PepsiCo, Inc. (NYSE:PEP)‘s Indra Nooyi has made visionary moves to evolve PepsiCo, Inc. (NYSE:PEP)’s business for the long term, and building trends, like healthier food and beverage choices. Regardless, this past summer, Trian Fund Management’s head Nelson Peltz agitated in favor of splitting PepsiCo, Inc. (NYSE:PEP)’s beverage and snack foods divisions, and acquiring Mondelez International Inc (NASDAQ:MDLZ), Kraft‘s international business spin-off that has experienced financial choppiness. He pushed for the split-up to begin with.
Mondelez International Inc (NASDAQ:MDLZ), which also happens to have a female CEO, Irene Rosenfeld, has compiled rebuttals to Peltz’s recommendations. PepsiCo, Inc. (NYSE:PEP) doesn’t seem responsive to the idea either — not surprisingly.
Dissecting the big dis
Obviously some women are leading the charge, revealing their smarts, long-term visions, practical views of risk management, and real-value creation. Although some forces may seek to downplay their temperament for business and investing, the more that join in, the better the future will be.
The Atlantic‘s in-depth piece digs deeper into reasons why women flee Wall Street. Some reasons aren’t even nefarious, but illustrate the complexities of change and progress. Most people know that Wall Street’s intensity and pace doesn’t always make for a rewarding personal life. That can relate to the strongly male-dominated atmosphere, but also relates to choices involving a better work/life balance.
The article outlined intense pressure, long hours, wheeling, dealing, and networking. Women can face difficulties fitting in as change plays out. Even though some men truly have no personal problem with female colleagues, others may not know how to approach or socialize with their female peers. Sometimes, unfair situations simply involve current realities. Of course, they can change. The thing is, change is difficult to achieve when there’s such an understood status quo.
Challenges for all of us
My first response to the articles was anger, and the sadness of societal and cultural unfairness and myopia that fears instead of embraces “difference.” Still, I want to believe that, as more women do move forward in formerly male-dominated industries like Wall Street, that more problems will be ironed out, including greater recognition that cognitive diversity makes for robust business and the ability to invest in much stronger companies.
Through corporate governance failures, and management-centric cultures, all shareholders — of all genders, races, lifestyles, shapes, sizes, lifestyles, and so forth — are also too often disrespected, whether it’s purposely or not. When merit goes unnoticed, we fail; that’s why topics like this one are important to everyone, including investors. Eliminating the groupthink, embracing change and forgetting about what supposedly “always worked in the past,” and looking at reality, are all important pieces of investing — and life.
The article Disrespecting, Disappointing, and Disheartening Awesome Investors originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Alyce Lomax.
Alyce Lomax has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends PepsiCo and Yahoo!. The Motley Fool owns shares of PepsiCo.
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