Une vie bien remplie

by Indra Nooyi

Pendant une douzaine d’années, Indra Nooyi a été l’une des PDG les plus admirées au monde. Première femme immigrée non blanche à diriger une entreprise du Fortune 50, mais surtout grande stratège, elle a mis au service de PepsiCo sa quête de l’excellence, ses talents de leader visionnaire et sa capacité à donner du sens à son activité.
Nooyi retrace les événements qui l’ont façonnée, de son enfance dans l’Inde des années 1960 à son entrée à Yale aux États-Unis, et jusqu’à son ascension fulgurante de jeune consultante. Ce livre offrre une plongée unique dans ses réflexions, celles d’une femme qui réoriente une immense entreprise américaine vers des produits plus sains et plus écologiques, malgré de nombreuses résistances.
Dans ces mémoires écrits avec élégance, courage et humour, nous entrons dans l’intimité de la carrière légendaire d’Indra Nooyi, mais aussi de ses difficultés à allier une profession exigeante et une famille qui s’agrandit. Tirant sa force d’une légitimité et d’une générosité rares, ce livre dévoile la vie et les enseignements d’une leader hors du commun.

« Avec franchise, Nooyi a écrit un livre merveilleux qui donne vie à son histoire. Une lecture incontournable pour les femmes qui travaillent, et les hommes qui nous aiment et nous soutiennent. »
Hillary Clinton

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Biography, Memoir, Autobiography, Leadership, Audiobook

301 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 28, 2021

Reviews

[Sowmya V · Rating 4 out of 5]

Indra Nooyi is a name most of us in India, especially girls got familiar with, after she became CEO of PepsiCo. I picked up this book with lot of expectations and a little of skepticism having seen a few of her interviews. The book was a mixed bag for me- its called 'My life in Full' but most of it is about work with a few nuggets about immediate family, but then again, Nooyi is very honest about the fact that most of her life was infact work! For an average Indian, her childhood and education does reflect her privilege but she also did work hard and does not shy away from talking about 18-20 hr work weeks as an immigrant making her way through quintessential American companies.

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.

PS: I did feel the hero of this story was her mom who sounded a lot like many Indian moms who are proud of their daughters succeeding professionally yet want them to meet the domestic requirements of a having a happy family.

[Nipun Jasuja · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve been a huge fan of Indra Nooyi. As an Indian born immigrant who lived in the US and started his career in management consulting, Indra Nooyi’s journey and meteoric rise through her career was hugely inspiring and something worth learning about and emulating.

Hence I was excited to read My Life in Full to deepen my understanding of this incredible role model. Having now finished the book, I’m quite disappointed. For starters, there wasn’t anything “full “or wholesome about how the book is written. It’s quite bland in its writing, and reads like a corporate memo that has been vetted for political correctness by several committees. There was no heart, and no grand revelations. It also seemed like Indra Nooyi didn’t do anything wrong in her career, and went from one success after another.

I felt as if the really difficult parts of Indra Nooyi’s journey (e.g. her relationship with her partner and children) were barely given any nuanced or deep coverage. They were merely brushed off. On the professional front, I didn’t take away any learnings I could really apply to my own career. There is a lot of discussion of “Performance with Purpose”, Indra Nooyi’s vision while CEO at PepsiCo. However, I’d like to have seen her discuss more honestly what she couldn’t achieve and how people following in her wake need to do more, and where they need to pick up what she left unfinished.

I enjoyed reading about Indra Nooyi’s early years and she still remains someone I look up to. But this book has not demystified much. At best, this book seems like her life in half - a cherrypicked half.

[Brown Girl Bookshelf]

Indra Nooyi and I are lucky: we grew up in an environment that promoted fairness in education. Our grandfathers dared us to get gritty, with Nooyi's thatha composing extra homework assignments for her and my dada proudly vocalizing the attributes that will allow me to be a CEO one day. Both methods, though different, allowed us to be equally ambitious as our male classmates.

Nooyi acknowledges her privilege in her memoir: she writes about moving from Madras to Connecticut to pursue a Master's degree at the Yale School of Management, receiving a three-month paid leave from an early employer to take care of her father when he was diagnosed with cancer, and inviting extended family to help raise her daughters while she worked full-time. But, in simple writing, void of grievance, Nooyi also makes room for commentary on the challenges that accompany growing one’s life and career in communities dominated by white men. Why she chose to state events such as accepting lower pay while double hatting at Pepsi in a matter-of-fact way is unbeknownst to me. Nooyi makes up for this later by providing details about her priorities at Pepsi in an animated manner. She exudes similar energy when she advocates for inclusive hiring practices, subsidized childcare, and the need to combat unconscious bias. Her deep sense of purpose and vigorous pursuit for doing what’s right does not go unnoticed, nor do the hints she leaves in curating a blueprint for success.

Nooyi’s memoir humanizes her in a way that former news headlines on her executive business presence did not. Readers witness firsthand the flair that her family, her thatha included, saw in the first woman of color and immigrant to run a Fortune 50 company.

I don’t believe Nooyi wants young readers to aspire to have a career that mirrors hers. The road traveled to reach the pinnacle of her career was crowded with sacrifices. Instead, she motivates her audience to actively work to adjust policies for working families and leadership strategies to keep women advancing in the workforce. This will lessen the load on the future female leaders that aspire to an executive office - leaders like me, my sister, and my friends.

[Vandhana · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book, trust me I have a lot of respect for Indra Nooyi's accomplishments. But this book was a huge let down. The writing was extremely drab, a mere matter-of-fact narration of all her life's happenings that becomes boring pretty quickly. It was a real struggle to get through each page, when there was absolutely no insight into her thoughts or emotions while navigating the complex web of life and work. She had also safely underplayed both the place of privilege she had come from and her failures along the way. I just couldn't continue reading beyond 125 pages about such a one dimensional character - She is hard working and she has worked super hard in her career all along. Oh did I mention she is hard working?


Take my review with a grain of salt, I'm not a huge autobiography or memoir reader, so my expectations might have been a little too high.

[Logeshwaran G · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had little idea about Indra Nooyi until I started reading the book. Her name often pops up in class discussions about breaking glass ceilings or about how she is an inspiration for a lot of people. When I got to know she was writing a memoir, I patiently waited to hear her story in her words.

I feel this book just did that. It was an honest attempt to tell her story while acknowledging her privileges, insecurities and most importantly, the difficult choices she had to make to become the immigrant women of colour who raises to lead an iconic company.

I personally enjoyed how she articulated about growing up and out of the conservative Tamil family value system.

Overall, I found it a great read and inspiring.

[Alok Kejriwal · Rating 5 out of 5]

An INCREDIBLE book that you must buy.

An astonishing story of absolute grit, perseverance and bone-chilling sacrifice. Books like these establish the fact that leaders are made, not born.

Highlights and Quotes:

- "We are investing in your education to help you stand on your own two feet," he said. "The rest is up to you. Be your own person." (Alok: JUST the advice we've given to our daughters :)

"Satan has work for idle hands." That never left me. Still, today I struggle not to be doing something useful all the time.

- I had landed in the US with $500. I was at Yale. I searched high and low in that Wawa for curds, but I couldn't find them. I didn't know that curds in India are called yogurt in the US.

- I developed my own research routines. For a company that made citrus processing machines, I crawled through juice plants in Brazil and Florida and learned the intricacies of squeezing oranges with different commercial machines. I hung out in a bar in Green Bay, Wisconsin, nursing a lemonade, to listen to competitors' factory workers talk about their troubles on their tissue lines, and then drew lessons for my clients. (Alok - Meaningful insights take tons of hard work to gather!)

- In the single most valuable corporate benefit I received in my early career, the head of BCG's Chicago office, Carl Stern, called to tell me to take up to six months off—with pay—to help care for my father. (Alok - Amazing examples of EMPATHY from employers)

-Nooyi is a small village near Mangalore, and my in-laws loved that I carried the name in my pursuits in the US and put their tiny town on the map.

- I would sit up reading mail and reviewing documents until 1 or 2 a.m. I was almost never around for dinner. I didn't exercise. I barely slept. I left home for the airport at 4:30 a.m. on Mondays and lived in a Marriott hotel room until Thursday night. (Alok - lots of examples of EXTREME sacrifices :)

- "Listen to me," my mother replied. "You may be the president or whatever of PepsiCo, but when you come home, you are a wife and a mother and a daughter. Nobody can take your place. "So you leave that crown in the garage."

- Getting into the nitty-gritty of EVERYTHING - the fantastic story of the 1.5 Billion IT project she took apart herself.

- When I was a little girl, my mother asked me to make speeches pretending I was India's prime minister. She also worried about finding me a husband

- The most memorable comment came from a portfolio manager in Boston. "Who do you think you are?" he asked me. "Mother Teresa?" (when Indra presented the strategy of Pepsi to shift the plan to healthier foods that may have sacrificed earnings)

[Prem Saran]

I am writing this as a cultural anthropologist and Indologist, as well as alumnus of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) and retired member of the Indian Administrative Service.

First, I was struck right away by how Nooyi predictably extols her own stolid upbringing as a Tamil Brahmin, which inculcated the values of hard work and ambition that later enabled her to live her particular version of the American Dream. However that bourgeois iteration piqued me, as I grew up among Euro-American kids in Bombay and thus the USA was never an El Dorado for me. So even though I spent six intellectually enjoyable years at the Universities of Pennsylvania and California pursuing graduate research in Indology and Socio-cultural Anthropology, after every two years I needed to wake up from the pointless workaholicism of that vaunted Dream and I would fly back to culturally salubrious South Asia. For my favourite cities are not Philadelphia or Santa Barbara, but Kathmandu with its splendid Indic architecture [where I did my doctoral fieldwork: cf. the second paperback edition of my Routledge book, "Yoga, Bhoga and Ardhanariswara"], and Kolkata the City of Joy and of intellectual "adda" (or coffee-talk) where my IIM is located.

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.

At any rate, Nooy's family cathechization clearly did not include the basic Buddhist/Indic moral axiom of "right livelihood": thou shalt not market junk food in developing countries, especially your country of origin!

Dr. Prem Saran

[Veronika Cifrová Ostrihoňová · Rating 4 out of 5]

Zaujímavý memoár zeny, imigrantky, mamy, manželky, dcéry a šéfky jednej z najväčších spoločností sveta. O tom, že ak chce žena pracovať naplno a na najvyšších priečkach, potrebuje okolo seba “dedinu” na starostlivosť o rodinu. Aj o vzdelani, farbe pleti, Amerike a Indii. Jediné, čo mi chýbalo, bola absencia vlastných “zlyhaní”- či pracovných alebo sukromnych. Inak, odporúčam!

[Rithika · Rating 5 out of 5]

A true inspiration in every sense of the word, this book is an honest story of how she became who she is today. Every story extremely relatable, every bias openly spoken about, every achievement humbly celebrated and every fall proudly accepted, Indra Nooyi surely makes us want to reach those heights that we might fear right now.

[Amit · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read it . Is a good story. At times inspiring but also Indra played it safe at times while writing it. Also missing were anecdotes of her view of her contemporaries and leaders she interacted with. Captures the essence of her journey falls short on learnings from failures .

[Niyousha · Rating 5 out of 5]

I chose Indra Nooyi's recent book, My Life in Full: Work, Family, and Our Future, to read this January. She is one of a few immigrant women of color who ran a Fortune 50 company. I enjoyed her book very much as she wrote about her struggles with Kids, parents, married life, and her demanding career. Her memoir is quite honest and down to earth as she spoke frankly about her privileges and limitations.
After finishing the book, I listened to Guy Raz's interview with her, which provides additional insight into Indra's personality and how she sees this world.
Here are a few quotes from the book that resonated with me:
1. We never shared fears or hopes and dreams with our elders. They just were not the kind to have those conversations. Any effort might be cut off with the words Pray harder. God will help you find a way.
2. I’d never had a close woman colleague with a job like mine and had never seen a woman in a workplace who was senior to me.
3. I think women are held to a different standard from men when it comes to celebrating their professional accomplishments. No matter what we do, we are never quite enough. Getting a promotion or a prize outside the home sometimes seems to mean that either that prize was easy to get or that we are letting our domestic duties slide.
4. The distance between number one and number two is a constant. He meant that when a leader overperforms, the team comes along with him or her; when the leader underperforms, the same thing happens.
5. So on days that I was mad that people, both inside and outside the company, didn’t quite get what I was trying to do, I’d go into the little bathroom attached to my office, look at myself in the mirror, and just let it all out. And when the moment had passed, I’d wipe my tears, reapply a little makeup, square my shoulders, and walk back out into the fray, ready, again, to be “it.”
6. quite often when I made suggestions, someone would jump in and say, “Oh no, Indra. That’s too theoretical.” A few minutes later, a man would suggest the exact same thing, using the same words, and be congratulated for his terrific, insightful idea.
7. So, while I devoted every drop of my talent and time to it all, my success was actually a bit like winning the lottery.
8. I hope that any girl, any person of color, any immigrant, any American who looks at Jon’s creation will not only see a portrait. I hope they will see that anything is possible. And I hope they will find their own way of bringing their spirit and talents to bear on the work of lifting up this country and our world.

[Maneesha Reddy · Rating 5 out of 5]

My life in full : by Indira Nooyi. What a read !

I enjoyed each and every part of the book. It’s a true inspiration to the young women out there who are paving their path to career. It gives so many scenarios of how she overcame the hurdles of gender and color through her talent.
Talent is pure power !

I will never be able to forget this quote from the book:

“Listen to me,” my mother replied. “You may be the president or whatever of PepsiCo, but when you come home, you are a wife and a mother and a daughter. Nobody can take your place. “So you leave that crown in the garage.”

[Sakshi Gupta · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wonder if as an accomplished person it’s possible to write a memoir without making it a list of your achievements. I loved the start of this book - there were raw moments I could relate too and really respect, but after that it just.. didn’t have enough. She is an incredible person, and I would look up to her and everything she’s achieved, but not so much to this book itself.

EDIT: wait, no, That Will Never Work is such a book. It’s anecdotal, I know a bit about how Mark Randolph thought through every stage of Netflix, even a year after reading the book. That’s the difference.

3 stars.

[Ranjani Srinivasan · Rating 4 out of 5]

[Audiobook]
3.5 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?

Overall, she describes her story pretty well, personal and at-work, and it's not hard to see why she reached the heights she did. One thing that stood out to me through the whole book (and sometimes vexed me) was the relentless positive spin on every aspect of her journey; is it really how she feels about these happenings? Maybe the defiance to acknowledge the "badness" takes the power away from the incident(s). However, I like how she weaved in the need for caregiver support throughout a person's life with her own personal success story, and also made the economic arguments for it. She harped on it but it is too little in the face of the ridiculousness that American discourse on childcare and maternity leave is. I also gained some appreciation for the wide array of initiatives she started/took up at PepsiCo; she's definitely a great example of someone who 'changes the system from within'.

My favorite part of the book (probably many other Indian women's too) would be her description of her childhood in Madras. Yes, it was a slice of life in a rare and privileged class of families (as she so aptly describes) but it's the side of India that doesn't get enough attention in the west. That many little Indian girls and young Indian women were/are encouraged by their parents and grandparents to do well in school and sports and conquer the world with their Oxford dictionaries, hesitantly (albeit proudly) sent to college and graduate studies in far-off lands. I shed a tear as I thought about my own thatha filling his notebooks with idioms and algebra so I would be ahead of the curve, and shatter that ceiling. This is a feeling that many of us share with Indra, and somehow to us, the most outlandish dreams now seem more attainable.

[Dina Mudara · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not inspiring at all and somewhat repetitive. It just seems like she was in the right place and met the right people at the right time. No depth and no insight.

[Fantastiškų KŽL · Rating 3 out of 5]

Man per daug PR'inė pasirodė knyga. Už visus drąsius žingsnius ir ryžtą valio, bet iš kitos pusės toks pirmūnės gyvenimas arba visa kita, kas buvo įdomu (o manau, buvo) - tiesiog nutylėta.

https://knyguziurkes.com/2022/01/18/m...

[Farrah · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars. I can’t remember who recommended this book to me or why it was on my list but I kept deferring my library hold every time it came up because it sounded boring. Then I finally started it and was almost immediately captivated! First, she had a great ghost writer. Second, I just found her life and career FASCINATING. It lost a little bit of steam in the last 10% or so, but overall, highly recommend this one!

[Hetal Sonpal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mixed views.. while she does to justice to it being a memoir, it focuses on what she did.. not so much on the essence of the role. Ghost written.

[Nahid Shaikh · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you’re searching for insights into what makes great leaders and companies, this is the book for you.

I’ve always heard how important it is to innovate and think ahead of one’s time and have thought it to be something only extraordinary people are capable of. Through this book, I feel it was empowering to realise that foresight is not something out of my reach - it can be achieved by unfaltering dedication to a cause, experience and good education. Innovation and bringing about new changes only requires courage and strong belief in your ideas.

I am now more appreciative of efforts put in to ensure employee welfare such as paid leaves, encouraging diversity and inclusion, pay disparity and level-playing fields for women. My knowledge about these issues only touched the surface but through this book, I could wade into these topics.

While introducing her concept of Performance with Purpose, through which she envisioned a PepsiCo which focuses on making nutritious snacks along with current product portfolio of chips and carbonated drinks, she says:

“I believe in companies. I think the world is better off with large, private organisations, not only because they add stability but also because they innovate.
The notion that a company is just a profit centre is very recent. Throughout history, companies have prided themselves on their roots in society and the legacy they leave to it. No business can ever truly succeed in a society that fails. What’s good for commerce and what’s good for society have to go together.”

These contemplations give me a different perspective of looking at big businesses.

“Apple is an experience. Users didn’t only see the product, they were romanced by it.”

This insight by Steve Jobs while talking about the use of design in Apple products and stores, led her to introduce the idea of designing in PepsiCo product packaging and marketing. It left an impact on me. (Also, the idea of being romanced by an Apple product is very tempting :p)

These were few of my many takeaways from this book.

[Caleb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wells Fargo is an example of a company where Nooyi’s rise to the top would have been impossible given it’s racist CEO, Charlie Scharf and the board of directors. While it’s nice to celebrate a minority female leading a Fortune 50 company, minorities must stop being the consumers of poor food choices. We eat ourselves to an early grave and spend billions on medication due to poor diets. Many of the poor dietary habits start at childhood. We should demand healthier choices for children and ban unhealthy snack options in schools. If these conglomerates get our hard earned money, we should have representation within the C-suite and on the board of directors.

[Gabriella Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a nerd. But sweetu.

[Sonali Ekka · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

So, as a story, this book seems a bit awkward. Nooyi’s early years are mentioned hurriedly as a smooth ride through great education & career. Even her earlier jobs are described in a matter of fact manner. She spends more pages on her PepsiCo days but even those read like b-school case studies for business strategy.

When a successful person writes an auto-b, are they obliged to present their life experiences as advice or lessons for others? Maybe, I don’t know. The book seems to be average on that front as well. The later chapters about her post retirement phase are filled with her thoughts & recos on issues like support for women at work, elderly care, saving the environment etc. Which again is nothing new.

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.
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.

My reco: worth a try.

[Eliesa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okay, how can a girl get Indra Nooyi as her mentor and personal life coach? Asking for a friend…

It’s rare for me to leave a 5 star review but I always grant it to books I cannot stop thinking about and this was one! I loved the journey through Indra’s life and impressive resume. Many books regarding women in business I have read lately have focused on inequities and how far we have to go, but I love that this book highlighted so many examples of what allyship and egalitarianism can look like in the workplace. This book had me thinking of everything from intergenerational living and relationship to supply chain to purposeful product and responsible development. Big fan.

[Nandita Damaraju · Rating 5 out of 5]

I gave it a five star rating simply because I couldn’t put it down. The book starts off with Indra’s early years, which were very relatable to me as a South Indian woman growing up in a semi-traditional, tightly-knit, multi generational, South Indian household where I was constantly pushed to work hard and excel. But as the book progressed, I was purely just in awe of Indra. She just trailblazed her way to a immensely successful career as a brown female in the US. I also admired the clarity and conviction with which she made decisions in her life be it joining an MBA program at the age of 18 in Calcutta or spearheading Pepsi, as the CEO into a more sustainable and healthier direction. I loved the public health focused initiatives that she started as a part of Pepsi. Prior to reading this book, I thought of Pepsi as an “evil corporation” that is responsible for obesity and many environmental problems. But I changed my opinion a bit after reading about Indra pushing for performance with purpose (PwP) to drive sustainable capitalism and build healthier communities. One of my biggest takeaways from the book was that you truly have to be the change you want to see in the world. By boycotting said evil corporations and ignoring them will not remove their foothold on our environment and well being. I really admired her for having the vision to transform the ethos of the company from within despite the pushback she received. I also think she did a fantastic job of addressing major concerns such as Pepsi’s junk offerings, worrying about Pepsi’s stock while making Pepsis offerings ohealthier, why she wasn’t succeeded by a female CEO etc. I also admired that she had her priorities set. She realized that she couldn’t do much as an early executive, so she braved through misogyny and sexism without making too much noise. But she made a big push for significant culture changes once she rose higher up in the ranks and had more clout. I was also moved by how much she cared for “care”. She very passionately talks about ways to bring more women into the workforce by developing strong care systems for both the young and the elderly. I’d be very interested to see how she will push the needle on the care front. Finally, I think I feel represented after reading this book. I can’t think of a single other autobiography that I’ve read written by a South Indian woman. I’d highly recommend this book to everyone.

[Dilek Sayedahmed, PhD · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

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.

Nooyi's must-read key points:
- "Gender, diversity, and work-life matters belong in the environmental, social, and corporate governance goals that are increasingly used as screening standards for investors. The best run, most successful companies in the coming decades will be those that demonstrate the most foresight on people matters, and their stock performance will reflect this."
- "Many men-- CEOs and others-- perpetually linger on the sidelines of the work-family debate, in part because they are reluctant to break routines that are, ultimately, easy, comfortable, and lucrative for them. I have noticed that younger men--including husbands and dads who are just as stressed as their partners-- also refrain from this discussion, perhaps fearful of hurting their own chances to move ahead."
- "I believe that board of directors could play a more significant role in stamping out bias and creating an inclusive environment. First, boards must select CEOs based on their ability and desire to hire and get the best out of a diverse workforce. Then those directors should hold their CEOs accountable and, once a year, dedicate time to comprehensive discussion on issues related to bias, inclusion, and sexual harassment in the company. Directors should also review organizational health surveys to ensure the right questions are being asked and to make sure all results are analyzed by gender and ethnicity."

[Hariprasad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listened to the audiobook narrated by author Indra herself and the narration was great.

Overall the book was a mixed bag for me - inspiring and entertaining but felt lacking in some regards.

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.

I would have liked to hear deep-dives/excerpts about more of the themes of day-to-fay challenges she faced at Bcg/PepsiCo as she grew in her career (she does go into some such as discrimination, working with leaders of unique personalities, long hours) similar to her prior gig in the textile industry in India - I was left feeling there was a lot of "story" I was missing here. The last chapters gave a list of issues the author believes are the top ones to address inequality in the workplace / support jobs and career growth - I would have liked to hear more about the analysis the author used to prioritize these efforts over others. I felt a lot of phrasings of the form "I believe X is one of the most important causes and should be addressed in Y way" rampant in the last few chapters were hard to follow since they took away discussion in the problem statement/prioritization/initial high-level analysis space and went more into the solution space.

Edit: After posting the review, i thought of the last criticism i had a bit more - specifically the ways to "address inequality in the workplace / support jobs and career growth". Now i feel that it is not a matter of "prioritization" but rather that of "evolution" since EACH of the issues the author presented needs to be solved at some level. (eg. not great to "prioritize" providing maternity leave for newborn infants over supporting an affordable daycare solution as it affects different needs both of which are important - better to provide both at some level which can be "evolved" to better solutions over time).

[Hema Stefan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really admire success of Indra Nooyi, being an immigrant and woman, reaching to such highs in her career earns special applauds.

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.

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.

The best part of the book is the 1st part, her childhood and early days in America. Here also she fails to recognise that she indeed belongs to a privileged family. As not many Indians at that time had a grandfather who is so highly educated(law professional) , but in my opinion she underplayed it.

Bottom line is, in this book you won't find any major revelation, as very less REAL life is disclosed. As a reader you hardly have any professional take away from such a successful person, apart from  "working passionately/hard can be key to success" .

Lastly if you are looking forward to learn something Profound about LIFE, because you are reading a biography, you can happily skip the book.

[Siri · Rating 3 out of 5]

She is the woman who broke the glass ceiling, an immigrant who became CEO of a Fortune 50 company, and an inspiration to so many around the world, including me. So, my boyfriend gifted me this book. In the book, Indra Nooyi talks about her life, starting from her early childhood, telling what moulded and prepared her to reach the heights in her career.

Whenever we talk about a successful woman, we talk about all the hurdles she jumped over to reach there. While Indra Nooyi also mentions about the unfortunate situations she faced being a woman, the book is mostly about her career growth. She mostly talked about how she had been fortunate enough to always have help and support from people around in both professional and personal life. She was humble, and she appreciated people’s contributions which I believe made her a great leader.

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.

I admire her and still want to learn a lot more about her life.

[Mandy Hoskinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not enough vulnerability.

I am a huge Nooyi fan. How could you not love her accomplishments, her demeanor, and her approaches? I was thrilled when my husband gave me this book for Christmas. He knew I loved business and female founders, so this was a good pick.

Getting started, Nooyi speaks about her childhood in India. She tells a classic story of family members she grew up loving,and navigating youth. I was sure that the rest of the book would dig in deeper, but it never did. Nooyi proceeds to give a very rudimentary account of her life, action by action. Perhaps once per chapter, she shares that she was nervous about something, or that she didn’t act in a way that she loved, but that is where the depth ends.

Perhaps I’m spoiled, but if I’m reading an autobiography, I want to hear the dirty stuff. I want to hear about shame and imperfection, mistakes and regret. While Nooyi’s story is incredibly fascinating, I felt like I was reading a list of bullet points. None of her stories leaped off the page with emotion, and none of her solutions did, either. There is no way that Nooyi felt one emotion per 5 years of her life, and there is no way that she is as perfect as this book would make her seem. I don’t find perfection relatable, and I certainly don’t find it actionable.

I hope that one day, the Nooyi story gets juicier. I know that if we got to hear from the real her, we’d love her.

[Pranav Ramarao · Rating 5 out of 5]

I listened to this on Audible and loved that it was narrated by Indra herself. Great story and lot of references to growing up in Chennai, like the use of "thatha" throughout which were relatable. Her work ethic and growth through ladders as a woman, immigrant & mother in big corporate America is very inspiring. She acknowledges that aside from her work her support system was very strong - her mother, husband, neighbors and all her mentors without which the journey would have been very tough. She makes a solid case on why there should be more investments in better care giving for both parents & children during one's career. There is also a recurring theme that all her bosses really liked her and trusted her work. One thing that stood out for me was that she gave very objective feedback and just always showed up - be it deligently reviewing every document that came her way & driving legal battles post acquisition of Quaker oats. She did it all. It was also refreshing for me to hear a story outside of tech how life is in a company like Pepsico.