Contemporary Business Leaders – Indra Nooyi

Contemporary Business Leaders – Indra Nooyi

Indra Nooyi is an inspiring female leader who has been in the corporate world for a significant period. She resigned as PepsiCo’s CEO and chairperson in 2018. Before her resignation, Indra Nooyi worked as the CEO at PepsiCo for 12 years. During her reign, the organization’s revenues increased alongside the product portfolio. Among the most remarkable product improvements were the reduction of sugar, salt, and fat as required by Health Advocates. This move was motivated by the need to offer customers a wide variety to choose from. In her interview with the New York Times, Indra highlighted that clients had various choices that ranged from fun food to healthy food items. The healthy food portfolio highlights the nutritional benefits and low-calorie aspects. At the same time, Indra, alongside her team, ensured that the healthy food items were affordable. She recently joined Amazon as a board member. Indra will be remembered as a remarkable female leader who transformed PepsiCo and compiled a book that provides information on work-family balance for aspiring women leaders. In addition, Time magazine ranked her as one of the 100 most influential individuals in 2008. In Forbes, she was ranked fourth in the “Most Influential Women in the World” in 2010. She emerged first among the most powerful women in the Fortune from 2006 to 2009 (Principles of Management, 2015).

Leadership Theory

Situational leadership theory is ideal for describing Indra Nooyi’s approach to leading others. Situational leadership theory emphasizes flexibility to ensure that the needs of an organization and its employees are addressed. The leader, in this case, utilizes varying approaches that suit the organization. The key aspect of the theory is its ability to adapt (St. Thomas University, 2014). Leaders such as Indra Nooyi have to keep modifying their leadership styles. The modification depends on the leaders’ understanding of the new paradigm. Indra Nooyi demonstrated situational leadership by maintaining good relations with employees. The former PepsiCo CEO wrote letters to the employees’ parents explaining their value to the company. This made the employees feel valued by the organization. In addition, she also sought to meet the customers’ needs by introducing healthier and more nutritious food items. Most importantly, the leader demonstrated high task orientation by upholding high standards, causing employees to follow the example. These aspects improved the organization, making it desirable to potential employees.

Indra Nooyi’s Greatest Career Achievement

Indra Nooyi is known for many achievements in the corporate world. However, the greatest achievement has to be PepsiCo’s acquisition of Quaker Oats. During Indra’s tenure at PepsiCo, she contributed towards the successful acquisition of $13.4 billion. The acquisition initiated the expansion of the company’s product portfolio. During the 12-year tenure, the company’s shares grew by 78 percent (Dash, 2018). This growth indicated the effect that the leader had on the company’s performance.

Indra Nooyi’s Career Challenge

Nooyi’s most significant challenge involved competing with Coke. As PepsiCo’s closest rival, keeping up with Coke posed a significant challenge to the leader. Consumers have gained great awareness regarding the healthy consumption of foods. Thus, Indra Nooyi had to keep up with consumers’ expectations regarding the sugar, fat, and salt content in the products. During the process of strategizing to include products that were healthy and nutritious, Coca-Cola’s stock continued to perform well. However, PepsiCo struggled to establish a new product portfolio. Coca-Cola’s Diet Coke performed better than PepsiCo’s healthier products. However, Indra Nooyi managed to improve the company’s performance through steady and consistent actions that were intended to drive these products into the market.

Indra Nooyi used legitimate power to implement the chosen strategies successfully. As the company’s CEO, she had the authority to lead the subordinate employees in a certain direction once the Board of members agreed. The board played an important role in the successful introduction of new products by providing support to the leader. In addition, the CEO believed in the need for healthier products. She communicated her beliefs to employees using data and statistics regarding the change in expectations and behaviors among consumers. The strategy enabled the CEO to create a reliable following among employees who also worked on the strategies wholeheartedly, yielding results (Gelles, 2019). While Coca-Cola maintained a lead during the 12-year tenure, PepsiCo’s financial performance improved significantly.

Ramon Laguarta succeeded Indra Nooyi as PepsiCo’s CEO in 2017. Both leaders lack a difference in leadership styles as Laguarta continues leadership under Nooyi’s strong influence among employees. However, Ramon is adopting new behaviors that are intended to improve the company’s position. The new leadership behaviors include being consumer-centric, where employees are expected to own the company and its products. Such a sense of ownership is expected to lead to the rapid completion of assignments, fearless voicing of opinions, high-level integrity, celebration of success, and increasing diversity and talent. All these new behaviors should create a competitive edge and motivate high performance (PepsiCo, n.d). At this point, it is difficult to pinpoint one of the two as a better leader as Nooyi has been the CEO for 12 years, while Laguarta has only led the company for 3 years. However, Nooyi’s influence is visible, considering that she occupied a position that is often assumed to be male. The financial performance that the company experienced during her tenure places her among the best female leaders in the corporate world.

Personal Reflection

Indra Nooyi is an inspirational individual, considering her background and achievements as a leader. She is an empathetic leader who creates meaningful relationships with employees. Indra Nooyi took time to write letters to the employees’ parents explaining their benefits at the company. Not only did she write to them, but Indra also visited these parents. This seemingly simple act led to feelings of appreciation and being valued among employees. I would like to emulate her capability to have meaningful relationships with the most important internal customers of an entity. Such an approach motivates employees, causing them to demonstrate loyalty to the organization and commitment. It is easy for the staff members to go out of their way to ensure goals are met. Such investments create a sense of belonging for employees who carry out the strategies and action plans that lead to goal achievement. It also shows the humanity of an individual despite their high-ranking position.

Secondly, I would like to emulate Indra Nooyi’s ability to engage employees by listening to their opinions. Inclusive leadership is beneficial to both employees and the company. Seeking the employees’ opinions causes them to feel valuable to the company. In fact, employees are involved in day-to-day activities and interactions with clients. This, they have opinions and ideas that could change the organization’s performance through inclusion. As a leader, it is easy to make decisions individually without involving employees. The ability to engage them shows their humility. Thus, I would like to be capable of humbling myself enough to engage the individuals that I lead by seeking their opinions. While I will make the final decision, engagement results in healthy discussions. When subordinate staff are involved in such discussions, they own the final decision. It is possible to implement changes and other ideas without resistance from the employees.

References

Dash, S. (2018). After 12 Years, Indra Nooyi to Step Down as PepsiCo CEO.

Gelles, D. (2019, March). Indra Nooyi: ‘I’m Not Here to Tell You What to Eat’. New York Times.

PepsiCo. (n.d). Ramon L. Laguarta.

Principles of Management. (2015). University Of Minnesota Libraries Publishing. Retrieved from https://people.ohio.edu/holbrook/Management10.pdf

St. Thomas University. (2014). What Is Situational Leadership®? How Flexibility Leads to Success. Retrieved from https://online.stu.edu/articles/education/what-is-situational-leadership.aspx

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Many names have been recognized as notable business leaders. Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Welch, and Colleen Barrett are all leaders identified for their unique approach to leading people. Choose one of the following business leaders for this assignment: Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Jack Welch, Indira Nooyi, Anne Mulcahy, Howard Schultz, Colleen Barrett, Larry Page, Mark Zuckerberg, Warren Buffett, Richard Branson, Susan Wojcicki, Marissa Mayer, or Mary Barra. Select one leader and discuss (in 1,250-1,500 words) what you have learned about the selected individual as a leader and the leadership style that leader embodies. Address the following in your discussion:

1. Identify a leader and justify why you selected that particular leader. With what organizations is the leader affiliated? In what industry is the leader recognized? How long was the leader in a leadership position?
2. Discuss which leadership theory best describes the chosen leader’s approach to leading people.
3. What was the leader’s greatest career achievement?
4. Identify a significant career challenge the leader faced and how the challenge was handled. Did the response align more with a managerial role or a leadership role?
5. What power base did the leader use in handling or resolving the challenge?
6. Compare the leadership style used by your selected leader against that of the leader’s successor/predecessor (or competitor in the same industry if a successor/predecessor is not applicable). Was there a difference in the leadership styles? Which leader do you think is more effective and why?
7. Include a personal reflection and identify two to three attributes you hope to emulate or avoid (based on studying this leader) in order to be a successful leader.

You are required to use at least two external sources to provide evidence in support of the leadership style displayed by your selected leader. The rationale should be justified; this should not be completed based on an opinion.