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Embracing Change - An Unlikely Example
Welcome to The Shift, a weekly newsletter where I provide thought-provoking ideas to help you think differently about your career and money.
The Shift
Change your thinking:
From: Change is inevitable - go with the flow.
To: Change is inevitable - we must ensure it is embraced in a seamless way.
Last Week + This Week = It’s All Connected
Last week I reviewed the top 3 editions of The Shift in 2023. Read here if you missed it. This week I will use a story about PepsiCo’s former CEO as motivation to embrace change in the most thorough way possible.
Responding to Change
"It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change." -- Charles Darwin
When Indra Nooyi became CEO of PepsiCo in 2006 she made it her mission to embrace change. And in the process, she accelerated a movement.
She had data that showed consumers were changing their habits. They wanted healthier snacking and drinking options. While it was early days in this trend, the writing was on the wall in her mind.
Indra decided the 100+ year old chips and soda company needed to become more health conscious.
This was a big change. It would come with fierce opposition.
It took courage.
Rattling Stakeholders
This new strategy was bigger than buying a few healthier snack brands and adding SodaStream to their product offerings.
Indra would change the recipes for Pepsi and Lay’s - beloved American staples. She would create Bubly, the sparkling water brand.
She looked everywhere she could to cut sugar, fat and salt from products, without impacting taste.
Powerful investors and the media weren’t happy. A few activist investors cropped up to try and shift the strategy. They thought “normal Americans” loved their chips and soda.
There was no need for change.
There were also the tens of thousands of employees and partners, many of whom had worked for PepsiCo for decades and loved it just the way it was.
Indra stuck to her guns.
She truly believed there was no other choice for the long-term viability of the company. Thankfully she had the support of the Board of Directors.
Along with data that proved her rationale.
She knew one thing:
To position for the future, upsetting the status quo would be required.
She did it in a graceful way.
Why Change is Hard
These days change has been vilified. At the same time, it is considered inevitable.
One of the quotes from Indra’s book, My Life in Full: Work, Family and Our Future, that really captured my attention was this:
“We are all balancing, juggling, compromising, doing our best to find our place, move ahead, and manage our relationships and responsibilities. It’s not easy in a society that changes very fast yet sticks to some age-old habits and rules of behavior that feel out of our control.”
To me, that perfectly sums up why change can be so hard.
As a society we are willing to accept changes that can’t be stopped (think tech innovation, increases in productivity, etc.), but we forget to review how those changes impact the foundational aspects of our society.
The foundation is the age-old habits and rules of behavior she refers to.
I think this observation can be applied to the change we are seeing in the workplace.
No Shortcuts
We have yet to adapt changes in work to the foundation of work.
An imbalance has emerged in the age-old rule of work:
In return for time and service, compensation and community are received.
In the year ahead I ask that we agree to acknowledge that the changes in the work environment will require a rethink of this foundational rule. Or at least how it is applied.
Embracing change may just lead to a better work environment for employers and employees.
I leave you with one last quote from Indra Nooyi:
“Huge change has no shortcuts. It requires honesty, agility, and courage.”
Let’s make The Shift!
Lindsey
