Lots of closed-door meetings and a town hall at the end of the month. Anyone hearing whispers?
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This company is now in “oh sh$t” mode. The head mo–ns must be realizing just how dumb this whole plan was. I would not be surprised if Pepsi freezes IT terminations for now until someone figures out another flavour of the month strategy. As soon as they take their foot off the gas, the entire business world will be making a mockery of this insane approach to cost reduction. All these self proclaimed leaders will form their own bafoon of the month club.
2xsq - "Anyone who still works here can see how impossible it is for work to get done, because our "partners" only work towards what is documented in our contracts and SLAs... they do not care about going above and beyond, not in the least. No, these are not "growing pains" and are not short-term hurdles that will pass as part of this larger transformation/outsourcing effort, despite what leadership is hoping. This is literally how things will continue to be UNLESS someone has the courage to admit failure and change gears."
Nailed it. They don't get paid to go "above and beyond". Not that I blame them - no one works for free - but back in the day when FTEs put in extra time (unpaid) to keep the business running through outages it is because we cared about the company and our coworkers. A contractor can be gone tomorrow.
@104lxpVK-1rao with the most real and true response I've seen on this site, especially about the problems with IT reporting under Finance. Amazed this hasn't really been mentioned before. I believe this happened under IK with Dixon at the helm around 2014? This was truly an awful move which began the death spiral / slow motion trainwreck of IT at PepsiCo. One can read numerous case studies and articles about why this is bad for IT, as it undermines the strategic aspects of it and essentially turns IT into a glorified cost center, as was pointed out below.
It is true that many aspects of IT have been broken for years and leadership acknowledged this (i.e., why were satellite business locations expected to fund basic business infrastructure like networking???) – but the long-term solutions of outsourcing key assets (data centers, network, etc etc.), followed by phasing in a near complete Managed Services model (with few exceptions) makes things WAY worse. Anyone who still works here can see how impossible it is for work to get done, because our "partners" only work towards what is documented in our contracts and SLAs... they do not care about going above and beyond, not in the least. No, these are not "growing pains" and are not short-term hurdles that will pass as part of this larger transformation/outsourcing effort, despite what leadership is hoping. This is literally how things will continue to be UNLESS someone has the courage to admit failure and change gears.
Want to fix IT? Ramon needs to first restructure and have us stop reporting through HJ and Finance, that is step #1. Step #2 is to clear out JD with someone who "gets it". Literally nobody respects this lady - she comes across as cold, belittling, unauthentic, and quite oblivious to how IT actually should operate. She was known for being able to execute outsourcing at other places, and that is exactly what she was brought in to do here (since IT is just seen as a function of Finance here). It starts at the top, and rolls downhill.
It might be easy for people to want to blame 'incompetent' managers in IT (not saying everyone is good at what they do) – but people are handcuffed based on the flawed structure and strategy, which starts at the top!
PepCoin?? Hush. That idea is so stupid, some numbskull executive will probably want to do it.
You know, I always wondered, and even pitched this idea to my manager. He didn't even give it a second thought, but I always wondered, "What if IT made money?". PepsiCo, had a great IT department. I agree that IT costs money, but what if IT made money? PepsiCo could easily be a cloud computing provider. Imagine if you could sell disk-space to small or medium companies for a monthly fee. How about Web hosting? It's not that hard to start a social media like Facebook, or YouTube. How about VOIP, or video conferencing? How about a Pepsi shopping website? How about PepsiCo Bit Coins? How about a pay for PepsiCo public help desk? Imagine a help desk that actually helps, and solves problems. There were folks that used to work for Pepsi, that could even create the next internet search engine for PepsiCo. They were that smart. There are many more ways for PepsiCo IT to make money. In fact, I know some Ex-PepsiCo employees are doing these things and more. I always wondered, where would PepsiCo be if we did these things? I think PepsiCo already had a big advantage in that it is known for quality products, and had IT departments all around the world. It seems like the infrastructure is already in place.
Totally disagree with 104lxpVK-1ozu. HR, is that you?? If not, it does seem like you are parroting the HR "party line". As so many others have already posted (in other threads), the problem is clearly with the incompetent "senior management" of IT. Until they are walked out, the IT department is in a death spiral. If the company is looking for cost savings, that is the answer. In one fell swoop, you get rid of the folks who continually make strategic blunders as well as the rationale for the offshore folks. Unfortunately, I don't have much hope of that. Their loyalty is to each other, not you. They are locked-into all of their hiring decisions. Whatever "impostor syndrome" they may have once felt in their rise up the ranks has long since dissipated, so don't expect any "I was wrong about X" admissions.
Also, so long as IT reports through the finance department, IT will always be viewed as a cost to be minimized, not as a department of professionals working to maximize the value of the company. It is from the ranks of these professionals that the IT-based solutions that enhance corporate profitability emerge. Those solutions certainly do not originate with the bean-counters in IT management or the clueless offshore folks.
Regrettably, it is usually part of the DNA of a finance department to treat each department as purely a Cost Center or a Profit Center rather than a dynamic mix of the two. Treating any department as purely a Cost Center inevitably leads to a "race to the bottom", in which the folks with the "tribal knowledge" who knew why things worked a certain way are squeezed out (for short-term cost containment). Once that happens, you then do have a pure Cost Center - that's just one step away from the next unrecoverable disaster. And unless you are still around at that point, that's when you make the painful (but profitable) decision to "short" the stock (if it's not already too late for that).
Agree w/ 104lxpVK-1bkm - more impacts to come. I'll continue to work hard until I'm either impacted or find a new opportunity. In the next 2-3 years, more large organizations will be going through these same transformations and the same speed related to IT (but then expanding beyond). I found once I accepted these business decisions were needed due to cost, I've adapted to the various changes, grown, and better positioned myself on whatever it so come. For those still here w/ me, we've been given a gift most companies don't give - transparency that impacts will come, and we are better prepared if (likely when) it does happen.
Pretty much heard the opposite. This isn't a pump the brakes and rethink the transformation strategy. JD has support despite some bruises and the transformation will continue. Expect more impact to employees in IT.
Stop hoping it'll stop and prepare new opportunities folks. This isn't PepsiCo hating on America, or hating tenured employees, or hating pension holders. It's maintaining a profitable business for shareholders and it comes with the territory for any Fortune 50 company.
Deal with it.
Who cares anymore. Ship is sinking and all people gone anyway. Let them worry about it
Rumblings about easing up on the terminations because of all the complaints. The leadership looks like a bunch of clueless tourists. Such a shame.