UNIT – 1
INDRA NOOYI: A CORPORATE GIANT – INDRA KRISHNAMURTHY NOOYI
Q1) Who was Indra Nooyi?
A1) Indra Nooyi, (born October 28, 1955, Madras, India), who is Indian-American businesswoman, former chairperson and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) who was instrumental in the lucrative restructuring and diversification of soft-drink manufacturer PepsiCo, Inc.’s brands. Nooyi served as the company’s CEO from 2006 -18 and chairman of the board from 2007–19.
Nooyi has consistently ranked among the world’s 100 most powerful women. In 2014, she was ranked at number 13 on the Forbes list of The World's 100 Most Powerful Women, and was ranked the 2nd most powerful woman on the Fortune list in 2015. In 2017, she was ranked the 2nd most powerful woman once more on the Forbes list of The 19 Most Powerful Women in Business. She serves on the boards of Amazon and the International Cricket Council. Philips has proposed that Nooyi join their board in May 2021.
She earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Madras Christian College in 1976 and a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from the Indian Institute of Management in Calcutta two years later. After moving to the United States, she received an additional master’s degree in public and private management from the Yale School of Management in 1980. For the next six years, Nooyi worked as a consultant for the Boston Consulting Group. She later held executive positions at Motorola, Inc., and the engineering firm Asea Brown Boveri (now ABB).
In 1994 Nooyi joined PepsiCo as senior vice president of corporate strategy and development. In 2001 she was named president and chief financial officer of the company. Nooyi took charge as CEO in October 2006 and the next year became chairman of the board as well. The fifth chairman and CEO in PepsiCo’s 42-year history, Nooyi was the first woman to lead the soft-drink and snack-food giant and one of only 11 female chief executives of Fortune 500 companies.
Indra Nooyi not only broke the glass ceiling in corporate America when she was named CEO of global beverage giant PepsiCo in 2006 but, through her journey, inspired millions of young Indians who dreamed of and aspired to be successful. She was among the few female executives of India-born executives to lead global corporate giants. Nooyi was also very vocal about the challenges women faced in trying to find a balance in managing their home and work.
Nooyi is an alumnus of Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta and Yale University. In January 2016, Yale School of Management announced that Nooyi made a landmark gift to endow the deanship of the school and inaugurate the Fifth Decade Innovation Fund. With this gift, Nooyi became the most generous graduate of Yale School of Management in terms of lifetime giving to the school. She is also the first woman to endow the deanship at a top business school.
