PepsiCo is considered one of the most successful “academy companies,” corporations that have a rigorous, highly refined leadership development program that makes them veritable CEO factories. Only consulting firm McKinsey and fading industrial giant General Electric have produced more of today’s Fortune 500 CEOs than PepsiCo’s total 16. (Male PepsiCo alums currently leading Fortune 500 companies include the CEOs of Target, McDonald’s, Albertsons, and Delta Air Lines.)

In a new feature for the December/January issue of Fortune, I dive into how PepsiCo has turned so many executives into the leaders of today’s corporate America. When a promising manager starts to garner notice at PepsiCo, earning the untold status of “hi-po” or hi-potential person, she or he gains access to training programs, stretch assignments in other divisions or international markets, and even a P&L, all benchmarks for rising in the ranks and eventually landing in C-suite jobs. “Hi-pos” have included former PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi, who led the company between 2006 and 2018.

All courtesy of companies

Forty-three percent of PepsiCo managers are female. Not everyone ends up in the C-suite, of course, but the formal structure has made it easier for PepsiCo to identify and nurture female talent in its ranks. What’s more, alums have praised PepsiCo for providing room for failure that helps a rising star make a name for herself. “PepsiCo gave me the space to fail and gave me the resources and support to dust myself off and find solutions to these challenges,” Pernod Ricard North America CEO Ann Mukherjee, another PepsiCo alum, told me.

PepsiCo’s system makes it clear what’s needed to ascend to its upper echelons. Contrast that to the opacity that commonly disadvantages women elsewhere. “At most companies, it’s a black box,” said Jane Stevenson, global leader for the CEO succession practice at consulting firm Korn Ferry. “How do you become CEO? How do you get to the C-suite? You’re on your own to figure that out.”

With so many PepsiCo alumni mimicking the company’s leadership development programs at the corporations they end up running, the playing field for women could be leveled at organizations beyond the drinks and snacks giant.

Read my full feature here.

Phil Wahba
phil.wahba@fortune.com
@philwahba

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