family. Today we are in a war for talent. Women are 70 percent of the valedictorians in high school. Their graduation rate from college is ten percentage points higher than men’s. In STEM disciplines, their GPAs are one whole point higher than men’s. They are getting the majority of professional degrees. Even in engineering, MIT is 47 percent women. Caltech and Georgia Tech are more than 30 percent I also had no regrets about leaving my job and was sure I wouldn’t miss my role as PepsiCo’s chair either, when I stepped down in a few months.”

For the lady who worked day and night, having almost equally ambitious husband, her family life seems to be too much trouble free, except for the housing and schooling issues, rest i assume is kept undercover. I wouldn’t take much inspiration from her because she’s terribly steeped in privilege and opportunities just seemed to fall in her lap (or that’s how she portrays in her book). The only personal takeaways I had were: a) keep learning throughout your life, especially about whatever work you’re gonna do; b) give your best & more to whatever you do. Men hold most of the positions of power, and it’s very, very important that they come to the table to talk about how we can make it easier for all family builders, not just women, to integrate work and To solve the work-family conundrum, Nooyi's points on interconnected areas of PAID LEAVE, FLEXIBILITY & PREDICTABILITY, and CARE are crucial. Repeat after me: Paid maternity and paternity leave must be mandated by ALL governments, but especially the US government, ASAP.Though I enjoyed knowing about her journey, the book is not very engaging. She did not talk about any sensitive issues; there were no opinions - played very safe. It felt like the book is her way of showing gratitude to the people and organizations she worked with. I wish the focus of the book was more on her thoughts and feelings around her life experiences, her wins and, most importantly, her failures; which would have made it more insightful, and which I believe people are looking for from the experience of such great leaders. For the first time and in raw detail, Nooyi also lays bare the difficulties that came with managing her demanding job with a growing family, and what she learned along the way. She makes a clear, actionable, urgent call for business and government to prioritize the care ecosystem, paid leave and work flexibility, and a convincing argument for how improving company and community support for young family builders will unleash the economy’s full potential. Mine is not an immigrant story of hardship—of fighting my way to America to escape poverty, persecution, or war. … Still, I do feel connected to everyone who streams into America, whatever their circumstances, determined to work hard and to set in motion a more prosperous life for themselves and their families. … I still have that fear—an immigrant’s fear—that presses me to try to do well and to belong.” When I was doing it, I did it because I was clueless about that topic and I wanted to learn more about it. The first step is to get into the details. Don’t sign something unless you understand it. And if you’re confronted with a problem, really get into the details before going to the big picture. Zoom in and then zoom out. And third, have humility. If you don’t know something, feel free to reach out and talk to people. Because what happens is typically you say, “God, if I brought in an expert to help me, then I’d realize how little I know about the subject.” Big deal. You can’t know everything about everything. Bring in the expert. Let them coach you. Sitting in your office, you might be able to ask more questions than you could in a bigger meeting. I honestly believe that getting the experts in, sitting down one-on-one, and learning everything there is to learn is a good thing.

I found both aspects okay, her story as well as her opinions & advice. As many have mentioned, the book doesn’t give deeper insights on her thoughts through her various life experiences & milestones. It strangely feels guarded, like she’s trying to sound like an HBR case study. Anyway, when I was at IIM Calcutta I was a year junior to Nooyi, who was then stylishly skinny unlike her wellfed American avatar. Or perhaps it's just that she has been excessively sampling Pepsi's 'food' products, like the ten yearold daughter of my impecunious household help who is already suffering from child obesity, along with countless other victims of Pepsico's successful implementation of her strategy of targeting so-called Third World countries as "profit centres", given the saturation of her North American home base.CEO’ and ‘care’ do not usually go together, but for Indra Nooyi, they always have. Rather than offering us a list of policy prescriptions, she shows us what is possible when businesses care about family and families have time to care for one another.” Now coming to the book, for an autobiography it has too much of filtered content. I can totally understand if a biography, being a serious read, is not written in engaging way, which is true in this case. But from content perspective, one expects to understand highs and lows of the life of a given person, real challenges, obstacles on personal and professional front, along with a strategies to overcome the same. This book doesn't reveal anything of that sort. The most dramatic problem Nooyi had, was her bad dressing sense. A bit of problems here and there, because she was a woman and immigrant. Rest is all about, how hard she worked and how does it paid her. About Pepsi days, which is 1/3 rd of the book, it's just too much technical details and series of events. The writing is a bit dry, very factual- a lot of space dedicated to PepsiCo's efforts to be a 'sustainably capitalist' company. I felt I could have read these else where as well if I was interested enough. What was probably missing were more insights into any struggles and her feelings navigating through difficult situations. Wherever included, even these are matter of fact! But maybe, that's the person she is and that's what helped her have such an immensely successful career! I would probably give this book a 3.5 if Goodreads allowed it.

Being brought up in Chennai myself, the author's initial tales of upbringing in Chennai was relatable and nostalgic. It was great and inspiring to read a story about the author's success, hard work ethic while grappling with traumatic incidents, family and support systems in the early stages of her career. Her strong beliefs in diversity and inclusion principles, support systems as well as putting in the work to drive actual change in this area was inspiring to see from a strong top leader. What a ride. First of all, Nooyi's work ethic and discipline will put any CEO, manager, and policymaker to shame. My jaw dropped. This is a must-read guide-book for anyone interested in management, policymaking, and resource allocation. Nooyi brilliantly highlights the importance of connections between private and public sectors, governments (and their agencies), academia, science, community groups, and philanthropic organizations. These entities are not mutually exclusive and decisions must be made utilizing the interconnectedness between them. As usual, I am unsure how to treat an autobiography considering the author isn’t obliged to preach anything, their only obligation is to tell their story. rounded up to 4. It's a book for a certain type of audience, I think. The writing is very dry and to-the-point. I only kept going because I wanted to hear more of her story, not just in her own words but also in her own voice. The Indian woman so many Indian parents want their daughters to learn about, look up to, and emulate - what did she do different?

Watch the full interview

I think women today are held to a different standard. They’re too loud or too soft. They’re too emotional or not emotional enough. They’re too strident, or they’re too weak or passive. Every possible badge is given to women. It’s disconcerting because you can feel it. You get these badges. You can see the looks among men when women dress a certain way. It’s the environment we live in, whether we like it or not. And that ranges from every business event you go to, every social event you go to, and sometimes even in boardrooms. central to the HR agenda, not something that ebbs and flows with the quality of a diversity and inclusion leader. Are you diverse? On what metrics are you diverse? Do you have ethnic diversity? Gender diversity? Racial diversity? All that stuff. But inclusiveness is a state of mind. It’s an emotion. Are you going to make To be extra, extra, extra, extra careful, I would hide my bags under a cupboard or something like that because I wanted to make sure that there was never any paper left around the house that somebody might look at and say, “Mom, are you working on this?” You don’t want to discuss everything with your husband, because there’s only so much you can discuss that are problems. You also want to have a normal conversation with your husband. But more importantly, I think families are so vested in you. If I shared my problems with my husband and he had a negative perception of the person that I said I had a 12-year tenure as CEO, and you can either say I ran three four-year tenures or two six-year tenures. In the first six years of my CEO-ship, I was navigating through the financial crisis and creating a more