Donald Kendall's experience

By Donald M. Kendall
Former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
PepsiCo

For me, the 1959 American National Exhibition in Moscow was the inspiring start of a lifelong love affair with Russia.

I was actually recruited to join the exhibition. Months before the opening, a deputy secretary of state called me to solicit participation by The Pepsi-Cola Company, where at the time I served as head of the international operations. While many American businesses had declined out of concern over anti-Soviet public sentiment, I sensed an opportunity.

The mission: to introduce a distinctly American product, Pepsi-Cola, to a Soviet Union that didn't permit the sale of Western consumer goods and whose citizens couldn't afford to buy it.

I came prepared, with a team of Russian-speaking college students and a full complement of Pepsi fountain syrup and carbonating machines. It was a major undertaking – and, for a company of our size, quite expensive.

Before I had even left for Moscow, some in my company were calling for my head. Clearly I needed a big win. So at a reception for participating American businesses prior to the exhibition opening, I sought the help of Vice President Richard Nixon, who I had known for several years. I told him my plight. He promised to help.

The next day – Friday, July 24, 1959 – in the Moscow summer heat, Nixon was leading Premier Nikita Khrushchev on a tour of the exhibition following their famous "kitchen debate." As they were passing near our kiosk, Nixon steered Mr. Khrushchev to me.

I asked the Russian leader to try a cupful of Pepsi made in Russia and one we'd brought from the United States. I wanted to show him that we could make a product in Moscow that was just as good as what we made in the U.S.

After sampling both, he turned to the trailing throng of dignitaries and reporters and advised: "Drink the Pepsi-Cola made in Moscow. It's much better than the Pepsi made in the U.S."

Before moving on, he would drink at least a half-dozen cups of Pepsi. He even handed some out to others.

That meeting of East and West intrigued the news reporters and photographers nearby. The next day, foreign newspapers carried a picture of the cola-quaffing leader with a caption inspired by our advertising theme ("Be Sociable, Have a Pepsi") at the time: "Khrushchev learns to be sociable."

It would be fifteen more years before we actually sold the first Pepsi in the USSR, under a syrup-for-vodka barter deal. But it was well worth the wait. Today Russia represents a big business for PepsiCo and one of our most exciting growth opportunities.

Since the 1959 American National Exhibition in Moscow, I have returned to Russia many times. I have met thousands of Russians, from the proud men and women who make and sell our products to the most senior Kremlin leaders. And if I've learned one thing, it is that Russians and Americans have far more in common than most people would ever guess.