221B Partners - Book Club Debut

I had the best of intentions of posting this in March for Women’s History Month. But, as with many or all of you, work and life is unpredictable. So, while this is “late” by my own internal deadline, this is not “late” since no one knew I was writing this book review in the first place. Before I go any further (spoiler alert for our first book club book) – If you’d like to read My Life in Full by Indra Nooyi without knowing anything ahead of time, then stop here. For the rest of you…

First immigrant and woman of color to run a Fortune 50 company

Indra Nooyi is best known as the former CEO of multinational PepsiCo, which she led for 12 years. A well-deserved, yet astounding achievement for a woman who was born and educated in Madras (now Chennai), India, and who first came to the U.S. as a graduate student to attend Yale School of Management in the late 1970s. She was the first immigrant and woman of color to run a Fortune 50 company.

Nooyi started at PepsiCo as a senior vice president in the $25 billion company's strategic planning division in 1994. At the time, PepsiCo was the 15th largest U.S. company (by annual revenue) and sold food and drinks in 150 countries. Its restaurant division was a $9 billion operation. White American men held 15 of the top 15 jobs at PepsiCo until Nooyi joined its roster. 

Before joining PepsiCo, she had worked for Johnson & Johnson, Boston Consulting Group, Motorola and Asea Brown Boveri (now ABB) during which time she had “never had a close woman colleague with a job like mine and had never seen a woman in a workplace who was senior to me.” The mid-1990s do not seem that long ago to me, but while I read about Nooyi’s time in senior leadership and executive roles back then, and since that time, I was reminded about how far women have come in corporate America. And, how far we have to go.

The parts of the book and Nooyi’s journey that I enjoyed reading and learning about were about family – her birth family including her grandparents, parents, husband and two daughters – and her work family that was clearly very important to her. But she struggled – as we all do – to find a reasonable work-life-family balance. She wanted to be a role model to her two daughters and other women, and wondered,

Should I keep working? What would be the consequences if I quit? Would I have regrets and resentments that would create a negative environment at home? I had no idea how to take a break from work and then return a few years later. I could think of no examples of women who had done this. I was concerned that any hiatus would render my skills irrelevant and that it would be hard for me to reenter the job market, contribute to the economic well-being of my family, and stay intellectually active. There were also no young mothers around who were working from home, even temporarily. Going into the office was required. I worried about all this and struggled to sleep. But I kept going.

Performance with Purpose 

As a reader, one can’t help walking away with the understanding that Nooyi has a deep sense of purpose, optimism and ambition. She talked throughout the book about the need for paid leave for all and better work flexibility and finding ways to replace the old systems for parental leave or elder care that don’t mesh with the reality of those who are responsible for their young children and elder parents. She believed that through “a can-do sense of optimism and a must-do sense of responsibility, we can transform our society.” She wanted and pushed others to make the world a better place and created and used a new corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative at PepsiCo as a conduit to do so. She laid out this new mission in 2006, calling it Performance with Purpose or PwP. Nooyi said,

I wanted PepsiCo’s contribution to society to be rooted in its core business model. I did not want us to fund charitable programs to make ourselves feel or look good. Our social responsibility had to evolve away from corporate philanthropy and toward a deep sense of purpose that would also drive shareholder value. We needed to change the way we made money – not just give away some of the money we earned.

As someone who isn’t just interested in the bottom line of a business, I found this section of the book very interesting. All the initiatives PepsiCo put in place through this PwP approach were based on four pillars: financial, human, environmental and talent sustainability. (You can read more about it in a 2020 Harvard Business Review.) Part of Nooyi’s mandate through PwP was to ensure environmental sustainability by rethinking how PepsiCo used energy and water, reducing plastic in its packaging and setting up recycling systems. Other PwP initiatives centered around human sustainability and finding ways to feed people responsibly by cutting fat, sugar and salt levels in its products. As part of its talent sustainability pillar, Nooyi and her team focused on inclusive hiring practices and being a company that provides a supporting, empowering workplace where all people could prosper.  

Corporate Social Responsibility Focus in Due Diligence 

CSR is a key focus for some of our clients here at 221B Partners who engage us for pre-acquisition due diligence, or a background on a strategic partner in a joint venture or other potential investment. Through a search and review of lawsuits, press reports and open-source information (OSINT), we have  identified allegations of negligent stewardship of the the environment, child labor and unfair wage practices. While interrogation of information in the public domain is necessary to our work – we often complement that initial research with source work or gathering human intelligence (HUMINT). 

With so many companies forced to reinvent their supply chains with new partners and providers over the past few years, we see clients paying particular attention to issues of human trafficking, forced labor and child labor in the procurement efforts. 

Important Role a Mentor Can Play

Overall, I really enjoyed Nooyi’s autobiography. Her achievements are many, and over the years she has consistently ranked among the most powerful women in business. She certainly didn’t get there alone, nor does she pretend to have. She praises those who helped her across her family and professional assistants. She points to the importance of hiring the right team and creating upward mobility for them. She reflects upon the importance of having – and also being – a great mentor and teacher, something that I firmly believe in and have benefited from. One of my favorite stories in the book was about this very topic. Prior to being named CEO, Nooyi served as PepsiCo’s president and CFO. She talked about her work being “essentially endless.” Then she told the story:

I once flew to Moscow on a Friday night to help a young European team develop compelling logic for a Russian acquisition they wanted to propose. Boarding the plane home two days later, on a Sunday afternoon, I exclaimed, ‘Do you guys realize I gave up my weekend and flew all the way to Moscow to help you prepare for a presentation to me next Friday?’ ‘We know,’ one responded. ‘Thank you for being Indra Nooyi, our teacher. We now feel much better about how we’ll do with Indra Nooyi, the president and CFO with extremely high standards!’

Photo from indranooyi.com