“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.”-Indra Krishnamurthy Nooyi
Indra Nooyi, an Indian American Tamil woman, has become one of world’s most powerful corporate executives with a business of a billion-plus dollar revenue. Born and brought up in a conservative south Indian family, she herself had never imagined of such glorious future. Indra Nooyi is the Chairman and CEO(Chief Executive Officer) of PepsiCo, the second largest American multinational food and beverage corporation. She’s been ranked #2 on Fortune’s 50 Most Powerful Women in Business. In 2018, she’s been awarded as one of the “Best CEOs in the World” by CEO WORLD Magazine. But all these achievements has not been easy on her part. She has come from very humble roots of her life. Her rise’s been an inspiration for Indians and particularly, for women.
According to her, “A woman can’t have it all”. She means to say through this that balancing career and family life specially in Indian tradition and context is like making a deal. She had a life full of hardship. Her thirst for success and knowledge is what that has made her a great leader.
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She was born on 28 October, 1955 in Madras, India(now Chennai) to a middle-class Telugu brahmin family. At a time, when women were restricted to the household works, she used to play cricket and guitar in an all-girls’ cricket team and all-girl rock band respectively. Her first job was at Tootal, a British Textile Company. Later, she was hired as the brand manager at the Bombay offices of Johnson and Johnson and then was given the StayFree account. Advertising personal protection was quite challenging for her in India. Later, she moved to the USA to prepare herself for the Business world. It’s not that her life was totally changed after her travel to America. There was a time when her all summer days were being spent in one saree as she was unable to afford a suit. In 1990, she served as the Head of Strategy for Asea Brown Boveri Inc. This paved the way for her success, she became the Chief Strategist of PepsiCo. She reshaped the identity of the brand and negotiated formation of renowned restaurants like KFC and Pizza Hut in 1997.
At the age of 39, she became the Chief Financial Officer of PepsiCo. She’s been sailing through a gutsy professional life. Finally, at the age of 51, she became the Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo. She’s one unique CEO who follows the “know when to do” philosophy. Her impressive business strategies increased the revenue from $35 billion to more than $63 billion. The PepsiCo has flourished undeniably.
Indra Nooyi didn’t just focus on the company but also developed public awareness on obesity and environmental protection, refusing water usage and increasing recycling She describes the Indian educated woman as productive, smart and exclusive as any other Western woman. Dreaming of success can be done by all but achieving it is done by very few. Future is absolutely bright if anything is not allowed to hold you back. Higher the risk, higher the profit. It can be better understood from the success story of Indra Nooyi, the most influential personality for Indian Business Women.
