Former PepsiCo Chairman and CEO Indra Nooyi said she “would never have been” a chief executive of a global company in any other country, including India, asserting that the US “meritocratic” system made her rise possible.
Nooyi’s Remarks on US Meritocracy
Speaking during a conversation with former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, on Wednesday, the 70-year-old Indian-origin business executive highlighted the opportunities available to immigrants in the United States.
“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 said.
Technology Commercialization and Immigrant Opportunities
She explained the differences between life in the US and other parts of the world, starting 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 said.
“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,” Nooyi said, emphasizing the unique opportunities for immigrants in the US.
Meritocracy Over Background
“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,’” she said.
Nooyi urged her daughters to value those opportunities and do everything possible to preserve “the spirit of this country”.
Nooyi’s Legacy at PepsiCo
Nooyi, an alumnus of the 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.
