Indeed FutureWorks 2024: A Former Fortune 500 CEO on Cherishing Your Workforce So They Can Prosper

Indeed Chief Revenue Officer Maggie Hulce and Indra Nooyi, former Chair and CEO of PepsiCo, tackle how to build a business today that thrives in the world of tomorrow.

Key Takeaways

Encourage your employees to be curious and to embrace the AI journey.
Treat each person as an individual talent and a citizen of the community.
Cultivate your talent in a deliberate, organized and systematic way; allow people to become the best versions of themselves.

Indra Nooyi tells it like it is about AI: “Instead of saying, ‘Oh my God, ChatGPT is coming! Is my job going away?’ you need to look at ChatGPT and say, ‘This is so exciting, it will augment what I’m doing and allow me to do more,’” said the former Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo — and one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential People in the World. “Go along on the journey with these new tools, because your job will go away if you keep wringing your hands.”

For decades, Nooyi has navigated economic uncertainty, adapted to technological changes and embraced the importance of innovative thinking. With a motto of “do well by doing good,” Nooyi sat down at Indeed FutureWorks 2024 with Indeed Chief Revenue Office Maggie Hulce to discuss how leaders can build a business today that thrives in the world of tomorrow.

Indeed’s Chief Revenue Officer, Maggie Hulce, and former Chair and CEO of PepsiCo Indra Nooyi onstage at Indeed FutureWorks 2024

To Be Successful, You Must Look to the Future

Nooyi explained that human resources and hiring teams are distinct subsets of a corporation, and they are affected by the same large-scale trends that CEOs have to think about. Now, they face more forces for change in business than ever before.

“I’ve never seen a time where you’ve got technology, demographics, globalization and environmental issues all impacting society, companies and individuals at the same time. This is a profound time of change. Look, 18 months ago nobody talked about ChatGPT, and now it’s all we talk about. Think about the disruption with AI. This technology will impact so many aspects of society. It’s very important to understand different mega-trends. But one thing is common: The kind of people you hire, train, develop, retain and retire is going to change over this lifetime. In the end, it’s not the talent you need today. It’s the talent you can hire today and develop for tomorrow.”

A Supported Workforce Is a Better Workforce …

Nooyi launched Performance with Purpose at PepsiCo in 2006 — way before the term “ESG” became common in boardrooms and C-suites. This corporate mission not only married financial success with social responsibility but also optimized the output of her workforce.

And it worked: 11 of Nooyi’s former employees later became CEOs at other companies.

“I said, ‘We are going to do business in a different way. We cannot use people as tools of the trade. We have to treat each person as not just an employee but a mother, a father, an uncle, an aunt, a citizen of the community. Let’s treat each person as an individual talent — and cherish them.’ People said, ‘Cherish, that sounds so female.’ I said, ‘Yeah, I am a female CEO, and we are going to cherish our people. Do you have a problem with that? What’s the big deal?’ So, we had: performance, nourish, replenish and cherish. And we focused on that for the 12 years that I was CEO.”

… and an Inclusive Workforce Is Better Too

“I’ll give you some statistics: The country’s population is split about 50/50, male and female. Seventy percent of high school valedictorians are women. Sixty percent of college graduates are women. Women get two-thirds of the top grades in colleges. Women are hungry, women want to work and women want economic freedom. If you don’t focus on these women, you are sub-optimizing the company. If you are a talent-driven company, you have to look at a person not for their color or gender but for what they offer the company. If you don’t, you let the organization’s bias override the pragmatic decision to hire the best talent.”

Want the Best Employees? Focus on Skills — And Embrace New Technologies

Nooyi agrees that skill-based learning is the key to advancement — she herself had to learn about different AI technologies while on Amazon’s board of directors — and, in her opinion, the willingness to upskill has to come from the employee first.

Go along on the journey with these new tools — especially AI. Be your own teacher.
Indra Nooyi, former Chair and CEO of PepsiCo

“In many ways it’s up to the individual, because companies can only do so much. Today, with online courses — even a TikTok equivalent, in small bites — you can get anything you want. When you have that available to you, and it’s so democratized, you don’t need the company. You can learn anytime you want, and learn it at your pace. We need to encourage our employees to have a desire to be curious and to want to learn and explore. Go along on the journey with these new tools — especially AI. Be your own teacher.”

Empower Your Workforce to Prosper

Nooyi described how she developed talent at PepsiCo — and allowed them to become the best versions of themselves.

“My HR team and I, we would take notes on people. Who among them can we push? Who showed innate curiosity? Who is really thinking in a different way? Who told truths to power without power realizing the truth was being told to them? Who are the people who intrigued us? We would then track them, follow them and give them some assignments to test them. Manage your talent in a deliberate, organized and systematic way.”

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