Business people need to re-educate themselves: Nooyi

Corporate leaders need to go back to school to re-educate themselves that business is not only about making short-term profits but also sustaining long-term growth, advised India-born PepsiCo Chairman and CEO Indra Nooyi.

Business is not just about making short-term profits, she said, while addressing global leaders at the 41st World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting at the Alpine resort here. The annual meeting is being attended by host of CEOs, government leaders and also spiritual gurus.

"We believe that short-term profits and long-term sustainability are not mutually exclusive," she said, adding the role of management cannot be defined in such a narrow manner, which means profit maximisation.

Management success, she regretted, has been defined in an extremely narrow way, which mean maximising profits for shareholders without considering long-term goals such as sustainability.

The corporate mindset, she said, still regards adopting sustainability as a matter of resolving conflicts or trade-offs.

Chennai-born Nooyi is Chief of PepsiCo, which is one of the world's leading company in snacks, food and beverages. The company operates in 200 countries with an annual revenue of about $60 billion.

Nooyi became CEO of the company in 2006 and Chairman a year later in 2007.