BE

INDR HA
VIO
UR
A AT
WO
RK
KRIS Eac
h
HNA gro
up

MUR has
to
stu
THY dy
the
NOO pro
file
of
YI the
lea
GROUP
der
ASSIGNMEN
T
,
his
INDRA NOOYI
Indra Nooyi is an Indian-born American business executive and former CEO of
PepsiCo , one of the largest food and beverage businesses in the world. Nooyi
is one of the top female executives in the United States and is consistently
ranked among the world’s 100 most powerful women. Nooyi has risen to
become one of the top most female executives in the world from a modest
beginning. Born in a middle class family in Chennai, Nooyi has always been
someone who refused to adhere to the conservative norms of the society. She
gained much prominence as a strategist and received job offers from several
prestigious companies including general electric and PepsiCo.

EDUCATION, EARLY LIFE AND CHILDHOOD

 Indra Nooyi was on 28th October , 1955 in Madras ( Now Chennai) , Tamil
Nadu , India into a conservative middle class family. Her father was a
bank officer.
 She was educated at Holy Angels Anglo Indian Higher Secondary School.
She studied Physics , Chemistry and Mathematics from Madras Christian
college from where she graduated in 1974.
 A brilliant student, she earned a seat in one of India’s premier
Institutions , Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta from where she
completed a post graduate diploma in management ( MBA ) in 1976.

CAREER
 Her first Job was with Tuetal, a British textile company which had
extensive holdings in India. Eventually she moved on to work with
Johnson & Johnson as a product manager.
 Her job with Johnson and Johnson was quite a challenging one as she
was made responsible for managing the introduction of Stayfree Sanitary
napkins to India. At that time advertising for female hygiene products
was banned in the country and Stayfree was struggling to gain a
 foothold. Nooyi managed to introduce the products to young women by
directly marketing to female students at schools and colleges.
 Her experience at Johnson and Johnson made her realize that she was
still unprepared for the business world, and thus, she decided to pursue
further education. She moved to the United States to join Yale School of
Management in 1978 and pursued a Master’s degree in Public and
Private Management. She thoroughly enjoyed her learning experience at
Yale and graduated in 1980.
 After getting her degree, she joined the Boston Consulting group as a
director of International Corporate Strategy projects. In this position, she
worked in a variety of strategy projects for the next six years.
 In 1986, she moved to Motorola as a senior executive in the automobile
division development team. She quickly rose through the ranks and was
promoted to Vice President and director of Corporate Strategy and
planning in 1988.
 She changed her job yet again in 1990, this time accepting the post of
Senior Vice President and Director of Corporate Strategy and Strategic
Marketing at Asea Brown Boveri (ABB). This job required Nooyi to
integrate a group of around 15 diverse businesses into a cohesive
operation.
 She proved to be a great success at this job and by the mid 1990s , she
was being aggressively courted by Corporate head hunters and offered
lucrative positions in some of the world’s largest companies. In 1994,
Jack Welch , the head of general electric and Wayne Calloway PepsiCo
CEO, both offered her jobs in their respective companies.
 Indra Nooyi joined PepsiCo in 1994 as senior Vice President of Corporate
Strategy and development over the next couple of years, she worked
closely with the new CEO, Roger Enrico, and worked in shaping the
company’s future expansion and growth strategies.
 PepsiCo at that time owned KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bells restaurant
chains. Nooyi played a pivotal part in getting those restaurants. Now
renamed as Yum ! which is today one of the world’s largest fast food
restaurant companies.
 Given the changing food preferences of the consumers , she felt that it
was important for PepsiCo to expand into more healthful snack options.
In keeping up with their belief she led PepsiCo’s acquisition of Tropicana.
Both of these ventures proved to be highly profitable to the company.
  In recognition of her impressive work with the company, Nooyi was
promoted to Chief Financial Officer. In 2000 and the President in 2001. In
2006, PepsiCo CEO Steve Reinemund retired and Nooyi became the fifth
CEO in PepsiCo’s 44 years history.
 Indra Nooyi also serves as a member of the foundation board of the
world economic forum, International rescue committee, Catalyst and the
Lincoln Centre for the Performing Arts.

MAJOR WORKS AND CONTRIBUTION TO THE

INDUSTRY
 As an employee of PepsiCo, Nooyi is credited to have directed the
company’s global strategy, leading to it’s extensive expansion and
restructuring, including the diversification of it’s restaurants. She played
an instrumental role in PepsiCo’s acquisition of Tropicana and merger
with Quaker Oats company.
 Nooyi joined PepsiCo in 1994 and had an immediate influence on
company’s strategic direction.
 The following year, Nooyi played a key role in Pepsi’s acquisition of
Tropicana. The $3.3 Billion deal was particularly significant for company
as it placed PepsiCo in direct competition with Coca-cola.
 After that, in 2000 PepsiCo made another strategic acquisition when it
bought Quaker Oats.
 One of Nooyi’s most controversial initiatives has been to redirect
PepsiCo’s considerable Corporate spend away from junk foods to
healthier alternatives.
 One of Nooyi’s most visible achievements came in the complete overhaul
of PepsiCo’s branding for this big task. She recruited Italian design expert
Mauroporcini with brief of redesigning the product’s design and logo.
 Much of Nooyi’s current international strategy involes reaching out to
emerging market’s rapidly expanding middle classes.
 Under the guidance of Nooyi, in 2015 the company slashed the overall
water use in it’s operations b about 2.2Billion litres in a drive towards
improved water consumption. In doing this, it has saved more than $80
million in production costs.
  The firm has also partnered with Non-Profit Organisations (NPO) to
provide safe water access to over 9 million people in less affluent nations
since 2006 till date.

AWARDS AND RECOGNITION

 She has consistently ranked on ‘ Forbes ‘ magazine’s list of The World’s
100 Most Powerful Women. ‘Fortune’ magazine named Indra Nooyi No.1
on its annual ranking of Most Powerful Women in business for five
consecutive years from 2006 to 2010.
 She was honoured with the Padma Bhushan by the President of India in
2007.
 She has been named 2009 CEO of the Year by Global Supply Chain
Leaders Group.

MEMBERSHIP AND ASSOCIATIONS

 Indra Nooyi is a successor Fellow of the Yale Corporation.
 She serves as a member of the Foundation Board of the World Economic
Forum.
 She serves as a member of the International Rescue Committee
 She also serves as a member of the Catalyst.
 She is a part of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.
 She is also a member of the Board of Trustees of Eisenhower
Fellowships.
 She has served as Chairperson of the United States India Business
Council.
 She also serves as an honorary Co-chair for the World Justice Project ,
which works to lead a global, multi disciplinary effort to strengthen the
Rule of Law for the development of communities of opportunity and
equity.
 Since December 2016, Nooyi had joined a business forum assembled by
President of United States Donald Trump to provide strategic and policy
advise on economic issues.

LEADERSHIP QUALITIES AND CONCEPTS

 Relationship Building – She acknowledges her employees and their
families by writing letters to the parents of her company’s executives,
appreciating and thanking them. This is such an effective way to show
how valuable they are. Finding a way to thank employees is an incredibly
powerful method of letting them know that you see their contributions
and are grateful. This reflected her ‘Indian’ style of leadership, as most
people call it.
 Everyone needs a vision – Nooyi keeps talking about how her initiative
‘Performance with Purpose’ gave her company a vision that helped them
scale new heights. ‘Performance with Purpose’ goes beyond Corporate
Social Responsibility and beyond the mission of the PepsiCo foundation.
Its about using the company’s huge global footprint to create valuable
change in the normal course of business. Today, PepsiCo’s mission has
three aspects : making healthier foods, protecting the planet and
empowering people. For example – Indra is steering her team to rethink
PepsiCo’s classic products – Doritos, Cheetos, Lay’s chips – to be less
greasy, less salty and more appealing to a health-conscious consumer. On
the environmental front, the company’s potato farmers have reduced
water consumption by 50% in the past five years.
 Think long term – She stresses on the plans that would benefit the
organisation and the individual in the long run. She advises to plan
strategies that balance both the level and the duration of returns.
 Importance of Persuasion – Indra Nooyi talks about how she had to
persuade her team to follow ‘Performance With Purpose’. She narrates
how her critics told her to focus on selling chips and soda and to forget
about nutrition. But, it was due to her persuasion that PepsiCo was able
to remove 6.4 trillion calories from its food and beverage products, a feat
which surpassed their pledge more than 400% three years ahead of
schedule.
 Always listen more and talk less – The reason we have two ears and one
mouth is because we should listen more than we blurt things out. Nooyi
narrates an incident where her dance instructor gave a very valuable
lesson to her. “If you learned to follow, you’d be a better leader. And it
would make you a better dancer.” Advice which Nooyi follows till date.
 The team and it’s people are everything – To keep her team happy and
motivated , Nooyi sends out a thank you letter to the parents of her
employees, saying that how proud the company is for their children’s
 contributions. She asks people to handout handwritten letters to
appreciate team members and their efforts.
 You’re a CEO in the office , but not at home – After getting her
promotion, Indra Nooyi returned to her home. When she came back, she
expected a warm greeting and a carefree stay. But her mother asked her
to go outside and get milk for the family. That’s when she realised that
one is CEO in the office but not at home.

5 C’s of Leadership According to Indra Nooyi

1. Competency – In order for a leader to be successful in today’s business
environment. It is crucial that they have potential competence. This
doesn’t mean that the leader must know how to do everything. But
rather than they know what to do and how to get it done.
2. Courage and confidence – As a ,leader you will be calling the shots and
making big decisions often under immense pressure, time restriction and
with great consequences. For every decisions made there will always be
critics.
3. Communication skills – Its no surprise that the best leaders in business
today also happen to be skilful communicators. Through clear
communication successful leaders have the ability to convey
expectations, promote accountability and build trust.
4. Consistency – Being a consistent leader will gain you respect and
credibility which is essential to getting buy in from the group. By setting
example of fairness and credibility , the team will want to act the same
way.
5. Compass – Leaders must always be 2 steps ahead . Meaning that they
must have a vision of where they want to go and a strategic plan of how
to get there. Leading with a metaphorical compass in hand will help
leaders foresee challenges that may arise in the future and in turn
mitigate task.

10 rules of Indra Nooyi

1. Be bold
2. Connect with others
3. Think long term
4. Throw a temper tantrum
5. Be a lifelong student
6. Work with purpose
7. Follow your dreams
8. Be willing to make sacrifices
9. Throw yourself into your passion
10.Care

LEADERSHIP TRAITS AND NEW LEADERSHIP

THOUGHTS
Following are the traits and new leadership thoughts which must be present
in a leader in order to achieve success.
1. Surgency – It is a trait of emotional reactivity in which a person tends
towards high level of positive affect. It is a personality factor which is
characterized by quickness and cleverness.
It includes :-
 High energy – Indra Nooyi increased the net income of the
company as well as the employee of the company. She spent more
on developing new products i.e, in research and development
department.
 Competent – She followed the 5C’s theory of her own for the
growth of the company.
 Extrovery – As per her how much introvert you may be, you have
to speak and open up yourself when it is about your employees
and your company.
2. Emotional Intelligence – Without Emotional Intelligence a person can
have outstanding training , a highly analytical mind, a long term vision
but still not make a great leader.
3. Trust – A leader has to be trustworthy. Then only he can be a proper
leader in the modern times.
4. Relationship Management – A big part of a leader’s strategy should be to
intensely focus on the key employees to an extent that some might find
extreme. In an interview , she said that her favourite technique was to
pen letters to employee’s parents and it really worked.
CONCLUSION
A lot has changed with the change in time. Different leadership theories have
been developed and various leadership theories have also been termed as
outdated. There is a noticeable change in the leadership style of modern
leaders and traditional leaders. Traditional leaders were :-
 Hierarchical – They focused a lot on command and control.
 Focused only on short term goals.
 Tangible assets were the core resources for the traditional leaders.
 Values compliance
 Benefits are always external for them
 They had rigid schedules
In comparison to them , the modern leaders are :-
 Collaborative
 They focus on long-term goals
 Human capital is core resource
 Reward is intrinsic
 Partner with managers
 Flexible work hours
Indra Nooyi could be termed as a Charismatic Leader ( those leaders who
gathered followers through dint of personality and charm, rather than any
extern al power or authority) , Transformational Leader ( a theory of leadership
where a leader works with teams to identify needed change, creating a vision
to guide the change through inspiration, and executing the change in tandem
with committed members of a group ), Authentic leadership (an approach to
leadership that emphasizes building the leader’s legitimacy through honest
relationships with followers which value their input and are built on an ethical
foundation) and last but not the least Democratic Leadership (a type of
leadership style in which members of the group take a more participative role
in the decision making process) .