Fortune magazine has a cover story on Indra Nooyi, the relatively new CEO of Pepsi. It makes for interesting reading and I recommend it.
We’ve had this discussion about Indian CEOs in the Corner Office before but the thing that strikes me about Nooyi is that she is able to read the culture of Pepsi very well and then challenge established beliefs and practices in a way that seem non-confrontational. She is a change agent who is accepted by the organization rather than rejected, much as the human body sometimes rejects a donated organ.
The origins of that skill may lie in the Indian cultural mix. There are so many different kinds of Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Jains and other religions and so many different castes and so many different regional and linguistic variations in India that someone who lives there has to learn how to “read” the culture of people he or she meets and learn to engage with them in non-confrontational ways (hopefully.)
But read the article and share your thoughts about Indra Nooyi. She’s quite a leader.
