T h e B i o g r a p h y o f I n d r a N o o y i

India has a long history where women’s have shown that they are not only the homemaker, however,
with their sheer strengths and courage, they have ruled over India from the Medieval History period of
India take the example of Razia Sultan, then Rani Laxmi Bai, then Sarojini Naidu, then Indra Gandhi, then
Ashiwarya Rai and latest entrant in the block is the Indra Nooyi, a superwomen, who has been placed
4th in the list of worlds topmost influential women’s by the Forbes Magazine.

Indra Krishnamurthy Nooyi is her full name and she belongs to the Southern Indian city of Chennai. She
was born in 28 October 1955 in Madras, now Chennai. She has done her graduation from Madras
Christian College (MCC) in Chemistry, Physics and Math. On completion of her graduation she went to
Indian Institute of Management in Calcutta for doing Masters in Finance and Marketing. Soon after
completion of her MBA she joined ABB and then Johnson and Johnson (J&J) in Mumbai. One of her
achievement with J&J is her close association with launch of the sanitary napkin “Stayfree”. From there
she has been no stopping her life.

However, her career profile was not satiating her wishes to do more in life and she persuaded her
parent to let her study at Yale Management School in US. She completed her Master’s in Public and
Private Management form Yale. Here in US before landing in the Pepsi in 1994, she had worked with
Boston Consulting Group and Motorola. Indra coaxed the CEO Roger Enrico of the Pepsi to follow-up the
company’s restaurant division, including brands such KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, as the chief strategy
officer.
Nooyi not only shows tenacity for follow-up, but she equally emphasized in the Mergers and
Acquisition. This was bolstered by the acquisition of the Tropicana and Quaker fruit juice brands. As a
typical tycoon of the business from her acumen she has predicted the slowdown in the popularity of
aerated soft drinks in the markets worldwide. That’s how she has enhanced her position in the business
world where for a woman it’s very difficult to leave any mark on the corner room office of the big
conglomerate. She is the one who has meticulously planned for the foray of Pepsi into the sport drinks
market in association with Gatorade.

Her quick decision making ability and sticking to the work until it’s got accomplished has drawn this
comment from the Enrico that “If she gets an idea, she goes after it. There’s no stopping her.” No doubt
her firmness and go getting attitude has won her laurels in the company and this helped her to build a
strong foundation in the career graph to reach the top echelons in the organization where many people
just day dreams to reach. As of now

she is the only Indian woman to become the Chief Executive Officer of the more $ 25 Billion
Multinational, and perhaps the first Indian to reach to this level. “As of now” has been deliberately being
used so as to see more and more Indian transcendent to that level in future. For Indira this has been a
both tough and exciting experience. As she has said in her own word that being a woman, immigrant
and colour made it thrice difficult for her to reach to this destination, but only mantra which she
followed during the course of time was working hard twice as the male counterpart

Living up to the moment and enjoying every thrills coming on the way is the best strategy to go
unhindered. Indra connection with her India is conspicuous by looking at her attire. In most of the office
ceremony she wears sari to show that her heart beats for India and her culture. Most of the woman
would be envying her knowing to this fact that she has a great boss both in office and in home. The way
she is balancing her office obligation with similar ease she take cares of her household stuff. It’s she an
icon to be followed and emulate so that a few things if not all. She has been daughter, a wife, a mother
and last but not the least a business woman who has been spearheading in every direction whichever
she heads to.
The faculty members of IIM Calcutta has brought out this facts to the media that she has been a very
mediocre student in the campus, however Nooyi has surpassed everybody’s imagination, when it was
announced that she was going to replace the Steve Reinemund, CEO of PepsiCo. This has lit up fire every
mediocre soul that if she can achieve this insurmountable hierarchy nothing is impossible for the
determined and strong willed person, the only thing being required is the perseverance.

Indra Nooyi lives in Greenwich, Connecticut with her husband Raj and their two daughters. Indira Nooyi
very chirpy and has a great sense of humour. She has the inclination towards arts which is supported by
the fact that she is a member of the Boards of the Lincoln Center for the performing Arts in the New
York City. Besides that she has been a member of the Boards of various organization prominent amongst
them is the Motorola and Yale University.

Nature wise she has been simple and prefers to avoid controversies. Recently while delivery the speech
at the graduating ceremony of Columbia Business School she has stirred a controversy by mesmerizing
her childhood days. She said that for remember the name of the five continents was a tough task for her
in the geography class, so she remember Africa for the small finger, Asia for the Thumb, Europe as the
Index finger, South America for the Ring finger and North America as the Middle finger. She justified the
analogy of the five fingers with the continent based on there economic and political standing world
forum. However, this has instigated furors and she immoderately apologized for the same.

However, Indra Nooyi is the truly global in her thinking keeping a wide perspective about the world and
has great intellect.

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