Inspiration: Indra Nooyi

Indra Nooyi, Chairperson and Chief Executive of PepsiCo, was interviewed by Daniel Roth from LinkedIn. She has been CEO since 2006 (after joining PepsiCo in 1994 and becoming CFO in 2001). During the full interview, she offered career advice for those who aspire to the C-suite. She covered five 'building blocks' that she feels help ambitious people to get there.

1) Doing your current job very well
2) Developing a specific skill you're known for, especially within your organisation: competence/capability
3) Having the courage to defend what you stand for: ideals and values
4) Communicating effectively: need to be able to "get [people] to go places they never thought they needed to get to"
5) Following your business compass: "your ethics are so important"

She also spoke about her 'hip pocket skill' she cultivated over her career: making simple the complex. A 'hip pocket skill' is something useful that helps you to stand out as not many people in your team or field excel at it.

While that part of her interview is no longer publicly available, see this 20 minute section of Daniel's interview with Indra for discussion on her "Performance with Purpose" focus for PepsiCo. Inspiring to watch!