B-School Dean Recommends PepsiCo Boss For Tenure

The second-in-command at PepsiCo Incorporated, one of the nation's most successful businesses, is expected to take up a tenured professorship at Harvard this spring.

After courting him for five months, Dean of the Business School John H. McArthur recommended this week that PepsiCo President and Chief Operating Officer Andrall E. Pearson be appointed to a permanent position on the school's faculty.

Although Pearson's appointment is not yet official, William Hokanson, a B-School spokesman, said yesterday he expects that President Bok and University governing boards will approve the tenure.

Pearson, who was chosen one of America's "10 toughest bosses" by Fortune magazine in 1980, said yesterday he will retire from the $8 billion-a-year operation this January.

The 15-year PepsiCo veteren is next in line to replace the corportation's current chief executive officer, Donald Kendall, but the company thinks Pearson, now 59, would be too old to head the operation when Kendall retires in mid-1986, according to an article in yesterday's Wall Street Journal.

Smooth Sailing

Pearson said he decided to leave the company before Kendall's retirement in order to "lessen the jolt on PepsiCo not to have two principle architects leave on the same day."

The soft drink company executive said he was delighted about McArthur's endorsement, but he added his appointment would be a risk because he hasn't had any university teaching experience besides giving guest lectures.

"I'm very flattered that they [Harvard] are willing to make such an unusual move," said Pearson.

In a press statement. McArthur said that appointing someone from outside the academic world was unusual, but he added Pearson's practical knowledge would benefit the professional school enormously.

"It is absolutely critical that our faculty have a well-based understanding of the changing needs of business and the problems that business leaders are trying to address," he said.

University officials have not decided if or what the businessman will teach this spring, but Pearson said that if he does teach it will probably involve business policy and marketing.

Pearson will visit Harvard to discuss the details of his spring activities with McArthur before January.

"He [Pearson] is a very able guy who's done a lot of work relevant to the work we do at the business school," said Robert D Buzzell, Kresge Professor of Marketing, who has known Pearson for more than 20 years.

"There's more aspects to business than academics," added John Dearden, Krannert Professor of Business Administration. "Pearson might be more up on business than some of the faculty."

PepsiCo could not wait for an official word from Harvard before they publicized Pearson's retirement, because Security Exchange Commission regulations require corporations to disclose internal changes as soon as they are known.

PepsiCo is a parent corporation for six operating divisions which include Pepsi-Cola, Frito-Lay and Taco Bell.

Prior to joining PepsiCo in 1970, Pearson was a senior director at McKinsey and Company Incorporated, a management consulting firm, and since his installation as president 15 years ago, PepsiCo has increased its sales from $1 billion to $8 billion.

The Fortune article that featured Pearson and nine other corporate bosses four years ago included testimony from a former PepsiCo employee who said Pearson's "winnowing techniques" were "brutally abrasive.