PepsiCo's India-born CEO Indra Nooyi has acknowledged that
managing her family life and work was "not easy" and while she does
not regret pursuing her career, she is filled with "heartaches" for
not spending as much time with her daughters when they were growing up.
In a candid discussion, Nooyi, among the only 4% women, who
are currently CEOs of S&P 500 companies, said she would tell her younger
self to be "careful" of the choices she would make since missing out
on her children growing up will eventually "hurt". "Not
easy," Nooyi said at the Women In the World Summit here when asked how it
was for her balancing her personal life while moving up in her career.
When asked if she has any regrets looking back, Nooyi, one
of the most powerful and influential businesswomen in the world, said that she
does not regret pursuing her career but is filled with heartaches for
"working all the time" and being away from her daughters while they
were growing up.
Indra Nooyi CEO, PepsiCo, said, "Regret is too serious a word. Heartaches many times. It is
not regret. I love what I'm doing. I may have regretted not doing it had I
stayed at home and spent all the time there."
"Regret is a very complex word," she said in a
very frank discussion along with president and CEO of New America Foundation
Anne-Marie Slaughter at the summit presented by renowned journalist and author
Tina Brown.
Nooyi also recalled "painful" stories of how her
daughters felt being away from their mother so much, mentioning that her then
4-5 year-old daughter once wrote to her saying she loves her but "I love
you more if you came home. Please come home Mom." Nooyi said she has
preserved the letter to "remind myself of what I lost."
Calling on governments, companies and societies to finish
the "big unfinished business", she stressed on the need for "the
next revolution" where a supportive ecosystem is created to help families
raise children while ensuring the women are able to focus on their careers at
the same time.
"We have to create these things. They don't just
happen. Everybody cannot be Indian," she said, referring to the support
system that Indian families have where grandparents and other relatives help in
raising kids.
Courtesy: DNA
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