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ON HIS CNBC TV SHOW “Mad Money”
financial guru Jim Cramer says he is
impressed with Nooyi’s attempts at
becoming socially responsible regarding the environment: PepsiCo won the
2007 U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency Energy Star Partner of the Year
for outstanding energy management and
reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
“We live in an era where people can
choose to work anywhere and what you
want to do is work at a place that has
a long-term future and has the environment and health as a consideration,”
says Cramer. “She is taking a long-term
view about trying to get the best people
in. The idea of going to work for a packaged foods company is frankly anathematic to the vast majority of people.
This is something that she recognizes.
Her environment initiatives are brilliant
and they catch your eye. If you feel like
you want to do something good with
your life, you might think about going
to work with Pepsi and you never would
have otherwise.”
“When we go on campuses the first
question young people are asking today is:
‘Are you working on the environment?’,”
says Nooyi. “Do you have a green program?
That is all my kids [Preetha, 24, and
Tara, 15] care about: green, green, green.
If you want to attract young people to
PepsiCo versus them going to a technology or Internet company, you better have a
green program. This is not just a nice thing
to do. This is the only way we can sustain
our performance.” C
AMY SHANK, MATTOX PHOTOGRAPHY
Women in power: With Claire Babrowsky,
EVP of Toys-R-Us (left) and Kathleen
Matthews, EVP of Global Communications, Marriott International at the 2008
Women’s Foodservice Forum, Indra
Nooyi describes her management style
as demanding yet caring.
coaching because mentors have always played
a role in my life. Mentors find you. You don’t
find them. A mentor has picked you because
you have the competence, the courage and
confidence, you are a great communicator and
you have a moral compass. They say, ‘I want to
hitch my horse to yours because I think you
are going to go places and you will take me
with you. Not because I need it but because I
like the ride.’ ”
Wide-open future
Away from the boardroom, Nooyi sings
karaoke, plays the guitar and is a passionate
(read: obsessed) Yankees fan, a loyalty that
developed while she was at Yale and longing
I am just getting my feet wet.
I am earning my stripes.
I want those stripes to be bright.
I want them screaming.
America. “I was nurtured very well but I was
also a global citizen from the time I was a kid
because I was always learning about the world
around me.”
There are five C’s in success
The cornerstones of Nooyi’s management
philosophy are what she describes as the five
C’s for success: competence, courage (and confidence), communication, compass and coaching. “The first four C’s I never change,” she says.
JOE VERICKER, PHOTOBUREAU, INC
“The first one is competence. I think you can”t
move up in any job or in life unless you are
damn good at something. You have to have a
hip-pocket skill. [If] you forget that skill, your
utility goes down in a company because people
don’t know what to come to you for because
you are not current in anything.
“The second C’s are courage and confidence. You can be very good at something,
but if you are not willing to break some china
in speaking up when you think something is
not being done right, what is the value of having all that competency? The third C is communication. You might be willing to have the
courage and have the confidence, but if you
can’t communicate what you are going to do
in a compelling way, that is a wasted thing.
The fourth C is compass. You can have everything, but if you don’t have moral integrity it
is all for naught.
“The fifth C I have varied over time. The
one that I use most often is the notion of
to find a replacement for her beloved cricket.
“My friend Henry Kissinger and I both love
the Yankees, and when we travel together you
would see each of our cellphones have automatic Yankees score prompts every 10 minutes,” she says, laughing.
Kissinger, in fact, told Fortune that it’s
only a matter of time before Nooyi is plucked
for a big Washington post. Nooyi says such a
prospect intrigues her, but it’s a long way
away. “My goal is to run PepsiCo first and
foremost,” she says. “It is the company that I
love and it is my job. That is what I am focused
on. Long-long-term, after I have built PepsiCo
into an even better company, after there are
many successors that can fill my boots, if there
is a way to serve the country I would.”
For now, PepsiCo fits her portfolio wisely,
agreeably and well. C
Richard Deitsch has written for numerous
magazines and newspapers and is the
author of three children’s books. He resides
in New York City.