34 Time November 8/November 15, 2021
FUTURE OF WORK
The secrets of Indra
Nooyi’s success
By S. Mitra Kalita
Nooyi says being a mother is one of
her most cherished roles. But one night,
after being named president of PepsiCo,
she came home and her mother ordered
her to go get milk. Annoyed, Nooyi felt
she couldn’t even revel in this newfound
title and success. Her mother replied,
“You may be the president or whatever
of PepsiCo, but when you come home,
you are a wife and a mother and a
daughter. Nobody can take your place.
So you leave that crown in the garage.”
Such humility might not be expected
of men, but Nooyi accepted it as a small
price to keep peace at home.Rooted in a deep study
of states, companies and
countries with more family-
friendly policies, Nooyi’s
book is a call to action—for
both prioritizing and train-
ing care workers like never
before. She cites concern
about two related crises.
Women leaving the work-
force will be disastrous for
the economy, she says, as will
women choosing not to have
children.
PepsiCo’s transformation
under Nooyi’s leadership
rested on a concept called
Performance with Purpose
(PwP). She writes, “PwP
would transform the way
PepsiCo made money and tie
our business success to these objectives:
Nourish. Replenish. Cherish.” Purpose
translates, thus, to not just business ob-
jectives but life itself.
Since retiring, Nooyi has worked end-
less hours on a COVID-19 task force.
Her mother—who once said to leave the
crown in the garage—seems to have had
a change of heart. The need for home and
work to accommodate each other might
be more needed than ever. “You are
someone who wants to help the world,
and not many people are like you,” her
mother said. “I don’t think you should
worry about the house so much. You
have to give back as much as you can.”Kalita is a co-founder and CEO of URL
Media, publisher of Epicenter-NYC
and columnist for Charter, in partnership
with TIMEin her jusT released book My Life in fuLL: Work, faMiLy,
and Our Future, former PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi offers insight
into her exacting style, one laced with compassion, loyalty
and deep relationships that get results. Several themes surface
repeatedly with broad application for life, career and the
overlaps within.
First, it’s O.K. to love work. Perhaps in all the reams written
on the juggle, especially for women, the part that often feels
shafted is the work itself. Nooyi’s love of the job—
from walks on factory floors to battles with activist
investors—is apparent and infectious.
She uses wonky but relatable examples to ex-
plain how to predict and embrace change even in
behemoth companies, like going to super markets
and Walmarts to assess Frito-Lay packaging and
placement on shelves, and how watching parents
and kids at birthday parties shun soda was a precur-
sor to PepsiCo’s focus on healthier products. She
recounts working long hours and skipping vacation
to dive into the guts of a billion-dollar-plus pro-
posal to overhaul enterprise software, and why it is
important for leaders to understand all aspects of
what they are approving. Sharing your passion for
your job with family is necessary and important,
says Nooyi, especially so that children understand
why Mom is away: she loves you, but she also loves
her work.
Not that family does not figure in Nooyi’s work-
place. For years, she kept a dry-erase board in her of-
fice just for the kids. And she received help in times
of crisis, from bosses who gave her paid leave when her father
was dying to colleagues who offered to do school pickups.
There are also the ways Nooyi recognized the families of her
staffers. She wrote letters to the parents of colleagues to thank
them for their role in their child’s stellar performance.
Over and over, Nooyi found herself in jobs or situations
where she lacked expertise in an industry or product. In re-
sponse, she had no problem turning to experts.
At Motorola, she recounts, two community- college profes-
sors came to her office twice a week, one to explain how auto-
mobiles work and the other to discuss “solid-state physics and
electronics.”
This instinct serves her well over time. At PepsiCo, Nooyi
turns to experts in design, science and technology, eventually
hiring a chief scientific officer. “Science,” she says, “could be at
the heart of reimagining the global food system.”
At critical junctures in her career, Nooyi also accepted help
from some of the men in her life. From bosses and colleagues to
her father-in-law and her husband, Nooyi says, these men pre-
emptively jumped in to offer support. Notably, the book puts
equal responsibility for balance and caregiving on men.
Nooyi’s love
of the job—
from walks on
factory floors
to battles
with activist
investors—
is apparent
and infectiousTheView Business