Execs: power should be used with responsibility and integrity

Nation's Restaurant News,  May 26, 2008  by Elizabeth Licata

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WASHINGTON -- "Power" can mean different things to different people, and wielding it is both a great privilege and an awesome responsibility, according to participants in the Women's Foodservice Forum's recent executive forum.

A highlight of the executive-track program at the WFF's annual leadership development conference, the executive forum featured two of Fortune magazine's "50 Most Powerful Women in Business": Indra Nooyi, president and chief executive of PepsiCo, and Claire Babrowski, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Toys "R" Us, who formerly was McDonald's senior executive vice president and chief restaurant operations officer.

Kathleen Matthews, executive vice president of global communications for Marriott International and former award-winning Washington, D.C., reporter and news anchor, moderated the intimate discussion as Babrowski and Nooyi shared personal experiences and their own lessons on building power and effectively exerting it in new situations.

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Among points that the panelists agreed upon was the importance of developing a reputation for integrity and reliability. Babrowski exhorted executives in the audience to start building their professional reputations early.

"You can't start branding [yourself] when you hit the C-suite," she said.

"A reputation is something you build over a long time," Nooyi said, adding that building a good reputation requires consistency and authenticity.

"You can't be a different person at home," Nooyi said.

Both women said integrity and consistency are necessary in all business dealings, so people will know exactly what to expect from you and that you can be relied upon to deliver.

They also stressed the importance of being known as a person of integrity who tells the truth and does not mince words. But they warned that good leaders can't wear masks at the office, and must be authentic and willing to rely upon the people in their organizations.

It is important to be willing to share power, Nooyi said, stressing that an executive has to be willing to listen to the people around her.

"I'm not going to try to be macho," Nooyi said. "I'm going to be myself. If I need help, the people around me are going to help."

Nooyi said her experience as a female executive has been that the media seem to want to focus more on her personal life than on her leadership of PepsiCo.

Once a member of an all-girl rock band in India, Nooyi observed that such a fact is what interests most journalists.

"This rock band story never goes away," Nooyi said. "My life is there in Google. How much are we going to talk about it? Let's talk about Pepsi."

Matthews asked the two women about their legacies. Nooyi said she wants PepsiCo to be known as one of the defining corporations of the first part of the 21st century.

Babrowski said she wants the executives around her, whose careers she helped develop, to be her legacy, so that people will say, "That's one of Claire's people."

Earth-friendly initiatives are essential to achieving those goals, the women said, adding it is imperative for corporations to take action and not wait for mandates.

"If we wait for the government, nothing will happen," Nooyi said.

She stressed that "green" programs have a real return on investment when it comes to recruiting new talent, because college students want to work for companies that they feel are socially and environmentally conscious.

Nooyi said that when companies recruit at colleges, young people ask about what those prospective employers are doing for the environment.

"They don't want to interview with you if you don't have a green program," she said.

elicata@nrn.com

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