#Books: Indra Nooyi- A trailblazer and a far-sighted Leader with purpose

One month ago Indra Nooyi stepped down from being the CEO at PepsiCo. She was recently awarded as Asia Game Changer of the Year 2018. On this occasion, She spoke about work-life balance and life beyond Pepsico. She started by saying that she feels liberated and plans to hone her talents. She has spoken enough about work-life balance and that she feels that there is this huge need that the West start adopting Asian Family Model which consists of parents living with their children. She attributed her success to her mother as her mother took care of her children while she was at work. She advised young people to try and create an ecosystem that enables them to strike a work-life balance, work harder and succeed.

From the last three years, I have been following up with Indra Nooyi with her Social Media and watching her inspiring videos on Youtube. I have immense admiration and respect for her remarkable intelligence and for the inordinate efforts she puts in everything she does. Therefore, I finally got myself Indra Nooyi- A Biography by Annapoorna.

In the epilogue, Annapurna starts with Indra's inspiring words that she spoke at the convocation ceremony at IIM Calcutta few years ago. She said, " Candidness, confidence, boundless energy, unending hope and an energizing vision encapsulated in a compassionate worldview."  The biography begins with Indra's childhood and growing up years in South India in the city of Madras. The first three chapters cover her childhood, schooling, traditional south Indian upbringing with an emphasis on academic excellence at that point and growing up in a conservative family with strong values. The biographer narrates few anecdotes from her childhood days about how determined she has always been by excelling not only in academics but aiming at all-round development.

Graphics Picture Credits : TracyLocke Advertising Agency

After stepping down as CEO, she spoke in an interview, she said that she worked 18-20 hours a day for the last 40 years. Indra who was determined to achieve greatness was an amazing singer in her childhood. She would sing with her sister Chandrika. Art and music were an integral part of their lives. As the reading progress, we come to her college days where she was loved among her batchmates for her remarkable intelligence and her commitment, the fact that she has always been an overachiever. After her graduation from Madras Christian  College, she realised that she was an all-rounder and was inclined to study Management to have a holistic perspective and to look at the larger picture.

She went to do her MBA in Marketing from IIM Calcutta. In the chapter that covers her years in IIM Calcutta followed by her placement at a textile company and subsequently being accepted at Yale School of Management with a scholarship to pursue an MBA in Public Private Partnership. Her years in Yale are very well described and it is inspiring to read how she overcame all the obstacles and tried hard to make the ends meet. She was a brilliant student and now she is on the board of Yale University. She credits Yale for her overall grooming. She said in an interview that she entered Yale as an intelligent person and left Yale as an educated person.

With an MBA from Yale, Indra joined the prestigious Boston Consulting Firm and that enabled her to deal with different clients and have a holistic approach. She subsequently joined Motorola and eventually joined Pepsico in 1994 as the Chief Strategist and went on become the Chief Executive Officer in 2006. In 20 years at Pepsico, she made substantial changes and incorporated "Performance with Purpose" which is not merely Corporate Social Responsibility but Indra's business philosophy wherein companies feel responsible for society at large with a focus on building a sustainable corporation, sustainable not just financially but sustainable in term of being a great citizen of every society that the global company participates.

Indra's "Performance with Purpose philosophy makes her an unconventional transformative corporate leader. She is named as one of the most powerful women in the world and tops at the Forbes list of the most influential women in the world. She has also been a part of Indo-US Business Council. Amidst these meetings, deadlines, work, being a mother, a wife and managing all of these roles. She always says it's all about striking a balance.

My Views

I am a big fan of Indra Nooyi and I try to implement all my learnings from her interviews and thought leadership articles. For me, Indra's life is a testimony of indomitable will to learn and to always be a lifelong student. After reading her biography I think the author Annaporna has done an incredible job because the book is well researched and with an element of storytelling, makes this book engaging and a quick read. In my opinion, Indra is a global and a transformative leader, truly a living legend. It was possible because of the adversities that she had to go through, her diverse experience and her wise choices and most importantly an open mind to learn and to collaborate. Her every interview is inspiring and full of learning and worth taking notes the same goes with this biography. It has numerous anecdotes worth reading that help us understand her choices. Therefore, I conclude with an excerpt from Indra Nooyi- A biography.

What do you want your legacy to be whenever you leave PepsiCo?

" I think about this often. Whenever I leave PepsiCo, looking back I want people to say that in the first part of 21st Century, if you look at the defining corporations of the world, PepsiCo was one of them because PepsiCo was a good company- good in commercial as well as in the moral sense. And Pepsico set the standard for a good corporation should be."