Departing PepsiCo chief Nooyi not interested in joining politics

INDRA Nooyi has ruled out joining politics and said her focus will be on her family.

Being the CEO of a company is "all consuming," she said, adding, "when you are the CEO, especially of such a large company, there's only one priority, and that priority is being CEO.

“I think my family was short-changed a lot. The last 24 years, the PepsiCo family always came first.

"Now is the time to shift my priorities to my family."

Nooyi married Raj Nooyi, president of AmSoft Systems in 1980. They have two daughters.

Nooyi's departure from PepsiCo in two months will further diminish the already small group of female Fortune 500 CEOs, and the even more minuscule ranks of women of colour.

"It concerns me in that we can actually count how many there are, as opposed to saying there are hundreds," Nooyi told Fortune magazine in an interview.

According to the Fortune report, before the announcement of Nooyi's exit, PepsiCo's stock was flat year over year and its beverage sales in North America had dropped for four consecutive quarters as consumers look for alternatives to soda.

Nooyi said the timing of her departure was unrelated to the company’s results.

"I look at our performance over a long period of time," she said. "The company is in great shape."

Talks about Nooyi’s transition started approximately one year ago as Laguarta was named PepsiCo's president last July.

"I've been in the company 24 years, and it's been a labour of love," said Nooyi in the interview. "At some point, you've got to sit back and say, what do I want to do with my life."

She added: "I'm not good at politics. I'm just a good worker bee.”

An area that interests Nooyi is getting more women into top positions of management.

"In many ways, I think after stepping down as CEO I can work with other women to figure out how to get them to c-suite positions and as a mentor and supporter," she said.

There is need to focus on removing barriers to women's progress, Nooyi added.

"I see the struggles women go through, and you cannot expect every woman to be a superwoman.

"It just doesn't work because there's one constraint we all have, and that's that there are only 24 hours in a day."

In the run-up to the US presidential elections, Nooyi expressed concern that Donald Trump's actions on trade could harm US multinationals in foreign markets and decried his rhetoric against immigrants and women.

"Our employees, especially our employees who are non-white or who are LGBT, are asking, 'Are we safe?'" said Nooyi, who had backed Hillary Clinton in the race.

"The first thing we have to do is assure everyone in the US that everyone is safe."