My question to Pepsi: Why wait?

Nooyi, 56, has done quite a bit since joining the firm in 1994, including overseeing the divestiture of its restaurant business [now called Yum! Brands (YUM)], the $3.3 acquisition of Tropicana in 1998 and the $13.4 billion purchase of Quaker Oats in 2001. 

What Nooyi hasn't been able to do is boost PepsiCo's share price since becoming CEO in 2006 and chairman in 2007. Over the past five years, shares of the Purchase, N.Y., company have barely budged, while rival Coca-Cola (KO) has soared more than 50%. How Nooyi has managed to keep her job is beyond me?

If the cola wars were a real fight, a referee would have declared Coke the winner long ago by a knockout. According to the latest data from Beverage Digest, Coca-Cola has 42% of the market to PepsiCo's 29%. Nooyi, who is often listed as one of the most powerful women in business and touted by some as the next World Bank head, has had plenty of time to address this problem -- and failed to do so. The board, however, has apparently not yet lost faith in her.

Earlier this month, she said that 2012 would be a "transitional year" and announced that Pepsi would lay off more than 8,000 workers. At the same time, the company pledged to boost marketing spending on its brands by as much as $600 million. Exactly how this will work is unclear.

The naming today of Wal-Mart executive Brian Cornell as CEO of PepsiCo Americas Food and John Compton as president is designed, in the words of Nooyi, "to ensure that we compete effectively and efficiently in the global marketplace." Huh? Why hasn't that been happening already?

PepsiCo's problems are not going to be solved by endless blathering about "transitions." Nooyi has to back up her words with deeds, including breaking up the company. There are no obvious synergies between the snack business and the beverage business, except in marketing to college students. Moreover, if it was such a great business model, why hasn't Coca-Cola and others replicated it?

Nooyi, whose 2010 compensation topped $14 million, has been given plenty of time to fix what ails PepsiCo. It's time for the company to give someone else a chance to do the job.

Jonathan Berr is a recovering soda addict. He is long Coca-Cola.