Catching the Indra Nooyi Spirit- A Force To Reckon With

"Just because you are CEO, don’t think you have landed. You must continually increase your learning, the way you think, and the way you approach the organization. I’ve never forgotten that". 

There is not a woman in the world who at some point wasn’t inspired by Indra Nooyi who is stepping down as Chief Executive Officer of food and beverage giant PepsiCo Inc. A force to reckon with, a woman who powered up the immense possibilities chromosome “xx” can have in this patriarchal world, is finally exiting and handing the reins to a top lieutenant in a transition that will draw attention to the dearth of prominent female CEOs in corporate America.

Nooyi, 62, will leave the role in October and remain chairman until early 2019. Ramon Laguarta, 54, who has been a candidate to take over since his promotion last year to President of the company, will be just the sixth CEO in the 53-year history of Pepsico.

Career and Early Life

"I grew up in a Hindu household but went to a Roman Catholic school. I grew up with a mother who said, 'I'll arrange a marriage for you at 18,' but she also said that we could achieve anything we put our minds to and encourage us to dream of becoming prime minister or president." 

Indra Krishnamurthy Nooyi is the first foreign-born CEO of PepsiCo and the first woman to lead the chips-and-soda behemoth, whose revenue topped $63 billion last year was born in 1955 in a Tamil-speaking family in Madras (now known as Chennai), Tamil Nadu, India. She received her initial schooling from the Holy Angels Anglo Indian Higher Secondary School and later in her 20's Nooyi went to IIM Calcutta which shows that her management grounds were built strong in India and then started her career in India as a product manager in Johnson & Johnson and then Mettur Beardsell, a textile company. 

At the time when it when it was not considered appropriate for girls to move alone to other countries Nooyi went to the United States where she entered the Yale School of Management in 1978 and completed her Master’s degree in Public and Private Management.

Indra Nooyi and Pepsico- Her Journey

"The one thing I have learned as a CEO is that leadership at various levels is vastly different. As you move up in the organization, the requirements for leading that organization don’t grow vertically, they grow exponentially."

Indra Nooyi PepsiCo's first ever women CEO initially joined PepsiCo in 1994 and was named CFO in 2001. Later in 2006 was named as the President and CEO of the company, replacing Steven Reinemund. Since she started as CFO in 2001, the company's annual net profit has risen from $2.7 billion to $6.5 billion. Nooyi has directed the company's global strategy for more than a decade and led PepsiCo's restructuring, including the 1997 divestiture of Tricon, now known as Yum! Brands. Nooyi also took the lead in the acquisition of Tropicana in 1998, and the lead the merger with Quaker Oats Company, which also brought Gatorade to PepsiCo. The revenue generation of PepsiCo in the year 2017 was
$63 billion (6352.5 crores).

Awards and Recognition

"I'm very honest - brutally honest. I always look at things from their point of view as well as mine. And I know when to walk away."

A woman of her intellect and power has no doubt been through a plethora of awards in her ever-growing career. Forbes magazine ranked Nooyi on the 2008 through 2017 lists of The World's 100 Most Powerful Women. Fortune magazine has named Nooyi number one on its annual ranking of Most Powerful Women in business for 4 consecutive years that is from 2006-2010.

In 2008, Nooyi was named one of America's Best Leaders by U.S. News & World Report and was elected to the Fellowship of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In the same year, Nooyi was elected chairwoman of the U.S.-India Business Council (USIBC). Nooyi leads USIBC's Board of Directors, an assembly of more than 60 senior executives representing a cross-section of American industry.

In 2009, she was named The CEO of the Year by Global Supply Chain Leaders Group. Nooyi was also considered one of "The TopGun CEOs" by Brendan Wood International, an advisory agency. Nooyi was named to Institutional Investor's Best CEOs list in the All-America Executive Team Survey from 2008 to 2011. On 14 December 2013, she was awarded by the President of India Pranab Mukherjee at the Rashtrapati Bhavan for NDTV "Honoring 25 Greatest Global Living Legends"

Principles And Lessons She Lived By

"When you assume negative intent, you're angry. If you take away that anger and assume positive intent, you will be amazed. Your emotional quotient goes up because you are no longer almost random in your response."

Her departure thins the ranks of female CEOs running S&P 500 companies and comes at a time when Pepsi’s North American beverage unit is stagnating amid a general decline in soda consumption. In 24 years at Pepsi, including 12 as chief executive, she has helped the Frito-Lay unit grow in a challenging industry and added healthier drinks and snacks to a portfolio that includes Cheetos and Mountain Dew. It is not easy to maintain the dexterity she exuberates without some principles. Her legacy and experiences have taught a thing or two about the dynamic principles she had for life.

• Whatever you do, have a purpose:
  Nooyi once mentioned in an interview about how her initiative called ‘Performance with Purpose’ gave her a company a vision that helped them scale new heights. She used to stress on the plans that would benefit the organization and the individual in the long run. She advises planning strategies that balance both the level and the duration of returns.
• Listen more and talk less:
  The reason we have two ears and one mouth is because we should listen more than we blurt things out. Also, she once mentioned about an incident in life where her dance instructor gave her a very valuable life lesson “If you learned to follow, you’d be a better leader. And it would make you a better dancer.”
• You’re a CEO in office, but not at home
  Nooyi always used to mention this that at whatever position you’re in your life, you should always “leave the crown in garage” when it comes to interacting with your family and friends. No matter how higher your position is at work, you are not the boss at home.

The Journey Of Life Has No End

"An important attribute of success is to be yourself. Never hide what makes you, you"

She frequently talked about making this world better for women was not just an on-duty job. This was something she strongly felt about even if she wasn’t the CEO. She said "I think people like me after we leave privileged CEO jobs, I don’t think we can go silent,” she said. “We have to keep fighting the good fight to develop women, to mentor them, to support them, so that we can get more highly qualified women -- and there’s plenty of them -- into the boardroom, into C suites and into the ultimate CEO job. My job is in fact just beginning once I leave PepsiCo because I can do things now that I was constrained to do when I was CEO of the company.”

BigStartups shall remain forever in awe of her dauntless approach to life and wish her the very best for the future!

Cover Image Source: https://goo.gl/AECSi5