US ‘meritocratic’ made rise possible: Indra Nooyi says, ‘would never be Pepsi CEO in any other country, including India’
Indra Nooyi, former Chairperson and CEO of beverages giant PepsiCo has credited the United States' “meritocratic” system for her rise to prominence, saying that she “would never have been” chief executive of a global company in any other country, including India, PTI reported.
The 70-year-old Indian-origin executive was speaking to Condoleezza Rice, former US Secretary of State and the Tad and Dianne Taube Director of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, on 1 July (Wednesday).
‘Say this to my daughters all the time…’
According to Nooyi, she explains to her daughters the differences between life in the US and other parts of the world and emphasises their luck in being born in the “greatest country in the world”.
“I say this to my daughters all the time. I say to them, ‘You have no idea how lucky you are to be born in the greatest country in the world’, and they look at me and say, ‘Tell us how it’s the greatest’,” Nooyi told Rice.
“I'll start with technology. All the big technological innovations may have happened in other parts of the world, but they were commercialised here. Technology developed doesn't make any difference. It's when you commercialise it and make a difference in the world is where the rubber hits the road,” she added.
Spirit of this country: Opportunities for immigrants
“This is where an immigrant could come in with nothing in her pocket and become the CEO of an iconic American red, white, and blue company. It can't happen in any other country in the world. I would never have been CEO in any other country in the world, including in India. So, I look at them, and I say, 'Look at what I could achieve here — it's because the system is meritocratic. Mentors don't care whether you're male, female, ethnicity, gender, they don't care, they just want the best brains to rise to the top,” Nooyi said, highlighting opportunities available to immigrants in the US.
Urging her daughters to value those opportunities, Nooyi said they should do everything possible to preserve “the spirit of this country”.
Nooyi, an alumnus of the prestigious Yale School of Management, helmed the beverage giant PepsiCo for 12 years before stepping down as CEO in 2018. She is considered one of the world's most influential business leaders.
(With inputs from PTI)
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