The CEO Forum Group Magazine Business 2023 (1) - Flipbook - Page 30
Ramon Laguarta
The same I would say for our Saudi Arabia business.
Saudi Arabia is obviously a place where female access
to the labor market is very limited. So we made
the decision to lead and be a company that bets on
women in our workplace. We’ve created the space,
we’ve created the processes, we’ve created everything
it takes to enable women to come to work. And we’ve
been awarded in Saudi Arabia for being the company
that is taking more efforts and being the leader in
diversity in Saudi Arabia.
“Being at the center of this
large ecosystem gives us a
responsibility and gives us the
power to really influence
beyond our own four walls.”
So those are two examples that represent how you
build the infrastructure, you build the culture, and
you build the talent, but at the end, there has to be
courageous leadership. I’ll go first; I’ll make the
decision. We’re making great progress in our female
representation, and I am so proud of that.
What do you see as the impact of courageous
leadership?
Think about it from the consumer insights and
understanding and from building brands that excite
customers, which are two of the core capabilities
of PepsiCo. You need to represent society and you
need to understand consumers. Our marketing and
sales teams understand this well, and both of those
elements are critical for us to service the marketplace.
Obviously, that turns into being able to expand our
labor pool. When you double down on that concept
around the world, that’s a massive idea.
On multiple lines this impacts us positively. We see
better performance, we see better talent access, we
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see better talent retention, and we see higher energy
and engagement with a company along multiple KPIs
that we measure…so clearly a very holistic set of
benefits for the company. And then obviously, when
you talk to your customers, when you talk to your
suppliers, and when you talk to the communities, the
fact that you represent them in a way that is closer to
how the communities are, it also gives us access to the
communities in a way that otherwise we could be not
as well received by them. So very positive in multiple
dimensions, and something that obviously gives us
continued energy.
As an example, we buy in the neighborhood of
$40 billion every year. Our suppliers are large, our
suppliers are meaningful, and we want to take them
along. The same with our customers. We are also
helping our customers to make their transition in
the same direction. Being at the center of this large
ecosystem gives us a responsibility and gives us the
power to really influence beyond our own four walls.
How does this relate to your core business
functions?
We have three key pillars: positive agriculture,
positive value chain, and positive choices in terms
of brands and consumer impact. If you think about
agriculture, we’re mainly an agriculture company
where we buy a lot of inputs. We are ourselves
in contact with farmers and I think agriculture
could benefit a lot from more women, especially
in developing markets. When women are part of
the agriculture ecosystem, productivity—and
everything—improves. So we’re very keen on
training women in agriculture, and allowing them
to own land and helping them to be trained. So
agriculture is a strong pillar for our success where
we can push diversity. And that’s critical and inspires
everybody in the organization.
Positive supply chain relates to how we buy those
inputs and turn them into products. So it involves all
our manufacturing sites around the world and all our