Although you probably do not recognize the name Indra Nooyi, you’re probably familiar with many of the products she is responsible for producing, including Pepsi, Gatorade, and Fritos. Nooyi is the CEO of PepsiCo, which is responsible for Pepsi products as well as Tropicana, Frito Lay, Gatorade, and Quaker Oats products. In 2010 she was named number 1 on Fortune’s list of the “50 Most Powerful Women” and number 6 on Forbes’s list of the “World’s 100 Most Powerful Women.”

Although Nooyi considers herself a normal person, who juggles being a corporate leader with being a mother, a wife, a daughter, and a daughter-in-law, much of her success is grounded in her awareness of who she is as a person and her awareness of others, which was cultivated through her relationship with her paternal grandfather who taught her to be a thoughtful and mindful person. My grandfather “taught me to be a lifelong student. Don’t ever think you’ve arrived, and remember that what you don’t know is so much more than what you do.” Being grounded and self-aware of her strengths and weaknesses has allowed Nooyi to be more open to new ideas, learn, and grow as a person. Through this self-awareness, she has become a more mindful person.

Nooyi’s keen self-awareness and mindfulness of others are how she attracts and retains her best employees. She invests time in developing the people who work for her. “We look at a 10- to 15-year development plan for our high-potential people,” says Nooyi. “This looks at their children, their schools, their spouse’s job, aging parents— anything that affects where they will be comfortable working. That way we can build opportunities to develop their careers in tandem with their personal lives.”2

Another example of Nooyi’s mindfulness is when she wrote to the parents of 29 of her senior executives’ parents to inform them of what a great job they did in raising their children. She informed the parents of how much their now-grown child had contributed to the success of PepsiCo. In these personal letters, she considered each senior executive a gift. According to Nooyi, this letter-writing activity “unleashed emotions that were unbelievable, creating an emotional bond among executives, their parents, and me.”

Source: Beebe, S. A., & Mottet, T. P. (2013). Business and professional communication. Pearson,

Answer the following questions: (10M)

1. Nooyi attributes much of her success to being grounded and knowing who she is as a person. How do you see self-awareness being related to leadership effectiveness? (3M)

2. How do you see self-awareness and mindfulness being similar and different? (3M)

3. Within the past five years, have you become a more thoughtful person? If so, how? Who has influenced your thoughtfulness? (2M)

4. What do you think motivated Nooyi to send thank you letters to her senior executives’ parents? Why not send the letter to the senior executives? (2M)