NEW YORK, Aug 7 — Indra Nooyi’s 12-year tenure as PepsiCo Inc’s chief executive officer gave her the rare perspective of a woman running one of the world’s biggest corporations, and she’s taking away plenty of lessons about life at the top.

Here are some of her thoughts from a wide-ranging interview that covered activist shareholders, sugar’s bad reputation and how best to follow in her footsteps.

Future of sugar

“We started our journey in 2006 saying we wanted to invest in sweetener technology to reduce sugar levels in beverages and double down on great-tasting no-sugar beverages... We are going to focus more on zero-calorie or lower-calorie beverages, or beverages with positive nutrition like protein or juice drinks.”

“Society has changed. We have to go where society is going. So if we have to shift our portfolio, we will. ... We tripled R&D spending and a lot went into new sweeteners and technologies to reduce salt and use healthy oils for snacks. Consumer-products companies in general should be watching the consumer and pivoting a little bit ahead of the consumer.”

Dealing with activists

“Rather than criticise activists, my point is let’s use activists as valuable consulting advice. They come in with a point of view, we listen to them. All of us are internal activists in the company. I own 48 times my salary in PepsiCo stock. And that’s my entire net worth. I look at this and go, ‘I have a huge vested interest in the success of this company.”’

“If an activist walks in with a brilliant idea — a brilliant idea — on how to create even more value on a sustained long-term basis that can be implemented, why shouldn’t I listen to this person? No one has a lock on ideas.

“But if they come in with an idea that’s going to ruin the company and create a crisis, that’s not a way to run a company for the long term. Any activist, we always talk to them with respect. The good news is we’ve remained friends long after they’ve left us. Nelson Peltz and I have remained friends. He had a point of view, I listened and he listened to mine. So I have to give him credit on that too. And he made a lot of money and he left.”

Being a CEO

“The world has gotten more complex, more volatile. Anyone who wants to be CEO has a healthy dose of four things:

IQ — great brains and ability to absorb a lot of material. EQ — you have to hold onto people and make them feel they are really part of the company.

“And the new thing is GQ: A global understanding and empathy. You have to be willing to go into every country and be a citizen of that country. If you don’t have the ability to be local in every country, whatever your business, you won’t be able to engage people from that country.

“Last, it’s a cycle: You’ve got to be a lifelong student. Just because you’re a CEO doesn’t mean you can stop learning. We all have to keep learning all the new things. If we don’t learn all the new skills, how do we get the organization to embrace those new skills?

“We have to bring it to life. Things like AI: What’s the impact on the company? Why do we have to learn all about it? Why invest in it? We have to bring all these new technologies to life through examples, analogues.

“So I think the CEO job is a tough one, but if you are willing to have IQ, EQ, GQ and be a lifelong student, man, go for it. It’s a great job. You have a huge canvas to paint on.”

Nooyi’s legacy

“Performance with purpose. We have to weave into the narrative a new way to make money as companies. Not give away money. Make money. Performance with purpose is about making money in a way that is sensitive to the societies we serve and the future needs of consumers. This new narrative on how to make money in a responsible and sustainable way is what I feel most proud of.” — Bloomberg