My Life in Full: Work, Family and Our Future

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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. Nooyi takes us through the events that shaped her, from her childhood and early education in 1960s India, to the Yale School of Management, to her rise as a corporate consultant and strategist who soon ascended into the most senior executive ranks. The book offers an inside look at PepsiCo, and Nooyi’s thinking as she steered the iconic American company toward healthier products and reinvented its environmental profile, despite resistance at every turn. I spent several weeks in China after I became CEO, and I wanted to understand the country because it represented such a big opportunity. The way we had to operate was in China, for China, with China, and I

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. Second, while you’re early in your career, especially if you’re ascending, create a digital record of your entire life: every speech, every photograph, every piece of tape that’s available on awards you might’ve received. Collect all of that. Whether you write a book or not, collect all of that information because you never know when you’re going to use it. wanted to understand that better. I went with some members of my team and spent multiple weeks there. But I was told that you don’t go to China and spend multiple weeks without taking some time to 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.

My conclusion is that our society can leap ahead on the work–family conundrum by focusing on three interconnected areas: paid leave, flexibility and predictability, and care.” For a period of six months, my team designed a training program for me. Every two weeks, a different speaker would come into my office—could be a professor, could be a China expert. They would come into my office and give me a two- to three-hour seminar session on China, along with a bunch of readings I had to do. Then the next person would come, and the next. They put a whole curriculum together. The final session was Henry Kissinger coming in and wrapping everything together to tell me the integrative picture on China. hope is that by the time you reach that level, your kids are already going to college, so you can have all the time to focus on the job.

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. I didn’t come here because of persecution or because I was fleeing problems in the country of my birth. But once you come into the United States, whatever the reason was that you left your country of birth, you are an immigrant in the country. And you go through all the teething pains of getting to know a new culture, understanding everything about it, and assimilating into it, in whatever shape or form you choose to assimilate. I didn’t have the entry pains that many people have, but once I got in, I had to go through the assimilation process. 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. I never set out to write a memoir. I started off wanting to write a bunch of policy papers on how to grease the skids for women to reach the top of a company. And then, coming out of the pandemic, I wanted to make it easier for our frontline workers to be able to do whatever they do and still have a support structure for them to take care of their families. 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.We still have relatively few women with the experience and fortitude to be considered for the position of CEO of a multibillion-dollar enterprise. This is a real issue because we are not enabling so many talented young women to achieve their full potential—a loss for the overall economy.” 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 :)