SUCCESS JUNKIE Indra Krishnamurthy Nooyi of PepsiCo has a phenomenal career track record! She has smoothly steered PepsiCo over the years through various transformations, and has established herself as one of the reigning monarchs of the business world. Under her headship, PepsiCo has added several brands to its portfolio in both food and beverage sectors. It entails 22 brands, each generating more than $1 billion in estimated annual retail sales. Nooyi created headlines when in 2010 PepsiCo completed a major takeover of the Pepsi Bottling Group and PepsiAmericas. This resulted in the formati
After a fruitful period of clinical practice which involved lots of travel and exposure to various lifestyles in the urban, rural and tribal parts of India, she realised that there was more need for preventive medicine than curative medicine. Dr Renuka also practiced as a frontier doctor in the paramilitary force and gave medical treatment to soldiers and war-affected women and children. Learning from Diverse Life Experiences Being the daughter of an Air force veteran gave Dr Renuka David chances to attend several schools as her father had to shift to different places across the country. She c
Her love for her family had kept her grounded and focused. But do you know that now Mrs Ambani, Nita Ambani had quite a modest beginning and hailed from a middle-class family in surburban Mumbai. THE GENESIS Nita Ambani has an undergraduate degree in Commerce from Narsee Monjee (NM) College of Commerce and Economics and had taken up a job as a school teacher when she crossed paths with Ambani family. And she loved her job. Having trained in Bharatnatyam for several years, Nita often travelled around the country for performance. And during one such, late Mr Dhirubhai Ambani noticed her and want
Her journey is an inspirational saga that reminds the patriarchal world of the potential a woman entrepreneur has in her actions. Today, this 80-year-old billionaire has proved what a woman can do when she breaks the monotonous cycle of the stereotypical roles assigned to her by the society. Reaching ahead with a determined mind, she now focuses on creating more Indu Jains for establishing equilibrium in the society. Ms. Jain’s enigmatic strength and astonishing achievements have certainly made an impact on the way people see women’s status in society. This epitome of women power gracious
SUPREME INNOVATOR Blame it on her lineage that she has the inborn instinct to introduce innovations, and assimilate her own style to run a business. Nisaba Godrej, a Wharton, and Harvard Business School alumni, has taken some of the most unconventional paths to bring about change in the company she heads. Younger daughter of Adi Godrej, she is the Executive Director of Godrej Consumer Products Limited (GCPL) and is a board member of GCPL, Godrej Agrovet and Teach for India. Nisaba has taken some tough decisions along the way that includes changing the senior leadership, taking new portfolio de
AUTHORING FAME Reem Al Hashimi shatters the entire preconceived notion about women in the Arab world. She is smart, meticulous and glides through her responsibilities with much ease. She is an Emirati Minister of State; Chairperson, Dubai Cares (a children’s education charity established by Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum in 2007); Chairperson, Emirates Competitiveness Council; and Chairperson, National Bureau of Statistics. As a Managing Director of the Dubai World Expo 2020 Bid Committee, Hashimi was also the public face of the UAE’s successful Expo 2020 bid that helped UAE secure
ON A FIRM GROUND If we go by an old saying “age equals wisdom”, this young woman has proved it wrong. Beating the odds of coming from a non-medical background, Zahabiya Khorakiwala stands tall as the MD of the Wockhardt hospitals across Mumbai. At the time when family legacies were ideally passed on to the male heirs, Habil Khorakiwala bestowed the responsibility of the closely guarded hospital business on his daughter Zahabiya. Graduating from the New York University, aged 27 years, and learning about the pharmaceutical business despite having psychology as her major in graduation, she h
PURELY GENIUS You can learn a thing or two on becoming a roaring success from Lucy Peng! One of the founders of the Chinese e-Commerce business cluster, the Alibaba Group, Peng is ambitious and dogged, and her intelligence makes her one of the remarkable businesswomen of her generation. She knows the magic of thinking big, and has made the Alibaba Group one of the fastest expanding stand-alone e-commerce company. Peng’s stellar performance has been well received by the people across the world. Though Lucy Peng started her career as a teacher, destiny made her choose something else. After ea
WEALTH WITH RESPONSIBILITY After having played an instrumental role in the real estate industry in California, Pollyanna Chu and husband Nicholas returned home to Hong Kong to form Kingston Securities. Not only is Chu responsible in laying the financial rules of investment in the company, but she is also an integral part of stock business to increase the investment chances for customers. The investment-banking segment picked up in 1999 and Kingston Securities’ business began to move to areas such as the newly listed securities and the merger of the listed companies. Progressing from scratch
IN HER FATHER’S SHOES First media and then business, Roshni Nadar Malhotra has been a good player of both the worlds. Though, leaving a full-fledged media job was not easy for Roshni, yet she decided to take her father’s advice to take over the reins of her family business, the HCL Corporation. Being the only child of Shiv Nadar, it was indeed important that she gave her family business the most needed attention. And she did not disappoint. She has brought with herself a global outlook, premeditated vision and a passion for social enterprise. The ropes of business which she learnt from he