My Life in Full: Work, Family, and Our Future

Indra Nooyi is renowned for her accomplishments in business, most notably for serving for 12 years as CEO of PepsiCo, one of the world’s largest corporations. In her memoir My Life in Full, Nooyi provides a detailed account of her life story: growing up in Madras, India in a disciplined and high-achieving family; her early years as a business student and employee in India; and finally, her demanding corporate career in America.

Nooyi’s background and decades of experience as a corporate executive make her a uniquely insightful source of women’s experiences in the upper echelons of corporate professions. When Nooyi was building her career as a consultant, strategist, and executive in the 1980s and 1990s, she had few female colleagues at her level. Except for her assistants, she worked almost exclusively with men. Indeed, when she was promoted to PepsiCo’s top job in 2006, Nooyi was one of only 11 women CEOs of a Fortune 500 corporation. She recalls the intense scrutiny and attention she received from the media as she joined this “tiny club” of female CEOs.

The author’s experiences throughout her career show how bias and discrimination—both intentional and subconscious—negatively affect women’s personal and professional well-being.