Name: Why I Make a Pie Chart of My Waking Hours
Uploaded: 2024-09-19
Duration: 20 min 53 s
Description: Ram Krishnan, CEO of PepsiCo North America, has been with the company for over 18 years, starting his journey at the Detroit office and moving through leadership roles across Dallas, Shanghai, and New York. In a conversation with Fortune, Krishnan shares insights on leadership, career longevity, and what it takes to elevate your professional growth to the next level.

Ram Krishnan, CEO of PepsiCo North America, has been with the company for over 18 years, starting his journey at the Detroit office and moving through leadership roles across Dallas, Shanghai, and New York. In a conversation with Fortune, Krishnan shares insights on leadership, career longevity, and what it takes to elevate your professional growth to the next level.

Why I Make a Pie Chart of My Waking Hours

Leadership

Ram Krishnan, CEO of PepsiCo North America, shares his path to success, leadership advice, and why CEOs need mentors.

Everyone worries about getting the next job or the next promotion. You should worry about how to do the next job before you get the job. That was the best piece of career advice I ever got when you get the next job, people don't realize the clock starts right then and there, right, you at that point, you own the past, the present and the future. This is a series where we're looking at exploring the strategies and the mindsets of elite athletes and executive professionals to try to draw parallels between them and, and see what we can learn from, from each discipline. You know, we want to drive people to excellence both on the field in the boardroom or whatever, whatever, whatever your um specialism is. You know, you've had a fantastic career uh across, um you know, General Motors and Cadillac. And I think you've done plus over 18 years with Pepsico, you've been a leader in many different divisions. Um You've traveled from Shanghai to New York now. I think you, you started in Detroit, um went to Dallas, that's to an outsider, a very successful career. Um And a very exciting career. What would you say is your proudest achievement throughout that or in life? Yeah. No, it's a great question. If I were to reflect back, you know, I have after many years of going through this career, I came up with a purpose statement, right? What, what motivates me for me. Uh What motivates me is I aspire to learn, solve complex problems, transform a business, uh inspire talent through uh authentic leadership, leave a legacy. So there are a couple of instances in my career when I checked all those boxes, but not, not every year. So I think for me, an achievement is when all of those things line up and you have an opportunity to, you know, actually leave a legacy and an impact. So I think that's, that's kind of how I would look at it. Yeah, I had a couple of moments like that, any specific ones, uh I mean, I would say, you know, the assignment in Asia Pacific when I was uh based out of Shanghai, you know, was uh was a fantastic opportunity. Uh because it, we by the time we got done as a team, it was a complex problem because the growth um had moved from a portion of China which was east and south to much more central and west. And you had to figure out how do you redo the go to market? How do you redo the manufacturing footprint? What is your ambition? Because we had to reset our ambition because initially we were like, oh, we're growing as fast as a multinational. Well, are you growing as fast as the local Chinese manufacturer? Um and then a talent uh historically, we've been very much uh expat uh managed talent for us by the time we left, it was managed by the local talent. So, and then you think about the legacy and impact, you have amazing talent who are running the portion of the business. Uh the business has accelerated uh and it's done. So, you know, after whatever, 58 years since I left, so I think that to me checks out all the boxes that I talked about. So, yeah, so we had a couple of instances of having done that. And when was the first time you actually personally considered yourself a success, whether that's uh you know, education or professional or home, whatever it is. I don't know, I, you know, I success, it's kind of an interesting word. I personally have, you know, I got a healthy amount of discontent. I don't think I um look back on past achievements and reflect on it too much. I think that for me, what motivates me is it's about the uh the kind of the next challenge, the next learning. Uh Maybe one of these days I'll uh you know, we'll call it a day and retire and reflect. But I don't know. In fact, I would say I'm still trying to get better every day. So I don't know whether I would say there's one thing I said, yeah. Do you think people should celebrate the success more? Do you think people should take? I do, I do get advice from my wife especially to say that you need to, I don't know, I personally feel if you do that. Uh I just feel your motivation changes, right? You're um I don't know whether you're hungry enough. Uh whether you think you uh achieved uh the the peak of what you're trying to do. So personally, it worries me when, when you spend too much time celebrating uh kind of your achievements or rather look forward. You know, in fact, if you think about the definition of achievement, it's always interesting definition of achievement is you've completed a task. And when you completed a task, basically, you get the freedom to kind of move on to the next step and you start the next task. That's kind of how at least I looked at it. Fair enough. Everyone's got their own decoration and their own, their own views. So, um it's interesting to hear um and when you, when you are trying to achieve your goals and reach those, those, you know, benchmarks, what, what are your key nonnegotiable behaviors that, that you adopt that you take into those tasks. You know, I think maybe a couple of things that have sowed me. Well, one being in the moment, right? Which is easy thing to be said. But done. Meaning for example, I don't multitask when I'm in a meeting, even if it's like, I just finished a whole day of meeting. I don't multitask. I'm in the moment when I'm in a conversation, I'm not thinking about the next thing I'm gonna do, I'm talking to the person listening. So I think that is probably one, the second thing is consistency, uh is the notion of, you know, it's tough, like uh as executives, you go through a bunch of meetings throughout the day. How consistent are you in all of this meeting? I'm one of those people who have trained myself that every time there's a meeting and there's a pre read, I've actually gone through it formed a hypothesis. I come in for an engaged dialogue to do that consistently. Every single meeting. I think that's important and also consistently on how you uh interact with people just to make sure because, you know, for them, that might be the only interaction they have with you for the whole year. How you're consistent. Third is authenticity, right? Like I think really being true to yourself and who you are as a leader and, and that's how you deal with people. And I think people appreciate that. Like, how are you an authentic leader? And do you have any habits or rituals or anchors? I think a lot of people refer to them all that, that, that, that keep you going and, and keep that consistency or to help you keep those nonnegotiable behaviors flowing. Yeah. No, a couple of them. And I mean, these are all things that you develop over the years. Right. I don't think I started my career with these things, but if someone could start my career 10 years, well, first is making sure you're intentional about how you use your time. I think that's probably the biggest advice I would give people when they are starting off their career. Um I for an example, uh color code, my time management, right? So I have four or five buckets about how I manage time every other month we audit and see how am I spending my time and do I need to? Of course, correct. So it's a very intentional thing because I remember reading, I think this average human lifespan is 4000 weeks. And so being, I think since then I've been super intentional about how I manage time. So I think that's one uh second is, um how are you deliberate about learning? Um It's one of those things that always falls to the wayside, right? Busy life gets to you, but very deliberate. Like I usually buy Christmas time. I plan on what is it? There are a couple of topics I'm going to learn about the next year and, and again, I would qualify that this is not surface learning because, you know, you're on a device you get used to exposed to so many different topics. So it's kind of deep learning. Like I picked these two topics and I'm doing that for a stretch of 12 weeks and that's all I'm doing. So, I think the intentional about, uh, learning, uh, third is reflection. I think one of the, at least by nature, I'm an introvert. Um, so I, uh, I write and it helps me do two things. One, when I write, I reflect two, it also makes me intentional about learning because I'm usually researching about a topic when I write. So I think that helps. Um, so I think those would be, uh, maybe the last one, is this notion of, um, after action review, which is like, hey, you did something, did it work? Not work because sometimes you go on to the next thing without being deliberate about what didn't work. I think it came from the US army and that served me well, is doing a turn of what worked, what didn't work, what are we going to do different? So, maybe those would be the ones. The time is a, is a fascinating one because, uh, when you break it down, like you said, into a lifespan, it, it starts getting a little, probably scary. Um, what can you tell us what your color codes are? Yeah. No, happy to. So I have five buckets. One is, um, you know, basically running the business which is delivering day to day results like the second is people and culture, right? How much time am I spending in that? Third is long term strategy, right? And that's kind of the business side of it. Fourth is learning, as I said, you got to be deliberate about and fifth, which is something else. It's come with age and maturity is relationship, right? Really investing, whether it's friends or family being purposeful because even if you don't prioritize that that gets away, you wake up. So, so those would be kind of the five buckets that I color code. And there's a pie chart that I look at um engineered by trade. So, and then I uh you know, I uh audit and we course correct. That's really interesting. And, and is it evens splay or do you aim for an even splay? No, because it depends on the, uh you know, kind of the uh the life stage of that particular business cycle or your personal life stage. I don't think you're gonna get the perfect 2020 20%. I think what you want to be is aware of. Oh, I didn't realize the last couple of months is how I spent my time. Do I need to course, correct. So it's more about by the end of the year, how do you hopefully get to a healthy balance versus a, in a given period of time? You're trying to split it up even? Right? It depends on the business rhythm you know, and everything else going on now, I'm sure, you know, throughout your career, you've been, you know, you worked in many places, um worn many hats. Have you ever had a mentor specifically that, that has, that has helped you that you've looked up to and, and taken advice from? Totally. I personally believe, I personally believe what drives one's success is having mentors throughout their career. Um I have been incredibly blessed uh to have had mentors. I think almost through my entire all the different stages of career. And by the way, this is one learning I would share. I remember when I first got started, I used to think, well, mentors are when you are initially learning and growing your career, I would actually argue you actually need more mentors. The higher up you go up in the organization because mentors provide you with perspective because they, because you always find higher, you are on the top, the bad news travels fast and you're the last person to get to know. So you want to have perspective um coming from wisdom of people who have been there, done that. You know, everyone likes to think I'm the first one doing a certain task. And truth is that many people before you have done it. And there's so much you can learn uh getting their perspective and also sharing kind of how you're thinking about solving a problem and how they would approach it. So, no, for for a fact. Personally, I think I'm here today because of some amazing mentors I've had throughout my career. I'm sure you had a lot of great advice. But can you think of, um, the best advice or, or, or advice that has really stood out to you that you still keep with you to this day? I think the best advice I ever got was, uh, I remember someone saying, uh, everyone worries about getting the next job or the next promotion, you should worry about how to do the next job before you get the job. I was the best piece of career advice I ever got because for me, it's interesting when you get the next job, people don't realize the clock starts right then and there, right? You own at that point, you own the past, the present and the future. You're not like, oh, you know, the other guy did this other person did this, right? So I think, and imagine, and if you actually have, are a little more deliberate thinking about that next role, how you would do it learning from people who are doing it now, what do they do? Well, what do they not do? Well, it's such an incredible opportunity and you just don't have the uh time to reflect when you are in the role. So I, I thought that was probably the best and also that was the best piece of advice for me because one thing is I think it reframed how I approach roles. I I approached roles as this is my last job. This is my last job at the company. Alright. It's not about, you know, using this job to get to the next job. It is about this job and you know, what am I going to do there? That's good advice. And in terms of um in terms of leadership, what what do you consider the most successful traits of good leaders, either leaders that you work with or traits that you try to um project yourself? What are the most successful ones from? For, for leadership? Do you think I would tell you two things, right? I'll learn one. So, I mean, personally, I would say it's self-awareness and humility uh gives you the right to lead people and they're both equally important self awareness, really being aware of. What is your strength and more importantly, what's your opportunity? How are you going to complement that with team members who could bring their strength to it and also being self-aware about what your perception of self is and how do people perceive you? Sometimes there's a gap, right? So I think the self awareness is a big, big area. And the other thing is the humility. I mean, it's such an understated thing. But the fact of the matter is when you're humble, you listen, you learn, you reflect and then you act and I think those two things are probably in all of the best leaders, I've seen variations of those two qualities and that's something, you know, I aspire for and has anyone's career particularly inspired you in your own journey, not necessarily just within Pepsi, but in, in the wider industry or someone outside of your industry, perhaps that you looked at and thought, you know, that's, that's the kind of executive or the kind of leader that I want to be. Well, you know, first, I've been incredibly blessed to growing up here in Pepsico, we had a, it's known as an academic leadership company and we've, you know, created amazing leaders. Um you know, I personally don't look at somebody's career and say, hey, that's something I want to emulate. I personally look for, hey, are there qualities or impact this person has driven that, that I can aspire that I aspire for or, and this could be impact within, within the context of, you know, the company that they work at, but it could be impact within the broader ecosystem of, of an industry or um you know, just personal impact on causes of, you know, things. So I don't know whether I always, because I, you know, the other thing you find managing your career, I think we talked, started talking about this when you made a reference to one of my friends, you can plan everything. OK. Right. But the career, there's a lot of things that happens by chance. So I'm not sure. Um, you can say, hey, that's a career I want to emulate. Right. It's gonna, so I would rather focus on what is it about that particular person that left and legacy and impact that I would want to emulate? You know, you don't get as high as, as, as you've done and been as successful as you've been without making mistakes. And that's something that everyone has to deal with, you know, regardless of their rank or, or how long they've been doing their job. Um How do you deal with mistakes because it's something you know, I say happens to everyone. How do you deal with them? How do you move past them? You know, as you said, Massimo, I think uh for you to learn and grow, you do need to make some mistakes. Um And, and also one of the things I'm, I'm a big believer, especially when you're trying to make transformative moves is to experiment. And by definition, you're gonna make mistakes when you experiment. One of the things uh you have to, I learned at least is being uh what I call this notion of purposeful experimentation, meaning I have a clear objective. If the experiment is a success, I know how to scale it. If I were to fail. I know exactly how I'm going to apply it. So I think that's one notion. The second thing I think I talked about before, which is the notion of after action review which is like, hey, it didn't work. Why did it not work? What is it that I can learn from that we would apply the next time around? Uh I mean, outside of that, I think on the mistake, the biggest thing is, I mean, one is obviously being self critical and being objective about judging the mistake you made. But then, then also being incredibly generous and empathetic with the team because that's the part that you have to balance. Because if you are, if you don't reflect those qualities, then they're never going to experiment, they're gonna just do what uh what was done before and we will never transform. So it's one of those things that you have to balance out and what do you feel matters way less than you thought it was. So when you're a younger man, what, what do you know now that matters way less than, than you anticipate that it would, I would tell you job titles matter less at the end of the day. Um You rent it for a while. Uh They don't drive who you are as a person or your identity. I think that's probably again, one of those learnings which comes with age and maturity also easy for a CEO to say, oh, don't worry about it guys. Yeah. Yeah. Um And this is, this is a more of a philosophical one. But what one change could you make today? That would have the most positive impact on, on your life going forward, either personally or professionally. Um You know, it's interesting in most cases, I find your towering strength is always an area of opportunity, right? We all lean into it, right? For me, I think you mentioned it before pausing to celebrate. Uh enjoying the moment I think would probably make me more of a contented person and I think it also would reflect on other team members. I I think for sure, I think that's something I need to work on. Uh second could be this ratio that I talked about with time management as much as I try to balance that, you know, some years or not it gets out of whack. And I wish I could be even more purposeful in managing that ratio. Right. So those would probably be good changes to make and they would definitely be positive. Maybe, hopefully. Anyway, I think that's it. Thanks so much. Thank you. Appreciate it.