Indra Nooyi's mantras for success
BIPIN MAYEKAR
Indra Nooyi's mantras for success September 12, 2008
· Success isn't money, prestige or power because net worth can never define self-worth. True success is being happy with yourself, is being fulfilled. And that comes from devoting your time, your life, to doing what you love the most.
· At the end of the day if I stand back and have regrets, it is never going to work. You just look forward and get on with life.
· What you know is more important than who you know because that's what gets you 'who you know.'
· Don't think of the difficult journey. Think, instead, of the wonderful destination..
· We are too attached to the known security of the past and too wary of the challenging promises of the future. This often leads to complacency or inertia.
· You've got to say, at every point in your life, if you were to drop dead, would your epitaph be something that you could be proud of? Is your legacy something that would linger long after you?
· If there is (a glass ceiling), remember it is made of glass and it can be easily broken. All you have to do is try.
· The best test is that I wake up every morning dying to come to work.
· My parents and my grandfather taught me that when you do a job, you got to do it better than everybody else. Simple. You cannot let anybody down.
· When you don't have a safety net, when you don't have money to buy clothes for interviews and you are going to a summer job in saris, all of a sudden life gives you a wakeup call and you realise that you have got to work extremely hard to make it happen for you.
· I grew up with a mother who said, 'I'll arrange a marriage for you at 18,' but she also said that we could achieve anything we put our minds to and encouraged us to dream of becoming prime minister or president. She made me learn Indian classical music because that's what good Indian girls did, but she also let me be in a rock band. 'You've got to be a good Indian woman first,' she said, 'but go ahead and dream.'
· As a child in India, my mother would ask a simple but compelling question: 'What would you do to change the world?' Today, my answer would be that I want to lead a company that is a force for good in the world.
· The good news is that a company remains great when there is a strong competitor. If you have no competition, you will atrophy.
· We say someone is good company when we enjoy being with them. A good company creates that kind of enjoyment. In the process, it creates a strong sense of identity. People come together in pursuit of the same goals. A team is formed.
· Being a good business starts with being a good employer.
· Good candidates can pick and choose more between companies who make similar offers to them. The deciding factor is the kind of company that they want to work for. They are comfortable in societies with many cultures, they want to work flexibly. They are both more demanding and more in demand. They want success, but not at any price. They want to do some good in the world.
· Succession planning is critical. Our succession planning process is designed to identify the kinds of experiences our leaders need. Once identified, we put people in assignments that enable them to build those skill sets.
· If we do our work well, then I dream that all those extraordinary Indians residing all over the world will find their next generation back at home, in the amazing, abundant, talented land of India.
· Sometimes I think we (Indians) lack the zeal, the fire to renew ourselves and vigorously compete in the global arena.
· With almost 25 million university graduates, India's scientists, engineers and academicians rank among the best in the world. These are wonderful assets. But the world will never know unless we shout if from rooftops loudly, clearly, frequently, in a captivating way.
· To be successful in foreign countries, you got to walk a mile in the shoes of those people; while in Rome, do as the Romans do. You retain your Indianness, but you also have to adapt to what that country needs. If you remain too isolated, you will never be successful.
· India's greatest advantage is its people, so we have to invest in them.
· The toughest thing about transformation is letting your best friends and people you worked with for years leave and go off on their own.
· To attract the best people, we have got to create an environment where people can actually balance life.
· In every change agenda, there is always going to be a percentage of people -- like 10% or something -- that are not going to agree to the new agenda. They are the casualties of the change. If they have to go, they have to go.
· A good company offers employees a career, not just a job. To describe it as a career shows that we have an enduring interest in someone. They are not here today, gone tomorrow and thanks for what we could take from you.
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