In her new memoir, My Life in Full: Work, Family, and Our Future, Indra Nooyi, former CEO of PepsiCo, discusses all of the ways duality has played a role in her life.
“I grew up in two cultures [with] the leaders of both countries claiming me to be one of their own,” Nooyi says. “But my duality went beyond that … being a mom and an executive, trying to balance short term and long term in my business dealings, [and] performance and purpose. There was duality all through my life.”
Though plenty of CEOs past and present have written memoirs about their work and personal lives, Nooyi’s book stands out, says Alan Murray, cohost of Fortune‘s Leadership Next podcast.
Murray has interviewed most of the small number of women who have been CEO of a Fortune 500 company. “In my experience,” he says, “there was kind of a reluctance among those pioneers to talk about what it was like being a woman, because you wanted to be seen as a CEO, you didn’t want to be seen as a female CEO, you didn’t want to be put into a pigeonhole.”
He adds that he thinks Nooyi’s memoir is “very bold” and hopes “it will spark a renewed conversation.”
Nooyi joins Murray and cohost Ellen McGirt on Leadership Next, a podcast about the changing rules of business leadership, to discuss her time at PepsiCo, her new memoir, and much more. Listen to the full episode below.
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