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Indra Nooyi said in a conversation with Condoleezza Rice that the United States enabled her rise to PepsiCo CEO. She said its meritocratic culture and opportunity for immigrants made that journey possible.
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Newyork,UPDATED: Jul 2, 2026 20:30 IST
Former PepsiCo chairman and chief executive Indra Nooyi has said she "would never have been" the CEO of a global company in any country other than the United States, including India, and credited the US' "meritocratic" system for making her rise possible.
Speaking during a conversation with former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Wednesday, Nooyi said the opportunities available in the US had shaped both her career and the way she speaks to her daughters about the country.
"I say this to my daughters all the time. I say to them, 'You have no idea how lucky you are to be born in the greatest country in the world', and they look at me and say, 'Tell us how it's the greatest'," Nooyi said.
The 70-year-old Indian-origin business executive said she explains to them the differences between life in the US and other parts of the world. "I'll start with technology. All the big technological innovations may have happened in other parts of the world, but they were commercialised here. Technology developed doesn't make any difference. It's when you commercialise it and make a difference in the world is where the rubber hits the road," she said.
Highlighting the opportunities available to immigrants in the US, Nooyi said, "This is where an immigrant could come in with nothing in her pocket and become the CEO of an iconic American red, white, and blue company." She added, "It can't happen in any other country in the world. I would never have been CEO in any other country in the world, including in India. So, I look at them, and I say, 'Look at what I could achieve here -- it's because the system is meritocratic. Mentors don't care whether you're male, female, ethnicity, gender, they don't care, they just want the best brains to rise to the top," she said.
Urging her daughters to value those opportunities, Nooyi said they should do everything possible to preserve "the spirit of this country". An alumnus of the Yale School of Management, Nooyi led PepsiCo for 12 years before stepping down as CEO in 2018. Her remarks focused on the opportunities she said the US offers and the role they played in her journey to the top of one of America's best-known companies.
With PTI Inputs
- Ends
Published By:
India Today Web Desk
Published On:
Jul 2, 2026 20:30 IST
