Audiences flocked to the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature last night to hear Indra Nooyi, ranked among the world’s 100 most powerful women, share insights from her memoir, My Life in Full. The former CEO and Chair of PepsiCo who is currently on the board of Amazon, spoke about her legendary career as the first woman of colour and immigrant to run a Fortune 50 company in the United States.

Revered for her strategic thinking and global leadership, Nooyi revealed what it meant to shatter the glass ceiling and discussed how governments and corporations can create work environments that promote prosperity at a personal, societal, and ecological level. “The countries that have the best talent are the ones that will attract business,” she said. “If Dubai can make its businesses more family friendly, it will attract the best talent for the future.”

Nooyi spoke of the difficulties of juggling business success with the demands of managing a growing family. She said that the business model of treating people as an individual and not just part of the business was only just coming to the fore, but as this way of working develops, it will alleviate some of the pressures.

Nooyi also praised the supportive attitude of her husband and his family with regard to her career and emphasised the importance of educating girls so that they can play a more prominent role in business life. “One of the most profound things that needs to happen in society is to educate men in power on the importance of educating girls,” she said. “Husbands must make it clear to in-laws that women should not be treated badly and allowed to play a role in society.”

The Festival is held with Founding Partners Emirates Airline and the Dubai Culture & Arts Authority (Dubai Culture), the Emirate’s dedicated authority for heritage, arts, and culture.

The Emirates Airline Festival of Literature is held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and Ruler of Dubai.

More information about the Emirates Literature Foundation can be found online and year-round news of #EmiratesLitFest on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. The Foundation also has two podcasts; the Best of the Emirates LitFest, and the Boundless Book Club.