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Even though both women were influenced by music and sports in their youths, the specifics of their experiences diverge. Nooyi played in a rock band and an all-girls cricket team. Rosenfeld still loves playing the piano, opting for John Denver songs but preferring Bach and Vivaldi when she's listening. In high school, she was the point guard on the basketball team. In an interview with the Financial Times last summer, she explained why she liked the position. "You call the shots, you call the plays," she said. "I kind of went in and out of people's legs, and I still do that, to a large extent." Both are also familiar with the heat that comes when failing to satisfy investors. In late 2011, Nooyi was facing intense criticism because Pepsi had been losing market share to Coca-Cola over the years. The New York Post -- which is known for cartoonish Photoshop creations of top executives
-- published an image of Nooyi trying to balance on a soda bottle as if it were a surfboard. The nose of the bottle was pointed downward, an apparent illustration of the company's falling stock price at the time. A few months later, Nooyi announced the "reset" for PepsiCo that would include a major cost-cutting program and increased investment in marketing for its flagship brands. While at Kraft, Rosenfeld's takeover of British confectioner Cadbury to expand overseas was driven in great part by Peltz. The move set the stage for the split of the company last year, with Rosenfeld and Mondelez walking off with global snack brands such as Oreo and Trident. Kraft held onto slower-growing North American grocery brands such as Jell-O and Miracle Whip. It's not clear whether Rosenfeld would stay in her position even if an acquisition were to happen. But under her contract, she's guaranteed three times her base salary plus her target annual incentive pay if she loses her position within two years as a result of a "change in control" of the company.
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