Indra Nooyi is an Indian-born American business executive currently serving as the Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer 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. She has been instrumental in the diversification and expansion of PepsiCo’s brands which had primarily been more focused on soft drinks. Known to be a highly innovative, energetic, and hard working person, Nooyi has risen to become one of the top most female executives in the world from a modest beginning.
Childhood
& Early Life
·
She was
born as Indra Krishnamurthy on 28 October 1955, in Madras (now Chennai), Tamil
Nadu, India, into a conservative middle-class family. Her father was a bank
official.
·
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.
·
She
possessed a rebellious streak as a young girl, and was known to be “wild”. She
played guitar in a band and was also a member of an all-girls' cricket
team—activities girls in her social strata rarely participated in.
·
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 Tootal, 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 & 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 feminine 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 & 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 on a
variety of strategy projects for the next six years.
·
In
1986, she moved to Motorola as a senior executive in the automotive 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
aggressively being courted by corporate headhunters 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 on shaping the company’s future expansion and
growth strategies.
·
PepsiCo
at that time owned KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell restaurant chains. Nooyi
played a pivotal part in getting these restaurants divested in 1997. The
divesture resulted in the creation of Tricon Global Restaurants, Inc., now
renamed as Yum! Brands, Inc., 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
this belief, she led PepsiCo’s acquisition of Tropicana and the merger with
Quaker Oats Company. 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-year
history.
·
Indra
Nooyi also serves as a member of the Foundation Board of the World Economic
Forum, International Rescue Committee, Catalyst, and the Lincoln Center for the
Performing Arts.
Awards
& Achievements
·
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
honored 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.
Personal
Life & Legacy
·
She is
married to Raj Nooyi, a management consultant of Indian origin. The couple has
two daughters. In spite of her very hectic corporate career, Indra always
prioritizes her family and maintains close relations with her mother.
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