June 26, 2013
| Johan Merican is CEO of TalentCorp. He believes it's great to be foolishly optimistic and good fun to try making a difference. You can give your feedback by emailing [email protected] |
Ms. Indra Nooyi, Chairman / CEO of PepsiCo was recently in Kuala Lumpur to speak at the Global Summit of Women. In conjunction with her visit, I had the distinct privilege of being at a roundtable session between her and a small group of Malaysian CEOs from the likes of Maybank, Axiata, KL Kepong, Astro and Shell.
The session happened on a Sunday morning. My colleague, as she was leaving her house, was asked by her daughter why she had to go to work on a Sunday. My colleague responded that it wasn't really work but more like getting the chance to meet your favourite celebrity rock star. I wouldn't disagree with her analogy.
A corporate superstar by any measure, Indra Nooyi has consistently ranked as one of the top female CEOs in the world. As an Asian and a woman who emerged as leader of an iconic American company, she is an inspiration. Yes, for me, it was definitely cooler to get to meet Indra Nooyi than say, meeting Beyonce.
For those of us who had sacrificed our Sunday morning for the session, Indra Nooyi did not disappoint. From the moment she entered the room, Ms Nooyi exuded a strong presence but unlike a rock star, her demeanour was one of calm confidence and humility. She was passionate in speaking about Pepsi's mission of 'Performance with Purpose' and the importance of diversity and inclusion.
Despite pressure from some quarters, Indra Nooyi has championed "Performance with purpose". This in essence is about capitalism with a conscience and for Pepsi, it was recognising the health consequence of its products.
Hence, under Ms Nooyi's leadership, Pepsi has worked to reduce sugar and salt in its core products, Pepsi and Lays chips; in addition to broadening its portfolio of healthier food products, such as Quaker oats and Tropicana juice.
For Ms Nooyi, having a corporate conscience or purpose was not in conflict or to the detriment of corporate performance. Having sustainable business practices in the areas of customer health, environment and talent management was not to be seen as a form of Corporate Social Responsibility but integral to delivering financial results.
The key is having the right time horizon – if too short termist, then clearly sustainability may appear to be at the cost of financial performance but in the medium and longer run, Pepsi's purpose will ultimately deliver profits and shareholder value.
When the company has purpose, Indra Nooyi explained, "employees are able to bring their whole self to work". Ms Nooyi recognised was that individual talents are more than just workers, they are also parents, have a role in their community, hold values and interests in causes.
What Pepsi wanted to avoid was to have employees park the rest of what defined themselves a person at the door of the office and come into work, a mere shell of themselves.
By having an organisation driven by purpose and one that truly embraces diversity and inclusion, Ms Nooyi believes then each and every Pepsi employee is able to bring their whole self to work and thus, deliver and achieve so much more.
For Pepsi, diversity and inclusion, whether in terms of gender, ethnicity or age, is integral to its talent management and business strategy. Diversity may be more challenging to manage but if effectively leveraged, drives superior results.
Pepsi has won many accolades for diversity and inclusion, plus it cannot be more strongly demonstrated than by having an Asian woman as CEO. Indra Nooyi noted how gender diversity was particularly relevant to countries like Malaysia, where women are an increasingly important part of the talent pool, accounting for the majority of graduates and yet, workforce participation rates for women remain significantly below that of men.
"If we don't find a way to help women at work, we will have a problem," Ms Indra Nooyi observed.
I couldn't help but note that Indra Nooyi's sharings were especially relevant for corporate Malaysia and for the nation as a whole. We need Malaysians to 'bring their whole self' to the business of driving Malaysia towards Vision 2020.
This can only happen if we have 'performance with purpose', take a longer term view and galvanise companies and country towards a common purpose, aspiration and dream. It is not just a nice-to-have, it is the right thing to do and also an economic imperative.
The issue of diversity and inclusion is particularly key for corporate Malaysia because only by involving all Malaysians and harnessing our collective and complementary strengths, will we be able to achieve our ambitious goals for our companies and nation. - June 26, 2013.
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