How Pepsi Popped Its Top

With U.S. soda sales flagging, Coca-Cola resurgent, and the world in recession, PepsiCo’s Indra Nooyi has found ways to cope with each challenge. She has also moved PepsiCo toward a greater commitment to health and the environment, a strategy that has inspired employees, attracted customers, and aided overseas operations.

Meet a rabid New York Yankees fan named Indra Nooyi. Apart from adoring the 2009 World Series champions, Nooyi is stunningly different from the men who head up most of America’s biggest corporations. She was born 54 years ago in Madras, India. She often wears saris to work at her New York office. She is smart, ebullient, determined, and successful. As Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer of PepsiCo, Inc., she runs the biggest U.S. corporation headed by a woman.

Pepsi is booming, largely because Indra Nooyi has transformed its mission, refocusing the company on the world’s rising demand for healthier foods and the soaring need for environmental action. Here is a major global company simultaneously doing good and doing well--thanks to a charming, indomitable Indian woman.

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