Pepsico just gave us the finger

Effective October 1, Pepsico Inc. CFO
Indra K. Nooyi will replace Steven Reinemund as CEO, the Pepsi-Cola company said yesterday, making her the No. 2-ranked female Chief Executive Officer in the Fortune 500.

Nooyi is a native of India, she says she stays true to her heritage by often wearing a sari to Pepsico events. Forbes.com quotes her as saying: "Being a woman, being foreign-born, you've got to be smarter than anyone else."

I guess she wasn't sooo smart last year in a commencement address to Columbia Business School! In that address she compared the five continents of Africa, Asia, Europe, South America and North America to the human hand.

First, let’s consider our little finger. Think of this finger as Africa. Africa is the little finger not because of Africa’s size, but because of its place on the world’s stage. From an economic standpoint, Africa has yet to catch up with her sister continents. And yet, when our little finger hurts, it affects the whole hand.

Our thumb is Asia: strong, powerful, and ready to assert herself as a major player on the world’s economic stage.

Our index, or pointer finger, is Europe. Europe is the cradle of democracy and pointed the way for western civilization and the laws we use in conducting global business.

The ring finger is South America, including Latin America. Is this appropriate, or what? The ring finger symbolizes love and commitment to another person. Both Latin and South America are hot, passionate, and filled with the sensuous beats of the mambo, samba, and tango: three dances that – if done right – can almost guarantee you and your partner will be buying furniture together.

This analogy of the five fingers as the five major continents leaves the long, middle finger for North America, and, in particular, The United States. As the longest of the fingers, it really stands out. The middle finger anchors every function that the hand performs and is the key to all of the fingers working together efficiently and effectively. This is a really good thing, and has given the U.S. a leg-up in global business since the end of World War I.

However, if used inappropriately – just like the U.S. itself - the middle finger can convey a negative message and get us in trouble. You know what I’m talking about. In fact, I suspect you’re hoping that I’ll demonstrate what I mean. And trust me, I’m not looking for volunteers to model.

Discretion being the better part of valor...I think I’ll pass.

What is most crucial to my analogy of the five fingers as the five major continents, is that each of us in the U.S. – the long middle finger – must be careful that when we extend our arm in either a business or political sense, we take pains to assure we are giving a hand...not the finger. Sometimes this is very difficult. Because the U.S. – the middle finger – sticks out so much, we can send the wrong message unintentionally.

Unfortunately, I think this is how the rest of the world looks at the U.S. right now. Not as part of the hand – giving strength and purpose to the rest of the fingers – but, instead, scratching our nose and sending a far different signal.

She also shared a personal anecdote about some disrespectful U.S. businesswomen in an Asian country and how typical that is of Americans overseas.

I know one things for sure, the Ragister's RekHA Basu is rejoicing.

I'm also going to have to re-think my doing of Diet Dew!