A Conversation With Indra Nooyi, 2018 Asia Game Changer of the Year

thank you all for being here this afternoon it is it's one of our favorite days of the year for many reasons but it's only the last two that we decided we need to share our happiness and pleasure and privilege really with with an audience here in New York and Thank You Indra Nooyi so much for spending some time this afternoon and this evening at the the gala event downtown with us before we get to the subject and I'm going to share with you exactly what Indra Nui requested that we speak about today but I have to ask you on the subject of spending some time with us what's it like to have a little bit of free time it's been a week all right actually liberating you know when I stepped down I thought it was going to be tough because for 40 years I've done nothing but wake up at 4:00 a.m. and just figure I had to rush to work and work 18 20 hours a day and when October 2nd rolled around I thought I was gonna feel like I was bereft you know something terrible that happened to me and then I woke up on October 3rd and felt light and I realized that there is life beyond working so hard and so I simply didn't wake up at 4:30 I did that I haven't yet I mean that part requires reprogramming but you know I look at this display of our waters and I say wow that's good looks good so you know I still I'm still on PepsiCo CEO at heart but I'm learning to step aside and actually realize that there's life beyond PepsiCo well we could spend all our time today talking about life beyond PepsiCo but when we broach the idea of a conversation about leadership about any number of things that come to mind when we are doing these game-changer events Indra Nooyi said how about a conversation about the Asian family model and we've just been talking about some some thoughts and ideas you plan to share soon on this but and how that model can serve as a useful example in the United States as we strive for a work-life balance here so I wonder first of all why that was the subject that you thought we should stress and focus on and also what exactly is meant in your mind by that Asian model thanks for asking that Tom I over the last few years I've been talking a lot about work-life balance and how difficult it is and whether women in particular can have it all and you know sometimes when I speak my mind and tell the truth I have as many critics as I have supporters and some people will say that by saying that women can't have it all I'm putting the cause of women step back others will say thank god you're talking about it honestly but the fact of the matter is in today's world as high time we had the honest conversation because there was a great article in The Economist about three weeks ago it sort of portrays the life of a working woman when she comes home but the phone stuck to her ear and she walks in the house the children are trying the nanny says I have to leave the nanny leaves and the houses in disarray she's still on a conference call but has to juggle all of the jobs at home now I used the word women I'd say it's parents but you know the load falls disproportionately on women so the big question that I've been asking myself we've been talking about this issue for such a long time on work life balance and how do we get society to have a replacement rate which is you know pretty impressive to keep the country growing at the same time how do we employ all women gainfully in the economy because we need them to work yet how do we make sure that they're not trying to do three jobs and still get ahead and if you really look at the math it's pretty it's pretty difficult to make work and so I started with saying we've often talked about day care and child care but with the aging boomers we've got an aging parent issue and so this population in the middle is the Sandwich Generation because they have to worry about the aging parents and the children and so the more I thought about it I started reflecting a fter I announced my departure on how did I greet all that I did because you have to related back to your own life and I realized that I imported a quintessential Asian model to my life so when I had my first daughter both my husband and I were you know just starting out we had no money and we were working incredibly hard and traveling we didn't want to leave our kids with the daycare worker who's not accredited who we can't supervise because those days there was not enough technology to supervise them so we imported family in rotation prepared a schedule for three years literally an Asian mom three years we asked every aunt uncle parents grandparents in-laws everybody and said come for three months and supervise the nanny and the fourth month you can visit the US on our nickel so for three months it come just sit at home watch TV and have a meal and we take them around shopping over the weekends is all they wanted to do and then the fourth one day left so we did that prepare the schedule and I said thank God we have an Asian family that was willing to step in and help now in return as they get older my mother lives with the kids we wouldn't dream of putting her in any sort of a senior care she's 86 healthy but she contributes the family but we take care of her my mother-in-law's also being taken care of by us and as we get older we get worried about who's gonna take care of us you know as we get older so we make sure our kids understand there is an Asian model where you do not forget your parents okay you do not forget it now I did a little story you know my second daughter was applying for college and she said you know mom I've been at home right next to the house all these years I'm gonna go far away I said okay where'd he go in California Texas where you gonna go for college she said I'm going in New York City NYU that's next door she said yeah but it's far enough but not at home it would why New York she said well you know if something is wrong with you guys you get sick or something I want to be there to take care of well I said ah thank God I brought them up right I say this to you because I think I know Asia is changing - but that asian one that I grew up with here's the model we need to import him we need to have more multi-generational families living together we need to have the older generation helping the young people supervise the daycare facilities we need to build communities where the older people and the young people can live together because all studies show that when older people live with longer people they actually live longer and healthier and little kids can also learn the value of respect and wisdom from older people so I am you know doing a fairly major piece on this topic I'm in the process of writing it but I honestly believe we need solutions to address this whole issue of work-life balance and co-opting the entire family is part of this solution and I think it's time we embraced it so just if we can come back to your personal experience just for one more moment I'm fascinated by one thing you said about these people who were coming in from your family in India so how long did these how many versions of the three-month visits did you have and the death so the rule was you should be with us until our daughter can tell us if the babysitter is treating her badly so until our daughter could tell us clearly what was going on the babysitter we needed family to oversee them so we had this a grid that we'd clamped because we had to we have this interesting system in India for all of those who are Indians here you can collect your vacation right over multiple years and nobody takes vacation in India so some of my uncles and aunts had six nine months of vacation so to ask them to give up two months three months wasn't a big deal they didn't have anything to do you see no expenses we gave them a visit to the US they just sat at home and did nothing they just visited for three months made sure they the daycare worker was doing her job yeah and cooked a great meal for us when we got home and things worked out pretty good and we did the same thing for our second child that's great I mean it's probably not your experience because it sounds like it went swimming with it's probably a great novel or film one could do about this I don't know what novel of film but you know all these visitors have their own challenges but you can't expect to have every part of your life be perfect right you've got to learn to make trade-offs and if it's trade-offs where every weekend they want to go to the same shopping mall and shop that's okay you know say that you love it so so to the broader question then everything you say I mean any of us with elderly relatives I mean we've all been through a version of this either as parents or or children of the elderly it all there's such a common sense wisdom in it what do you think or do you think it can catch on here what do you think prevents it from being in place already I'm not talking now about flying relatives in I'm just saying that if you you know why does it no well think the focus has been too much on the nucleus family and we've basically with mobility and the focus and the nucleus family we've forgotten that the definition of the family is much broader than just a nucleus family and so two things have to happen one we have to broaden our definition of what's family second is the broader family has got to be willing to up and move right because many people put down roots and and I understand that because when my mother first moved in with us she struggled not to be in her house in India and so it took about five years to get used to the fact that this is gonna be the new house just live with it okay but they struggled with leaving their friends and leaving their ecosystem and coming to live with the kids and they don't want to be dependent on the kids at the same time you can't call it a dependency you've got to call it you know the family is reconstituting a different way and don't make them feel like they're a burden make them feel like they're part of your life so co-opt them and that's what we did with all of the extended family and with my mother she's very much part of our life and she has a role to play a gainful role to play and a whole mindset has to change you look Tom I twist I'll turn the question another way if we don't come up with these solutions how are we gonna address this whole issue of child care and you know a work life and I don't know how we're gonna handle this we need solutions this is one of them and as our parents get older as we get older how are we gonna handle ageing care we have a million care worker shortage in the country who's gonna take care of them not robots you know we have to do it so I think this is killing two birds with the stone and is it a matter do you think of the power of persuasion and and influential people like yourself making the case this does not sound like the sort of thing that government really can play much of a role in or I don't think it's a governmental issue I think if more developers start to build real estate communities which have the younger people on the outer rim the aging parents on the inner circle and in the central community center which can also serve as a daycare where the elderly people can take turns are supervising the daycare remember we're a country where our daycare workers are not trained or certified and so you know we are entrusting our most prized possession little babies to child care workers who don't have a certification so having some supervision beyond technology is not a bad thing right so government's can't do it I think communities and families and corporations helping to can move this forward so speaking of corporations and I know a fact here but I don't know the underlying reasons behind the fact at PepsiCo the the rate of or I guess it's its satisfaction among the the women in the workplace was always very high the folks who would rank those kinds of things at fortune 500 or maybe other companies so that's the fact we know what do you think well you must know what the underlying reasons were for that in terms of other policies put in place I don't know if it's related to any of the things you've been talking about no I think has always been a company we just had a soul when you come to work in our company you actually feel wanted you're not just a name and a number you're viewed as an asset and from top to bottom it doesn't matter what your level is you are truly appreciated and welcome we have an incredible rewarding rewarding culture so you know we recognize people a lot we you know from the front line the factory worker we have award ceremonies and so people feel very important in PepsiCo but we have a lot of programs that allow people to have make a living and have a life so in many large facilities we have either on-site or near side take care in our headquarters and purchase we have a daycare on-site daycare facility and it's just adorable to watch from the time somebody gives birth to the time I think the little just over three years you can be in the daycare center and the last day that I was there I went down to read to those kids and just watching those kids you know asking you to read a book again read another book reading other books I read them three books and the fortunately the only three otherwise I'd spent the whole day reading to them and then they were lining up to give you a hug I mean it was just the fact that the mothers and fathers were so happy to be able to come in at 7 a.m. drop the kids off at the daycare centers open till 7 p.m. they can work late pick up their child and leave I think if we don't provide those sorts of support systems for families I don't know how we're gonna do it now if you're a small company this challenge is different large companies we can do it I don't have a solution for small and medium sized companies but for large companies there's a lot we can do so I want to ask you one more thing but I should say entra Nui can be with us still just a little bit after the top of the hour so if their questions be happy to relinquish to any of you but just one quick one which I learned by by putting when we're working on this video which some of you may have seen it came in this story that you tell about speaking of relations with family and women's roles that when you were accepted to the business school at Yale and obviously a great achievement and a great moment and you told your family and well why don't you explain what your mother's reaction was and then I'm curious to know but she didn't want you to go is that when my sister got into business cold in India which is the first time somebody was leaving home my mother said hey you can't leave home unless you're married because girls don't leave the home until you're married so let's get you married and get you out and my sister was only 17 or 18 and my sister said I don't want to get married I want to go to business school they only admit five women in the class of 150 it's a big you know accolade I want to go my mother said okay if you go I'm going to fast until I die okay all right but my grandfather and my father said hey your fees has already been paid we've already sent the advance in don't worry about your mom if anything happens to it we'll take care of you all right 24 hours later mom has broken the fast my father and grandfather are dead my mom's still around thank God but you know I think the men in our family basically said I'm not gonna distinguish between a differentiate between men and women all of you can dream big so nobody's gonna put the brakes on our granddaughters or our daughters so my father was delighted to write the check he took my sister and dropped her off in business school and and once he greased his kids the rest of us piece of cake reminds me actually that one of your predecessors in this brief history of the game-changer Awards Malala yousafzai's she was here with her father and you've probably heard this but she gave all the credit to her you know getting where she has come to the fact that there was a good male role model in her family so are there any questions in the audience there are a few that have come in online yes we have one in the third row here if you can wait sir for the microphone and let us know who you are I'm Roger I'm your agent a freelance writer now that you're enjoying your retirement tesara week I know would you like to join the cabinet duck mr. Trump me and politics don't mix at all because I'm too outspoken I'm not diplomatic I mean I don't even know what diplomacy is so I would cause a third world war don't do it takes care of that any other questions while a microphone finds this woman here I just well actually let's let her ask and then we'll come to this one because it's complicated yeah hello mom such an honor to hear you today my name is Bobby I work for a Indian firm based in New York it's been a delight to see you all the time you know and meeting and run away in person is definitely a great thing I wanted to know as a woman what what are the two three things which you will probably like to tell fellow women to be a super woman like you what are the very important things that are important in terms of you know taking care of the house yet yet being there in the corporate ladder my experience and what I did to move here may not be the same I may not apply to you 100% but I'll give you a couple of three tips remember the story about my mother's saying leave the crown in the garage that is true do not bring it in and I'm now going to say something which some of you are gonna hate me for it if your husband wants to bring it in that's just fine that's his crown but don't take your crown in if you want to stay married if you want to be a daughter if you want to be a wife if you want to be a mom unfortunately that crown stays in the car that's unfortunate rule number one and if nobody so many want to put it on put it on but you know don't do it with the others around because somebody has got to play the role of hey let's get everybody together so that's rule number one second rule is you know many of us and I watch my daughters too you know in today's world of equality we all are fighting for equality you're right we do want equality but at some point somebody in the house has to call the shots on stuff that's not work-related it relates to leaving the crown in the garage but nobody's going to be mom nobody's gonna be mom even when we're looking for a daycare worker we're looking for a temporary mom or a temporary you know your daycare workers a temporary mother so nobody's ever gonna play that role so figure out how to play that role with aplomb because you know we are a species where you give birth to a child it's not a zebra it needs us for many many years before it can be on its own so we have that responsibility and role to play and embrace it don't fight it all the time and the last is have confidence in yourself most of the women I meet one of the things I realized is that because of all the pressures at home because of societal pressures they start to lose confidence in themselves don't the women I meet are simply awesome they have the intellectual capability they have the presence they can communicate you know bring it to the fore and at the end of the day if you don't have time for yourself that's collateral damage the rest of it you know figure out a way to balance it and move on how did you make time for yourself you know when I was working I didn't oh you don't sleep okay but you know what you get used to it there's only 24 hours in a day so you have to somehow make everything happen I should have said at the outset that like our other programs this is being webcast we have a question online from Daniel in Mexico so here is a man asking a question and he's asking from south of the border how will you continue to be a role model for women and girls I mean look I'm still gonna be present I'm gonna be talking in any forum that little bite me I guess this door is always open writing I'm going to be writing a lot about this topic and the goal is to visit as many countries as possible and talk to young people and give them hope that they can do it for the future and keep talking about what can be done by society's families governments corporations to actually help families address these issues of work life so I'll keep doing that I mean I'm not gonna go away just because I've stepped down from being CEO in fact I think the fact that I've stepped down gives me more freedom to talk about a lot of these issues so I'm looking forward to it you know I think we have to in the fourth row right sure I wanted to find out from you but what's the biggest treat for you in this you know your time is totally your own so what you relish doing the most now you know this is only one week this is literally one week since I stepped down so I'm not yet off the clock because I've still got back-to-back meetings for the balance of here I think when January comes along and my calendars freer two things are gonna happen I'm gonna have terrible withdrawal symptoms because I'm gonna get up in the morning and say why I have nothing to do or have three days where I'm totally free because I told my office to schedule meetings on two days back-to-back and give me three days you know absolutely empty so that I can do whatever I want I don't know yet what it is to have three days free because I've never really had it in 40 years so learning that is a big thing they've told me that I need to go to sleep school to learn how to sleep I don't sleep at all I mean I'm awake all the time so I'm looking forward to that I'm looking forward to learning to sleep eight hours or ten hours of six hours okay and then you know I do all kinds of extracurricular things I play tennis I do other things and I'm looking forward to doing all of that much more rigorously as opposed to squeezing it when I have time and requesting the poor tennis goes to show up at 6:15 in the morning when the center only opens at 7:30 you know now I can go at nine o'clock you know it's gonna be a whole new experience for me because I'm going to be see the Sun at a different time so I don't know how it's going to be but I know whatever it is is going to be fun so my maids hate it they're like when are you going back because yesterday I was like this is not clean and how come this room is so dirty and they're like this is noe many going back to work and you neglected by the way in that list to mention Yankee games I've just been learning if anybody here thinks they're in New York Yankee fan you may have met your match I think we're gonna win today or win today yes but we're gonna have the asia game-changer award ceremony and then yes ma'am i think this will have to be the last one still in the fourth row yep thank you so much miss me my name is nikita to sign with the asia foundation you mentioned what you are talking about earlier in terms of having uncles and aunts and families being scheduled and including them in your and your community in your livelihood and you know including them into your day-to-day life what I've noticed a lot is you know being from India being from Bombay my mom and my dad had four or five siblings each and now families are shrinking and many are having one child or maybe just two Macs and so with that we're seeing smaller smaller families and smaller nuclear families so could you speak about that a little bit and and how you envision the future of these young Indian parents that are trying to make it work in the model that you speak to that's a great question because in my family too you know my mother had eight brothers and sisters so we had a large group to call from and my father my husband side also had a big family you know it's interesting you know we talked about the sharing economy we talked about uber and airbnb and all of these sharing economies everything I look at is a sharing economy you can share lawnmowers or whatever equipment I think we have to figure out how to create more of a community time sharing to help families and help each other out where we've spent the last four years retreating more and more into our family unit and actually not interacting that much for the community we're gonna have to interact a lot more within the community I mean look one of the thoughts I have is with 61% of all people living in megacities over the next five or ten years that's the number that people are projecting should we almost say that every thousand families in a mega city there should be a daycare center a daycare center where you know the families can leave their children and that daycare center as opposed to carry the children to the workplace or to a daycare center far away and should we actually provide the daycare workers a space to live about the daycare center so they don't have to travel long ways to come to take care of the kids and then the community has to save you're late coming from work I'll pick up your kid and I'll keep the child with me so we have to break down those walls but you in turn say okay here's a voucher I owe you I will train your kid in math if you can't do it so we're gonna have to break down the traditional barriers we had in communities because if we don't do that I don't know what else is the solution okay there is no robot that's gonna do all your work although you could say it does but that's not what we want if we want human contact we're gonna have to tap into every available capacity of the community and we have to create communities if we don't have already made one with our families and so this is gonna be a new model for us to live with each other but it is the right model and that's why I keep saying at the end of the day the traditional Asian value which may be changing too in these times the traditional Asian values that I'm used to needs to be revived the joint family the coming together of communities has to happen on that note we could talk forever I know you can't talk forever but really really appreciate I know even in your and I put it this way retirement time is precious so please a warm hand for Engineering thank you [Applause]

Channel: Asia Society

Views: 218,944

Rating: 4.8187366 out of 5

Keywords: current affairs, video, asia game changers, indra nooyi, pepsi, tom nagorski, asia game changer of the year, 2018, work-life balance, retirement, gender issues

Id: 63J0hITppjk

Length: 28min 43sec (1723 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 25 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/Ilovemachines]

Very interesting, she talks about the important of desi family connections/closeness.

[u/trollfairy]

Loooooooooove her