• The Wall Street Journal , Thursday, September 11, 2008 10:15 AM

Indra Nooyi, PepsiCo's chairman and chief executive, says that she usually has a bowl of plain Quaker oatmeal and a glass of Tropicana juice with lots of pulp for breakfast. For lunch, she likes Lay's Kettle chips, heated for about 10 or 15 seconds, and drinks Mirinda Orange, an overseas brand. She also eats chips for dinner every night, substituting them for the traditional crisp in Indian cuisine called a papadum. If it's not Kettle chips, it's Vickie's Simply Sea Salt or Jalapeño. And "ice-cold Pepsi is to die for," she says.

Nooyi says she keeps up with changes by hopping in the car on weekends and going somewhere on a market tour. "I listen to kids talk about what they're consuming, what they're doing, what they're not doing." She also reads a lot -- not only business magazines but also "People and Vanity Fair and anything close to the cutting edge of the culture. Even the AARP magazine."

As for the sliding market share of Gatorade and recent management changes, Nooyi says: "I think every five or seven years, you've got to change out the approach to the brand, because you need a new boost of energy to think about the next iteration. Brands never die. You only stop reinventing them."

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