Indra Nooyi

Indra Nooyi is a former chairperson and CEO of PepsiCo and currently is a member of board of
directors at Amazon. She was the first woman to lead PepsiCo and was one of only 11 female CEO of
Fortune 500 companies. She was named one of the “Best CEOs in The Worlds” and have been
consistently ranked among the world’s 100 most powerful women. After joining PepsiCo in 1994 and
having worked in became CEO in 2006. She has won various accolades for her leadership and
positive changes she brought in the company.

During her tenure as CEO at PepsiCo, she helped the revenue to grow double from $35 billion in
2006 to $63.5 billion in 2017. The company has also enjoyed rise in its stock price after several flat
years. Since PepsiCo’s top brands were losing market share, she changed her strategy to increase
their market share. She pushed for healthier snack and beverages. Along with that she adopted
design driven approach for packaging. PepsiCo's policy of being a well-balanced consumer-products
company with less reliance on sales of its flagship soft drinks was continued by Nooyi. International
expansion was aggressively pursued by her. Before attaining CEO position, as a senior Vice President,
Nooyi spearheaded acquisition of companies like Tropicana, Quaker Oats. She was the first person in
the company who truly acknowledged the need for company to change. Her strategic redirection of
PepsiCo was called the Performance with a Purpose aimed at creating long-term growth while at the
same time leaving positive impact on environment and society. A per Nooyi, being decentralised
used to be both a strength and a weakness for the company. It's a good strategy when all is going
well in the country. However, when things are chaotic on a global scale and teamwork is needed, it
does not work.

Nooyi also focused on environmental issues and sustainability as part of Performance with a
Purpose, redesigning packaging to minimise waste, conserving water, transitioning to renewable
energy sources, and recycling. Another part of Performance with a Purpose was to create a
community that inspired employees to remain with the company.

She was praised for the skills brought by her to the company. Indra Nooyi is a humble person, a
charismatic leader, and a role model for many women around the world who are attempting to
balance work and family life. The leadership qualities and style of Indra Nooyi are unusual. She is
known for her “working together and being completely honest” leadership style, as opposed to the
“delegate-foresee-manipulate” style.

Democratic leader: Nooyi is skilled at gaining access to the hearts and minds of those who work for
her. If a leader does not recognise the importance of compassionately wiping away at the human
aspect, they will most likely hit a brick wall at some stage during their career.

Indra Nooyi ushered in a new era of Democratic leadership at PepsiCo. She was able to hear the
opinions and emotions of other employees as well as her own. Being the first female CEO of a large
corporation hampered her in several respects though empowering her in others. She has been able
to motivate other young people to achieve goals they never thought possible.

Leading with courage: When Indra Nooyi decided to make PepsiCo products healthier, critics were
of the opinion that her decision would fail and advised her to ignore nutrition and concentrate solely
on selling more chips and soda. However, she was determined and proceeded cautiously with her
decision. So, she persisted, not only taking further steps toward creating better and more
sustainable goods, but also establishing the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation. As a result,
their food and beverage goods were reduced by 6.4 million calories, exceeding their promise by
more than 400% three years ahead of schedule.

Lifelong learner: Indra Nooyi's ability to listen is one of her most impressive leadership attributes.
She paid attention to her co-workers, bosses, and clients. Being a CEO necessitates going out of the
office and getting a close look at things. Nooyi was a people person who absorbed information from
all sources.

She advocates five essential qualities of leadership known as ‘Five C’s of Leadership’:

Competence:

To be a good leader, according to Nooyi, you must be visible and well-known in your field; in other
words, you must become the "go-to" individual. This is accomplished by establishing yourself as an
expert in your profession. She claims that this necessitates lifelong learning in order to upskill and
remain on top of the game in your sector.

Courage and Confidence:

Competence will lead to confidence. You can be competent in your job, according to Nooyi, but you
must develop the courage to speak up. However, such ideas are useless unless they are supported
by an original. “We ought to speak up if we want people to consider our initial thoughts, then rinse
and repeat.”

Communication skills:

Indra Nooyi's leadership strengths include her ability to communicate effectively. She stressed the
value of communication skills for becoming a successful leader, saying, "You cannot overinvest in
communication skills—written and oral."

Consistency:

Staff will begin to second-guess the leader's decisions if the leader makes volatile or unreasonable
decisions. This isn't to say that a leader can't change his or her mind. It does imply that the
modifications should be based on an invariant basis.

Compass:

According to Nooyi, a leader's success depends on having a compass or a leading moral or

trustworthy structure. This has to do with the leader's honesty. As Nooyi points out, a leader may
have bravery, be qualified, have excellent communication skills, and be consistent, but if they lack
honesty, the organisation will suffer greatly. Integrity, according to Nooyi, is the fragrance of
‘walking the chat.' The leader's actions are consistent with their stated position. Authentic leaders
are those who follow through with their words. Authentic leaders may be even more critical than
they have ever been in an increasingly cynical world, where we are losing confidence in our
institutions— political, financial, government, and corporate.