Indra Nooyi

Then step back and decide what the messaging is going to be.

Very often people don't take the time to really understand the root cause of what causes crisis and don't listen to the plan.

And then they try to pass the blame on to somebody else.

As a CEO, the buck stops with you.

Honesty is critically important.

When you have a crisis, be honest with your employees, with the outside world, saying, this is the crisis we are facing.

This is how we're going to address it, and we're going to give you an update on this time frame.

Honesty means, I mean, it changes the whole game.

Because when you try to use big words to hide the crisis, or you're just trying to deflect responsibility, people just don't have time for this, including your own employees, okay?

And so I'll give you a little crisis.

When we had our second activist investor in the stock, it was a crisis for the company because nobody likes to have an activist in the stock.

I did a town hall and I told everybody, I said, look, I'll give you regular updates on the activist.

You'll see it on TV, ignore it.

There's a general counsel, the CFO and I who'll handle the activist.

Your job is to just keep focusing on delivering performance.

That's your only job.

Don't worry about the other distractions.

And you can be sure that three of us have the company's best interests at heart.

And they all knew that.

I always put the company before me.