Yes, there is a lot of racial discrimination and sexism, but the ideal of meritocracy is still a powerful ideal in North America. Many women, racial minorities, and immigrants are overcoming racism and sexism with their talent, skills, and discipline, and are populating the offices of the most powerful companies in the world.
I still believe that people who are determined to succeed will succeed despite having some many obstacles stacked against them.
Today I want to talk about Indra Nooyi, an immigrant who, despite her skin color, despite not having intergenerational wealth, despite having a foreign accent when she speaks, despite not having a family network or connections, has succeeded to the highest level of corporate America.
At the same time, I have to question how much of the barriers that supposedly prevent immigrants, minorities, and women from climbing the corporate ladder are real or are self-imposed.
Indra Nooyi, was the CEO of PepsiCo 2006 to 2018, 7 years longer than the average CEO tenure at large companies.
Indra Nooyi was born in India from a middle class family. Her mother wanted her to find a good husband be a housewife.
She graduated with a degree in physics, chemistry, and mathematics in from Madras Christian College, a college that is NOT an ivy league college and that no one in North America cares about.
She didn’t study philosophy, English literature, or Art History. There is nothing wrong with having a liberal arts education, but if you take one of those careers, chances are that you will struggle financially for the rest of your life.
People in the United States make a big deal out of the name of the university that you graduated from, overemphasizing Yale and Harvard. But they should give way more importance to the majos they chose. Someone who studies engineering will have a more rewarding life (financially) than someone who studies a social science, no matter which university they graduate from. Indra Nooiy is just one more example of that.
She got a scholarship to attend Yale, not because of Affirmative Action or because of family connections, but on the merit of her achievements. I do believe that race or should not be a determining factor in admission at top universities. I believe that merit should be the only determining factor.
She moved to the the U.S. with $500 in her pocket. No connections to help her, no intergenerational wealth, no privilege at all.
She graduated with a master degree in public and private management from Yale School of Management in 1980.
She worked for six years at Boston Consulting Group, then she worked for Motorola, then Asea Brown Bovery.
In 1994 she started working for PepsiCo as senior-president for strategic planning, and she stayed at PepsiCo for 24 years.
In 2006 she became the CEO of PepsiCo until 2018. She was the first female CEO of the company since the year 1898. In 1921 Indra Nooyi published her memoir My Life in Full: Work, Family, and Our Future.
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