Her autobiography brings the remarkable journey of PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi

Vini Mahajan

THE story of a girl born and brought up in a traditional family in Chennai who went on to become the long-serving CEO of one of the most well-known US companies is bound to operate at various levels. For all Indians in particular, and the developing world in general, it was a matter of the greatest satisfaction that one of our own was to head a company as well known as PepsiCo for a full 13 years.

The US corporate world, and indeed that in the entire developed world, is known to be dominated by white males from within the developed world. A non-white, and a woman to boot, ascending to the very top is a highly unusual event today, and was even more so back in 2006 when Indra Nooyi was nominated Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo. It is a matter of the highest credit to her therefore that she was claimed, as she mentions in the introduction itself, by both the US President and the Prime Minister of India as “one of us”.

Indra’s autobiography does justice to her remarkable life. Written in a simple, easy-to-read style, it brings out vividly her life’s journey. It starts from growing up in a middle class Tamil Brahmin household with a revered grandfather, a supportive father and a mother who, as Indra puts it so evocatively, had “one foot on the accelerator and the other on the brake”, in the sense of encouraging her daughter to soar, while emphasising the bonds and constraints for girls, at so many critical times in her life. For those of us who have grown up in or experienced joint families as we call them, or multi-generational families as Indra does, the images of being part of a close network of cousins, aunts and uncles are so familiar. Equally familiar are the images of India in the ’60s and early ’70s.

The most important phase of Indra’s life, of course, was her move to the US, first to study management at Yale and then to work, starting with BCG, Motorola and ABB, until finally she moved to PepsiCo in 1994. It is clear from her narrative that her rise to the top was the result of not just her skill sets of a very high order, especially her ability of strategic thinking, but also her capacity to work extremely hard.

She has described herself as fortunate in needing only five hours of sleep in a day, and clearly much of the rest of her time was devoted to work, almost seven days a week, including extensive travel. She was also supported by excellent mentors who guided and helped her move up. Most importantly, according to her, she had the support of a caring family, especially a husband who was willing, for instance, to move to another location when she needed to, even at the cost of his own work, and a mother and other family members who strongly supported her when her daughters were young. In fact, a very major reason for Indra to write this book appears to be her strong conviction that workplaces and the corporate world need to do much more to support working women, including more paid maternal and paternal leave, a flexible and predictable work schedule, and daycare facilities for children.

Indra has also brought out the need for the business world, especially large corporates, to be more aware of environmental challenges such as the need to conserve water and promote use of renewable energy. She has linked her strong views to her childhood in India, but the issues she has highlighted are relevant across the globe. She has also brought out starkly how she promoted health and wellness by reorienting a company known for its cola and fast food to one that worked determinedly to provide customers with healthy choices.

Indra has described how, early in her life in the US, her then CEO noted her direct and blunt style, and advised her “to be careful about throwing hand grenades”. She quickly learnt a new, softer way of dealing with colleagues. This style is evident in her book, which has highlighted all the positives in her life, but she either did not experience too many problems, other than those of child-rearing, or she has chosen to play them down. About the only negative references are to her daughter facing racial discrimination as a young child at school, and she herself facing a new boss who was uncomfortable working with women and regularly called her “Honey”. Perhaps the fact that she was helped in writing the book by a professional writer may also be responsible for the sense that the book does not truly bring out the passion that would have resulted in the kind of heights that Indra reached.

Nevertheless, this book is a treasure for those who want to understand how a for-profit entity can reorient itself successfully to goals that may at a superficial level appear in conflict with the profit motive. It should also be essential reading for all professionals looking to understand how to deal with complex situations at work and home. But most importantly, the book is a valuable guide to women, who have to constantly make choices relating to the work-life balance. At the end of the book, Indra promises her daughters that she will be there for them when they have their own children who need family care. The message that comes out strongly is that this promise needs to be made not just by all women to their daughters, but perhaps by society to all its young families and also its elders, so that the future generations can truly benefit from equal opportunity for all.