Indra Nooyi

It was a tough learning curve, but man, I would never trade that experience for anything in the world.

Incredibly competitive.

It's surprising, you know, for example, let's say that I was working in the tissue business, paper tissue.

I would actually go to factories.

I'd go to manufacturing lines.

I'd go to R&D laboratories, talk to everybody that was willing to give me time because consultants can't just sit there and articulate a point of view or provide direction without really understanding the details.

So my philosophy was zoom in before you zoom out.

So in everything I've done, I always went deep into whatever the business was, the company was, try to understand things from the ground level.

Then I'd zoom out and say, what's missing here?

Why is the strategic direction in need of a tweak or a reset?

And then I'd go back and say, if we did reset it, how would it sit in the front line?

What changes would we have to make?

Then go back out.

So this constant telephoto lens that I had in my head is what stood me in good stead through my entire life.

Zoom in, zoom out, zoom in, zoom out.

You know, some people say CEOs should be careful not to micromanage.

I agree with you.

What I was focused on was micro-understanding.

Because if you don't understand the business down to where the rubber meets the road, you can make decisions at the top which are not implementable.

Or in the implementation, the intent of the strategy gets lost.