Business Academic Skills Information 2022

Running Head: BUSINESS ACADEMIC SKILLS
ADVERTISING STRATEGIES
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Name

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BUSINESS ACADEMIC SKILLS
1.Indra Nooyi is considered as one of the world’s most powerful and innovative business leader
(Geer-Frazier, 2014.) as she has never believed in working in a way that says, “The boss is
always right!”, rather believes in an encouraging and positive work environment. She has done
utmost justice when it came to providing a progressive leadership where the company would
uphold the cause of strategic leadership with a vision of uplifting the society. Indra Nooyi’s
leadership stood as a great example of how a company must not be just worried about the profit
figures but equally consider the necessity of applying positive framework and largely
concentrating on building up a socially responsible approach towards the society where the
business operates (Howell and Wanasika, 2018). Operating as a soft drink production company,
Nooyi significantly emphasized on promoting better health by lowering the sugar content or
other harmful elements in its soft drink. Nooyi can be placed on level 4 of pyramid of
leadership (Blanchard, 2018). She is no doubt an effective leader and always believes that
serving for the greater good on the society is the utmost responsibility of any organization.
However to reach the level 5 status she needs to be more innovative in her ways of making her
ideas more acceptable to all the employees. Nooyi also needs to encourage the whole team to
brainstorm more profitable ideas that would help to align organizational goals with social goals.
Thus the greatest strengths of Nooyi as a leader figure is her undaunted determination
to make PepsiCo a socially responsible company by extending the business towards healthier
lines of food production, her other potential strengths lie in good understanding of the employees
and helping the organization align the organizational goal with the needs and wants of the
employees (Cook, 2015). She believes that learning has no end and every new today does bring
in new opportunities for the people to learn better techniques of doing business sustainably.

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From the referred case study though there is no such weakness which is significant enough when
it comes to Nooyi’s Leadership style. However it might be accounted that initiating any bigger
change for instance her plan of shifting the production line to more healthy alternatives of
consumption or being increasingly concerned about the social good might not be well accepted
by the whole organization and put a drift on the smooth functioning of the business. Therefore it
is important to discuss well with the whole team about the new ideas to not only gain more
acceptance but also gain larger perspectives of how to better implement it and acquire the
required results. Leaders like Nooyi are born with the vision of going beyond the realms of the
usual business activity and engaging the talents in bringing social good as a primary concern for
the employees.
2. Leaders like Indra Nooyi have a much larger vision which goes beyond the realms of
maximizing profit. They intend to bring in the concept of sustainable development through their
business operational strategy. However it has been observed in the referred case study Indra
Nooyi larger vision of incorporating the notion of “Performance with Purpose” (JAIN, 2013) it
lost the battle of figures with its chief rival Coca-Cola Co which in turn brought a big question
mark of the leadership strategies of Nooyi. However like an ideal leader Nooyi always chose the
right path no matter how many follower she had. A strategic leader is expected to help the other
employees understand what his or her vision is and help them understand the greater prospect of
how the business would help the society at large (Williams, 2013). Nooyi always emphasized on
building up a strong and innovative leadership style that would help the employees understand
that for a business to survive and succeed it requires equal efforts and consistency on the part of
the employees as well as on the part of the senior management to help the whole organization

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focus on a united mission of not just earning profits or generating revenue but investing them in
gainful measures to benefit the society and harness the greater good from the business activities.
However if a leader’s vision does not seem to comply well with business target at present
it is expected from the leader that he or she will still stand strong to his or her ethos because
every leader is out to set an example. As a part of recommendation to be cited on such a
situation, it is very much necessary for a leader to not lose his or her calm, and try to make the
rest of the employees understand the objectives of his strategies. In case of financial failure it is
more important to conduct a thorough market analysis to understand how the current market is
responding and what necessary changes needs to be incorporated in the current plan. It is also
very necessary for the leader to keep a positive and democratic environment (Hendriks and
Karsten, 2014) which would help the business firm gain more insights and encourage
participation from its employees. Brainstorming and initiating varied opinions will help the
leader gain more insight regarding how well the new ideas are accepted by the employees.
Building Confidence among employees (Batista-Taran, et al. 2013) is the key strategy in
gaining more acceptance and building the required confidence among employees who would be
more generous in accepting new changes and work as a team in case of any failure. There should
be a constant effort on the part of the leader to help the organization understand the bigger
picture that the leader has in his or her mind and accordingly support his vision with the required
resources.
3. The philosophy that Nooyi beholds strongly believes in performance and purpose should go
hand in hand which in turn is largely believed by various big and small business firms for a basic
reason which is today business organization need to maintain a sound and healthy relation with

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employees and the society at large as it should intend to operate as a socially responsible
corporate identity as today’s dynamic business environment demand an organization to operate
with a vision of giving back to the society not just in terms of products or services but also
through serving the society and its people by uplifting their standard of living. Today’s most
global firm be it Apple Inc or Google functions with a purpose and always upholds the notion of
emerging out as a responsible corporate identity. This is very important considering the present
scenario because it is no more sufficient to just deliver the product or service but also serve the
society in broader terms.
This is exactly the reason why PepsiCo CEO Nooyi stood strong by this vision of
Performance with Purpose and concentrated on three main elements: human sustainability,
environment sustainability and overall development of employees or workers (Boons, et al.
2013). Nooyi stood strong to her believes and ensured on the fact that performance and purpose
must go hand in hand as both stands inseparable from the view point that performance without a
sound purpose takes away the integrity of the business operation and makes it shallow. Therefore
a leader must encourage such business operations which intends to justify and align business
goals with social goals.
4. Yes, it is true that PepsiCo’s revenue has remained flat since past few years but it is also
equally true that investors do see high potential of growth regarding the business operation of
PepsiCo. Thus going the leadership strategies of Indra Nooyi PepsiCo now intends to concentrate
more on developing on healthier lines of food and beverage production which in turn is the
need of the hour. With the increased number of health diseases pertaining to unhealthy
consumption habits the plan of PepsiCo to shift to healthier lines of production is indeed a

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positive initiative for the firm to create a more sustainable and positive image in the society.
PepsiCo can also partner with varied event companies who promote causes of social good like
safeguarding environment or safeguarding employees from workplace harassments. Such
meaningful ventures will help the firm earn goodwill in the society along with attracting more
investors (Severi and Ling, 2013). Therefore it is necessary on the leader’s part to ascertain how
well these changes are received before implementing the same.
Thus from the above represented scenario it is very clear how a positive vision of a strategic
leader can be significantly helpful in molding the whole organization to abide by the principles
of sustainable development which might come out not so productive in shorter run but will
definitely help the brand strengthen its image in the society and create a new vision and direction
for similar brands in this dynamic business environment.

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References
Batista-Taran, L.C., Shuck, M.B., Gutierrez, C.C. and Baralt, S., 2013. The role of leadership
style in employee engagement.
Blanchard, K., 2018. Leading at a higher level: Blanchard on leadership and creating high
performing organizations. FT Press.
Boons, F., Montalvo, C., Quist, J. and Wagner, M., 2013. Sustainable innovation, business
models and economic performance: an overview. Journal of Cleaner Production, 45, pp.1-8.
Cook, N.D., 2015. Crisis management strategy: Competition and change in modern enterprises.
Routledge.
Geer-Frazier, B., 2014. Complexity leadership generates innovation, learning, and adaptation of
the organization. Emergence: Complexity and organization, 16(3), p.105.
Hendriks, F. and Karsten, N., 2014. Theory of democratic leadership. P.'t Hart & R. Rhodes
(Eds.), Oxford handbook of political leadership, pp.41-56.
Howell, J.P. and Wanasika, I., 2018. Snapshots of great leadership. Routledge.
JAIN, L., 2013. Corporate social responsibility

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Severi, E. and Ling, K.C., 2013. The mediating effects of brand association, brand loyalty, brand
image and perceived quality on brand equity. Asian Social Science, 9(3), p.125.
Williams, D.A., 2013. Strategic diversity leadership: Activating change and transformation in
higher education. Stylus Publishing, LLC..