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05-20-2005, 10:05 AM
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#1 (permalink)
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Banished
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Pepsico’s Indra Nooyi Draws Rightwing Ire, Apologises
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Pepsico’s Indra Nooyi Draws Rightwing Ire, Apologises
By Francis C. Assisi
19 May 2005 -- America’s rightwing blogosphere is fuming at Pepsico’s Indra Nooyi for asking freshly minted Columbia Business School graduates to be aware of and to avoid actions that might prompt the rest of the world to view them as Ugly Americans
The Indian-American, who is the President and CFO of the world's fourth largest food and beverage (Pepsi, Tropicana, Fritolay, Gatorade) company, concluded her remarks to the graduating class last Sunday at Madison Square Garden with the following warning: “So, remember, when you extend your arm to colleagues and peoples from other countries, make sure that you’re giving a hand … not the finger. You will help your country, your company, and yourself, more than you will ever know.”
In the speech, Nooyi talked about America's role in the world, using the hand as an analogy. Each finger of the hand was assigned a country: little finger, Africa; thumb, Asia; pointer finger, Europe; ring finger, South America; and middle finger -- the United States
In her speech to Columbia students, Nooyi explained: “What is most crucial to my analogy of the five fingers as the five major continents, is that each of us in the U.S. – the long middle finger – must be careful that when we extend our arm in either a business or political sense, we take pains to assure we are giving a hand...not the finger. Sometimes this is very difficult. Because the U.S. – the middle finger – sticks out so much, we can send the wrong message unintentionally. Unfortunately, I think this is how the rest of the world looks at the U.S. right now. Not as part of the hand – giving strength and purpose to the rest of the fingers – but, instead, scratching our nose and sending a far different signal.” (The full text of the May 15 speech is available at the Pepsico website.)
Nooyi was obviously challenging the graduates to rise to greater cultural sensitivity, but the metaphor backfired.
That’s because for the vast majority of Americans, the raised middle finger, has only one meaning and, within days, a groundswell of opinion had emerged among the nation’s conservative bloggers describing Nooyi’s remarks as US-bashing, insulting, unpatriotic, and even calling for the boycott of Pepsi.
It started off when, Wes Martin, one of the graduates listening to the speech, was appalled, and wrote to Powerline (a joint blog written by three conservative lawyers) that Nooyi " launched into a diatribe about how the US is seen as the middle finger to the rest of the world. The rest of the world sees us as an overbearing, insensitive and disrespectful nation that gives the middle finger to the rest of the world.”
And, writing from Baghdad, Eric Egland, a member of the Iraqi Field Team's Improvised Explosive Device Task Force, informed Powerline: “I found Ms. Nooyi's graduation comments offensive, not to mention off-base, because the central theme of her speech was that America is, in essence, ‘flipping off the world’…I will stop consuming Pepsico products and encourage others to do the same. Please remember, it is this country, and the brave men and women who defend it, that provided the free enterprise system that allowed your company to become a global corporate power. I would hope that Pepsi senior executives would show more respect for this great country. Perhaps the troops who enjoy your products would hope so as well.”
Another blogger offered the following comment: “If Nooyi, peddler of salty snacks and supersize bags of cookies for our ever-fattening youth, wants to rail about how awful America is, that is her right. But when hundreds of families gather for a day that is to honor the hard work and achievement of students, and also to thank the parents for putting up with the increasingly exorbitant cost of college, it may not be the right time.”
In a letter to Nooyi, blogger Susanna L. Cornett informed: “I will make note of the products PepsiCo produces, and I will not buy them until I hear that you have apologized for stomping on the country where you live and work, and the customers who pay your no-doubt quite adequate salary and benefits package. I will make sure others know of your words, and will ask them to write to you. I will provide them with a list of PepsiCo products, and ask them to rethink their purchases. We have American men and women dying to help preserve your right to give them your middle finger. I can’t in good conscience continue to support your doing so.”
The writer expands: “Ms Nooyi, I was horrified. I wanted to regurgitate all that lovely oatmeal and orange juice. Have you no shame, to come to the United States and profit beyond what any other Indian-born woman has, only to turn around and give the United States the finger? Obviously we are very different in our political beliefs, and I’m not someone who thinks everyone needs to agree with me. And I’m delighted to see people from other countries come here and succeed - after all, I’m here because my ancestors saw the same hope for their future that you did in moving to the United States. But this arrogance and disdain, this savaging of the hand that feeds you extremely well… It’s abhorrent.”
Meanwhile, an Indian-American commented in the popular Sepiamutiny desi blog: “I think it's safe to say - regardless of whether you agree w/ Ms Nooyi or not - that folks assembled at a commencement don't expect to be sent off into the wild blue yonder with a lecture on why the World sees them as jackasses.”
NOOYI RESPONDS TO CRITICS
Yesterday Nooyi responded on the PepsiCo website with the following statement:
“I recently had the privilege of speaking to the 2005 graduating class of Columbia University’s Business School in New York City.
Recognizing that these talented new leaders will influence both America and the world, I tried to provide some advice as they embark on their careers.
I chose to speak about the powerful role that America, and we as Americans, hold in the world today. I hoped to encourage these graduates to be sure they make a positive and personal difference as representatives of our great country.
In my comments, I used the analogy of a human hand to illustrate that people in countries around the globe need to join together to make the world work in harmony – just as all the fingers of a hand work together. It is an illustration that I learned when I was a student, and that I have shared with others on many different occasions.
As part of this illustration, I assigned five of the world’s continents to the different fingers and thumb. I refer to North America and particularly the U.S. as the middle finger because it is the longest and anchors every function the hand performs. The middle finger also is key to all the fingers working together effectively. That is how I view America’s place of importance in the world.
The point of my analogy was to emphasize America’s leadership position. Equally critical is the need for each of us as citizens to take a constructive role in whatever we choose to do in life to ensure the U.S. continues as the world’s “helping hand.”
Unfortunately, my remarks at Columbia University were misconstrued and depicted in a different context as unpatriotic. Although nothing could be further from the truth, I regret any confusion or concern that I may have inadvertently created. As I shared with the audience at Columbia, this country that I am proud and honored to call home is a “promised land” that I love dearly. I would never say or do anything to detract from our great nation and its people who have done so much for so many, including myself.”
BACKGROUND
Born in Chennai, Nooyi spent the first 23 years of her life in India. A graduate of Madras Christian College with a degree in Chemistry, Physics and Math, she earned a Master’s Degree in Finance and Marketing from the IIM, Kolkata. She also holds a Master’s Degree in Public and Private management from the Yale School of Management.
Upon graduation, she went to work for Boston Consulting Group in 1980 and then joined Motorola as vice-president of corporate planning and strategy in 1986. Just 4 years later in 1990, she climbed aboard Asian Brown Boveri as vice president. 1994 marked a banner year for Indra when she went to work for the corporate giant, PepsiCo. She has been instrumental in taking the company to new heights. She played a key role in the company's merger with Quaker Oats and was instrumental in starting the company's fast food chains in 1997.
Indra is ranked #4 on Fortune Magazine's list of "50 Most Powerful Women in Business". As President and Chief Financial Officer of PepsiCo, she is the highest ranking Indian born woman in corporate America. She's helped engineer over $30 billion worth of deals in the past few years and is taking on the challenge of some fierce competition: a newly energized Coca-Cola campaign.
Indra attributes a lot of Pepsi's success to it's great employees. She believes that a company remains great when there is a strong competitor, like Coke. She believes if you have no competition, a company will atrophy. To keep a company running at top speed, you need to attract the best employees. This is PepsiCo's greatest strength according to Indra. They have created a work environment to attract the best people. At PepsiCo employees can actually balance life and work. She views PepsiCo as an extended family and everybody at the company is there to help in any way possible. Indra says it is not unusual to find her younger daughter in the office doing homework or having an after school fireside chat with 81 year old founder, Don Kendall.
She believes that the corporate world appreciates people who are geniune and has made "Be Yourself" one of her life commands. In response to what life at the top is like, Indra has said "It is not easy up there. Just keep that in mind."
Speaking at her alma mater IIM in Kolkata, what won the hearts of many was her candid confession to the audience about how she felt bad at having to be tough with people at times and how she occasionally went back and cried in her office later after having acted tough.
"Being a woman ,being a foreign-born, you've got to be smarter than anyone else and even though I've been in the corporate world for nearly 16 years, I still work on expanding my knowledge and broadening my horizons", says Nooyi, who lives with her husband Raj and two daughters in Fairfax county, Conneticut.
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Why the speech made by Indra Nooyi at Cloumbia is generating controversy as it seems to read as a plea for cultural sensitivity abroad, which at best could be faulted for being naïve, eludes me ( Full Text of Speech Here )
That leads me to wonder that if she had not used the middle finger analogy for America, but say the inoffensive little finger, would the same lot of detractors be complaining of being slighted by her for not being sufficiently respectful of America’s pre-eminence? |
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05-20-2005, 12:23 PM
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#2 (permalink)
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She DID NOT use the middle finger example as an attempt to show that the US was the most powerful and binding nation. I read her speech, i know exactly what she meant.
Nice revisionism though...
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05-20-2005, 12:43 PM
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#3 (permalink)
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Banished
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Originally Posted by M21Sniper
She DID NOT use the middle finger example as an attempt to show that the US was the most powerful and binding nation. I read her speech, i know exactly what she meant.
Nice revisionism though...
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I did not say that she used the middle finger "as an attempt to show that the US was the most powerful and binding nation" or anything to that effect. I merely said that her detractors could likely be complaining of being slighted by her for not being sufficiently respectful of America’s pre-eminence by using the little finger analogy instead.
Any way going to her speech, this sounds positive and respectful :
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This analogy of the five fingers as the five major continents leaves the long, middle finger for North America, and, in particular, The United States. As the longest of the fingers, it really stands out. The middle finger anchors every function that the hand performs and is the key to all of the fingers working
together efficiently and effectively. This is a really good thing, and has given the U.S. a leg-up in global business since the end of World War I
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And this a plea for cultural sensitvity :
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However, if used inappropriately –just like the U.S. itself -- the middle finger can convey a negative message and get us in trouble. You know what I’m talking about. In fact, I suspect you’re hoping that I’ll demonstrate what I mean. And trust me, I’m not looking for volunteers to model.
Discretion being the better part of valor … I think I’ll pass.
What is most crucial to my analogy of the five fingers as the five major continents, is that each of us in the U.S. – the long middle finger – must be careful that when we extend our arm in either a business or political sense, we take pains to assure we are giving a hand … not the finger. Sometimes this is
very difficult. Because the U.S. – the middle finger – sticks out so much, we can send the wrong message unintentionally.
Unfortunately, I think this is how the rest of the world looks at the U.S. right now. Not as part of the hand – giving strength and purpose to the rest of the fingers – but, instead, scratching our nose and sending a far different signal.
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But as I said maybe naive. |
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06-04-2005, 23:51 PM
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#4 (permalink)
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Banished
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Originally Posted by Hari_Om
Any way going to her speech, this sounds positive and respectful :
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This analogy of the five fingers as the five major continents leaves the long, middle finger for North America, and, in particular, The United States. As the longest of the fingers, it really stands out. The middle finger anchors every function that the hand performs and is the key to all of the fingers working
together efficiently and effectively. This is a really good thing, and has given the U.S. a leg-up in global business since the end of World War I
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No offense, but this is ludicrous. She is the CFO of Pepsico. She knew what she was saying. The middle finger is not the most important part of the hand - the opposable thumb is, followed by the index finger. If an American used an analogy that compared India to an anus - an important body part vital to the proper functioning of the body and a means of voiding poisonous substances, I think Indians would be incensed. In my view, she is being too clever by half - she figured Americans are too thick to understand that they're being insulted, but someone finally called her on it. Many Indians appear to share this belief in American obtuseness, which is why they're defending her tooth and nail. |
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06-05-2005, 05:01 AM
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#5 (permalink)
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Lord High Hullabalooster
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Originally Posted by Zhang Fei
No offense, but this is ludicrous. She is the CFO of Pepsico. She knew what she was saying. The middle finger is not the most important part of the hand - the opposable thumb is, followed by the index finger. If an American used an analogy that compared India to an anus - an important body part vital to the proper functioning of the body and a means of voiding poisonous substances, I think Indians would be incensed. In my view, she is being too clever by half - she figured Americans are too thick to understand that they're being insulted, but someone finally called her on it. Many Indians appear to share this belief in American obtuseness, which is why they're defending her tooth and nail.
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Exactly. It's like someone showed her that awesome Monty Python sketch where they are playing some 19th century authors trying to embarrass each other in front of some piece of royalty.
Silly bunt can go smoke a pole if she thinks she's fooling anyone.
Here it is:
-dale
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"London 1895... The residence of Mr Oscar Wilde
(In WILDE's drawing room. A crowd of suitably dressed folk are engaged in typically brilliant conversation, laughing affectedly and drinking champagne)
PRINCE OF WALES: My congratulations, Wilde. You latest play is a great success. The whole of London's talking about you.
OSCAR: There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that it not being talked about.
(There follows fifteen seconds of restrained and sycophantic laughter)
PRINCE: Very very witty... very very witty.
WHISTLER: There's only one thing in the world worse than being witty and that is not being witty.
(Fifteen seconds more of the same)
OSCAR: I wish I had said that.
Whistler: You will, Oscar, you will.
(More laughter)
OSCAR: Your majesty, have you met James McNeill Whistler?
PRINCE: Yes, we've played squash together.
OSCAR: There is only one thing worse than playing squash together, and that is playing it by yourself.
(Silence)
I wish I hadn't said that.
WHISTLER: You did, Oscar, you did.
(A little laughter)
PRINCE: I've got to get back up the palace.
OSCAR: Your Majesty is like a big jam doughnut with cream on the top.
PRINCE: I beg your pardon?
OSCAR: Um... it was one of Whistler's.
WHISTLER: I never said that.
OSCAR: You did, James, you did.
(The PRINCE OF WALES stares expectantly at WHISTLER)
WHISTLER: ... Well, You Highness, what I meant was that, like a doughnut, um, your arrival gives us pleasure... and your departure only makes us hungry for more.
(Laughter)
Your Highness, you are also like a stream of bat's piss.
PRINCE: What?!?
WHISTLER: It was one of Wilde's. One of Wilde's.
OSCAR: It sodding was not! It was Shaw!
SHAW: I... I merely meant, Your Majesty, that you shine out like a shaft of gold when all around is dark.
PRINCE (accepting the compliment): Oh.
OSCAR (To WHISTLER): Right.
(To PRINCE)Your majesty is like a dose of clap. Before you arrive is pleasure, and after is a pain in the dong.
PRINCE (Loudly): WHAT?
WHISTLER and OSCAR: One of Shaw's, one of Shaw's.
SHAW: You bastards. Um... what I meant, Your Majesty, what I meant...
OSCAR: We've got him, Jim.
WHISTLER and OSCAR: Come on, Shaw-y.
SHAW: I merely meant...
OSCAR: Come on, Shaw-y.
WHISTLER: Let's have a bit of wit, then, man.
SHAW: (Blows raspberry)
(The PRINCE shakes SHAW's hand. Laughter all around)" |
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06-05-2005, 07:21 AM
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#6 (permalink)
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Senior Contributor
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Aye. Its a flawed analogy If you wnated to illustrate the US as intrinsic to the world you'd give it the place of the thumb. It seems unlikely that she wouldn't think of that.
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06-05-2005, 11:12 AM
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#7 (permalink)
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Postmaster General
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Thanks heavens, she did not use two fingers to signify the world.
Just imagine how just a finger can cause so much of a hassle.
Zhang,
It sheer wouldbe awful as you state if she compared India to be the anus!
Imagine China being compared to a plick. Massive it would be!  Sheer problematic it would be to say the least.
Last edited by Ray : 06-05-2005 at 11:20 AM.
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06-06-2005, 12:31 PM
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#8 (permalink)
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Banished
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Originally Posted by Zhang Fei
The middle finger is not the most important part of the hand - the opposable thumb is, followed by the index finger.
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The thumb might be a unrivaled cultural icon for “importance”in Peru, Pakistan, PNG, PRC or wherever. However in other parts of the world, as the French found out at Crecy and Agincourt, the middle and index figures are perhaps more “important”. Certainly “important” enough for the French to have these two fingre permanently removed.
Thus no guarantee that the use of the thumb as an analogy would not have got this same lot worked up complaining of not being given a “important” finger.
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In my view, she is being too clever by half - she figured Americans are too thick to understand that they're being insulted
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Do you have some information to suggest that Indra Nooyi is a masochist ? She is after all an American herself.
Or is this a case of you yourself “being too clever by half”, figuring “Americans are too thick” to figure out Indra Nooyi’s nationality.
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If an American used an analogy that compared India to an anus - an important body part vital to the proper functioning of the body and a means of voiding poisonous substances, I think Indians would be incensed.
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Your analogy does not make sense from the nationality perspective. Then again it needs to built up to allocate each orifice of the human body (presumably anus which you have identified, the others being vagina, mouth, nose and ear ) to the different continents. Be sure to defend India’s pre-eminence as the PRC could take offence and demand being the Asian anus. I’ll then decide if I am incensed or not |
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06-06-2005, 15:27 PM
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#9 (permalink)
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Senior Contributor
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She was pretty clear in what she was saying. Extend the hand of friendship rather than the finger. She pretty much says it in your quotes of her speech.
Her speech was - benefit of the doubt here - intended as a warning. But by structuring the hand analogy the way she did she exposed herself (and i can't believe that she did it unwittingly) to the idea that if America is doing something alone, the middle finger is acting alone. When you use your middle finger in isolation, it means only one thing (as least in North America anyway). She knows this - hence why she made her coy remarks about people wishing her to demonstrate.
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06-06-2005, 16:58 PM
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#10 (permalink)
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What she CLEARLY meant was that the US is the country that's giving the world the middle finger...ie, fuccking the world.
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06-06-2005, 19:14 PM
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#11 (permalink)
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Senior Contributor
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I agree, thats why i can't believe she didn't know what she was saying.
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06-06-2005, 22:35 PM
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#12 (permalink)
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New Member
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Well trooth, i can't believe she didn't know either. |
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06-06-2005, 23:01 PM
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#13 (permalink)
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Contributor
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This is the most worthless thread ever.
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06-06-2005, 23:39 PM
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#14 (permalink)
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Ubi dubium ibi libertas
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Originally Posted by barrowaj
This is the most worthless thread ever.
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Wow that's sad.
__________________
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NEVER FORGET
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06-07-2005, 00:51 AM
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#15 (permalink)
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Lord High Hullabalooster
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Originally Posted by barrowaj
This is the most worthless thread ever.
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Why do you say that?
-dale |
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