Not preaching, suggesting, recommending, says Indra Nooyi on never asked for raise comment

Born in Chennai, Indra Nooyi graduated from the Madras Christian College and studied management at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Calcutta before moving to Yale University in the US for a master's degree.

After creating some internet buzz for her comments on never asking for a raise, the former chairperson and CEO of PepsiCo, Indra Nooyi has now clarified her stance.

In an interview with the New York Times Magazine, Nooyi has said that she has never, ever, ever asked for a raise as she found it cringeworthy and cannot imagine working for somebody and saying my pay is not enough.

She was asked how her attitude about money changed as she moved further ahead in her career when she was handsomely compensated. The interview notes that Nooyi's compensation for 2017, the year after which she stepped down as PepsiCo CEO, was about USD 31 million.

Nooyi said that she and her husband Raj Nooyi have lived in the same house in Connecticut for over 30 years.

Her comments drew flak on social media with netizens comparing Nooyi’s high pay as a CEO with an average worker. Some also wondered how Nooyi might have responded in a scenario where one of her former employees had asked for a raise.

However, Nooyi responded saying that she might have been taken out of context. Clarifying her statement, Nooyi told Fortune: “I was speaking the truth about my cultural upbringing and why it stopped me from asking for certain things. I talk about the immigrant’s fear. I’ve been honest about talking about myself. This is part of that whole package.”

Nooyi, 65, who helmed the beverage giant PepsiCo for 12 years and stepped down as its Chief Executive Officer (CEO) in 2018, has published a memoir My Life in Full'. Born in Chennai, she graduated from the Madras Christian College and studied management at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Calcutta before moving to Yale University in the US for a master's degree.

“I wish we were not that way. I wish we had the courage to go ask for it,” adding that since they didn’t come from much, “whatever we had we thought was a lot.”

“You can't take the cultural upbringing out of me. This was unique to me. This is not what I’m preaching at all, not what I'm suggesting, not what I'm recommending,” she told the publication.