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Steve Reinemund       1 | 2 | 3

Al Erisman, executive-in-residence in the School of Business and Economics at Seattle Pacific University, spoke with Steve Reinemund, dean of Wake Forest University's two business schools and former CEO of Pepsico, about what's happened recently to business leaders — and how we can fix it.

The interview was originally published in the June 2010 issue of Comment Magazine under the title "Connecting Faith and Corporate Leadership" (pages 14–20). It is reproduced by permission.

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Al Erisman: When you look back on your time at PepsiCo, what achievements bring you the most satisfaction?

Steve Reinemund: : In my final role as chairman and CEO, I had the opportunity to set the agenda for the corporation and what we stood for, so that was probably the most satisfying. However, all of the roles through the years were meaningful to me.

Three things stand out. First, I was able to work on things like articulating the values of the organization with our people from PepsiCo around the world. We committed to a process wherein we would challenge ourselves when we did not live up to those values we aspired to represent.

Another was the area of diversity and inclusion, and the importance of these both as a business imperative and as the right thing to do.

Diversity is an extension of respect for the individual. We articulated very clear positions on what we wanted to be in terms of diversity as an inclusive environment, and we measured our resources and reflected our results in our performance reviews and compensation.

The third was in the area of health and wellness. We wanted to encourage both our associates and our consumers to look at their health and wellness in ways we hadn't articulated before. We examined our product portfolio and actively looked for ways to improve our process, develop new healthy options, and seek out companies that we could acquire to bring in products that we could build on to expand our focus on healthy foods.

These three areas are where I spent a large part of my discretionary time as the chairman.

AE: Are there some things you wish you had done differently?

SR: I am certainly conscious of the fact that I make mistakes like everyone, but as a general practice, I look forward and not backward. There is nothing that dramatically pops out as something I would do differently. That said, I would be the first to say we didn't do everything right.

AE: Which influences from your time at PepsiCo have affected your work as dean at Wake Forest?

SR: One of my major objectives, and one of the reasons I took this position, was to help young people find their fire, passion, or calling — whatever word you want to use. So many young people today — and, frankly, people of all generations — are seeking to find where they fit.

What is right for them? Where can they make their contribution to society? What is unique about them that aligns with something meaningful they can pursue? My passion at this point in my life is to help people find answers to these questions.

I spent 30 years in business, understanding what it takes to do different jobs and what kind of jobs require which kind of skills, and now, I am building on that knowledge and experience to help young people find a meaningful vocation. I probably spend at least 25 percent of my time directly with students. I speak in different classes, and next year I am starting a class with our vice president for career development, Andy Chan, on finding your passion.

One of my pet programs here is a master's degree in management for recent liberal arts grads with no prior work experience. We have 90 students from 26 different schools, with a heavy emphasis toward diversity: 45 percent underrepresented minorities and 45 percent women, an unusual demographic for a business program.

It has been exciting to watch these very smart, broad-thinking liberal arts undergraduate students with no prior understanding of business and see how they change over the course of the year.

AE: How did your faith affect how you thought about business while at PepsiCo?

SR: This looked different for me, and likely for others, at two different stages of my career. In the early part, I needed to learn about myself as a leader, developing as a whole person and a contributing member of the team. Developing my moral compass, my work ethic, and my understanding and respect for individuals were all deeply seeded in my strong faith.

In the second stage, I had the opportunity to take actions to influence the organization and society.

Read part two of Al Erisman's interview with Steve Reinemund.