CEO
Indra Nooyi believes that each PepsiCo product must engage customers so
directly and personally that they fall in love with it. So in 2012 she
hired renowned designer Mauro Porcini as PepsiCo’s first chief design
officer. Nooyi says that design thinking now informs nearly everything
the company does, from product creation, to the look on the shelf, to
how consumers interact with a product after they buy it. Design thinking
is apparent, for instance, in Pepsi Spire,
the company’s touchscreen fountain machine that gives consumers the
visual experience of watching flavors get added to a beverage before the
finished product is dispensed. And design thinking is an integral part
of what Nooyi says makes women embrace Mountain
Dew Kickstart—with its slim can, higher juice content, and lower calorie
burden—as a product they can “walk around with.” But design is not all
about the way a product looks, according to Nooyi. She says that PepsiCo
has delivered “great shareholder value”
on her watch because the company also offers consumers true choices, as
evident in its “good for you” and “fun for you” categories of
products—and because she has led her workforce to adapt strategically to
consumers’ constantly evolving aspirations. [ABSTRACT
FROM AUTHOR]