Amidst the economic disaster, there are a few companies looking to their new leadership to weather the storm. On Fortune 500's list of top companies a surprising number of female CEOs are pulling in top dollars for their businesses in this market. Today, I've picked PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi as my woman of the week.
Indra Nooyi came to the United States from India in 1978 to get an M.B.A. at Yale University, much to the disappointment of her parents. This former cricket player and karaoke enthusiast earned a job at PepsiCo as a chief strategist. Her plan was to get PepsiCo off their soda-habit and onto healthy foods. She engineered PepsiCo's purchase of Tropicana and Quaker Oats (who owns Gatorade, by the way.) The company dropped KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut and profits showed she had made the right choice.
When she was picked to replace CEO Steve Reinemund in 2006, she went to the other top candidate and asked him to stay on as her right hand, increasing his salary. As PepsiCo's "caring CEO" she has also pledged that the company will become more sustainable, using wind and solar power in their plants and producing more fruit juice and healthy snacks, and launch a public service campaign to fight obesity. It shows that a multi-billion dollar enterprise once so reviled for its practices and presence can turn itself around and still make a profit at the end of the day. "We bring together what is good for business with what is good for the world."
And running a major company hasn't made her lose her spirit either. She still calls her mother in India twice a day. She raises two daughters, and still sings karaoke for her employees at company events.
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