When you include work, home, and children—if you put all three together—that’s a lot to juggle because everybody wants you full time. And if you look at the CEO job as an “N minus two” position, when there are typically about 30 or 40 people, and many of them vying for the top job, all bets are off. It’s a slog. Whether you like it or not, to hold your job at the senior level, you’ve got to work extra hard. In that level, it’s either up or out. To compete with others, and contribute, and be noticed is a tremendous investment of time and energy. That’s why I think the Nooyi is a small village near Mangalore, and my in-laws loved that I carried the name in my pursuits in the US and put their tiny town on the map.

Typically, companies appoint a D&I head and say, “OK, it’s done. I’ve appointed a D&I head. Nobody can question me now, because I can point to the fact that I have a head of D&I.” But what people forget is that diversity is a mathematical number.Gritty, joyous, and visionary, Nooyi tells the story of an everyday person living an extraordinary life, leading beautifully and confidently from the front. A must-read for all.”

That’s why I use the term work juggle. Work–life juggling. Are you constantly trading off priorities? It’s when you’ve constantly got multiple balls in the air and you hope nothing drops. It’s not easy for a stay-at-home mom who’s juggling so many home priorities. It’s not easy for a working woman without a family who’s also juggling other priorities—it could be an aging parent or a relative she’s looking after or a work environment that’s hostile. Everybody’s juggling all the time. Many men-- CEOs and others-- perpetually linger on the sidelines of the work-family debate, in part because they are reluctant to break routines that are, ultimately, easy, comfortable, and lucrative for them. I have noticed that younger men--including husbands and dads who are just as stressed as their partners-- also refrain from this discussion, perhaps fearful of hurting their own chances to move ahead." For the lady who worked day and night, having almost equally ambitious husband, her family life seems to be too much trouble free, except for the housing and schooling issues, rest i assume is kept undercover. Second, while you’re early in your career, especially if you’re ascending, create a digital record of your entire life: every speech, every photograph, every piece of tape that’s available on awards you might’ve received. Collect all of that. Whether you write a book or not, collect all of that information because you never know when you’re going to use it. When you’re a CEO, you’re always thinking about weighty things about the company—either a decision you have to make or data you’re looking at that could impact the quarter or the year. You’re in possession of a lot of data. You have to make sure that, whether it’s at home or anywhere, you don’t leave the data for people to see by accident and then blurt it out. People don’t realize it’s highly confidential, even for family members.

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wanted to understand that better. I went with some members of my team and spent multiple weeks there. But I was told that you don’t go to China and spend multiple weeks without taking some time to I’ve always heard how important it is to innovate and think ahead of one’s time and have thought it to be something only extraordinary people are capable of. Through this book, I feel it was empowering to realise that foresight is not something out of my reach - it can be achieved by unfaltering dedication to a cause, experience and good education. Innovation and bringing about new changes only requires courage and strong belief in your ideas. For a dozen years as one of the world’s most admired CEOs, Indra Nooyi redefined what it means to be an exceptional leader. The first woman of color and immigrant to run a Fortune 50 company — and one of the foremost strategic thinkers of our time — she transformed PepsiCo with a unique vision, a vigorous pursuit of excellence, and a deep sense of purpose. Now, in a rich memoir brimming with grace, grit, and good humor, My Life in Full offers a firsthand view of Nooyi’s legendary career and the sacrifices it so often demanded. As usual, I am unsure how to treat an autobiography considering the author isn’t obliged to preach anything, their only obligation is to tell their story. I spent several weeks in China after I became CEO, and I wanted to understand the country because it represented such a big opportunity. The way we had to operate was in China, for China, with China, and I

I would sit up reading mail and reviewing documents until 1 or 2 a.m. I was almost never around for dinner. I didn't exercise. I barely slept. I left home for the airport at 4:30 a.m. on Mondays and lived in a Marriott hotel room until Thursday night. (Alok - lots of examples of EXTREME sacrifices :) the committee requirements. We have to think about whether boards have to meet for a longer period of time. Do boards need to have more committees? Do they need to increase in size? What can they drop? In the single most valuable corporate benefit I received in my early career, the head of BCG's Chicago office, Carl Stern, called to tell me to take up to six months off—with pay—to help care for my father. (Alok - Amazing examples of EMPATHY from employers)Now coming to the book, for an autobiography it has too much of filtered content. I can totally understand if a biography, being a serious read, is not written in engaging way, which is true in this case. But from content perspective, one expects to understand highs and lows of the life of a given person, real challenges, obstacles on personal and professional front, along with a strategies to overcome the same. This book doesn't reveal anything of that sort. The most dramatic problem Nooyi had, was her bad dressing sense. A bit of problems here and there, because she was a woman and immigrant. Rest is all about, how hard she worked and how does it paid her. About Pepsi days, which is 1/3 rd of the book, it's just too much technical details and series of events. I really admire success of Indra Nooyi, being an immigrant and woman, reaching to such highs in her career earns special applauds. Getting into the nitty-gritty of EVERYTHING - the fantastic story of the 1.5 Billion IT project she took apart herself.

Satan has work for idle hands." That never left me. Still, today I struggle not to be doing something useful all the time. This is a very difficult discussion that needs to be had because as the world has gotten more complex, as companies have gotten bigger, boards have remained small and are still meeting on the same agenda. To solve the work-family conundrum, Nooyi's points on interconnected areas of PAID LEAVE, FLEXIBILITY & PREDICTABILITY, and CARE are crucial. Repeat after me: Paid maternity and paternity leave must be mandated by ALL governments, but especially the US government, ASAP. Though I enjoyed knowing about her journey, the book is not very engaging. She did not talk about any sensitive issues; there were no opinions - played very safe. It felt like the book is her way of showing gratitude to the people and organizations she worked with. I wish the focus of the book was more on her thoughts and feelings around her life experiences, her wins and, most importantly, her failures; which would have made it more insightful, and which I believe people are looking for from the experience of such great leaders.

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The writing is a bit dry, very factual- a lot of space dedicated to PepsiCo's efforts to be a 'sustainably capitalist' company. I felt I could have read these else where as well if I was interested enough. What was probably missing were more insights into any struggles and her feelings navigating through difficult situations. Wherever included, even these are matter of fact! But maybe, that's the person she is and that's what helped her have such an immensely successful career! I would probably give this book a 3.5 if Goodreads allowed it. Writing this book has been a new experience for me—a journey, a labor of love, a different kind of hard work. I didn’t intend to write my own story in such detail when I started out. I thought that I would write a few articles filled with facts and figures on how we must support women, young family builders, and our collective well-being, and The best part of the book is the 1st part, her childhood and early days in America. Here also she fails to recognise that she indeed belongs to a privileged family. As not many Indians at that time had a grandfather who is so highly educated(law professional) , but in my opinion she underplayed it. Hence I was excited to read My Life in Full to deepen my understanding of this incredible role model. Having now finished the book, I’m quite disappointed. For starters, there wasn’t anything “full “or wholesome about how the book is written. It’s quite bland in its writing, and reads like a corporate memo that has been vetted for political correctness by several committees. There was no heart, and no grand revelations. It also seemed like Indra Nooyi didn’t do anything wrong in her career, and went from one success after another.