Indra Nooyi
Chairman and CEO, PepsiCo
Age: 57
Earned her Bachelors in physics, chemistry and mathematics from Madras Christian College in 1974. MBA, IIM-Calcutta, 1976. Master of Public and Private Management, Yale University, 1980
Married to Raj Nooyi; has two daughters, Preetha and Tara Earned $12.6 million last year
HIGH POINT
President Obama invited her for a discussion on the economic crisis facing the US in November 2012. In 2010, there was a strong buzz that she was being considered a successor to Ratan Tata. She declined saying she was having “too much fun at PepsiCo”.
UNWINDING
In an interview with CNBC’s Off-the-Cuff programme, she said she likes watching the New York Yankees play, but puts the TV on mute so she can continue working. When she “really wants to blow off steam”, she plays rummy with her kids. In an interview with Good Housekeeping, she said she likes playing games like Bridge, Scrabble and Sudoku online. “My guilty pleasures are the websites where you can look at the fashions and see how different outfits will look. You can even take a picture of yourself and download it and play with the fashions!,” she told GH.
EARLY YEARS
Nooyi grew up in Chennai where her father was a bank officer. Her career path in the US began in 1980 at the Boston Consulting Group, followed by stints in Motorola and ABB. In 1994, she joined PepsiCo as senior VP, strategic planning. With annual revenues of $65 billion, PepsiCo is the world’s second largest food and beverages company.
CAREER GRAPH
As the head of strategy at PepsiCo, she was responsible for much of its restructuring. During her tenure, PepsiCo sold off the restaurant business and spun off its bottling operations, and acquired new businesses like Tropicana and Quaker Oats. In 2006, she was named CEO, only the fifth in PepsiCo’s history. With her at the helm, sales have nearly doubled and earnings have gone up by 30 percent. Nooyi has pushed PepsiCo to become a healthier company by investing in R&D to make soft drinks with less calories, chips with less sodium or yoghurt with more fruit.
She has taken the company global, cut costs by consolidating facilities and laying off more than 8,000 employees last year. She has made aggressive acquisitions in the BRIC nations. (PepsiCo spent $7 billion in buying two businesses in Russia alone). She is a fierce supporter of conscious capitalism and says a lot of inspiration for her thoughts on sustainability come from the tough times in Chennai where her mother would wake up at 3 am to store water.
Last year, the market feared that her position at PepsiCo would be under pressure, when activist investor Ralph Whitworth’s hedge fund invested $600 million in PepsiCo. Her critics say her push into “good-for-you” products is taking too long to show results.
WORK-LIFE BALANCE
Nooyi says she made several sacrifices in managing her career and her family. But, in an interview with WSJ, she says every time her kids called during work, she would stop to take those calls. Even when those were only to ask her if they could play Nintendo. Nooyi credits her husband for his support; she says he took on half of her workload at home so she could continue building her career.
Padmasree Warrior
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(This story appears in the 28 June, 2013 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)
Inspiring
on Jul 30, 2013Truly Inspirational! You must read this fantastic article by the Chairperson to the International Womenâs Conference, Bhanumathi Narasimhan in the HuffPost 'What Successful Women Do RIGHT!'- http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bhanu-narasimhan/what-successful-women-do-right_b_3411693.html
on Jul 30, 2013How on Earth did Ms. Padmasree Warrior end up as the CTO of a networking pioneer after studying chemical engineering? I note Jeanne Heydecker\'s objection in the comments already published. Still, for the women of India, these two women could serve as \'role models\' for young girls whose horizons are often sought to be forcibly limited by the elders in the family. Of course, Kalpana Chawla and Suni Williams could serve equally well as role models.
on Jun 28, 2013Not expecting this to be approved. Seriously? Both these ladies should be shamed for the aftermath they left behind at Motorola. I live in Pune. I\'m an American who spent a lot of years in the telecom industry both in the US and India. Their questionable, extremely political bureaucracies crippled Motorola. I lived in Aurora, IL, and witnessed the majority of that company implode - families devastated, houses taken from them. I can\'t forgive either of them for their poor decisions in favor of their own careers at the stake of the business, and your writing that they can balance home and family with their loving husbands. It is total crap. They live in America, not here. Get realistic and perhaps fact-check before you post.
on Jun 27, 2013Such stories must be making it tough for Cyrus - that unlike these alternate choices he was selected just because he was a billionaire, Parsi or had 18% stake .
on Jun 24, 2013