London, May 22: Pepsico CEO Indra Nooyi’s efforts to promote equality of women in business goes way beyond designing a maternity deal, but when it comes to choosing the American President she says only the best will do regardless of gender or race.

India-born Nooyi, who broke many barriers to become the US food and beverages giant’s first woman chief executive, said that in her view having the best president was more significant than having the first woman president or African-American president.

In an interview to CNBC European Business magazine, she said the biggest challenge she faced in making the corporate climate inclusive for women was figuring out how to accommodate women or people with special needs in the workforce without burdening those who have to compensate.

“We know the problem, but we’re still trying to find the solution,” she said when asked by interviewer Simon Hobbs if the culture she has created was more important overall, then, say a maternity deal.

Nooyi, who after much struggle overcame the personal guilt of not giving enough time to her family, said PepsiCo has created a very specific diversity and inclusion programme. “We set goals and time frames and held people accountable for getting to them. The first step was getting people in, but that’s only half the problem because if they leave it’s more painful for the organisation. “Step two is inclusion. For example, if a woman says something, don’t immediately interpret it as if a man said it, or expect a woman to react to a comment in the same way as a man. You will have a different dynamic with women, African- Americans or Latinos because each group is a product of their socio-economic culture,” she said.