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Indra Nooyi's mantras for success
September 12, 2008
Be honest in appraisals. If people aren't performing well, help them 'cross the bridge' and get where they need to go by examining why they aren't performing. Raise the bar as the boss.
Coaches or mentors are very important. They could be anyone -- your husband, other family members or your boss. But you cannot pick them. They will pick you.
Don't expect to be on the same promotional track as someone who works five days a week if you work three days a week. In less than ideal situations tough it out, try to change it and then leave even if it means not working for some time.
The minute you've developed a new business model, it's extinct, because somebody is going to copy it.
When I became the president, at 10 o'clock in the night I went home and said, 'Mom I have some very important news.' To which she said, 'Leave that important news, just go buy some milk'. To which I said, 'Raj is home. Why don't you ask him to buy the milk?' She said, 'He is tired.' Typical mother you know, can't disturb the son-in-law! I was very upset, but I went and bought the milk and banged it on the kitchen table in front of her and said, 'Tell me, why do I have to buy the milk and not somebody else?' She just looked at me -- and I will never forget it, it was a powerful lesson, and said -- 'Look, when you pull into the garage, leave the crown there. Don't walk in with it, because you are first a wife and a mother. And if the family needs milk, you go get the milk. That is your primary role in life. Everything else is what you acquired or what you got because I pray for four to five hours a day.' That is the only thing she tells me. She says, 'What did you accomplish? You sit in a meeting on a chair all the time, and I pray for 4-5 hours.'
Image: Indra K Nooyi, chairperson and CEO of PepsiCo, holds a bottle of Pepsi during a press conference in New Delhi. | Photograph: Manpreet Romana/AFP/Getty Images
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