Picture source: Forbes
There’s something fascinating about this piece of news:
PepsiCo Names New Female Chief Executive – New York Times:
PepsiCo said today that it would promote its chief financial officer, Indra K. Nooyi, to chief executive, making her one of the most powerful woman in corporate America.Ms. Nooyi, 50, the Yale-educated daughter of a middle-class Indian family, will succeed Steven S. Reinemund, 58, in October, the company said. Mr. Reinemund will stay with the company as executive chairman until May 2007, and then retire.
Comments
19 responses to “Indian lady is appointed CEO of Pepsi”
Ahmad, what is so fascinating about this?
corporate responsibility after pissing off the indians?
Why fascinating.. hmm..
Very few women make it to the top position in corporate America. Think former HP CEO Carly Fiorina. The new Pepsi CEO is not only a woman, but also one that doesn’t have an anglo saxon name.
Also, there’s something about asian women leaders. Think Indira Ghandi. Imagine a large Arab country with a woman president.
Maybe I find it fascinating because I have a feeling that women may actually end up saving the world.
Also.. next time you drink a Pepsi, think of Indra.
There is another “fascinating” aspect to this story which is a symbol of corporate invasion of huamn rights in the age of globalization. Both pepsi and Coca Cola have a huge dsipute with the people of India. The two companies own 90 plants in India that are using huge amounts of groundwater for manufacturing Pepsi and Coca Cola bottles, depriving the local people of their water resources and polluting them with toxic residues out of the production process. The appointment of an Indian CEO for pepsi, in my own opinion is a commercial plan by Pepsi to gain more popularity and power in India and south Asia (the biggest market in the world) and not for her being a women. There are plenty of cases raised by Indian NGOs against pepsi and Coca Cola in indian courts and I think the presence of an Indian CEO will make things easier. Remember than, in democratic countries like India the voice of people really matters, not like in Jordan and the rest of the Arab World.
I find it fascinating as well!
She is not just a woman, but also an Indian woman. She has made it so far. Bravo…
Batir.. thanks for the background info on this. The power of blogging, man! There are alaways different faces to a story. The story has got more fascinating indeed!
I was not aware of the disputes around Pepsi and Coca Cola in India. If you have some links to resources about this, it would be great if you canshare them here.
😀 ok ahmad you usually are a moderate person in your topics and opinions but when it comes to women you always get “facinated” when they make it to the top
!
why???
Manal,
I didn’t understand you comment I think
Is my fascination contradictory with moderation? Please explain.
to make my postion clear, I am very happy when women make it to the top. In corporate life, even in the US, that is such a rarity (unfortunately). In the architecture business it’s the same story too. Zaha Hadid, the Iraqi female architect, is another fascinating story of woman ‘making it to the top’.
What are your thoughts on this.
Fascination, eh Humeid?
How would you feel when you know that the first female CEO ever of a Telecom company was a Jordanian woman working for an
almostJordanian telecom company!Her name is Mrs. Majd Shweikeh and she’s the CEO of MobileCom, she used to be the company’s financial manager before she took over from Michael Ghsain who became the group CEO of the restructured JT.
I’m not sure why local media did not pickup on this story but the Washington post in a March special edition covering Jordan, they had a full article about her (p.11), I’ll send you a PDF copy of it if you like to post about it.
Another non-sheikh insight!
I think it’s quite interesting, rather than fascinating. I mean, it is nice to see someone who is getting up high the hierarchy of American capilalist countries and without an “Anglo-Saxon” name as you mentioned. But I still see Batir’s point of view is quite good, and I would like to have some resources myself to read about the matter.
I wish she’s a woman who reserves her Original values, because it would be more ‘fascinating’ if she is.
omar
Humeid,
this is quite an interesting quote of her,
from http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2006/08/new_pepsi_ceo_i.html
described the USA as “the long middle finger” adding the US “must be careful that when we extend our arm in either a business or political sense, we take pains to assure we are giving a hand . . . not the finger.”
hehe
omar
Batir, why do we have always to dig down and go after our classic conspiracy theory??! Doenst this indian woman deserve that title she achieved? Why do we have to belittle her achievement by thinking of other ways? Is it hard to believe that an Indian woman can be as effiecient as any American man?
You don’t think that Pepsi can save their reputations by other means? Do they have to have an indian CEO to do so?
Even though I prefer Coke to Pepsi I was impressed by the appointment. First a woman, then one from a “minority”. That is exciting! There are only 11 woman CEOs of Fortune 500 companies. That’s ~2%. Way too low.
Batir, thanks for the reminder. There are movements in the US addressing that. They are boycotting Coke on University campuses and divesting from such companies. On one campus the loss was several million in revenue lost per year for Coke. I think that Coke took notice of this and may be on it’s way to change.
Actually indian courts are pushing to ban Pepsi in India because they claim that the products contains harmful ingredients that isn’t declared.
I hope someday we’ll have women working as cabbies in Jordan, because I really had it enough with cabbies.
Ahmad and other friends. About the Coca Cola and Pepsi problems with the Indian grassrots movements (no conspiracy theory here) you can read this analysis from the famous anti-globalization activists Vandana Shiva
http://www.mindfully.org/Water/2005/India-Coca-Cola-Pepsi14mar05.htm
And this is a story from the Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/water/story/0,13790,1012193,00.html
And another from Corpwatch
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=7508
Personally I do not drink Pepsi and Coca Cola for ages now since I do not know what are they composed of!
Thanks Batir for the info.
Batir, thanks for the info. It is more of a rage on Coca Cola than on Pepsi, but I can see what you are talking about, and yes both companies are harmful to environment and people.
My argument here why do we have to connect apointing this lady to a CEO position as a commercial move of Pepsi to save their asses in India? If for instance this CEO is Jordanian, would you feel better about Pepsi’s factories in Jordan poisoning our environment? In the contrary, I would resent the person holding that position, unless he does something to reduce enviromental poisoning.
Let us give this woman that cheer she deserves. It is good to see women making it this far. Let us not be-little it.
ok , i didnt mean that your fascination is contradictory with your moderation, what i ment is that, you as a moderate person i dont see (or expect not judging) why do you point out women’s achievement like if thier achievments is unusuall* and i have seen it b4 on your blog..lol
to understand me more and what i exactlly mean im an anti-feminism, i dont see why women should go out and protest for her rights, instead all people must become more educated or even educate them in the first place, and then women will have thier rights naturally, for example when a women or black person make it to the US presidential seat i dont see it as an acheivment i see it as,a normal thing happened, finally, cause it have been so for decades.
ya3ni when i would talk about Zaha Hadid i would talk of her acheivments not point her out because she is a female that achieved something.
i hope im more clear this time,
so…what u say?
cause it (haven’t) been so for decades