Indra Nooyi: A Biography

by Annapoorna

girl. “I wanted to play cricket. I wanted to be a rock star. But my grandfather would always say, ‘You are going to study hard.’ And so it was I studied all my life.”

all kinds of things will happen. But at the end of the day, you know, deep down inside, I think she said, ‘this is what I would really like to do. But that is really what they want to do. And let me not stop them’. Really, it was difficult.

The thing I learned in my time at Yale was that shades of grey predominate. You need to think about an issue in its full glory and richness before you jump to a conclusion, so I came (to Yale) an intelligent person and left an educated person.”

To rule the realms and make the laws We have risen; Nor shall it be said that woman lags behind man in the knowledge that he attaineth. Dance the Kummil, beat the measure Let this land of the Tamils ring with our dance. For now we are rid of all evil shades; We have seen the Good

“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.”

Indra was also known for speaking her mind and standing up for what she believed in.

her various extra-curricular activities suggested that her real talents were her people skills, her strong and confident personality, her ability to work tirelessly towards a goal and most of all, her endless energy and motivation to win and be the best at whatever she was doing.

It’s been a hard day’s night, and I’ve been working like a dog, It’s been a hard day’s night, I should be sleeping like a log

Work all night on a drink a’ rum Daylight come and me wan’ go home Stack banana till de mornin’ come Daylight come and me wan’ go home

“Indra had a knack for marketing and had taken up courses like international marketing, consumer behaviour, sales management etc.

“Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!”

“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.”

“I always had this urge, this desire, this passion to settle in the United States.”

“It is only if I get in Amma.”

“Cross the seas in search of wealth.”

‘the candle has to melt to let the light shine. Think of me as the candle. Someone has to make a sacrifice if the children are to do well’.”

Life affords no higher pleasure than

that of surmounting difficulties, passing from one step of success to another, forming new wishes and seeing them gratified.

“Behind my cool logic lies a very emotional person.”

Once I had gone to China, Those whom I had not known before, They put on my forehead a mark Which said, “We know you.” The stranger’s garb slipped from me Revealing the inner man who is always the same … A Chinese name I took, wore Chinese clothes And I realised, Wherever I find a friend, there I am born afresh.

“Aim high and put your heart into it.”

But Indra understood early that success came through building effective teams, which one achieved through communication.

“Keep that natural curiosity,”

“Never hide what makes you.”

Walk with me/Four steps and three/Me and thee/Are heaven and earth/Seed am I/For thee to bloom/Come my mate and blend with me

If you want to reach the top of a company, it can only happen in the United States, but you have got to start off saying that you are going to work twice as hard as your counterparts.

“This is just a personal point of view and I will tell you not just here, ever since I have been in work life I have always used that simple rule that whatever I did, I had to produce an output that was so much better than what somebody else did.

“I grew up with a mother who said ‘I’ll arrange a marriage for you at eighteen’ but she also said that we could achieve anything we put our minds to and she encouraged us to dream of becoming prime minister or president. She made me learn Indian classical music because that’s what good Indian girls did, but she also let me be in a rock band. ‘You’ve got to be a good Indian woman first,’ she said, ‘but go ahead and dream’.”

“You have to pick the right husband. I picked the right husband. Raj is a great guy and he has been a great support and I do not know where I would have been without him. I would say that without a doubt. He has been more than a husband. He has been a sounding board or friend.”

“I remember my mother’s prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life.”

“You can walk away from the fact that you’re a corporate executive, but you can’t walk away from the fact that you are a mom. In terms of being a mother and a corporate executive, the role of mom comes first.”

“Now when we go out, even my chairman will tell everybody to make sure there’s vegetarian food for Indra.”

“It certainly makes me calm,” she 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.”

If your actions inspire others to dream more learn more, do more and become more you are a leader

“If you want to reach the top of a company, I agree that it can only happen in the United States, but you have to start off saying that you have got to work twice as hard as your [male] counterparts.”

The man who removes a mountain begins by carrying away small stones

“This was not an individual activity at all.”

“Throughout the whole process, she was disciplined and held very firm.” So in about five years’ time, Indra had been the chief dealmaker for two of PepsiCo’s most important acquisitions—she

“I wake up in the middle of the night,” she told the magazine, “and write different versions of PepsiCo on a sheet of paper.”

Learning brings humility, humility develops capability, capability brings wealth and wealth and righteousness bring happiness.

“Look, when you pull into the garage, leave the crown there. Don’t walk in with it, because you are first a wife and a mother. And if the family needs milk, you go get the milk. That is your primary role in life. Everything else you got because I pray for four to five hours a day.”

Indra laughingly said, “That is the only thing she tells me, ‘What did you accomplish? You sit in a meeting on a chair all the time, and I pray for 4-5 hours!’”

“For any part of the day, we will have a little snack for you,”

“I think one gulab jamun has got six Pepsis in it. It is okay that I consume huge quantities of that. So I think it [Pepsi] has its place in the Indian diet.”

Getting the right people and then retaining them becomes more important than anything else.”

…” because we are going to deliver performance with purpose.”

“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 best way to predict the future is to invent it.

Her answer to that is that everyone just tries to do a job but if they pick the right husband then their life becomes much easier.

“I think to be a CEO is a calling. You should not do it because it is a job. It is a calling and you have got to be involved in it with your head, heart and hands. Your heart has got to be in the job, you got to love what you do, it consumes you. And if you are not willing to get into the CEO job that way, there is no point getting into it. And I love the job, I love the company, I love the people, I loved it when I was president and love it as much as CEO.