India-born Indra K Nooyi, president and chief financial officer of PepsiCo, is being groomed to ultimately take over the top post in the food and beverage giant where she is overseeing introduction of healthy foods and aggressively pursuing acquisitions.
The bet is that Nooyi, 47, would be dispatched for some grooming in another part of the empire, "perhaps for eventual takeover at the top," Forbes Global, which did a cover story on her in its latest issue, said.
Nooyi, who had pushed for acquisition of Tropicana and Quaker Oats, confessed that she is obsessed with new acquisitions and other moves for her company. "I wake up in the middle of night and write different versions of PepsiCo on a sheet of paper."
Roger Enrico, who headed the company when Nooyi joined in 1994, was quoted as saying that he expects she may be moved to another area of the company to get experience in running a division or an area of business on her own, something she has not done yet.
He, however, rejected the suggestion that this would amount to "step down".
Before Enrico became CEO, he faced a similar move when he was shifted from PepsiCo Worldwide Beverages, where he was the boss, to head Fritto-Lay US business in 1900. "It looked like a demotion but I went there because Fritto-Lay was broken at that time," he said, adding, "it is in PepsiCo's interest to have Indra doing something other than what she's doing now for her development - and for that of the company's."
The sugary drinks and fattening junk food on which the company has fattened itself has been a good investment for investors.
But now these foods have come under attack from healthy food activists and McDonald is already facing class action on behalf of overweight kids and Forbes said it is scaring the food industry.
However, Nooyi is not apologetic about her company's products and said, "the problem is the coach, not can."
"Nobody asked you to drink Pepsi (or) eat potato chips morning to night," said Nooyi who, according to Forbes, is known for feisty candour as well as strategic brilliance. Yet, the magazine said, Nooyi and CEO Steve S Reinemund are not ignoring the signs either.
The empire "built on fat, salt and sugar" will try to escape flak by offering healthful foods with some of the snacks lower in fat and sodium and higher in good stuff like calcium.
There is a growing demand for such foods but Forbes said, "more important, the diversification will get Pepsi out ahead of health advocates and opportunists lawyers who are eager to blame food vendors for the unwanted fat of the world."
