The Rausing Executive Development Centre (REDC) at LUMS conducted an experiential programme on ‘Leadership Excellence at PepsiCo’ from October 7-9, 2019. The sessions aimed to develop a deep understanding of the guiding principles of PepsiCo’s vision of winning with purpose. The programme encompassed a cohesive view of leadership challenges, self-awareness, valuing individual differences, organisational culture, values and employee alignment.
Led by LUMS faculty members, Dr. Jamshed Hasan Khan and Dr. Jawad Syed, the sessions highlighted implications of being customer centric, leading change initiatives successfully and collaborating for results to achieve optimum success in today’s competitive market. The programme also emphasised how to leverage social networks to encourage change in organisations.
The session commenced with a motivational address by Furqan Syed, General Manager and Vice President PepsiCo. Saad Munawer, Marketing Director PepsiCo, also gave a short address and shared that change is a huge challenge and accepting the change and carrying it forward dauntlessly requires awareness, skillset, training and a winning mindset. Atif Tufail, Chief Human Resources Officer, Akhuwat Foundation, was a guest speaker at the session and shared interesting insights on influential leadership and employee alignment with organisational values which can lead to the organisation’s exponential growth.
During course of the programme, participants were exposed to a hands-on approach to learning via self-assessment exercises, immersive and interactive simulations, and case studies from the global market to explore best practices and emerging trends and challenges in the industry for improving performance.
The programme was highly appreciated by the participants. Muhammad Sarmad Hassan, Financial Analyst Foods at PepsiCo, expressed his pleasure and said of the session, “Excellent course material, case studies, teaching staff and management. I really enjoyed my time here. Such programmes add great value to employees and it was immensely helpful for me. I look forward to use this learning in my professional life. Such programmes should be conducted more often for the professional development of employees.”
Another participant, Aiza Batool, R&D Manager (PepsiCo), echoed similar sentiments, “The analogies and philosophic connections of all the terms used by both professors was very fruitful. I have attended so many such programmes arranged by PepsiCo in the last 11 years, this by far was the best. Simulation on Leading Change Initiatives was very interesting and useful in the context of change management.”
