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By Mandy Murphy, General Manager; Foods at PepsiCo South Africa

The need to transform workplaces, embrace sustainability, and enshrine inclusion are now top priorities for businesses worldwide. This matters because these are critical and can be the difference between success and failure. Case in point, the business case for gender diversity on executive teams has doubled over the past decade as companies with a higher representation of women are significantly more likely to financially outperform those with lower representation.

Diversity, empowerment, and sustainability go hand-in-hand with transformative business leadership. It cannot exist without them. They are values that drive business growth in any sector or industry, including South Africa’s food industry. Market leaders are working to forge an inclusive and sustainable future, and they’re achieving it with the help of teams of professionals and visionaries who draw their power from their unique perspectives, experiences, and journeys.

About my journey…

I got my start in South Africa’s fishing industry, working across multiple business functions, including trading, procurement, marketing, and away-from-home (AFH) channels. That broad experience became the foundation for my career. Fast forward to the present and my role as General Manager for PepsiCo South Africa’s Foods portfolio and that experience has grown and evolved, giving me an understanding of not only business operations, but also how personal identity is a factor in fulfilling my responsibilities and achieving company goals.

Along the way, I learnt some important lessons about leadership. For instance, I learnt that effective leadership is dependent on one’s confidence in their abilities, including a willingness to embrace new challenges and help inspire confidence in my peers. To be good at what they do, leaders need to take ownership of their professional development, build their networks and enhance their skill sets. Leaders should never be afraid to ask questions or lose sight of their curiosity. Those qualities are what set leaders apart and are change drivers in their organisations.

Championing people and investing in the future

While South Africa has outperformed its peers in terms of incorporating women into senior leadership roles, that performance has largely been driven by government-owned organisations and less by private enterprises. Much work still needs to be done in the private sector and by consistently advocating for female inclusion in leadership, we help businesses be the best they can be. At the same time our efforts can lead to improved financial performance, decreases in strategic and operational risks, and an overall enhanced corporate social responsibility (CSR) standing, helping businesses position themselves as change drivers , willing to embrace the diversity and multiculturalism that South Africa embodies. 

In my personal experience, a good example of this is our recently founded Women’s Inclusion Network (WIN), a programme where senior, seasoned female (and male) employees offer mentorship and a sounding board to junior and upcoming female associates. WIN helps members of our team who are relatively inexperienced in the corporate world, to fully understand and integrate into the workplace, kickstarting their professional journeys, and helping them to target and eventually reach their true potential. They are, after all, the people who will help steer the organisation into the future.

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Embracing sustainability

For our organisation specifically, the path to growth and transformation is an end-to-end sustainability strategy that places corporate environmental and social responsibility at the centre of what we do. This involves operating within planetary boundaries to create value and growth, transforming business across operations and value chains to inspire positive change, and investing in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) programmes that not only strengthen the business, but empower and benefit all its stakeholders.

I strongly support the idea that sustainability needs to be integrated into everything that we do as a business and is the responsibility of all employees, not just those on the sustainability team. That responsibility extends beyond the farm, factory or office and into the communities that we form part of. Since 2021 and the launch of PepsiCo Positive , we have been on a journey to transform the way we make, move, sell and package our products, all while leveraging our brands to inspire people and contribute to sustainable, socioeconomic development. 

Leadership is all about having an impact

Leadership does not mean much if it doesn’t involve striving to create change or positively influence people or the business. It is about more than just personal success and should be approached as an investment in oneself and a legacy you leave to those who take over when you’ve moved on. South Africa’s food industry, and indeed the global food industry, stands to benefit from female leaders who know what it takes to win, are driven by ambition, and consistently guide and realise broader objectives.

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