I remembered that my first impression of Indra Nooyi was when I was assigned to do a biography project my freshman year in high school. At the time I became interested in pursuing a career in business and looked to see if I could find inspiration from current leaders in the professional world. As I was perusing through the internet, I was looking for prominent business leaders and to be honest, hardly saw many that looked like myself -- a female person of color. Then, I got a recommendation from a peer to look into a woman named Indra Nooyi, then the CEO of Pepsi-Co, one of the largest food conglomerates in the world. I then became invested in learning more about her background so see how she was able to rise to prominence.
Indra Nooyi is originally from the city of Chennai and grew up there attending high school and college. After her post-grad and working at Johnson and Johnson, she was set on her dreams of going to Yale School of Management. Nooyi, characterizing herself as always a bit “rebellious” stated that her mother had almost stopped her from going to the U.S. because she was still young and unmarried. She then graduated from Yale and held positions at several prestigious companies such as Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Motorola, and robotics company Asea Brown Boveri before getting an offer at Pepsi-Co.
Over her career there, she rose the ranks from Chief Strategist, to Chief Financial Officer, to President, to chairman, and finally her most well-known role as a CEO. During her term as CEO, she made several drastic decisions for Pepsi-Co, working towards characterizing it as more healthy by introducing new products and drinks as well as dropping fast food chains Pizza Hut and Taco Bell. Finally, after 12 years of being the CEO and 24 years at Pepsi-Co, she announced in 2018 that she will be stepping down from her role. She is now focused on working towards creating venues for more representation of women in leadership and has continued to serve as a role model for many people around the world.
by Aishwarya Rane