refco in New York, said, "The market reacted vigorously to the Iraqi pipeline problem and Yukos".
"There's a pipeline problem in virtually any of these areas," said Dr. Jan McDonald, dean of Pace University's Graduate School of Education.
A familiar explanation for tech's gender disparity is the so-called pipeline problem: the percentage of female computer-science graduates has almost halved since the nineteen-eighties.
Becoming bigger may not necessarily solve the pipeline problem, but it certainly helps you to match the increasing power of your customers.
Some researchers attributed the persistent issue to a "pipeline problem," insufficient numbers of senior level women in medicine, particularly in certain specialties like surgery.
