Thread regarding PepsiCo Inc. (Pepsi) layoffs

This has nothing with convenience or blame game. Pepsico would have been in a dramatically better position today if S&T was actually an effective , productive organisation driving digital change! Instead it has become circus of internal politics, toxic culture and fighting at the trough !

Over the last two years, the culture has shifted dramatically — and not for the better. There was a time when we genuinely cared for one another and had each other’s backs. That’s been replaced by a climate of fear, favoritism, and backstabbing.

The root issue? A complete lack of clarity and consistency from leadership. Decisions feel political rather than merit-based. Some leaders are clearly favored, while others are sidelined or held to a different standard. It’s disheartening to watch people being treated differently based on who hired them or how intimidating they may be perceived.

We deserve better — a culture of fairness, transparency, and respect. Until leadership acknowledges this inconsistency and makes a real effort to rebuild trust, things will only get worse.

It's obvious to everyone that the 3000+ views are just a single curious individual holding down the refresh key, and the likes/dislikes are that same person's finger doing the cha cha slide on the buttons in anonymous mode. Yep, totally legit metrics!!

@bg wow the post got almost 3000 views in less than 10 days. Congratulations to the author from S&T PR team! Though probably he/she was hoping for different comments / outcomes! Still this post is nowhere near the infamous post about departure of G’ayatri N from DPA back in May - 15,000 views! Pepsico surely knows how to rock layoff site traffic!

Hello Ramon!

Totally agree. I'm spending way too much time giving status updates to various teams - DPA, PMO, and it's ki-ling my productivity. I'm like a full-time reporter instead of project delivery. It's hard to get anything done when I'm stuck in update mode all the time. These folks within DPA, PMO are information collectors which then gets presented to the Sr Leadership. What a waste of time

In S&T the time invested in bringing Athina up to speed and providing frequent status updates is inefficient. This resource allocation seems misguided. Redirecting this effort toward project advancement would better serve the organization's goals and optimize productivity.

@bj This is a spot-on observation. We’ve seen the loss of exceptional talent across the U.S., Spain, the U.K., and other regions, while unfortunately gaining a disproportionate amount of mediocre - and at times harmful - leadership in S&T. Individuals who failed to lead or inspire, who struggled with basic planning, and who did not uphold our code of conduct or standards, have been appointed to VP and SVP roles, raising serious concerns across PepsiCo and undermining trust in S&T as whole! Why Athina? Why?

@ax entire S&T is a cash cow for the Indian contracting houses and they are bleeding it dry especially when you have incompetent leadership across the entire landscape. Croonism, nepotism, favoritism and worst glass ceiling imposed by Indians who will not let anyone else be hired. This is the reality.
DPA was cr-p shoot, S&T is exactly in the same boat. We just have too many chiefs and unrealistic workload which just cannot be delivered. Meanwhile the Indian hubs hardly do any work.

I've seen way too many projects where S&T would negotiate an SOW with the supplier and have no clue how to scope the technical part of the project. They left it in the supplier's hands to figure it out. This ultimately caused project cost overruns, delays in project start and finish, and outright project failures.

The suppliers love it because they receive extra money for doing nothing. It's a running joke with IBM, PwC, Deloitte, Infosys, and Cognizant. PepsiCo couldn't project manage a PB&J sandwich.

You can not put the project scope and activities on the business. That's 100% S&T's responsibility only. I've seen a project delayed for months because S&T could not figure out what was in or out of scope. It was downright embarrassing.

It is so sad to see what has happened to Pepsico over the last few years, and I am sorry to say but S&T and its internal culture and operating model has contributed to it - that does not mean it is the only root cause of problems across Pepsico, however it is a major one.
We have lost a lot of great talent, and gained too munch mediocre and at times detrimental leadership in S&T! People who failed to lead, inspire, who couldn't even plan properly or behave according to our code of conduct and standards, were given SVP and VP positions raising eyebrows across Pepsico!

@a7 who ever wrote this was sponsored by AK. Definitely an Indian trying to give a rosy picture. Can't write in own words but uses genAI.

Focus on fixing the problem, not assigning blame - really? Start by getting rid of failed leaders from across S&T who are too often root cause of S&T real problems!

Communicate like adults? WTF. There is so little transparency in S&T and so much internal politics that this bullet point is an insult to all of us working at S&T! Too many failed leadership appointments from nowhere, lack of accountabilities, lack of real transparency of costs, broken Speak Up process, Indians filling their pockets with contractor spendings and numerous unnecessary business trips, org design cooked up in secrecy with no transparency, ignored HR complaints etc etc! PR stunts wont fix the problem!

This post stinks of AI slop. "let's get real" and the unnecessary overstructuring in bullets are tell tales.

@OP who will actually read this novel?

Wow, another stellar example of folks with a crystal-clear grasp of reality blaming S&T for every single thing that goes awry in their lives. Total experts on S&T, clearly

@a8 if DPA is in S&T and it makes S&T rotten, S&T is in PepsiCo and it makes PepsiCo rotten. You are in PepsiCo and it makes you rotten as well. I don’t follow your argument of how DPA makes whole of S&T bad

Textbook and at to say you are HR without saying you are HR.

Is this thread a poor PR attempt from S&T leadership?

DPA - Disorganized Pandemonium of Ambiguity - also known sometimes as Digital Products and Applications in S&T - first fix it before asking teams across PEP to place trust in S&T as whole!

This message is a joke? First fix S&T and get rid of failed expensive so called leaders, before asking other teams across PEP to work better with S&T. When you look at how DPA has operated over the years and type of people hired into leadership roles, it is hard to trust S&T as whole!