'Leave the crown in the garage'

This famous quote of Indra Nooyi, “Leave the crown in the garage” from her book My Life in Full is popping up everywhere in the media.

But why leave the crown in the garage?

"Being the CEO of a company is all consuming,” Indra Nooyi, the former CEO of PepsiCo said.

“When you are the CEO, especially of such a large company, there’s only one priority, and that priority is being CEO. I think my family was short-changed a lot. The last 24 years, the PepsiCo family always came first,” she said.

According to a Marathi TV channel, her husband Raj jokes that his wife puts the Pepsi company and their children above him in terms of importance. He playfully tells her that the list goes: “PepsiCo, PepsiCo, PepsiCo, children, her mother, and him at the bottom of the list.”

But remember the story of Sardar Vallabhabhai Patel. Once, when attending a case where his client was accused of a murder charge, Patel received a telegram informing him of his wife’s death.

Concealing his own anguish, Patel placed the telegram in his pocket and continued with the examination. He would not let his personal sorrow come in the way of his client’s life.

Obviously, such work ethos and virtues are strictly admired only in men.

Reena Ramachandran, the former CMD of the Hindustan Organic Chemicals Limited, recounted a similar experience to Savvy magazine in August 1991: “When my father-in-law died in Bengaluru, as the eldest daughter-in-law I should have been there. But I had an important board meeting in Dehradun, so I had to decide my priorities. I went to the meeting.”

She added, “I am sure my husband must have faced all kinds of questions but he was there for me."

But I remember the scorching remarks from a woman reader of Savvy, who self-righteously declared “For me, family comes first.”

Often, successful women go out of their way to make similar declarations.

Way back in early 1980s, while researching for my post-graduation in Engineering at Indian Institute of Science, as a young career-minded girl, I had gone all the way to Bombay to attend a women’s conference, where Reena Ramachandran spoke.

When her child was a few months old, she took up the opportunity to go to France to obtain a doctoral degree.

At the conference in Bombay, I asked her a silly question “Madam, did you feel guilty leaving behind your child?”

Her answer: “No.”

Then she explained, “The child was with the father, so why feel guilty?”

Her advice made sense and gave a clear direction to a young girl on the threshold of her career.

To another question, she had said, “My husband never felt emasculated by my success.”

In 2018, at HAL Management Academy, I listened once again to the 80-year-old Reena, she clearly reiterated:

Do not feel guilty

Do not miss an opportunity

Demonstrate measurable targets

If you add value to yourself, organisation automatically benefits

Create a brand of yourself

Don’t take soft options

Don’t be apologetic for being successful or powerful

When Nooyi got promoted as president of PepsiCo, her mother asked her to go out and get milk, an incident that hit headlines in 2017.

However, when Nooyi rebelled, her mother reportedly said, “Leave that crown in the garage.” And Nooyi obliged.

Role models

It is a different matter when it comes to being a man donning a crown. A man is entitled to celebrate his promotion; his mother and wife boast about his success to the world.

But a crown on a woman’s head is loathed. “Quick, hide it in the garage, especially if he is insecure.” Even if he is not, why take a chance?

As a young girl, I grew up in an atmosphere that offered no role models for girls taking up science or engineering. In 1976, when I entered engineering, I was told “You have carpentry, machine shop, foundry — this is not the field for women.”

With a lot of self-doubt and fear, my friend and I had entered the engineering college and both of us came out with university ranks.

I recall an incident from Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) when I ran into the wife of one of my colleagues.

When I told her that I too work at HAL, she automatically assumed I must be a typist or a PA — after all, what else could a woman do in an Aeronautical company — and gushed to tell me that her husband was promoted to a high position of “senior manager.”

I didn’t have the heart to tell her that he reports to me.

Even today, looking around, I see a patriarchal society that makes girls doubt their abilities.

And when they look around for inspiration, there are so few women with crowns and many who have one, have hidden them in the garage.

(The author is former Chief Designer (UAV) and General Manager at HAL)