She made the best even better! Pepsico and its ex-CEO Indira Nooyi.
What was worth USD 2.7 billion in 2001 rose to USD 6.5 billion when she left in 2018! Going to her credit also were Pepsico’s acquisitions of Tropicana and Quaker Oats which resulted in her becoming the company’s CFO- the first ever by an Indian woman in America.
She has often been ranked as one of the most powerful businesspersons, the most powerful CEOs, the most powerful of women chief executives and the likes. She cut her teeth in the corporate world with esteemed organizations that include Boston Consulting Group, Asea Brown Boveri and Motorola before joining PepsiCo. Such has been her influence in her home country of India that in the year 2005, she was felicitated by the Government of India with the prestigious Padma Bhushan.
Indira Nooyi’s initial years were spent in Chennai from where she did most of her education including graduation. A fine, fine student, she made it to IIM Kolkata for her PG. Her latest accomplishment in education includes a master’s in Public and Private Management from the Yale School of Management. An all-rounder, she was a part of her school’s band as also the cricket team. Incidentally, on the subject of cricket, she was the first independent woman director of the ICC!
An out and out performer who leads from the front, she has seen it all in the corporate world, the ups, and the downs, and most of all, how to take things up even when things look bleak. In all these, if there’s one thing Indira Nooyi is sure to have gathered, it’s experienced, and the ability to articulate them in the form of interesting quotes. We reproduce a few below.
- Leadership is hard to define and good leadership even harder. But if you can get people to follow you to the ends of the earth, you are a great leader.
- 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.
Insights Success 