The legend of PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi

On July 17, 2009, the construction of the USA Pavilion, one of the largest pavilions at the Shanghai World Expo, began in the Pudong area of the Shanghai Expo. The US Pavilion is a total investment of US $61 million. On July 1, 2009, the organizers of the USA Pavilion announced that PepsiCo will be the global partner and exclusive soft drink and snack food sponsor of the USA Pavilion at the 2010 Shanghai Expo. Coca-Cola is arguably the oldest brand of soft drinks in the United States, but why should Pepsi be chosen as the soft drink sponsor of the U.S. Pavilion?

"I just have to be myself!"

It's all about an Indian woman in a sari. She is Indra Nooyi, the current CEO of PepsiCo. There are very few female CEOs in Fortune 500 companies. Why would PepsiCo choose a woman as CEO and an Indian one at that?

In mid-August 2006, PepsiCo announced that its current financial officer, Indra Nooyi, would replace Steve Redmond as the company's new CEO, starting in October. Indra Nooyi will also be Pepsi's first female CEO in more than 100 years. As soon as the news came out, opinions were mixed. There was even a post online saying: "Appointing Indra Nooyi was a stupid decision by Pepsi. I will never drink Pepsi again." Others say that Indra Nooyi is a native Indian woman who doesn't look like anyone else and doesn't fit into the mainstream. The situation is perhaps the biggest embarrassment a non-American public figure can face.

But Nooyi's embarrassment is far from simple. Just as she took office, India, her home country, announced a ban on Pepsi.

In the summer of 2006, an Indian center for Technology and the Environment said it had found high levels of pesticides in samples from Pepsi and Coca-Cola. Several Indian provinces have subsequently banned the sale of Coca-Cola and PepsiCo beverages in schools and government offices, and the Indian government has begun to intervene in legal hearings and investigations into the dispute. But that was a false alarm. Soon after, India's health minister, Ramdos, claimed that sample tests showed that the levels of insecticide in drinks such as cola sold in India were "within the permissible limits".

But after the "Colgate" scandal, the two Coke companies have been questioned by the public, and Nooyi will have a bumpy road ahead.

Born in Madras, India, to an accountant father and a housewife mother, Nooyi's outgoing and bubbly personality is the result of her upbringing. When she was very young, her mother would give her and her sister a hot issue in the world every day and ask them to think about solutions. After the speech, little Nooyi and her sister had to vote on each person's speech, and the winner received a small piece of chocolate. It seems that this little family game and her mother's encouragement helped her to think independently and build confidence and a desire to succeed.

In India, where women have a relatively low social status, an Indian girl of Nooyi's size spends most of her time learning about household chores. Nooyi doesn't like these things, but her parents are open-minded and give her plenty of space. She spends her days running errands, not only forming an all-girl rock band but also playing on a girls' cricket team. Besides sports, she also enjoys literature and art, and social activities. Despite having so many extracurricular interests, she never gets distracted and still gets excellent grades.

By 1976, Nooyi had earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics, chemistry, and physics from Madras Missionary College, followed by an MBA at the Institute of Business Studies in Kolkata, one of only two Indian business schools at the time, and then worked for Johnson & Johnson in India. After working for a Fortune 500 company for a short time, Nooyi applied to Yale University in 1978 after an advertisement caught her eye. She knew Yale was a top university, so she gave it a try herself. And at the time, it was not only unheard of for a well-bred Indian girl to do such a thing, but she was in danger of not getting married if it became known. Just ten days later, she received her admission letter from Yale University. The excited Nooyi couldn't believe it!

When her friends tried to persuade her not to go to America because she would never be married back, Nooyi said, "I'll stay in America. I'll just be myself!"

Arriving at Yale in the United States, a world completely different from India, Nooyi felt like a bird out of its cage, flying free. After three years of study, she received a Master's degree in public and Personal Administration from Yale University. At this time, Nooyi had the pride of all women. She was young, highly educated, and single, which made her confident. She felt that she could find a good job in the United States and live her ideal life within her reach.

A dog with a bone

In the summer of 1980, Nooyi began looking for her first job in the United States, but to her surprise, a well-educated Yale master's degree student, she was embarrassed at her first interview.

For the interview, the usually frugal Nooyi bought an ill-fitting $50 suit from a thrift store and wore her orange-colored boots. In this way, Nooyi appeared in front of the examiners, she saw that almost all the interviewers agreed with their mouths open. Suddenly, Nooyi's mood hit rock bottom. She knew the interview was over. To Ms. Nooyi's dismay, the interviewers simply sent her out without asking her any questions.

As soon as she left the house, Ms. Nooyi's tears began to flow and she asked herself: Will I ever be able to survive in American society? Am I ever gonna fit in at all? With deep doubts about herself, Nooyi approached her career development counselor. The counselor said, "You should know that you are an Indian woman. You don't need to wear fancy clothes to be different from others. Why don't you wear the traditional Indian clothes that you normally wear? What a beautiful sari you have there! If they can't accept you in a sari, it's their loss, not yours." So Nooyi changed into her sari and ran off to a job fair held by the prestigious Boston Consulting Group.

Sure enough, this time she impressed the examiner with her excellent grades, good eloquence, and impressive image, and passed the interview smoothly. This was the beginning of her American career. Every summer, Nooyi wore her sari to work meetings. She became a unique sight, and people came to know and remember this sari-wearing Indian woman. Nooyi has held positions at Boston Consulting Group, MOTOROLA, and ABB. In 1994, Nooyi faced one of the choices that would change her life.

This year, she was courted by two major American companies. On one side is the famous American General Electric, and on the other is Pepsi. "I need you more than Jack Welch," PepsiCo CEO Wayne Clovis told Nooyi. Touched by the fact that the CEO of a major global company could talk to her like this, Nooyi didn't hesitate to join PepsiCo as senior vice president of strategic planning.

PepsiCo was born in 1898, the first to produce carbonated drinks, so the earliest name was Pepsi Cola Company, in 1965 officially changed its name to PepsiCo. Since 1977, PepsiCo has entered the fast food industry, including Pizza Hut, KFC, and Tecobel Mexican restaurants, and has gradually entered a peak of diversification. However, in 1994, when Ms. Nooyi first joined Pepsi, the company's growth stalled as fast food chains such as Pizza Hut and KFC ran into problems. In addition, Pepsi has been hit hard in the overseas battle with its old rival, Coca-Cola.

Soon after she joined the company, Nooyi found that the fast food market was becoming saturated, and difficult to make a profit. So, at the company's conference, she ventured, "PepsiCo should get rid of this struggling restaurant chain!" This remark immediately caused an uproar. Many of the company's middle and senior management, as well as PepsiCo's new CEO Roger Enrico, are firmly opposed, they think, Pizza Hut and KFC are the brands PepsiCo has been struggling to win over the years, how can they just give up? To Roger Enrico's surprise, however, whenever they met, Nooyi repeated her proposal over and over again, saying that Pepsi had to have a strong man cut off before it could make any progress!