Achievements
Andy Pearson knew how to make his people perform. Under Pearson’s direction PepsiCo Inc. drove its revenues from $1 billion to $8 billion. Together with David Novak he increased Tricon's store-level margins from 11% to 15%, boosted operating profit by 32%, and cut its debt in half, to $2.5 billion. But the most remarkable of his achievements is how he transformed himself into a new kind of boss.
Career Highlights
Born in Chicago, on June 3, 1925, Pearson – along with his twin brother, Richard - earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern California. At the end of World War II, they were both enlisted in the U.S. Navy for three years before attending Harvard Business School.
After a short stay at Standard Brands, Andy Pearson joined the management consulting firm of McKinsey & Co., where he rose from associate to senior director and was in charge of the firm's marketing practice. While there, Pearson was recruited as chief operating officer of PepsiCo and subsequently became the company’s president. He was at the vanguard of the "cola wars" and instrumental in global expansion.
After PepsiCo, Pearson became a tenured professor at Harvard Business School. At HBS, he focused on general management issues and practices. Later he became a chief executive of Yum! Brands (nee' Tricon Global Restaurants), the spin-out of Pepsi's restaurant chains including Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and Kentucky Fried Chicken. He also served on numerous public and nonprofit boards, including Citigroup, the May Company, TWA, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the New York University Medical Center.
Andy Pearson died March 11, 2006, in Palm Beach at the age of 80.
Leadership Experience
In 1980, Pearson was named by Fortune magazine as one of the "ten toughest bosses.” His chief weapons at the time were fear, surprise, and a fanatical devotion to the numbers. He was an effective CEO: His style worked. But everything changed when he have joined Tricon and met a true leader David Novak.
"My experience at Tricon represents the capstone of my career," once told Pearson. At Tricon, he saw a culture that elevates the common worker in a way that brings out the emotional drive and commitment that is at the heart of good work. As a result, Pearson absorbed what he saw in Novak's style and it slowly changed his own definition of leadership.
At age 76, Andy Pearson learned an entirely new set of leadership skills. He has found a new way to lead - one based on personal humility and employee recognition and transformed himself into a new kind of boss. This change of heart for Pearson became immediately apparent to everyone around him. Pearson's new leadership style was more than a way of relating to people. It involved the nuts and bolts of what he did from day to day, the processes that defined the company's operations. Where before, Pearson would have dealt with only a small team of direct reports, he was looking for contact with people at all levels. It was his responsibility to motivate people across the company. He believed that it's less important to issue orders than it is to seek answers and ideas from below.
Background Links
David Dorsey, Andy Pearson Finds Love, July 2001, Fast Company
Harvard Business School, March 14, 2006
