Indra Nooyi moved from India to the United States in the late 1970s. She went to Yale University to study how to manage organizations. Her parents could not help her pay for school. She worked at the front desk of a student building from midnight to 5 a.m.
After work, she went to class in the morning. In a July interview with Condoleezza Rice, she talked about this time. She and other students from developing countries wanted good grades and jobs. She said people respected them more after their hard work helped them get jobs.
Nooyi finished her degree in 1980. She joined PepsiCo in 1994 and became its top money manager in 2001. In 2006, she became the company’s leader. She stayed in that job until 2018. During those years, the money PepsiCo made from sales grew by 80%.
Nooyi says people learn to lead over many years. They need to watch others and practice, much like people training for the Olympics. She tells future leaders to study other leaders’ mistakes and how they deal with them. They should also watch how leaders get people to follow them.
