Umran Beba, Senior Vice President and Chief HR Officer, PepsiCo AMENA

The early bird catches the worm

No one can ever forget the beloved drink of their childhood – Pepsi. This beverage was introduced in 1893 as Brad’s Drink. Five years later, it was renamed Pepsi-Cola after the digestive enzyme pepsin and kola nuts used in the recipe. This all-time drink is manufactured and produced by PepsiCo Inc., one of the world’s largest conglomerates in the Food & Beverage industry.

Headquartered in New York, PepsiCo was established in 1965 with the merger of the Pepsi-Cola Company and Frito-Lay, Inc. It has since delivered a complimentary food and beverage portfolio, providing a variety of choices to consumers. PepsiCo products are available around the world in over 200 countries and territories, and the brand portfolio includes 22 F&B brands that generate more than US$1 billion each in estimated annual retail sales. This year, the corporation celebrates 50 years of achievements and successes as a combined food and beverage company.

On top of providing delicious refreshments and snacks to consumers around the world, PepsiCo works according to a set of goals that add to its resolve and success. The company strongly believes that business and society can thrive together. Therefore, it is committed to achieving business and financial success while leaving a positive impact on society through its business mantra and mission, Performance with Purpose.

PepsiCo operates with this unique objective in mind, which aims to help people to lead healthier lives. It also keeps an eye on the environment, and applies innovative solutions to cut costs and minimize its manufacturing impact on the environment. Moreover, when it comes to diversity in the workplace, it is probably fair to say PepsiCo runs the show. With employees coming from every corner of the world, diversity has always been a key element in PepsiCo’s enviable success.

The company’s strength is in its leadership and its people. PepsiCo leaders never rest on their laurels, taking the company from strength to strength and improving consumer experience. Executive Women had a one-on-one with Umran Beba, Senior Vice President and Chief HR Officer, PepsiCo Asia, Middle East and North Africa (AMENA) to hear about her journey with PepsiCo that spans two decades of perseverance in leadership and managerial positions across the region and beyond.

A close up on Umran Beba, Senior Vice President and Chief HR Officer, PepsiCo AMENA

Umran Beba started her career with PepsiCo in Turkey – her home country – in 1994 as the Marketing Director for the snacks business. With hard work and persistence, she has consistently contributed to the company’s development in different roles across a variety of countries. Prior to assuming her current position in Dubai, Umran was President of PepsiCo’s Asia-Pacific region, a business spanning 25 markets with approximately 4,400 direct employees.

Earlier in her career, she was President of PepsiCo’s South East Europe Region, covering 14 markets including Turkey, Greece, Cyprus and the Balkans. Umran has also served as the Business Unit General Manager for East Mediterranean, comprising Turkey and several Levant countries including Lebanon and Jordan.

Ever since she started her PepsiCo career at Frito-Lay in Turkey, Umran has seized new challenges and strived to grab every opportunity that has come her way. She is determined to consistently push ahead with her career, achieving great results and driving success for the company.

Umran is a great supporter of PepsiCo’s Performance with Purpose goals. During her time as President of PepsiCo Asia-Pacific, the region was home to WaterHope, a collaborative social enterprise that aims to bring clean drinking water to one million people by 2015. Under her leadership, the region also launched sustainable initiatives in Australia, Thailand and the Philippines. Umran is also a dedicated advocate of diversity and inclusion.

Moving with her family from one country to another has granted Umran a wealth of international exposure but she is also a firm believer that success comes from within.

One on one with Umran Beba

When you joined PepsiCo in 1994, did you know that you wanted to grow vertically within the company or was it circumstances that took you to where you are now?

My career has always been important to me and I have always known that working for a multinational company would give me the opportunity to grow and achieve my maximum potential. I have not planned every role and every move but I have always kept an open mind and taken on challenges without over analyzing them. Even when they seemed difficult, I was excited by the opportunities presented.

I joined PepsiCo, Turkey in 1994 as the Marketing Director for the snacks business. At that time, I had about 8 years of experience in consumer insights and marketing. After 18 months in that role, I was asked to take on a Human Resources Director role – and I accepted the offer the next day. After 3 years in Human Resources, I worked as a Commercial Director and this prepared me for General Management

It was a great journey moving from Consumer Insights-Marketing to Human Resources to Sales to General Management. After that, it was all about moving on from a single country General Management role to a multi country one and ultimately a President role. Throughout my career, I have experienced a lot of excitement and opportunities to learn and deliver results with different teams. I like setting the agenda and the vision and achieving results. There is a very powerful saying that “chances come to prepared minds” and I try to remain true to this.

What were the challenges you faced in your career and what encouraged you to move forward and on?

I started working immediately after graduation and haven’t stopped – I have had some great experiences and made some fantastic memories throughout my 29-year career. In every role, I have been able to deliver results with my teams, add value and learn something new. I have also been recognized for my achievements in different ways, either in brand marketing, human resources-salesman selection tool development, best three-year performance market unit, best place to work for women and best place for advancement of women.

Learning should never stop. If it does, the joy stops. In some roles, you wait a little longer than you want, which can at times be frustrating, but with patience and resilience, you can move on and grow. It is important to never lose hope, work within your network and continue delivering great results.

In some roles, you will face tough external conditions such as inflation, devaluation, natural disasters and security challenges. I have experienced a lot of these, particularly inflation and devaluation while working in Turkey and natural disasters and security challenges in the other countries I have worked in.

The other critical aspect is to balance your work and personal life. I got married in 1996 and had my first son in 2001 and my second in 2004. As I was growing in the organization, I started traveling a lot and then in 2010, I moved with my family to Hong Kong to take on the Asia Pacific President role. In 2013, we moved to Dubai for my current role. Throughout these years, my husband, Prof. Ali Beba, has been very supportive of my work, travels and career progression. Relocating the whole family is not easy and my husband had to engage with new universities in new locations for his work. He also had to leave his business and role as a Professor in Turkey to move to Hong Kong and later to Dubai. Without my husband’s support and my children’s willingness to move, it wouldn’t have been possible for me to succeed and progress. Thus, I am really thankful for this. Today, we are truly an international family and our children learn every day to adapt and become more agile.

How were you able to shift across different disciplines and functions and grow in general management and president roles, and where do you find yourself the most?  

You need to know what you want to accomplish and in which direction you want to head. I started in Marketing and then moved into General Management. Taking on a Human Resources role was a critical move to help me progress into General Management. Coming back to Human Resources recently has helped me broaden my experience and my exposure to new markets and to our corporate head office. I am thankful to PepsiCo for these opportunities.

It is important to keep an open mind. Sometimes you take risks, yet you need to believe in yourself and in the organization. As long as you have an open mind, a good learning approach and an end goal in mind, you will succeed.

I am good at setting a vision, driving results with my teams and moving the agenda forward. You can do this in General Management, Human Resources or Marketing and Sales. It is all about setting a goal, having a passion to reach it, empowering your teams and enjoying your role and what you do.

What is your educational background – in which university did you study and in what ways did it help you achieve your accomplishments of today?

I graduated from Robert College, an American high school in Turkey, before studying Industrial Engineering at Bogazici University. I pursued my studies and got an MBA from the same university. Both institutions are among Turkey’s top schools and I was extremely lucky to attend them – they were both great places that combined academics and social activities.

I performed Turkish folk dancing for 12 years and was leading the Folklore Club in both schools during my graduation years. During this period, I learned a lot in terms of managing multiple priorities, different styles, personalities and stakeholders. When graduating from university, I was given the highest Rector award. I am still thankful to my professors for their confidence in me. This has truly prepared me for my future.

Why choose sustainability? And how do you advocate diversity and inclusion in the region?

Sustainability is really in PepsiCo’s DNA; it is part of our corporate culture. Our belief is that it is not just something that is nice to do or something that merely sounds good as part of a corporate message – practicing sustainability throughout our business is a must. By following our Performance with Purpose ethos, we actively seek ways to minimize our impact on the environment, to reduce our operating costs, to provide an inclusive environment for our employees wherever they are in the world, and to respect, support, and invest in the local communities that we operate in. This goes hand in hand with how we conduct our business and is not something we do on the side.

On a personal level, I care about the environment. As a mother, I want to ensure that my children have a great future to look forward to, and that includes enabling them to inherit a planet that is in its best possible condition. My passion for sustainability is all about caring for the world I live in and wanting to provide a better future for my children, their children and for humanity at large. Liter of Light, which provides sustainable lighting solutions for disadvantaged homes and villages without access to electricity, is a great project of this nature that we support at PepsiCo. This project started in Asia Pacific when I was President.

Like sustainability, diversity and inclusion are core elements of our company’s philosophy. We consider this more than just a slogan, but rather a way of living our corporate culture. It is something we truly believe in, thereby making it a solid component of our everyday business. PepsiCo believes that the more diverse our workforce is the more everyone and the company benefits. By bringing people together from different cultures, backgrounds and ethnicities, we are building a wealth of opinions and ideas, which contribute to a rich culture and stronger consumer insights.

We are all about encouraging our employees to bring their whole self to work and providing the right environment for them to have open and candid discussions. By having such a diverse workforce, truly reflective of our consumer population with its complexity and diversity, our business decisions are able to be fully reflective of what the consumer wants. This results in the creation of more insightful initiatives that really touch the hearts of people, no matter where they come from. The added benefit to this is, of course, having the everyday ability to identify new market opportunities by having colleagues who are truly in tune with the communities in which we operate.

As an example of how diversity and inclusion works within PepsiCo, it is known that women in most parts of the world, including the Middle East have an enormous influence when it comes to product purchasing decisions. It therefore makes sense for us to have a strong female representation within our business, so that we can create strategies and make decisions that will have a positive influence on the driving force behind the majority of purchases, without excluding other members of society. To this end, we believe in female representation throughout the company, while ensuring the inclusion of local leaders at all levels.

How do you manage to be part of many women empowering associations worldwide – In HK, Turkey, Switzerland –and what does time management bring to this personal, yet communitarian initiative?

I believe in sharing our experiences and passions for good causes, as well as diversity and inclusion and equal representation of women in the workplace. As such, I try to support organizations and initiatives in these areas as much as I can. It is about selecting the right partners, organizations and initiatives where we can add value and drive results together.

Women International Networking, which is based in Lausanne and was founded by Kristin Engvig, is a great organization that supports women in all areas of value creation and I am an Advisory Council member. Together, we established a forum in Japan, which promotes equality in the workplace – a strategic need in the country. I have also supported the diversity and inclusion initiatives of our joint venture in Japan, Calbee, where I have been a board member for 5 years. I also support More Women for Boards, a Turkish initiative, by providing mentoring to senior women.

Lending my support to these programs takes a couple of hours a month. However, it is worth investing time when you see the positive impact you help create in terms of having more women in the workplace and on boards with better skills. Being part of these networks provides an opportunity to give back to the society and share knowledge. As a woman, I believe we have a responsibility to create support networks and advocate for the development of young and emerging women leaders. The time I make for these commitments is important to me as it allows me to contribute to developing women talent through sharing knowledge and mentorship and coaching, which are valuable skills for new women leaders.

What in your opinion is the added value of PepsiCo’s mission and vision?

Our Mission and Vision guide our everyday actions, in particular through ourPerformance with Purpose mantra. Performance with Purpose means providing a wide range of foods and beverages from treats to healthy eats; finding innovative ways to minimize our impact on the environment and reduce our operating costs; providing a safe and inclusive workplace for our employees globally, and respecting, supporting and investing in the local communities where we operate.

Overall, our Mission and Vision drives us to achieve greater levels of innovation and sustainability, while helping our company realize the full power and potential of our brands. We do this while striving to empower women and create more inclusive environments. The added value of this mission of Performance with Purpose is to continuously enable us to do what is good for our business while at the same time doing what is good for the world around us through sustainability.

In what ways does the PepsiCo work environmental structure help employees become more motivated and how does it bring the best out of them?

As a global company operating around the world in different contexts and countries, we continuously look at ways to adapt in the local environment in which we operate. Our company values and code of conduct are the guiding force behind our day to day business interactions and are a key reason for our success. Our values, which PepsiCo people around the world abide by, are all about empowered people, acting responsibly and building trust for sustained growth. We also have a number of guiding principles, amongst which are providing products we are proud of, caring for the world we live in, and speaking with truth and candor.

Our employees have direct access to their leaders, and are invited to open discussions and to raise challenges with them. Open communication on this level is very encouraging, as it ensures that everyone has a voice that can be heard.

Our company also has a flexible working policy, which enables our employees to feel empowered and trusted to make the right choices for themselves and our business. This gives employees the opportunity to create a better work-life balance, by having some choice over when, where and how they work. Knowing your company has trust in you increases your engagement, and motivates employees to work better and more efficiently.

On a final note, but by no means least, PepsiCo aims to increase the level of engagement amongst our employees by creating opportunities to give back to the local community, in line with Performance with Purpose. We have a volunteering program in Dubai, Together We Can, enabling employees to do just that. Some of the projects we participate in are Water for Workers andRestart the Art. In Asia we have the Centre of Excellence for Business Skills Development, which is in partnership with the Myanmar Ministry of Education, the Yangon Institute of Economics and UNESCO, and provides vocational training to the young people of Myanmar to help them successfully transition into the workforce.

Do you follow any particular schedule yourself? What are the parts of the day where you find yourself productive the most and how do you manage to multitask?

I travel a lot for work. Therefore, I don’t have a particular schedule. Since I have a large geography to cover, I work with people in different time zones. When I go to the office first thing in the morning, Asia is up and then the Middle East, and in the evenings, I connect with the corporate office in the USA. I am generally a morning person so I am more productive in the early hours of the day.

Work can often be quite busy so I have a few firm rules that I abide by. No matter where I am in the world, I try to be back in the UAE on Friday so I can spend time with my family. Fridays are typically my resting days where I read, go for a walk on the beach and focus on life outside of work.

Is there any particular diet you stick to in order to canalize your energy? Is Pepsi included in your daily drinks?

I follow a typical Turkish diet, which is rooted in the Mediterranean cuisine style, with lots of fish, vegetables and fruits. I always start my day with breakfast, a habit I developed during my pregnancies. I like Quaker Oats, which I personalize with feta cheese, milk, honey and strawberries for a Mediterranean flavor. I often drink Turkish tea and orange juice with this. I like nuts, fruits and salads to snack on and try not to skip meals. My evening meal is usually fish or chicken with salads and vegetables. I also enjoy a pack of Lays between meals with Diet Pepsi.

How would you describe your fashion style and are you brand-oriented?

As I was involved in folklore for 12 years, I have an interest in ethnic and cultural dresses, which are now modernized. For many years, I wore Western style dresses but after moving to Hong Kong and working in Asia, I have developed my own cultural look with a modern touch.

What is your message to a fresh graduate who just stepped into the business world?

Your first few jobs will be about exploring. After that, it is about setting your goals and being patient. I believe in continuous learning and having a few great mentors on the way.

Do what you love and never lose your passion. If you lose it then you have to find it again or re-create it. One spends too many hours at work to be doing something one doesn’t enjoy.

Finally, work for a company that has values in line with yours. For me working at PepsiCo and embracing Performance with Purpose is aligned with who I am as a person.

What is your message to women managers?

It is important for women – and not just managers – to identify their goal and purpose. They also have to recognize that it may take time to achieve those goals so it is vital to learn patience and perseverance. I would also say support from others is another critical area of focus. You cannot do everything on your own and nor should you. Many women do not reach out to their partners, family members or mentors when they should be asking for help – the people you surround yourself with will want to support you. Don’t try to be a superwoman, it is simply not possible!

What about your life motto? Do you follow any?

Be authentic, be positive and have an open mind.

View the Article on Executive Women Here