The best CEOs, I've learned in my 27 years at Fortune, come to the job with a deep-seated passion and a very personal view of what they want to accomplish.
PepsiCo's Indra Nooyi may be struggling lately. Yes, investors are impatient with her healthy-products strategy, the stock is down, and the Pepsi boss dropped to No. 2 behind Kraft Foods (KFT) CEO Irene Rosenfeld on the 2011 Most Powerful Women list.
But no one can deny that Nooyi, who became PepsiCo (PEP)'s chief in 2006, has injected the company with a clear long-term vision and a reputation for being a good citizen of the world.
Nooyi's vision, which she labels "Performance with Purpose," harks back to her days as a girl, growing up in southern India, as she explained in an interview with Fortune executive editor Stephanie Mehta at our Most Powerful Women Summit. In a city with little water, young Indra had to watch her mother go to collect three containers of water everyday. The family used that meager amount for drinking, cooking, and washing, while nearby corporations had more than enough water for their own needs.
You can see Nooyi tonight at 9 p.m. in a CNBC documentary, Pepsi's Challenge. From the MPW Summit, here's Nooyi on what led her, beyond her childhood experience, to "Performance with Purpose":
The just released Fortune Most Powerful Women list includes more Fortune 500 CEOs than ever. And next week's Most Powerful Women Summit includes plenty of them--Indra Nooyi of PepsiCo (PEP), Ellen Kullman of DuPont (DD), Pat Woertz of ADM (ADM), Denise Morrison of Campbell Soup (CPB)...plus one guy who manages to secure an invitation to the Summit every year. Warren Buffett. Fortune senior editor at large Carol Loomis will interview MORE
Patricia Sellers - Sep 30, 2011 2:40 PM ET
The biggest news about the 2011 Fortune Most Powerful Women list is that we have a new No. 1: Kraft Foods (KFT) CEO Irene Rosenfeld bumped PepsiCo's (PEP) Indra Nooyi to the No. 2 spot.
But when I went on CNBC this morning to reveal the new rankings, the Squawk Box anchors seemed most interested in who fell off our top 50 Power list. First and foremost to leave the list: MORE
Patricia Sellers - Sep 29, 2011 12:09 PM ET
Ever since Fortune, in 1998, started ranking the top women in business (yes, we were first), I've been asking the stars of the Most Powerful Women list how they reached the top and how they stay there. One month away from revealing our 2011 MPW rankings, now seems a good time to share some of their best career tips. Here is my Top 10:
1. Don't plan your career. Most of MORE
Patricia Sellers - Aug 30, 2011 10:48 AM ET
This is a great summer for powerful women.
There are the obvious victories, like Christine Lagarde grabbing the reigns of the International Monetary Fund after Dominque Strauss-Kahn's tumultuous fall from grace.
And then there are the successes that you won't read about in the tabloids. Two Fortune 500 companies, Sempra Energy (SRE) and Guardian Life, promoted women to CEO this past month--Debra Reed and Deanna Mulligan, respectively. Campbell Soup (CPB), named Denise MORE
Colleen Leahey, Reporter - Jul 12, 2011 2:30 PM ET
by Patricia Sellers
Delivering a talk on Women and Power in Princeton on Thursday night, I tossed out a term that the crowd really liked: Raise the roof!
As I told the 400 people gathered at the YWCA "Tribute to Women" dinner, the "glass ceiling" concept is out of date--and let's rethink how far corporate women have come.
Not that bias against female managers has gone away--far from it, as I've written right MORE
Patricia Sellers - Mar 7, 2011 7:34 AM ET
by Patricia Sellers
Here we are in 2011, and how odd is it that only a dozen Fortune 500 companies have female CEOs?
This despite plenty of evidence that placing women in key positions pays off for investors.
Maybe it's coincidental -- at least it's worth noting -- that two of the Dow 30 companies that delivered the best stock-market gains in 2010 are run by women.
One is Dupont (DD), whose CEO, Ellen MORE
Patricia Sellers - Jan 4, 2011 11:07 AM ET
by Patricia Sellers
This week, TIME Magazine presents the 25 Most Powerful Women of the Past Century.
Interesting that TIME, Fortune's sister magazine at Time Inc. (TWX), includes just two businesswomen on its list. Both -- Martha Stewart and Oprah Winfrey -- are entrepreneurs. Since her company, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSO), is struggling these days, Martha didn't make this year's Fortune Most Powerful Women list. Oprah, whose power keeps expanding and MORE
Patricia Sellers - Nov 22, 2010 12:12 PM ET
By Patricia Sellers
The 2010 Fortune Most Powerful Women list is out!
You can check out the entire MPWomen package here.
This includes the full ranking of 50 MPWomen in U.S. Business, our D.C. Power List and more.
PepsiCo (PEP) CEO Indra Nooyi is No. 1 on our U.S. list for the fifth year in a row. Kraft Foods' (KFT) Irene Rosenfeld is right behind her, at No. 2.
I went on CNBC's Squawk Box MORE
Patricia Sellers - Sep 29, 2010 12:56 PM ET
"The age of thrift is here. You have to do innovation at both ends--premium innovation and innovation for the value consumer."
-- PepsiCo (PEP) chairman and CEO Indra Nooyi in a recent Q&A with Pattie Sellers. No. 1 on Fortune's 2009 Most Powerful Women in Business list (for the fourth year in a row) Nooyi today delivered another quarter of solid earnings. PepsiCo beat analyst expectations with net income of $1.72 MORE
Jessica Shambora, Writer-Reporter - Oct 8, 2009 5:16 PM ET
For the latest on the most influential women in business, philanthropy, government, and the arts, like us on Facebook. 
In a funny and candid interview, Google VP Marissa Mayer explains how she got to the top. Watch
Xerox CEO Ursula Burns shares how she once accepted a job with Dell but ended up staying with Xerox. Watch
Pattie Sellers has written some of Fortune's most talked-about cover stories, including "Oprah's Next Act," "Can Meg Whitman Save California?" "The $100 Billion Woman" (Melinda Gates), "MySpace Cowboys," Martha Stewart ("I cannot be destroyed"), Ted Turner ("Gone with the Wind") and Oprah Winfrey ("Oprah Inc."). Since its launch in 1998, Pattie has helped oversee Fortune's "Most Powerful Women" cover package.
A specialist at dissecting larger-than-life personalities, she has also profiled former U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, Morgan Stanley chairman John Mack, and countless CEOs.
Pattie co-chairs the annual Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit, the preeminent gathering of women leaders in business, philanthropy, government, academia, and the arts. She started at Fortune in 1984, covering the big brand companies.
In Pattie's blog, Postcards, she provides insight into the lives of super-achievers through commentary, career advice, and Guest Posts by CEOs and other leaders.
.
Fortune Most Powerful Women
Sheryl Sandberg:
Gina Bianchini
