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Ethical Optimism

In: Business and Management

Submitted By kellyb
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Ethical Optimism
Week #3 Individual Research Project Kelly Braun
Rasmussen College, St. Cloud Campus

Author Note This research is being submitted on October 23, 2011 for Steve Rudolph’s B233 PRINICPLES OF MANAGEMENT course at Rasmussen College by Kelly Braun.

On October 1, 2006 PepsiCo named Indra K. Nooyi President and Chief Executive Officer. For the past decade, Nooyi has been conducting the company’s global strategy plan and Performance with a Purpose. Prior to becoming CEO, Nooyi served as President and Chief Financial Officer starting in 2001. From 1996 to 1999 she was Senior Vice President of Corporate Strategy and Development. Before joining PepsiCo in 1994 she was Senior Vice President of Strategy and Strategic Marketing for Asea Brown Boveri, a Zurich-based industrials company. She was in charge of the company’s business and involvement in the U.S. Between 1986 and 1990 she worked for Motorola where, again, served as Vice President and Director of Corporate Strategy and Planning. She spent those six years directing international corporate strategy projects at the Boston Consulting Group. Her career started in India where she earned a B.S. from Madras Christian College, an M.B.A. from the Indian Institute of Manage in Calcutta and a Masters of Public and Private management from Yale University(PepsiCo. (n.d.). Bio. In Our leadership [Biography].)
Nooyi has been leading the Performance with a Purpose for many years and it’s focused on delivering sustainable growth by investing in a healthier future for people and our planet (PepsiCo. (n.d.). Bio. In Our leadership (par.2) [Biography].). Nooyi delivered an amazing speech for the Miami University Commencement on May 7, 2011, to the graduating students (Nooyi, I. K. (2011, May 7)). I got chills as I read her speech and put myself in the seat of those graduates. It truly portrayed her ambitious goals for the world around her.
On graduation day it would be an honor to hear Indra K. Nooyi speak on my classmate’s behalf as she did in Miami. Nooyi put optimism out on the table explaining her view on how young lives can achieve so much more than a piece of paper saying “good job you completed your work”. She exclaimed her image of a better world according to an optimist. “Imagine a world where, in the space of one lifetime, global per capita income triples. Where life expectancy increases by one third and child mortality falls by two-thirds. Imagine a world where more people than at any time in human history move out of poverty.
Imagine a world where the average human being earns nearly three times more, eats one-third more calories of food, and lives one-third longer.
Imagine, in short, a world that has more watts, gigabytes, and megahertz than ever before. A world that has more vaccines and vitamins, more bushels per acre, more mouthfuls of clean water and lungful’s of clean air, more ways of communicating farther than you can shout.” (Nooyi, I. K. (2011, May 7).)
It seems hard to image, but Nooyi believes that is the world we are living in today. Everything she explained has come true and there is so much more to come. Every day we wake up using what we always use, but one day a long time ago those things did not exist. For example, I am 23 years old and when I was born the web browser just started rising out into the general populations. Google came along when I was 3, and Facebook when I was 11. This is just one aspect of society today that many couldn’t imagine being without (Nooyi, I. K. (2011, May 7).). Her speech and how she put so much emphasis on how we, as a whole, all have so much to explore in our life here on earth and how important it is to find out what it is you are passionate about.
Nooyi’s message is created by optimism, “if you step out into the world with optimism, the world is ready to repay the compliment.” (Nooyi, I. K. (2011, May 7).). Nooyi wants these young men and women to understand that you can’t just ‘look on the brightside’. Optimism is going to give you the strength to live up to your fullest potential but do not underestimate challenges that may come your way. She goes on explaining, whatever you do, do it well, identify your passions, enjoy what you do, and believe in yourself.
If someone were to tell me that the CEO of PepsiCo was coming to my graduating class to deliver a speech, I probably would not expect it to be anything like what I just explained to you. Advertising and explaining their bottling plant would have been my first guess. But not Nooyi. She is a very passionate women who truly cares about the young men and women in society today. Nooyi makes it her social responsibility to help the world around us grow into an even more efficient community.
I feel this really ties into my research paper on proving how ethical PepsiCo really is and having a devoted CEO is providing efforts in many different areas to help the public and environment to make the world a better place to be. I believe this one example alone provides a great example of how PepsiCo’s involvement in providing an evident person for that job, makes them a wonderful company. After really looking into this speech, I gained a wider view of what my future may hold for me and where I want to be in five, ten or twenty years. It made me really think of my position in the world and what I could do, not only myself but, the important people around me. The options you entitle yourself to are endless.

Reference
PepsiCo. (n.d.). Bio. In Our leadership (par.2) [Biography]. Retrieved from http://pepsico.com/Company/Leadership.html#Nooyi_fb Nooyi, I. K. (2011, May 7). Miami University Commencement Address. Address presented at Miami University.

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