Postcards

Most Powerful Women: Which companies dominate?

PepsiCo (PEP) CEO Indra Nooyi, No. 1 on the just-released Fortune Most Powerful Women list, is that company's only exec who made the cut this year. But five other big companies have two women who are high-powered enough for Fortune's rankings. They are: Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Avon (AVP), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), Bank of America (BAC), and Fidelity Investments.

And what is the only company that has three executives on Fortune's 2009 MORE

PepsiCo CEO Nooyi on "the age of thrift"

by Jessica Shambora

The 2009 Fortune Most Powerful Women in Business list is out today. You can find the 50 women, ranked in order, here.

Topping our charts: Pepsico (PEP) chairman and CEO Indra Nooyi. She's been No. 1 in our rankings every year since 2006, when she ascended to the top job.

Last week, Nooyi sat down with Pattie and talked about leading a $43 billion global corporation in the "age MORE

Genentech president jumps to a new life

Another Fortune Most Powerful Woman -- a longtime member of our annual Power 50 list -- is leaving the corporate world. Susan Desmond-Hellmann, who was Genentech's (DNA) president of product development, is heading to the University of California San Francisco as chancellor.

Desmond-Hellmann's departure from business's upper echelons (She ranked No. 13 on Fortune's 2008 Power 50 list) adds to the trend of top women execs leaving corporations and deciding not MORE

Finding flexibility in your career

Another powerful woman called last week to tell me she's opting out. "I'm going to do what I want to do rather than what I need to do," said Julie Fasone Holder, Dow Chemical's (DOW) SVP and chief marketing, sales and reputation officer

It's the trend lately. If you've been checking into Postcards regularly, you've read about my conversations with high-ranking women choosing the good life vs. the grind. Susan Arnold MORE

Know yourself!

Who are you? It's more important than ever to know the answer to this question.

Think about it - When you're on shaky ground (aren't we all these days?), when your bosses and direct reports question your moves (admit it, they do), and when you're rethinking your life or career (you'd better be, or you're a fool), you need one core competency: Know thyself.

A primer in this regard: a book that I MORE

Pepsi's former boss lands a new gig

by Patricia Sellers

Dawn Hudson spent more than a decade chasing stretch goals at PepsiCo (PEP). She headed sales and marketing at Frito-Lay, the consumer giant's snack unit. She led marketing at Pepsi-Cola North America and ascended to CEO of that $5.5 billion business.

That job turned out to be Hudson's ceiling inside PepsiCo, where chairman and CEO Indra Nooyi has put her own stamp on the company. Hudson (who ranked as MORE

Confidence game: It takes a leader

Are you keeping the faith? Your answer probably depends on whether you have the right leader to look up to.

I've been thinking about leadership a lot lately. For one thing, I read on the front page of today's New York Times that a remarkable portion of America believes in our new president. Sixty-three percent of Americans approve of the way Barack Obama is handling his job, according to a new MORE

CEOs step up to a higher calling

Is the role of the Fortune 500 CEO changing? I think it is. Of course, we've never seen so many corporate chiefs gain fame by testifying in the halls of Congress -- and then get skewered on Saturday Night Live. Any leader's nightmare, indeed. But as the world spins out of control, even the admired CEOs (a rare breed!) are feeling a need to step up and broaden their traditional MORE

Powerful Women: the final photo gallery

I've shared pictures and videos and stories of Warren Buffett in action at the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit--his idea of "heaven," he told the 350 women who gathered in California in early October. But there was much ado beyond Buffett at our 10th Summit, which drew, despite the market mayhem, a lineup of leaders that reflected our theme, "Extraordinary Talent." Here are a few glimpses of the talent on MORE

Guest Post: Geoff Colvin's new take on talent

Everybody's talking about how to find opportunity in the current economic chaos, but here's an angle that I think is being overlooked: Times of crisis present genuinely great opportunities to develop leadership. Now I didn't say to demonstrate leadership; that opportunity is obvious. I'm talking about building leadership capabilities beyond what you or others in your organization possess now. I realize it's difficult to be happy about tough times, but MORE