Thaindian News

New York, Feb 23 (IANS) PepsiCo’s India-born chief Indra Nooyi is among Forbes’ list of 10 best women chief executive officers of large corporations based on their total return to investors since each woman took the top job. Nooyi is ranked 10th on the US business and finance magazine’ list published Friday. Her company has annual revenue of $39.47 billion, far more than the revenue of other companies on the list, most of which have yearly revenues ranging between $1 billion and $10 billion.

Forbes gives top rank to Catherine Burzik, head of Kinetic Concepts, a medical technology company, and number two to Meg Whitman of eBay, the online marketplace.

PepsiCo under Nooyi, who took over as CEO in October 2006, gave investors annual return of 9.4 percent, and 13.1 percent cumulative. Standard & Poor (S&P) annualised return is 2.6 percent while industry average annualised return is 0.4 percent, according to the magazine.

In comparison, Kinetic Concepts, under Burzik, gave total return of 37.6 percent annual and 50 percent cumulative. The S&P annual return is 0.1 percent while the industry average annual return is 9.6 percent.

eBay under Whitman had total return of 32.5 percent annual and 1,303 percent cumulative. S&P annual return: 4.4 percent while the industry average annual return is 2.4 percent.

Paying a compliment to the women CEOs on the list, Forbes magazine said stock performance had as much to do with corporate leadership as it had to do with the state of the marketplace.

The magazine said of about 1,000 public companies with at least $1 billion in annual revenue, there are 30 female chief executives in its database. A dozen of these companies have shown total returns greater than their industry peers, with a minimum length of time in office of the CEO of a year and a half.

Nooyi’s strategy and style of functioning at the global food and soft drinks behemoth has been analysed by Fortune magazine in a cover story in its current issue. The magazine had earlier rated her the world’s most powerful businesswoman in 2006 and 2007.

Fortune analysed that Nooyi’s strategy is to grow PepsiCo by mergers and acquisitions. Also, at a time when people are getting more and more health conscious, she has added “better for you” and “good for you” products to “fun for you” foods and drinks category.