Pepsi CEO Indra Nooyi

Pepsi CEO Indra Nooyi
Name:
Institution:
Date:
Abstract
Leaders are at the heart of every operation and success of any organization. This is true because they offer direction and motivate those they lead towards the common goals of the organization. One of the areas where the contribution of leaders has been apparent is in the business world. However, for a leader to be effective and successful in managing a business he or she must possess some traits and behaviors. This paper analyses the traits of Indra Nooyi, one of the fortune 500 company CEO’s to demonstrate how these traits are important in leadership. A brief introduction about Nooyi’s education and career background has been highlighted. The paper then looks at some of the leadership characteristics that Nooyi has and how she has utilized them to help her company PepsiCo register growth. Finally, the findings of an academic journal that talks about leadership have been highlighted to support the view that certain traits must be possessed by leaders for them to be successful.
Keywords: leadership, successful, traits, characteristics
Pepsi CEO Indra Nooyi
The growth experienced at PepsiCo in recent years can be attributed to the leadership style and traits of the current Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Indra Nooyi. Nooyi began her career in India where she had been born, schooled and earned her first degree in Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics and later an MBA. While in India she held a number of managerial positions in various companies such as Johnson & Johnson and Mettur Beardsell.

She then moved to the US to pursue a master’s degree in Public and Private Management at Yale University. After leaving Yale, Nooyi worked at Boston Consulting Group and as a senior manager at Motorola and Asea Brown Boveri. She joined PepsiCo in 1994 (Driver, 2016).
Nooyi’s success at the helm of PepsiCo can undoubtedly be linked to a number of leadership characteristics portrayed by her. First, Nooyi is a great collaborator which was evident in her ability to work with people of distinct skills, personalities, and motivation. From the onset as a CEO, Nooyi established a team of experts and managers comprising of the firm’s top minds to advise her. Secondly, she is a strategic thinker or a visionary leader. In her early years as CEO, she crafted a growth strategy that would make Pepsi’s products appealing to its customers. For example, the company stopped focusing on soda and diversified to other products such as healthier products instead of junk food. This strategy led to an exponential growth in PepsiCo’s revenue. Nooyi’s other leadership traits include being assertive and confident, characteristics which many scholars agree that they are important (Bauer, Truxillo & Erdogan, 2015). Latman (2013) research confirms that the traits and behaviors exhibited by Nooyi are crucial for successful leadership. Through a series of interviews, the scholar discovered that successful CEO’s were humble and confident, a trait that is evident in Nooyi’s personality. Additionally, he established that great leaders should have purpose and meaning, integrity, and motivation among other traits. Important behaviors included being respective, collaborative, a role model, persistent, accountable, and much more. Importantly, the scholar discovered that organizational culture issues such as trust, customer focus, teamwork, values and culture change also go a long way in influencing a leader’s success.
References
Bauer, T. N., Truxillo, D. M., & Erdogan, B. (2015). Psychology and work: Perspectives on industrial and organizational psychology. Routledge.
Driver, L. (2016, October 14). How Indra Nooyi changed the face of PepsiCo. Retrieved from https://www.worldfinance.com/special-reports/how-indra-nooyi-changed-the-face-of-pepsico
Latham, J. R. (2013). A framework for leading the transformation to performance excellence part II: CEO perspectives on leadership behaviors, individual leader characteristics, and organizational culture. The Quality Management Journal, 20(3), 19-40.