Indra Nooyi

To me, strategy and implementation have to go hand in hand.

And very often the reason operating executives rise to become CEOs is because the belief is they know how a strategy has to land in the front line.

In my case, I didn't grow up in the operating businesses.

I grew up in strategy, finance, corporate operations, P&L.

So my replacement for having not run a P&L was go and learn each business from the ground up.

So, you know, whether it was Steve Reinemann who gave me an opportunity to learn the right side of the decimal, or whether it was the work I did with the Frito-Lay distribution system, it was always zoom in, learn the business, bottom up.

And have the humility to tell people to teach you the business.

People like it when you tell them, hey, can you teach me this business?

I'd go to the R&D laboratories.

I'd tell them, teach me how the concentrate is made.

Teach me how the Frito-Lay chip is produced, a Lay's chip or a Doritos chip.

I'd walk the manufacturing lines, walk the research labs, talk to people.

I spent an enormous amount of time doing that.

So, you know, when you're sitting in corporate as a CFO, the head of strategy, you're thinking in millions, tens of millions, hundreds of millions of dollars.

That's the left side of the decimal.

But money is not made always in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

It's can you take a penny out of delivery?

for free delay.

And when you have so many routes times a penny, it adds up.

So on a daily basis, you've got to think about a tenth of a penny, half a penny on a package or on a route.