Will cause third World War if I join politics: Indra Nooyi
PepsiCo’s India-born former CEO Indra Nooyi has said she would cause a third World War if she joins politics as she is too outspoken .Asia Society, a non-profit organisation that focuses on educating the world about Asia, honoured 62-year-old Nooyi Tuesday with the ‘Game Changer of the Year Award’ here in recognition of her business achievements, humanitarian record and advocacy for women and girls around the world.Asked if she would like to join US President Donald Trump’s Cabinet now that she has stepped down as Pepsi CEO, Nooyi said, “Me and politics don’t mix at all. I am too outspoken, I am not diplomatic. I don’t even know what diplomacy is. I would cause a third World War. Don’t do it”.
Nooyi stepped down on October 2 as PepsiCo’s CEO, after 12 years at the helm of the global beverage giant. PepsiCo’s Board of Directors had in August announced that they unanimously elected Ramon Laguarta, 54, to succeed Nooyi as Chief Executive Officer.Nooyi will remain Chairman until early 2019 to ensure a smooth and seamless transition.
After having worked 18 to 20 hours a day for the last 40 years, Nooyi said it was “liberating” to have a bit of free time.
“When I stepped down, I thought that it was going to be tough. For 40 years, I have done nothing but wake up at 4 am and figured out how to rush to work and work 18-20 hours a day,” she said during the interaction.Nooyi said a day after she stepped down, she realised that there was life beyond working.“I am still a PepsiCo at heart but I am learning to step aside and realise that there is life beyond PepsiCo,” she said.Nooyi said she was looking forward to utilising her time writing and visiting as many countries as possible to talk about how to address issues of maintaining work-life balance.She also plans to pursue several extra-curricular activities that she enjoyed but had to squeeze time for from her previous packed schedule.”I am told I need to go to sleep school to learn how to sleep…Learning how to sleep 6, 8 or 10 hours, play Tennis, I don’t know how it’s going to be but I know it is going to be fun,” she said.
Nooyi, who has long advocated the need for finding solutions to help women strike a work-life balance, recalled her experience of how she incorporated the “Asian model” in her life to manage her career and bring up her daughters.
She also emphasised that this model needed to be “imported” to the west.“I imported a quintessential Asian model to my life,” she said.Nooyi and her husband did not want to leave their kids with a day care worker and turned to their families in India for help, asking parents, in-laws, aunts and uncles, grandparents to stay with them in the US for 3 to 4 months to help supervise their children.
“We need to import that Asian model here. We need to have more multi-generational families living together. We need to have the older generation helping the young people supervise day-care facilities,” she said.
