Indra K. Nooyi: Image source: Sivacracy.netBusinessWeek next week has a few articles on PepsiCo’s Chairwoman and CEO Indra Nooyi’s vision of “performance with purpose”. It focuses on Nooyi’s earnest passion to fundamentally transform the company into a sustaining portfolio strategy:

The slogan may sound like the kind of marketing ploy that’s in vogue these days, especially coming from a company that’s best known for making soda and potato chips. But Nooyi says that by emphasizing baked whole-grain snacks and vitamin-enhanced water, Pepsi can lead the industry’s push toward better nutrition. That, she argues, would benefit not just consumers, but investors, too.

While the charismatic Nooyi seems to have won the hearts and minds of BusinessWeek and the few people who have commented, I wonder if her well intentioned message will ever reach the global mass of consumers her “performance” requires. Steering a goliath of modernity into the 21st century is no easy task and simply providing a better portfolio and digging some wells in India is more of an expectation than a consumer strategy.

We are not advocating Nooyi set the consumer strategy – it’s hardly not the traditional role of a CEO. However, she needs to provide some point-of-view, some framework and some rallying cry to help bring such a global organization together. She needs to spell out how PepsiCo, beyond providing a functionally healthier portfolio, enrich the world.

Now many sustainability experts I speak with say this is a risky idea. It sets PepsiCo and Nooyi up for further criticism and distrust from consumers. Since sustainability is a learning process and programs are filled with risks and rewards equally, it’s better to hold back than make large public pronouncements.

But I am not suggesting unrolling a creative consumer strategy to the tune of fireworks and a marching band here. I am advocating PepsiCo step up to the plate and inspire a new world. I am advocating setting the tone and spirit for what PepsiCo aspires to be in a much more visceral way. I am advocating providing sites for real engagement and education. PepsiCo’s focus areas of obesity and water for example should be significantly more compelling than they are today. Decreasing obesity and improving water are noble goals but hardly a rallying cry for consumers. Who is pro-obesity, pro-water contamination and pro-drought?

Beyond survival, what is PepsiCo’s real agenda? What would a sustainable world with PepsiCo in it look like? Why should consumers believe PepsiCo, care or feel involved with any products within the portfolio?

These are tough questions admittedly, but PepsiCo has a far reaching global footprint and frankly sustainable behavior isn’t universal. What is culturally accepted in China will not necessarily be seen as “ethical” behavior in Germany. Dealing with these questions and providing a real point-of-view helps PepsiCo provides a central dialog within and outside of the organization for better integration. Contradictions can be discussed and addressed. Differences and similarities can be equally celebrated. Strategy can be richer and more dynamic.

Luckily for PepsiCo, Nooyi is already doing this from a personal perspective. She is proud of her cultural heritage and celebrates it. As much as she is comfortable both in a business suit and a sari, her childhood experiences genuinely drive her to change the world with more than profitability:

Although she describes her family as “very middle class,” they still had to rise every morning between three and five—the only hours that the valves to the municipal water supply were turned on—and fill every bucket in the house. Two buckets were set aside for cooking, and two each would go to Nooyi, her older sister, and her younger brother. “You had to think about whether to take a bath,” says Nooyi, matter-of-factly. “You learned to live your life off those two buckets.”

We only hope she takes the license to, over time, transform a culturally conservative and competitive organization like PepsiCo into a change agent in the new economy. We at The Eightfold are not taking her commitment to change the food industry lightly. As we watch what she does for her company and communities, it will be interesting to see how she uses these experiences to build awareness and create profound change amongst consumers at mass. That is the mark of a truly socially purposeful and progressive organization.

BusinessWeek