PepsiCo did not have a woman in the senior ranks, nor a foreign-born person who was willing to think differently.
I pick up the details that drive the organization insane. But sweating the details is more important than anything else.
I read every country's perspective on an issue. I also play many games like Bridge, Scrabble and Sudoku online.
What I would not do is flaunt my Indianess by wearing a saree to work everyday, because it distracts from the job. So, I would not do that. When in Rome, do as the Romans do. Social events are different. If I feel comfortable in a saree for a social event, I wear it.
I spent some time at a university for traditional Chinese medicine. There's a resurgence of people eating according to traditional Chinese medicine. So our challenge is, How do you marry traditional Chinese medicine with PepsiCo's products?
The distance between number one and number two is always a constant. If you want to improve the organization, you have to improve yourself and the organization gets pulled up with you. That is a big lesson. I cannot just expect the organization to improve if I don't improve myself and lift the organization, because that distance is a constant.
