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Photograph by Jamie Rector/Bloomberg Brian Cornell With the lackluster performance of PepsiCo ( PEP ) under her leadership, Chief Executive Officer Indra Nooyi clearlyfaces pressure to perform. So it s natural to smell a successionrace brewing with the company s March 12 announcement of a newglobal structure and the hiring of Wal-Mart Stores ( WMT ) executive Brian Cornell. But the details of this reorganizationsuggest the snack-food maker is less concerned about who s goingto replace Nooyi as CEO than it is about who might leave becauseCornell has arrived. The hiring of any high-profile executiveusually creates ripples of tension within the senior ranks of acompany. When that executive has been president and CEO of Sam sClub prior to becoming CEO of PepsiCo Americas Foods, as Cornellwas, it s bound to spark rumors that he s now a leading contenderfor the top job. Photograph by Jin Lee/Bloomberg John Compton In fact, PepsiCo has carefully arranged its new structure soCornell doesn t upstage John Compton, the man he s replacing.Compton has been named to the new role of president, a key signalto him and to investors that the company values his leadership. Butit s equally telling that Compton didn t get the chief operatingofficer title, which almost always carries the implicit assumptionthat the person is also heir apparent to the CEO. Such carefulmaneuvering leaves the door open for several candidates withinPepsiCo to now see themselves as having a shot at the top job.Headhunters also point to other contenders from outside PepsiCo,including Michael White, who left the company to become CEO of DirecTV ( DTV ) in 2010. Whatever problems she might face in managing her diverse portfolioof businesses, Nooyi deserves credit for how she s managed adiverse set of ambitious executives. White, for one, was clearlypitted against Nooyi in the race to replace Steve Reinemund as CEOin 2006. And yet Nooyi managed to convince him to stay on as vicechairman and head of the international business for three yearsafter he lost the spot to her, even praising him as a key adviserin her first conference call with investors. In the announcement of today s management revamp, she also wascareful to focus on more than just her new hire, saying John andBrian are superb executives and will both contribute enormously intheir new roles. The priority seems be the ego of a toplieutenant who will be needed to carry out some important changesin the coming months. Whether and when Nooyi may leave the top job at PepsiCo remains tobe seen. There s no doubt she ll need to show solid results fromthe ambitious turnaround plan announced last month, which includescutting 8,700 jobs and boosting marketing spending by as much as$600 million. Nooyi herself has also spoken openly about herdesire to spend part of her career in public service, and she isseen as a possible contender to run the World Bank. While her pushto play up PepsiCo s nutritional offerings may have stumbled amidcontinued enthusiasm for sugary soda and salty snacks, itunderscores her desire to make a positive impact on how people eatworldwide. In the meantime, that passion is likely to keep her atthe helm of PepsiCo, where she needs to better navigate the trickybalance between trying to improve consumers food choices whileembracing more ways to profit from her company s stable of junkfoods. I am an expert from carton-machinery.com, while we provides the quality product, such as Folder Gluer , Corrugated Carton Machinery, Carton machines,and more.
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