Pepsi Is $150 Billion Co Indra Nooyi CEO Interview
Summary
TLDRIn this interview, Indra Nooyi, former CEO of PepsiCo, reflects on her journey from her childhood in India to leading a global company. She discusses her mother's influence, her rise in the corporate world, and the strategic acquisitions under her leadership, like Gatorade and Tropicana. Nooyi also addresses the challenges of balancing her role as a CEO with her personal life, her efforts to make PepsiCo's products healthier, and her views on leadership and the evolving role of women in business.
Takeaways
- 😀 The CEO of PepsiCo considers her role a dream come true and feels fortunate to lead such a large company.
- 💡 She values diverse ideas and feedback, as they can potentially lead to significant success for the company.
- 🌟 Her upbringing in India, with a mother who encouraged her to dream big and a father and grandfather who supported her education, greatly influenced her success.
- 🎓 After obtaining degrees in India, she pursued further education at the Yale School of Management, which was a pivotal step in her career.
- 🔍 Her first job after Yale was at the Boston Consulting Group, where she gained valuable strategic experience.
- 📈 PepsiCo acquired Gatorade and Quaker Oats under her leadership in strategy, which were key to expanding their product portfolio.
- 🍊 The acquisition of Tropicana was driven by the need for a beverage brand that served consumers in the morning.
- 👥 As CEO, she personally tests numerous products and is actively involved in new product development.
- 💌 She maintains a close relationship with her employees through various communication methods, including personal letters.
- 👩💼 Her role as a woman, immigrant, and CEO comes with unique challenges and opportunities, but she sees it as more of a positive than a negative.
- 🌍 The global financial crisis and technological disruption have made being a CEO more challenging, requiring a broader range of expertise.
Q & A
What did Indra Nooyi consider her role as CEO in relation to activist investors?
-Indra Nooyi stated that her job as CEO was not to keep an activist happy but to ensure the company is performing very well.
How does Indra Nooyi describe her experience growing up in India and its impact on her career?
-Indra Nooyi described her upbringing in India as a dream come true and something she had to pinch herself over, given her humble beginnings and the significant leap to becoming the CEO of PepsiCo.
What values did Indra Nooyi's mother instill in her during her childhood?
-Indra Nooyi's mother instilled in her the values of dreaming big, being ambitious, and the importance of education, despite the conservative South Indian Brahmin values that emphasized marriage over higher education for women.
Why did Indra Nooyi choose to attend Yale School of Management?
-Indra Nooyi chose Yale because of an inspiring article she read about the Yale School of Management's approach to education, which brought together different sectors.
What was Indra Nooyi's first job after graduating from Yale?
-After graduating from Yale, Indra Nooyi joined the Boston Consulting Group in Chicago, where she spent six and a half years.
How did PepsiCo come to acquire Gatorade and Quaker Oats?
-PepsiCo acquired Gatorade and Quaker Oats as part of a strategic move to diversify their product portfolio with a 'good for you' brand and to gain access to an isotonic beverage for athletes.
What was the significance of PepsiCo's acquisition of Tropicana?
-The acquisition of Tropicana was significant for PepsiCo as it filled a gap in their beverage portfolio for a product that served consumers in the early morning hours.
How does Indra Nooyi approach receiving feedback and ideas from others?
-Indra Nooyi listens to everyone's ideas and feedback, as she believes that even a small idea can translate into big success for the company.
What is Indra Nooyi's personal practice when visiting someone's home?
-Indra Nooyi makes it a point to check the kitchen cupboards within the first half hour of visiting someone's home to see what PepsiCo products they have.
How does Indra Nooyi view the challenge of being a CEO in the current global environment?
-Indra Nooyi sees the role of a CEO today as more challenging due to factors like the financial crisis, geopolitical upheavals, and technological disruption, which require CEOs to be experts in multiple areas.
What did Indra Nooyi do to show appreciation to the parents of her executives?
-Indra Nooyi writes personal letters to the parents of her executives to thank them for the 'gift' of their children to PepsiCo, sharing their child's contributions to the company.
Outlines
🌟 CEO's Dream Realized
The CEO of PepsiCo expresses her astonishment and gratitude for her position, comparing it to a dream come true. She discusses the value of advice and ideas, emphasizing their potential to drive significant success within the company. The narrative also covers her upbringing in India, her family's aspirations for her, and the contrast between her mother's ambitions and the traditional expectations of marriage at 18. Additionally, she shares her educational journey, from her early life in India to obtaining a degree from the Yale School of Management, influenced by a Time magazine article. Her parents' surprising support for her decision to study in the U.S. is highlighted, as well as her initial career steps post-Yale at the Boston Consulting Group.
📈 Strategic Acquisitions and Product Innovation
The paragraph delves into the CEO's strategic role at PepsiCo, focusing on key acquisitions such as Gatorade and Quaker Oats, which were pivotal in expanding the company's product portfolio, particularly in the health and sports drink categories. It also touches on the acquisition of Tropicana, aimed at capturing the morning beverage market. The CEO's approach to innovation and product testing is discussed, including her personal involvement in tasting and evaluating new products. Furthermore, she addresses the challenge of receiving advice and feedback from various sources and the importance of considering all ideas for potential business opportunities.
💪 Leadership and Navigating Challenges
This section highlights the increasing challenges faced by CEOs, particularly in the last decade, due to financial crises, geopolitical changes, and technological disruptions. The CEO discusses the need for leaders to be versatile, engaging with diverse stakeholders from world leaders to frontline employees. The encounter with an activist investor is mentioned, emphasizing the CEO's focus on long-term company performance rather than short-term activist demands. The board's support in maintaining the company's strategic direction is also noted.
🍽️ Balancing Health and Taste in Food and Beverages
The CEO addresses the criticism surrounding the health implications of PepsiCo's products, outlining the company's efforts to introduce healthier options with reduced sugar levels. The gradual reformulation of Pepsi to lower sugar content is discussed, aiming to acclimate consumers to healthier choices. The narrative also defends the salt content in snack products like Lay's, comparing it favorably to common foods like bread. The CEO's personal engagement with the products and her visits to people's homes to check for PepsiCo products is shared, reflecting her dedication to the brand.
💌 Personal Touch in Corporate Leadership
The paragraph focuses on the CEO's personal approach to leadership, including her communication with employees through various channels and her efforts to maintain a personal connection. She discusses writing letters to employees' parents as a way of acknowledging their contributions and the impact of her upbringing on her leadership style. The CEO also shares her views on the possibility of 'having it all,' reflecting on the sacrifices and trade-offs she has made in her journey to the top.
🌐 Cultural Impact and Global Perspectives
In this part, the CEO reflects on her immigrant background and its influence on her career, highlighting both the positive and negative aspects of being a female immigrant leader. She discusses the importance of role modeling, especially for women and minorities, and the pressure to succeed to avoid regression. The CEO also shares anecdotes about her family's reaction to her success and the cultural differences she has navigated in her professional life.
📚 Early Influences and Career Aspirations
The final paragraph returns to the CEO's early life, discussing the influence of her mother's aspirations and the cultural expectations placed upon her. It also revisits the CEO's career trajectory, from her initial roles to her current position, and her continuous receipt of advice and its impact on the company's success. The narrative encapsulates her journey and the driving forces behind her achievements.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡CEO
💡Dream come true
💡Activist
💡Strategy
💡Leadership
💡Incredible
💡Trade-offs
💡Role model
💡Support system
💡Collateral damage
💡PepsiCo
Highlights
Dream of becoming CEO of a large company like Pepsi
Receiving advice and its impact on business decisions
Activist involvement and the CEO's responsibility
Importance of product visibility in consumer's homes
Defining leadership and its influence on success
Unexpected support from family in pursuing higher education
Influence of mother's aspirations and traditional values
Father and grandfather's encouragement to dream big
The decision to study at Yale School of Management
Experience at Boston Consulting Group shaping strategic thinking
Joining PepsiCo and the role of headhunters
Strategic acquisition of Gatorade and Quaker Oats
Importance of Tropicana in PepsiCo's product portfolio
Value of customer feedback and idea generation
PepsiCo's approach to testing new products
The significance of snack products in PepsiCo's brand
Challenges of being a CEO in a changing global environment
Activist suggestions and the CEO's response
Evolution of Pepsi Cola and adapting to health trends
Making snack products healthier and reducing salt content
Balancing work and personal life as a CEO
Role model as a woman and immigrant CEO
Overcoming difficulties as a woman and immigrant
Being a CEO for over 10 years and the stock performance
The importance of family and upbringing
Writing letters to parents of executives
Transcripts
[Music]
did you think you were gonna grow up to
be the CEO of a large company like Pepsi
this is like a dream come true
I pinch myself every day to say this is
really happening to me
do you get advice from people all the
time and do you ever listen to it you
never know if a nugget of an idea can
actually translate for big success in
the company not long ago an activist
showed up my job is not to keep an
activist happy my job is to make sure
this company is performing very very
well I suppose somebody has a product
from our company that's based in Atlanta
and you see them in their refrigerator
what do you do I let it be known that
I'm very unhappy would you fix your time
please well people wouldn't recognize me
if my tie was fixed but okay just leave
it this way all right I don't consider
myself a journalist and nobody else
would consider myself a journalist I
began to take on the life of being an
interviewer even though I have a day job
running a private equity firm how do you
define leadership
what is it that makes somebody tick you
have been the CEO of PepsiCo for more
than 10 years did you think when you
were a young girl in India that you were
going to grow up to be the CEO of a
large company like Pepsi well I tell you
something this is like a dream come true
I pinch myself every day to say is this
really happening to me because if you
trace my roots and go back to where I
was born and brought up and to where I
am today those two points will never
connect and now to be here in the United
States running such a large company it's
almost an incredulous thing that's
happened to me so let's go back to India
for a moment so you grew up in a very
close family
and when you were very young your mother
would at the kitchen table say well why
don't you pretend you're Prime Minister
of India or something what was the drill
that she was if it to you I think she
was a bit she is a very bright woman and
she didn't go to college because her
parents didn't think girls should go to
colleges and they couldn't afford to
send her to college so in a way she
lived vicariously through the daughters
so she kept pushing us to be whatever we
wanted to be dream big but she'd always
tell us but at 18 I'm getting you
married off but you can dream big until
then so at dinner table virtually every
day she'd sit down and have this
conversation about give me a speech as
if you were the president one day to be
Prime Minister one day we'll be chief
minister and she'd always pratik us she
never give us a compliment she just tell
us or no Chief Minister will do this no
Prime Minister will do this so she kept
pushing us to be better and better and
better and if we got one compliment from
her we said wow we must have done really
well so she really raised the bar
constantly on us and I think she gave us
hopes but then anchored us firmly into
the conservative South Indian Brahmin
values of you gotta get married at 18
which didn't happen I want to tell you
but that's what she kept telling us so
if you don't get married at 18 it's a
disgrace at that you know that's the way
she positioned it for us but I think the
other side was my father and my
grandfather said do whatever you want
dream do whatever you want but just get
a good set of grades in school so that
your mother can get you married off so
that was my upbringing
so we had these checks and balances at
home so you did get some degrees in
India and then you decided to get a
degree from the Yale School of
Management when you said to your parents
I'm gonna go to Yale which is in
Connecticut in the United States what
did they say this is perhaps the biggest
mystery of them all because my
conservative mother and my you know
supportive father actually allowed me to
come to the United States shock the hell
out of me because I would have thought
my mother would have fasted for days and
thrown a temper tantrum
absolutely not she actually came to the
airport and saw me off they even bought
me an airline ticket which even today I
wonder how they did it what caused him
to do it but they both are very
supportive they had enough people around
here to sort of look up on me and make
sure I had a support system but they
encouraged me to go and live out my
dream how did you pick Yale you know
it's interesting there was an article in
Time magazine or something like that
which sort of talked about the Yale
School of Management the Masters in
public and private management how they
were bringing together the different
sectors and it was a beautiful article
and I read about it at the u.s. IIST
library in the consulate office in
Madras where I was growing up I was so
intrigued by the approach to education
from Yale som that I decided to apply to
Yale alright so when you graduated you
then began to go into various strategy
kinds of positions where were you
initially I left Yale and went to the
Boston Consulting Group in Chicago right
and spent six and a half years there and
perhaps one of my most formative
experiences because being a strategy
consulting especially in BCG at that
time which was sort of the father of
strategy allowed me to see problems of
companies in a holistic way it wasn't
just marketing or just operations or
supply chain or whatever I saw every
aspect of the company and sort of gave
me ten years of experience in six years
and I became a better person because of
that how did PepsiCo hear of you a
headhunter called me one day and said
the PepsiCo would like to talk to you
and I came in and talked to PepsiCo and
his history
they gave you the job of being charged a
strategy it's a corporate strategy okay
so you did make some acquisitions that
under your
leadership as the head of strategy one
of them was Gatorade and were Quaker
Oats which came with Gatorade it was
that a good acquisition for you and were
you happy to do it it was one of the
most brilliant acquisitions that we did
as a company because it gave us Gatorade
which was an amazing isotonic beverage
probably the best isotonic beverage in
the world today for athletes isotonic
means sports drinks sports drinks and so
it gave us access to Gatorade and we
could do all kinds of things with
Gatorade we didn't have a good product
in our portfolio and that was good but
the bigger attraction was the Quaker
Oats brand in PepsiCo we had no food
brand that was good for you and we
needed a good for you brand in our
portfolio and when we looked at the
world the best good for your brand even
today is Quaker Oats and we wanted that
brand badly so what was interesting is
we wanted Quaker Oats
and Gatorade other beverage companies
only wanted Gatorade and didn't know
what to do with Creek roads because we
had both businesses for us the Quaker
Oats Company which included Quaker and
Gatorade was an absolutely logical
acquisition so when I was a young person
I played sports and in those days it was
such a long time ago that the
conventional wisdom was you were not
supposed to drink anything during
halftime because you would get a cramp
and so you were just supposed to sweat
and the idea of hydrating hadn't come
along so one time we played a team in
Australia in La Crosse and they had a
different idea that to drink beer during
halftime and actually work they did much
better so we actually went to that
approach but because you should actually
hydrate when you play to avoid the
cramps but that's how Gatorade was
created that's right but at that time or
before Gatorade people didn't really
know that as much what about Tropicana
that was one of your ideas as well how
did that come about 1997 we bought
Tropicana because we had no brand no
beverage brand that was serving
consumers before 10:00 a.m. in the
morning the first time somebody reached
for a PepsiCo beverage was at 10:00 a.m.
which was either a Pepsi or a Hmong do
so the first early hours of the morning
we had no product and so Tropicana for
us was always on the radar as a brand
that we needed in our portfolio for
a breakfast beverage so when Tropicana
came up for sale we grabbed it so I
assume everybody comes up to you and
says well make Pepsi taste differently
or make the frito-lay chip different you
get advice from people all the time and
do you ever listen to it they give me
ideas on products how are existing
products taste and what new products we
ought to be developing they give me
ideas and feedback on our commercials
they give me ideas for commercials
packaging I get ideas for everything the
most important thing is to keep both
yours open because you never know if a
nugget of an idea can actually translate
to a big success in the company so one
of the things I've learned is not to
dismiss the ideas I catalog all the
ideas I get then I send it out to my
people saying hey I listen to this group
of people talk about our products and
this is what I heard is there something
here should be do be doing something
about it
so I listen to everybody you do all the
testing or some of the testing yourself
one of the greatest things about my job
is I can actually taste and test
products when they're in the early
stages so just to give you an idea
during our annual planning cycles I must
taste somewhere between 50 to 100
products over three days whether snacks
or beverages or Quaker products or
Tropicana products everything that
they're thinking of launching over the
next three years of five years they'll
show me prototypes and you know I can
give an opinion not that my opinion is
the only thing that counts but I can
give an opinion there's something else I
do David which might sound a bit corny
but I'm going to tell it to you any time
I visit anybody's home within the first
half hour I make it a point to find my
way into the kitchen and I'm opening
cupboards to see what products they have
because to me it's very important that
if I visit somebody in their homes any
anybody who invites me could be a friend
anybody they've got to have Pepsi
products I suppose somebody has a
product from a company that's based in
Atlanta and you see them in in their
refrigerator what do you do I let it be
known that I'm very unhappy okay so if
you invite me you know what to do
I will change everything I don't have
the other products anyway but don't
worry I would have your products thank
you appreciate it
what about snack products and how are
you trying to make those healthier a
single celled bag of fleas has less salt
than a slice of bread so you should eat
your bag of Lay's with a smile on your
face that's right even with a smile like
that I wonder whether I gain some weight
but
do you exercise you play not whatever
they've been CEO as I mentioned for more
than ten years which most CEOs of
Fortune 500 companies are probably four
five years or so so you've obviously
done very well the stock is up
I think 67 percent since you've been the
CEO it's harder to be a CEO now than it
was 10 years ago I think when you look
at the world in the last decade the
financial crisis in fact changed the
world
enormous Lee because you've had since
then really the world has not recovered
from the financial crisis you've had
geopolitical upheavals all over the
world on top of that technology
disruption is absolutely rewriting the
rules of most companies what kind of
jobs are you gonna keep in the company
how are you gonna digitize your value
chain how is ecommerce going to impact
your business there's some technology
that's impacting every part of the
company so in this last seven years in
particular it's been a real challenge to
run a large company because you've got
to be a foreign policy expert you've got
to be a technology person you've got to
be able to talk to the front line you've
got to be able to talk to world leaders
CEOs have had to do a lot just to be
able to manage their companies and keep
them going in this incredibly troubled
global environment so it's been a
challenge not long ago an activist
showed up and the activists said well
maybe you should spin off your free
delay for your lay business your snack
business what was your response and how
did you happen to keep the activists
pretty happy my job is not to keep an
activists happy my job is to make sure
this company is managed for the next
generation and is performing very very
well and if the activist is happy in the
process so be it let me just say
something David I am an internal
activist I own 33 times my salary in
PepsiCo stock my entire net worth is in
this company so if an activist or
anybody in the outside had a great idea
on how to improve shareholder value that
sustains I listen to them so I listen to
the activists I had my own personal
convictions and I have a super Board of
Directors so I shared with them the
strategy of the company which I you know
I'm very transparent with them Oba
and I told them where we're headed and
where the activists wanted us to go and
it was very clear to the board as it was
clear to me that that was more of a
short-term strategy and what we were
embarked on is really the long-term
strategy the board backed me the courage
of our convictions prevailed and we are
you know exactly where we were before
the activists came in and performing
very well so one of the main things that
you sell is Pepsi Cola
mm-hm and there's another company Coca
Cola and if you have a blindfold test
can you tell the difference yeah
absolutely
have you tried the two beverages well
I'm told that years ago when they were
blindfold tests more people liked Pepsi
Cola and therefore Coca Cola tried to
reformulate its formula and it didn't
quite work out the secret formula for
Coca Cola's had to be in some vault
somewhere the Pepsi Cola so we have a
formula in the vault too but I tell you
having you know I'm a chemist by
undergraduate degree and so I'm always
testing competitors products the Pepsi
Cola product was which was invented by
some chemist way way way back is one of
the most complex refined amazing
formulae let's say it is very good but
most people would say that Pepsi Cola
and maybe Coca Cola are not that healthy
for you so you must have heard that
argument before and how does Pepsi Co
under your leadership try to make
products like Pepsi Cola healthier what
is your plan to do that products like
Pepsi Cola we invented many many many
years ago in society was completely
different there was more under nutrition
than there was over nutrition and at
that time people felt that drinking
products with that much sugar was all
right Society has changed and it
behooves us to change with Society so
what are we doing overall we are
launching more products with zero or
very low sugar we're taking Pepsi itself
and reformulating it for lower and lower
sugar levels and so the idea is to train
the consumer to start accepting
carbonated soft drinks with lower sugar
levels now the challenges overnight your
country in the consumer to do that
you've got to step them down piece by
piece so that when we get to a level
which is you know like 50 or 60 calories
per 8 ounce or 70 calories per 12 months
they're comfortable with the product so
that's the journey we're on what about
snack products I mean they've been
criticized or having a lot of salt how
are you trying to make those healthier
so let me just give you a good piece of
news a single-serve bag of Lay's has
less salt than a slice of bread really
yes because its surface salt for bread
you need it as a leavening agent in soup
you need it as a preservative with
potato chips as a surface salt so it's
it's actually three ingredients in a bag
of Lay's a little bit of salt potatoes
and heart healthy oils so you should eat
your bag of Lay's with a smile on your
face that's my first mother smile my
face but I wonder whether I gained some
weight but I gained weight do you
exercise you play not whatever I think
you should be fine suppose somebody says
I don't care about being healthy I just
want to have a great time I want to eat
a great snack what is your snack that's
gonna make me the happiest Oh free toes
redose Fritos oh my god you'd feel like
you died and went to heaven
I have tried that and yes they are
pretty good huh people are really the
heart of PepsiCo
now you have over 200,000 employees so
how can you possibly relate to them do
you do it through emails or how do you
keep your employees informed about
everything they have so many employees
so we do videos we do emails we do town
halls and forums every quarter every
time I travel you know we meet with
employees and I do town halls in that
town or country that I go to
occasionally I'll write very personal
letters to the employee base as a whole
for example my kids were going to
college I wrote a person letter to
everybody saying I'm going through
tremendous separation angst or if I felt
our employees were not calling their
parents often enough I'd write a letter
about why it's important they call their
parents so whatever is on my mind on a
personal basis I want them to know me as
a person rather than just an executive
so I'm very accessible to them and I
talk to everybody from the front line to
my senior executives a number of years
ago you spoke at the Economic Club of
Washington and you made a speech that I
thought have really captured a lot of
people's attention and one of the things
you said was that you write letters
to your senior officers mothers to kind
of give them a report card on how their
children are doing do you still do that
and what was the theory behind that so I
have to take you back a few years when I
first became CEO I went back to India to
visit my mother who was in India at that
time my father had passed away and my
mother was there and I stayed at the
hotel because you know the home was a
little bit more rugged and I wanted the
comforts so she told me I had to dress
up and show up at home at 7:00 a.m. in
the morning and I wondered why but you
know and mom gives you instructions you
just follow it when I got home and I sat
in the living room stream of visitors
and random people started to show up
they'd say hello to me and then go to my
mom and say you did such a good job with
your daughter
you know compliments to you she's CEO
but not a word to me and when I watched
this interplay going on I realized that
I was a product of my upbringing and my
parents if my father had been around
today they should get the credit because
it's what they did for me and to me that
allowed me to be who I was that day and
occurred to me that I never thanked the
parents of my executives for the gift of
their child to PepsiCo so I came back
and I started to write to my direct
reports and you know other senior
executives narrating the story my
cultural background what happened when I
went to India and then I wrote a
personal paragraph and what their child
was doing at PepsiCo and said he'd thank
you for the gift of your child to our
company and it opened the floodgate of
emotions parents just started to
communicate directly with me and it's
been an amazing experience because I now
write to about 400 executives so you
read a letter their parents what are the
executives say they say don't do that or
they say I'm glad you told my mother how
well I'm doing or my father
so our executives actually get very
emotional about it because their parents
have never received such a letter
and their parents are now getting a
letter which is always a positive report
card right I mean I'm not going to write
anything else so their parents are so
delighted about receiving this letter
they tell their neighbors and the uncles
and their aunts and then the executive
says my god this is the best thing that
happened to my parents and the best
thing that happened to me
could have feels proud so have you ever
written letters to the interviewers
you've ever had of their mothers no not
yet
yeah okay you think a woman today has it
easier than when you became CEO so I'm
always afraid that if I fail I may have
to go back to something that I don't
want to go back to and so that fear
always motivates me and I Drive myself
be better and better and better at my
job every day
some people who might be watching this
or a burglar story would say this person
has it all she's a woman who's become
the CEO of a great company she has a
husband she's married to for more than
30 years to happy and healthy daughters
who are gainfully employed is it
possible for anybody certainly a woman
in our society to have it all and do you
think oh you have had it all well on a
relative basis yes I've had it all okay
on a relative basis I'm very fortunate
to have a wonderful husband two great
kids a very tight-knit family an awesome
job with a great team but you know to
get here and to stay here I mean lots of
trade offs lots of sacrifices you know
under the water a lot of collateral
damage but I think somehow I've had the
strength to power through all of that
can you have it all that's the big
question in this definition I think if
you have the right support system if you
have an understanding spouse if you want
to be married and if you're willing to
make all the trade-offs that you need to
make you can't have it all but while you
do all that there will be heartache
there will be pain there would be some
collateral damage underneath the surface
gotta live with it when you became the
president of Pepsi you came home one day
and your mother was there and she asked
you to get some milk and well maybe you
could tell the story better than I could
well you know this way back in 2000 and
I was just informed but 9:30 in the
night from a phone call that I was gonna
be president of the company and so I
went home because I was working on the
Quaker Oats deal to tell my family that
I was going to be president of PepsiCo
and I walked in the house and mom opens
the door she was living with me at that
time and I said mom I got news for you
and she said well before your news go
get some milk I said it's ten o'clock in
the night why should I get milk and I
notice that my husband's car was in the
garage I said why didn't you tell him to
get the milk she said well he came at
8:00 he was very tired so I let him be
now you go get the milk and you know you
never question your mom so when got the
mail came back sort of banged it on the
countertop and I said I had big news for
you I've just been appointed president
of PepsiCo and all that you care about
is the milk
I just looked at me and she said what
are you talking about she said when you
walk in that door just leave that crown
in the garage because you are the wife
the daughter the daughter-in-law and the
mother of the kids and that's all I want
to talk about anything else just leave
it in the garage so don't even try this
with me anymore
so I think the mom you don't try
anything but she must be very proud that
you're the CEO I think she is but she
keeps me very grounded David what is
more difficult being a woman being a CEO
or being an immigrant being a CEO or
being a combination what do you think
has caused you more difficulty and what
did you have to work overcome work I
don't know if it's difficulty I think
being a woman an immigrant has had its
positives and its negatives it's had its
positives because you sort of people
take notice of you because you're so
different you walk in the room people go
she's a different sort of a person
female immigrant tall you know all of
these work together it's been difficult
because they go how will she know how to
run this great American company so I
think it's been both a positive and
negative but I say on balance more of a
positive than a negative you think a
woman today has it easier than when you
became CEO or do you still feel that you
still have to work harder to be a woman
CEO then let's say a man who is a CEO of
equivalent size company I think easier
today only because there's a few more of
us in positions of power but I think
from a personal perspective it's got
nothing to do with women or being in
this position I have the immigrant fear
so I'm always afraid that if I fail I
may have to go back to something that I
don't want to go back to and so that
fear always motivates me and I Drive
myself be better and better and better
at my job every day so you're a role
model obviously for many women do you
see yourself as a role model and
particularly from women from in the air
from outside the United States I don't
have a choice but to be a role model and
I feel a privilege to be the role model
whether it's for women for minorities
for Indian women for sure everybody
looks up to me and you know wants to
learn from me and get my advice I you
know I can't you know give them all
enough time that's the thing that makes
me feel very bad because I get letters
every day asking
for advice or whether I'd be a mentor to
people I can't do it all so I try to do
my best by speaking in public forums and
trying to disseminate information on a
large scale but I think because there
are so few of us we have to play the
role of being the role model and we have
to make sure we do a good job because we
have to set the standard for others who
might follow in our footsteps so one
time I think I read when your husband
was saying well injury you're spending
all your time on Pepsi Pepsi Pepsi and
what about me and what was the your
response well you always done even today
he'll tell me that your Lister's PepsiCo
PepsiCo PepsiCo then the kids then your
mom and somewhere in the bottom I sit
there and I keep telling him you're on
the list just be happy you're on the
list but you know he knows that I love
him dearly he knows that he is my rock
that you know I just he's my life but
you know he likes to be higher up on the
list who wouldn't recognize me if my tie
was fixed but just think this way all
right
I don't consider myself a journalist and
nobody else would consider myself a
journalist I began to take on the life
of being an interviewer even though I
have a day job running a private equity
firm how do you define leadership what
is it that makes somebody tick you have
been the CEO of this no prime minister
will do this so she kept pushing us to
be better and better and better and if
we got one compliment from her we said
wow we must have done really well so she
really raised the bar constantly on us
and I think she gave us hopes but then
anchored us firmly into the conservative
South Indian Brahmin values of you gotta
get married at 18 which didn't happen I
want to tell you but that's what she
kept telling us so if you don't get
married at 18 it's a disgrace at that
time you know that's the way she
positioned it for us but I think the
other side was my father and my
grandfather said do whatever you want
dream do whatever did you think you were
gonna grow up to be the CEO of a large
company like Pepsi this is like a dream
come true I pinch myself every day to
say this is really happening to me do
you get advice from people all the time
and do you ever listen to it you never
know if a nugget of an idea can actually
translate to a big success in the
company not long ago an activist showed
up my job is not to keep an activist
happy my job is to make sure this
company is performing very very well I
suppose somebody has a product from a
company that's based in Atlanta and you
see them in their refrigerator what do
you do I let it be known that I'm very
unhappy would you fix your time please
well PPAP Chico for more than 10 years
did you think when you were a young girl
in India that you were gonna grow up to
be the CEO of a large company like Pepsi
well I tell you something this is like a
dream come true I pinch myself every day
to say is this really happening to me
because if you trace my roots and go
back to where I was born and brought up
and to where I am today those two points
will never connect and now to be here in
the United States running such a large
company it's almost an incredulous
that's happened to me so let's go back
to India for a moment so you grew up in
a very close family and when you were
very young
your mother would at the kitchen table
say well why don't you pretend you're
Prime Minister of India or something
what was the drill that she was exhibit
to you I think she was a bit she is a
very bright woman and she didn't go to
college because her parents didn't think
girl should go to colleges and they
couldn't afford to send her to college
so in a way she lived vicariously
through the daughters so she kept
pushing us to be whatever we wanted to
be dream big but she'll always tell us
but at 18 I'm getting you married off
but you can dream big until then so a
dinner table virtually every day she'd
sit down and have this conversation
about give me a speech as if he were the
president one it'll be Prime Minister
one there'll be Chief Minister and she'd
always pratik us she never give us a
compliment she just tell it or no Chief
Minister will
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