Mangalore's Daughter-in-law Nooyi Now World's Fourth Most Powerful Woman
by Richie Lasrado - Resident Editor, Daijiworld.com, Mangalore
- Sonia, Nooyi among 100 most powerful women in the world
Mangalore, Sep 1: When daijiworld last month broke the news of the appointment of Indra Nooyi, a woman of Indian origin, to head the international Cola giant PepsiCo effective October 1, 2006, most Indians' hearts were warmed.
When, the soon after, we dug out her Mangalore connection and traced her husband's family roots in suburban Gurupur, it set the city aflutter to some extent.
And now comes the news from New York that she, along with Congress president Sonia Gandhi and ICICI Bank's Lalita Gupte and Kalpana Morparia, are on Forbes magazine's list of 100 most powerful women in the world.
When Nooyi was designated as the next CEO of the Cola corporate, comments were heard back home that it was a master-stroke on the part of PepsiCo to have appointed an Indian-born woman, especially when the Colas were going through a difficult phase in this country with adverse reports on their allegedly toxic ingredients. The step was to mollify the Indians and to tilt the public opinion in the company's favour, thought many analysts.
The potshots aside, it was creditable for an Indian, a woman at that, to have reached these dizzying heights. As for the blame of toxic ingredients, the PepsiCo can always take shelter behind the argument that Colas in the US are the purest and the most hygienic in the world and that the Indian versions are contaminated because of the kind of water available here.
All that apart, in terms of the great woman's achievements, this city has every reason to be proud of her.
Inputs from PTI
Gandhi occupies the 13th position on the list while India-born Nooyi finds herself as the fourth most powerful woman. Joint chairpersons of ICICI Bank Gupte and Morparia are on the 93rd position while Vidya Chhabria, chairperson of Jumbo Group, Dubai, is at the 95th spot. Topping the list is Germany's chancellor Angela Merkel followed by American secretary of state Condoleezza Rice at the second position.
Gandhi, says the magazine, "is widely revered, especially among the country's poor million and heads the 'left-leaning' party where she acts as opposition leader to pro-business prime minister Manmohan Singh."
"Gandhi frequently expresses concern that India's astounding economic growth is leaving the poor behind and that her country is not doing enough to help its farmers," the citation adds.
The magazine stresses that Gandhi heads the most powerful political party and has travelled far since she tentatively entered India's maelstrom in 1990s. "She won the general election in May 2004 but then took a pass on the prime minister's job, giving it to Singh," it notes.
Though critics used the move to call into question her power, "Gandhi is still widely revered especially among the country's poor millions," it adds.
The listing is based on a power ranking that, the magazine says, is composite of visibility (measured by press citation) and economic impact.
In its citation for Nooyi, Forbes says few people could handle either the presidential or the chief financial officer job at a company worth 100 billion dollars. But not only has Nooyi held both offices since 2001, she was recently hand-picked to become Pepsi's new chief executive, effective October 1.
Nooyi has a string of career successes that helped her land the corner office at the food and beverage giant. She was the lead negotiator on Pepsi's 13.8 billion dollar purchase of Quaker Oats and worked on its acquisition of Tropicana, as well as the spin-offs of its restaurant and bottling businesses.
Previously, Nooyi was an executive at Asea Brown Boveri, Motorola and Boston Consulting Group. Before emigrating to the U.S. from India in 1978, Nooyi was a product manager at Johnson & Johnson and Mettur Beardsell, a textile outfit, in India.
An ICICI lifer, Gupte has held a variety of positions in the bank since 1971 and is now in charge of its international business arm, Forbes says. Gupte is the joint managing director, along with Morparia, of India's second-largest bank, which boasts total assets of about 38.5 billion dollars. The bank now has subsidiaries in the United Kingdom, Canada and Russia.
Morparia joined the bank in 1975 and now heads the corporate center that is responsible for strategy for the bank's different units. Morparia, who has a law degree from Mumbai University, is responsible for risk management, audits and compliance, the magazine notes.
Here is a concise bio-data of the Indian-born lady who has made the nation proud.
Academics:
Nooyi graduated with a bachelor's degree in mathematics, physics and chemistry from the Madras Christian College in Chennai, India, in 1976. She later joined the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Kolkata, earning her MBA degree in 1978. She also took a master's degree in Public and Private Management from the Yale University in 1980.
Work experience
Before PepsiCo:
A short stint at Mettur Beardsell and later at Johnson & Johnson where she helped in launching 'Stayfree', a brand of sanitary napkins.
Later, in the US, she started her career with The Boston Consulting Group, from where she moved on to become Director- international corporate strategy projects in six years.
Joined Motorola as business development executive for its automotive and industrial electronics group. She became the vice-president and director of corporate strategy and planning before she quit.
At PepsiCo:
Nooyi joined PepsiCo in 1994 as senior vice-president of strategic planning and development, and became the Chief Financial Officer in May 2001.
Major achievements of Nooyi at PepsiCo:
- Played a vital role in starting Tricon.
- Oversaw the sale of Pepsico’s Yum! Brands - comprising Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and KFC
- Managed the $13.3-billion Quaker Oats Co acquisition in 2001 which added the Gatorade brand to the Pepsi portfolio
- Took the lead in the $3.3-billion Tropicana Juices acquisition in 1998.
Other accomplishments:
- Named on the Wall Street Journal's list of 50 women to watch in 2005.
- Ranked # 11 on Fortune Magazines list of most powerful women in Business.
- Is the fifth CEO and the first woman CEO in PepsiCo's 41-year history.
- Successor Fellow at Yale Corporation
- Serves on the board of directors of several organisations, including Motorola, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the International Rescue Committee, and the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.
Nooyi's success formula
"I have developed what I call the 5 Cs."
Competence: You must acquire a hip-pocket skill which you're known for, and keep working at it.
Confidence and Courage go together: Unless you're willing to speak up for what you believe in, you're never going to be much of a leader. But it's up to the company to provide you the courage to do so, by not shooting you down every time you do speak up.”
Communication skills, both oral and written, are really important.
Compass: Integrity must be at the root of everything you do, and people have got to know that they can take what you say to the bank.
Conscience: You have got to be the company's conscience.
Challenges
The challenges that lie ahead for the 50-year-old woman CEO of PepsiCo.
Got embroiled in a "middle finger" controversy during May 2005 with a speech to MBA graduates at the Columbia Business School. In the talk, she spoke of the world's continents and leading nations as being akin to a hand's five fingers. She referred to the USA as "the long middle finger".
In the beginning of August 2006, Pepsi and Coke were banned from distributing their beverages in several Indian states following concerns over pesticide levels. Both cola majors are now on a damage control exercise after the CSE alleged more than permissible pesticide contents in its beverages.
In May 2006, Pepsi, Coke and Cadbury Schweppes announced they would stop selling soda in elementary and middle schools in the US by 2009, as a response to pressure over rising rates of childhood obesity.
A sneak peek into Nooyi's personal life
Father: Krishnamurthy who was employed with State Bank of Hyderabad
Mother: Shantha Krishnamurthy
Husband: Raj Nooyi, a management consultant, originally from Nooyi-Gurupur near Mangalore
Children: Two daughters.
Father: An entrepreneur brother Narayan Krishnamurthy, and a sister Chandrika Tandon.
Others: Her aunt Aruna Sairam is a noted Indian classical musician.
Hobbies:
A fun-loving person who enjoys singing, playing guitar and a game of cricket.
A Tamil movie buff and a big fan of old comedies starring Nagesh.
Loves to visit India in December during Chennai's music season.
Tidbits
Some unknown and interesting facts / anecdotes of Nooyi's life.
• During Nooyi's childhood days, every night after dinner, her mother asked the children to make speeches on what they wanted to do when they grew up and the winner was awarded a piece of chocolate.
• Nooyi worked as a receptionist to pay for her studies in the US.
• Nooyi shares her birthday with Bill Gates on October 28.
• "Being a woman, being foreign-born, you've got to be smarter than anyone else," Nooyi once told Forbes magazine.
• She is quite famous among her US counterparts for often attending PepsiCo events wearing a sari.
• Nooyi formed the first girl's band in Madras Christian College and still continues her passion for music. She is well known amidst her peers for her karaoke talent. She always teases Reinemund about being “clueless” about American pop culture and teen heartthrob Paul Abdul.
• She earned her nickname "Iron Woman," after a friend rewrote a song called Iron Man by Black Sabbath to reflect her no-nonsense management style.
• Her first job interview in the US "in a $ 50 suit from a budget store" which failed. For her next one though, she preferred the traditional Indian sari and got placed with the Boston Consulting Group.
• Her 9-year-old daughter would come from school and only had to call the office to say she wanted to come over to be near her mother; the office would arrange the details. It wasn’t uncommon to find her daughter sitting with the company’s founder-chief, of doing her homework in the offices of other executives.
• Her office telephone receptionist was trained to handle her children’s queries and monitor their schedule when she herself would be traveling on work.
• She went on a campaign trail pleading with MNC sponsors for her college magazine.
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