Indra Nooyi: A Biography

by Annapoorna

“One of the things my parents and my grandfather taught me was when you do a job you have got to do it better than everybody else. Simple. You cannot let anybody down. I will tell you, today at PepsiCo if I am given a job, people who work with me and people I work for will tell you that even if Indra is dying she will make sure the job gets done because I just don’t know any other way to work.”

“The core of the concept of success lies in knowing what you want to do in life and those who have triumphed at figuring out that issue should consider themselves tremendously blessed.”

Another tenet of Indra’s is “never stop learning”. Regardless of age or qualification, Indra’s success in life can also be attributed to her open mind and learner’s attitude. She believes that such learning should not be restricted to academic knowledge but be supplemented with “street smarts”, by being aware of matters and issues in the real world. “Keep that natural curiosity,” as she always says.

“There are times when the stress is so incredible between office and home, trying to be a wife, mother, daughter-in-law and corporate executive. Then you close your eyes and think about a temple like Tirupati, and suddenly you feel, ‘Hey, I can take on the world.’ Hinduism floats around you, and makes you feel somehow invincible.”

By 2004, Indra Nooyi was the number two executive at the world’s number two soft drink maker.

Some industry insiders predicted that she would be moved to another area of the company to gain experience running her own business division. They did not realize Indra was in fact soon to be catapulted to the top. Even as one of the few women in corporate America’s highest echelons, and the only Indian woman in 2004, Nooyi had an unbeatable attitude: “I’m sure a glass ceiling exists, but it’s both transparent and fragile so you can break it.” And break it she did!

the most powerful woman in business (‘Fortune’ magazine, 2006) and the third most powerful woman in the world (‘Forbes’, 2008).

The Indian paper ‘India Abroad’ named her the Person of the Year 2006, describing her with the following words: “Finally she has proved that it is possible to be a daughter, wife and devoted mother—and yet find the time and space for high achievement. That plays right into the community’s cultural ethos that values a woman as homemaker, while increasingly recognizing that she can be much more, do much more in the larger world outside.”

“Indra Nooyi is American in the energy, enterprise and innovation she brings to her professional life; yet, she manages this without sacrificing the Indianness that is an essential ingredient in her personality. Her saris, her prayers are all the stuff of legend, an image of Ganesha has pride of place on her work table, and visitors are as apt to be drawn into a discussion of the elephant-headed god’s place in Hindu iconography as into discussing the best practices of business.

“For a community caught between two positions—to stay true to your heritage, or to assimilate, to merge, with the culture of the adopted land—Indra Nooyi is the perfect example; her life, her achievements, indicating that the highest accomplishment is possible without sacrificing who, and what, you are.”