Radio Jokers!

I and Abhijit, our HR Head, somehow just landed into this Radio One Office Champ contest which is on air everyday between 6 – 8 pm. Although we end up goofing up every time but the fun of the whole thing is that we are able to generate a lot of excitement in the organization. Every evening employees’ Radio’s are switched on and we all eagerly wait for our round to be aired. In a true reality show ishtyle, our success on this competition also depends on SMS voting. (Now I know how unfair these contests could be; you could be at best of your talent n’all but if you don’t generate enough votes, you are good for nothing!!) We are SMSing left, right and centre and are hopeful to win this competition. Check out this cool campaign we created :)

Now let me tell you what’s happening on this contest. The teams are : PepsiCo, Global Logic, Live India, HT, Dainik Jagran……A team of two from each of these organizations is participating by answering on various rounds. First day was an introductory round and we were thrown questions like ‘Kee Haal Hai’??!! Were we to be witty? May be funny, don’t know yet. Imagine what Abhijit would answer when asked, “what would you say to your boss if he has caught you singing looking at his wife”? BTW, we scored 9 on 10. Not bad!!

Round Two was a disaster – Bollywood quotient! Who’s got the time yaar to read Filmfare or watch Bollywood ka Boss!! Anyway, we jumped into this without any arms and ammunitions and yet came out with flying colors. WE GOT ONLY 6 ON 10, LOWEST OF ALL!! Good fun (was made of both of us!). For God’s sake how on this earth will we know “what role J.D. Chakraborty played in Satya”?

Round Three was Flirt quotient. Abhijit was very happy this time and as expected he did a great job of flirting with the RJ and the lady who called him to check out his flirt quotient. We scored 8 on 10.

Today was round Four & Five. Cricket quotient and Talent Round. Well, we are the masters at that. A perfect 10 on 10 in Cricket and 9 on 10 on Talent. Hope our happiness is not short lived and we are able to sail through tomorrow’s Quiz on Delhi. God bless us!!

But, are you voting???? SMS OC FritoLay to 53650 right now!!

Snack Smart!

On one fine afternoon, we caught Saif to do this little promo for us. Let us know what do you like about this Ad and what you don't. What do you think the Ad is trying to convey? Simply post your views in the comment box and who knows we might get Saif to answer your questions...

AR Rahman Concert in Delhi

What would you need to do if you wanted to listen to AR Rahman, Hariharan, Chitra, Kailash Kher and Rapper Blaze in Delhi. You had to go to the mega concert that was held last evening in Delhi. If you were a PepsiCo employee you got to see the show. You had to find your place among the 25,000 fans who ranged from six year olds to their grandparents (children below five years old were not allowed in).

AR Rahman came across as an immensely talented composer who has yet to make the transition to being a huge entertainer. He is an artiste who just focuses on creating great music and leaves the flash and glitz to others. I love the way he has transformed the face of Bollywood music by bringing in new sounds and singers with each venture.

When the concert started with Rahman singing the operatic overture from the film Guru

"Jage hain der tak hamein
kuchh der soney do
Thodi si raat aur hai subah to hone do.
Adhe adhure khwab jo pure na ho sake
Ek bar phir se neend mein woh khwab boney do".

Translated that would mean

"I have been up till late, let me sleep some more
Let me dream again and complete those incomplete wishes"

Rahman's voice left me with goose bumps as he closed his eyes to focus on the music that draws from the traditional Operas. Cut to the song Maiyya Maiyya from the same film, and you can smell the influence of Turkish music as clearly as the rich notes of their coffee!

For me the highlight was to see the legendary Sivamani perform. The percussionist with his trademark bandana created magic with the solo performance where he drummed without missing a beat even as he twirled his drumsticks and threw them in the air as the double bass drum thumped away. He has used even the humble wok used to make biriyani, to create music!! According his official website

"Siva was adept with his drumsticks even at the tender age of 7 and went on to give his first stage performance at the age of 12. "

He led a troupe of twenty dhols to give us a glimpse of a track from the yet unreleased Bollywood film Jodha Akbar.

Allah Rakha Rahman was born AS Dilip Kumar on 6th January 1967 and has played keyboards for Ilaiyaraja. He has a degree in Western Classical Music from the Trinity College of Music at Oxford University. Last evening he played his hits from Hindi, Tamil and even English compositions. We got glimpses of Rahman playing the synthesizer and even a grand piano. The only thing that jarred was the sound system that was truly awful. The system did not do justice to the master of music.

PepsiCo Shakiras

The newspaper Mint in its issue dated November 5, 2007 provides some statistics on the growing focus of organizations to hire more and more women. PepsiCo features in the 10th spot in India – thanks to the PepsiCo’s worldwide focus on Diversity and Inclusion. With Indra Nooyi being the most powerful woman in US, now it is our turn to celebrate. Over to the Diwali Party. Here are glimpses of our Diwali Party on 2nd November.

No, it is not a group of Shaimak Dawar Performers; these are the same colleagues you will see in the offices of PepsiCo.

From Left: Reshmi Tikmani, Surabhi Bist, Suweshi Sharma, Manika Sahni, Himani Bahuguna, Vidhisha, Aarti Shouri and yours truly. Our very own Charu was the co-host for the evening.

Indra Nooyi with Women Leaders of PepsiCo

Diwali with a Difference at Pune

This Diwali Pune Plant decided to celebrate it in a different way by inviting BVJ Education Institute (an Orphanage for street children) to the Plant premises. Kids had a great time making plasticine models, dancing and playing. A talent show was also organized followed by prize distribution.

Inviting Nominations for the Kurkure Moment of 2007

We are institutionalizing a Kurkure Moment of the Year Award. The HR group was recently at Rishikesh for a rafting trip. Thats when we came up with that idea. At the end of a hard day of having fun - what with beach volleyball, long adda sessions in the tents on the beach, after moonlight treks in the jungle (where Umang wore a Halloween mask and gave Manvi the shock of her life), we got chatting around the bonfire on the beach about what were some of the craziest moments in our office that had us in splits. Here is the nomination from the HR team:

Colleague says to Bhagyashree aka Bags of our Marketing department, "Hey, are you on Orkut?"
Bhagyashree responds, "Nahi Yaar, I am on Kurkure."

Thus was born the idea of collecting the Kurkure Moment from other colleagues and other offices.

Who can nominate: Anyone. It does not have be limited to just Frito employees. We promise to be unbiased and fair.

How do you nominate someone: Just send us the incident with details and possibly a photo of the moment or of the person if you can. Mail it to madhu.rajesh@intl.pepsico.com
Please put the subject of your email as "Kurkure Moment Nomination". Please mention the name of the organization and location where the incident happened.
What kind of incidents qualify: Hey, anything that spiced up the and brought everyone together. So a fun quip, a practical prank ... a Bakra... anything that is a pur Kurkure Moment. Talking of Bakras, I would love to share the Bakra we played on the HR team during the Annual HR Meet. But my lips are sealed. Ask Umang or Charu what it was all about. Or ask Krishna about the Bakra he played on the gang during the bus ride back from Rishikesh. That was a "bloody nasty" trick he played on everyone. Ask me, I was victim too.

Taal Se Taal Mila - A Trip to Bhimtaal

Vaibhav Modi, our Sales HR Manager got a chance to take our Central Region Sales Team and families to Bhimtaal. Based in the heart of Kumaon, 22 Km from Nainital, the city of Lakes, Bhimtaal is named after the famous Mahabhrata character - Bhim - renowned for his extraordinary strength. Bhimtal is at an altitude of 1371 mtrs. and 4498 Ft. It has the largest of the lakes in this region.

Vaibhav shares “stunningly green landscapes, breathtaking view of Mountains and
amazingly peaceful surroundings alleviated my soul to the core. The resort
was situated amidst the beautiful mountains and amazing scenic beauty of
Bhimtaal. A refreshing trip to the lake, games and dancing around a bonfire
gave us all a time of our lives. I’d ensure such trips happen more often to
constantly give our employees the break they deserve and that too with their
families.”

Rapid RAFTaar

The rush of adrenalin when the raft swings wildly in the arms of a tempestuous rapid is a heady feeling that is called adventure. At a site called 43things.com you can find out the various things that people have listed. Things they want to do. It talks about various dreams that people have. I know that one of the 43 things I wanted to do always was to go river rafting. And ... I did. The Human Resources team decided that we should celebrate a successful year by doing something that we would all cherish. The HR Meet for 2007 was held on a raft!

Partho Pratim Saha is one of the four people who brought rafting in a big way to India. The other three people being Ajeet Bajaj - the man who went to the North and South Pole on a ski, Yousuf Zaheer and Ajay Mehra.

Camp River Wild is about 27 kms from Rishikesh. The Pauri Garhwal area is gorgeously pretty and being there on a full moon night made it even more so. Watching the sands turn silver in the moonlight and the quiet gurgling sound of the Ganges flowing by creates a magical concoction. Ever tried going for a midnight trek though the jungle in the moonlit night? You have to try it out is all what I can say.

The next day we went Rafting. Rapids are graded on a scale of 1 to 6. You do not want to encounter a grade six rapid if you aren't a skilled rafter. I discovered that the rapids have unique names and that there is a story behind each name. The first one we hit was grade 3 rapid called "Sweet Sixteen" after the romantic story of a sixteen year old British School girl who came there a couple of years back and fell in love with her rafting instructor. The next one was called "Mala's Curves" - Mala is the name of the village where the rapid is and not what you thought.

If you meet anyone from the FritoLay HR team, don't forget to ask them about the two major bakras (practical pranks) that some enterprising souls played on the group. The group has been sworn to secrecy so that the same tricks can be recycled and pulled off on some other unsuspecting group in the office.

World Cup At Frito-Lay

World Cup At Frito-Lay

There was a blast at Frito-Lay office in Gurgaon on the eve of India Vs PAK-T20 FRONTIER. The spirits of employees was visible every time the Indian cricketers hit a six. Each time a bowler took a wicket, you could hear the screaming right across the hallway.

In the trade mark Ganguly style – and possibly even Salman Khan “ishtyle”, some of our employees at Financial Services office removed their shirts when the Indian bowlers took the last wicket and make victory a reality.

Environment Friendly Amsterdam

"Be careful! Watch out for the bikes!!"

The locals warn the group of us gawking tourists as try to navigate our way through the city of Amsterdam where the Human Resources Conference of PepsiCo International is being held. From 24th to 27th September, the city of Amsterdam sees repeat performances of the above variety. There are 600,000 bikes for 700,000 residents of Amsterdam and 220,000 trees. There are 2500 houseboats that are sprinkled across the 165 canals that are dug in horse shoe form to garland the city.

Parking a car - even that tiny car that you see below - is a prohibitively expensive proposition. So bikes become the mode of transport for everyone. It is environment friendly and has no fuel bills. That goes well with the PepsiCo philosophy of Performance with Purpose that has Environmental sustainability as one of the three planks of our growth. The other two being Human Sustainability and Talent Sustainability.

With environment sustainability an important component of the “performance with purpose” strategy, PepsiCo has decided to replenish whatever it takes from the environment. “We’re going to reduce our water usage and move more rapidly towards the ideal of ‘net zero’ —for every litre of water needed to make our products, we’ll return a litre to the water supply,” says our chief Ms Nooyi. We want to roll back greenhouse gas emissions as the company grows, continue light weighting packaging and recycling while identifying bio-degradable solutions.

Back to Amsterdam. I saw this lady who had her guitar strapped across with her kid sitting at the back and a dog sitting pretty in a basket slung at the front of the bike. Where's the picture of that, you may ask. She was just zipping past and by the time I pulled out my camera she was gone. But here are a few more bike pictures.

Ever since I had seen the movie Silsila - the Yash Chopra classic in 1981, the scene of the tulip fields and windmills has been imprinted in my mind. I always wanted to see those fields. Sad to say, I did not make it to the tulip field but have pictures of glass versions along with the mandatory windmills and clogs (shoes) . So enjoy!

Engage Everyday Program Wins the Global Award

The Global HR Conference in Amsterdam held from 24-27 September 2007, the Engage Everyday program got showcased as a global best practice. The HR team from FritoLay then went on to win the Global Award for Talent Sustainability. I don't know what it feels like to win the Oscar, but this felt just as special to me.

It was a grand event held at the famous Amstel Intercontinental Hotel - the pride of Amsterdam. Since its opening in 1867, the Hotel has played host to several celebs and world leaders. Located on the Amstel River, this gorgeous Hotel hosted the crew and cast of the film Oceans Twelve.

The Engage Everyday program has been impacting lives of employees and communities around our factories. The program is driven by employees of the families where they work to impact lives in the communities around our workplace. More about the program in a separate post.

No Need for Speed

If you are the kind of person who lives in a city and then complains about the fast pace of life of the Metros thenvisit our plant in Channo. That has the kind of lifestyle that we city dwellers get to experience only when we go on vacation. We go to these places, unwind and then come back to regale our colleagues about the lifestyle of the smaller towns.

There is time to stop at the dhaba and grab a humongous glass of lassi on your way to work. In the evening our colleagues have a ritual of stopping by for a relaxed chat with friends over some piping hot jalebis.

Vipin Dhariwal our correspondent sent us these pictures. The event in question was the slow cycling race.While the aspirants to the prize were many, there was only one winner.

Happy Birthday to this Blog

The first birthday is special.
Like the first drops of rain on earth.

The first job. The first salary.
The first time you got the promotion letter!
They are all heady moments.

The first blog of FritoLay... all this started exactly a year ago.

I Am One Year Old on 18 September 2007

On 18th Sep 2007, this blog turns one year old. Maybe one year young. It was started on a lark. One fine day, I started this blog because creating a blog is easy. If going to the moon was easy, I would give that a shot as well. This blog was meant to give you an idea of the culture of this organization and share with you some pictures of the people here.

When your friends come home, you talk about work, moan about life and crib about lack of time. Then you pull out your album and show them photos of friends and people at work. Based on that chat and the pix, your friends have a glimpse of what your company is all about. This blog was meant to be the same.

During the year gone by, we have had more people joining up to blog for us. We have had people sending us messages to say they want to work for us, they have given their feedback on our flavours and products. The blog has been featured and written about in the media and by other bloggers. Thanks for noticing us everyone. This is a time for us to stand up and take a bow. We appreciate your point of view. And yes, we are learning from all what you tell us. So thanks again.

We will have a party on 18th Sep. Let me know what would be an innovative way to celebrate the birthday of a blog. Have you heard of an innovative way to celebrate a blog - not blogger's birthday?

How To Name It

I came upon the blog of Apu - whose blog it is on all matters corporate who lists all blogs run by Corporates. Her blog is called Cubically Challenged which I thought is a cool title for a blog that describes the view from one. She is not sure if our blog can be put under the "corporate blogging" banner because it does not adhere to the strict guidelines of one. We are like this only, Apu. Reminds me of the musical masterpiece composed by Ilaiyaraaja which is simply titled "How to Name It".

Apu has rightly suggested that we pull up our sleeves and blog more often. The rap on the knuckles is richly deserved. We promise to make amends. I hope you will come back to track us.

There are some really happening blogs listed here. Check them out guys. And now it is over to Apu.

"I was interested in seeing whether companies in India have begun to use blogs as a means of communication with different audiences, and I did some digging around to see who is doing what. Surprise, surprise! I just can’t find too many corporate blogs in the first place. (Or my googling skills are poor!).

The usual culprits, which have been much talked about before, came to light again. First, the Infosys Blog, Think Flat. Now they have put together a star blogger team, with senior members from communication, marketing, sourcing, consulting etc besides Nandan Nilekani himself. But one odd thing about the blog is, that perhaps because of a number of contributers adding pieces whenever their schedule permits, the blog is very erratically updated. Sometimes articles follow each other after a day, and sometimes there are no posts for a week or ten days. I think regular updation is critical for a serious blog. Another surprising thing is that at the end of a page, there is no link pointing to ‘older posts’. One has to trudge through the archives. Perhaps they need someone who understands blogging and can help this senior team out by coordinating posts and having a more user friendly design. However, the content on the blog is quite good - while it touches briefly on Infy’s expertise, it doesn’t hardsell in any way, and in most cases, is quite interesting to read, though not phenomenally.

Then, there is Fritolay India’s blog, maintained by Madhu Rajesh and Abhijit Bhaduri from their HR function. This is really more of a fun, informal blog, and as such, the regular aims of ‘corporate blogging’ may not apply. However, I think they do a good job of presenting Fritolay as a young, vibrant place to work in. Definitely, if prospective employees came upon the blog, they would find it interesting and appealing. Again, the frequency of blogging is not consistent. I am not sure if they are thinking of this also as a means to keep current employees updated or whether they have a separate intranet/blog for that. But if they do want to keep current employees involved as well, then it may be a good idea to update more often.

I also came upon Tata Interactive’s blog, which is a mix of general interest article as well as those focused upon design and technology related issues. This one seems to be updated quite often, and also has a mix of regular writers plus guest writers. I suppose this helps them keep things in control, since the core blogging team must be monitoring content, ensuring updation and a good mix of subjects. Another notable thing about this blog is that many of the posts have atleast a few comments on them, something absent from the other two.

In the case of the Infosys blog especially, I got the feeling that they were operating in isolation. There was little dialogue with other technology blogs, few links to other bloggers - the posts aren’t really very different from what a website or maybe online journal might have. They don’t seem to be really blogging in that sense, since one of the most powerful things about blogging is the conversations and relationships it can build. So does it really help to maintain a blog if you can’t be active in the related blogging community?

Some of the lesser known ones - Giftex - a company that I’ve never heard about, but has a blog with quite good content on its area of operation, gifting. Score India, a sports development/promotion company that has a corporate blog that sort of goes all over the place and stopped running after October 2006. I am not sure what book launches are doing in there, except for the one on the Commonwealth games. And the formatting is terrible. Tekriti Software’s blog too has not been updated after November 2006, though the content was good, while it lasted!

Does your company have a blog? Let me know if you’ve come across any others that I may have missed out."

September 7th, 2007

What's The Program - A Funky new Lays Website

Like all brand managers will tell you, the consumers are watching far less TV than before. The need is therefore to engage different sections through different media. Keeping this in mind, Lays has developed the funky website http://www.whatstheprogram.com/ to reach the young and the restless.



Our own young and restless Krishna Kumar says that becoming a member in Whatstheprogram.com the Lays website was fun because it connects people to cool stuff around Music, Sports, Entertainment, College etc. He used it to find the latest movies playing at theaters in his neighborhood. His office PC now displays a Wallpaper from College section of the site “Different Programs = Different Downloads”. One can not only create customized wall papers featuring self and Saif but also can win a chance to feature in Lays commercial. Is'nt that cool? Just log in and enter a new world of excitement.

What Does Freedom Mean to You

14th August 2007, the eve of Independence Day ... one could see happy and excited faces in the organization. Was it because it would be a holiday the next day? Or was it because our Independence Day brought a renewed and stronger sense of freedom?

Take a look at these pictures and see for yourself how flaunting our freedom and patriotism is the ‘in thing’ in PepsiCo India – Snacks Division.

Our slogan contest – “What Does Freedom Mean to You” evoked enthusiastic participation. Here’s what the three prize winners had to say

“Freedom is the right to tell people what they do not want to hear” – Himanshu Bakshi

“Freedom Means…….’fearlessly exhibiting the enthusiasm in you” – Abhijit Srivastava

Freedom to me means: “Doing a little bit more always ….” – Madhu Rajesh

Frito Blog Featured In Economic Times

Blog and Get Paid in a Knowledge Economy says Shreya Biswas in Economic Times, the business newspaper that corporate India reads. And Madhu Rajesh gets quoted in Eco Times.

Madhu loves the responses she gets on her blog posts, writing about HR initiatives, the fun things on employee outings and behind-the-scenes activities on product campaigns. It has just been a month since she moved to FritoLay’s snacks division as assistant manager on employee communication. “I really love the interesting comments I get for my posts. People lead you to so many new ideas through this,” says Madhu.

For Madhu, it’s one of her core deliverables on the job front. And there are many like Madhu who are taking to blogs in a big way.

To the various innovative options thrown up as a career in the knowledge economy every other day, add this one — blogging as a profession. Surely, social media is catching up and blogging, being among the strongest, is something companies are looking to leverage. Hence, some like GlobalLogic, Infovision and FritoLay are all planning to hire bloggers. In fact, Communicate2, a Mumbai-based search engine marketing firm, has already hired bloggers to provide content for two of its blogs, internal as well external.

“These companies want to reach out to their customers, their potential employees, trying to create that unique identity as a employer brand. Besides, it helps to get feedback on their products and services through this route,” says Abhijit Bhaduri, director HR, FritoLay.

Sample the action. IT firm GlobalLogic plans to hire bloggers on the rolls for a blog they are coming up with in the next 2-3 months. This, as the company tries to increasingly position itself as ‘a firm focused on high-tech work’. It believes the blog being an interactive medium would be the best platform to talk about the company’s initiatives.

The search for professional bloggers are on. “We are looking at journalistic profiles and techies who have a flair for writing. Anyone who understands the business and draws in readers through good posts are welcome. We are already in the process of launching a blog that will talk about company initiatives and review latest gadgets talk about industry trends. Hence, we are looking for people who could get readers interested,” says Rajul Garg, co-founder & VP, corporate development and human resources, GlobalLogic.

IT services company Infovision has similar plans. It is coming up with three blogs in the next one month and plans to hire some professional bloggers. As for the sources for hiring bloggers, it plans to tap into advertising, marketing and communication professionals. Those having a good marketing background will help the cause of the company, thinks Infovision CEO Aditya Gupta.

Employers feel that a good understanding of the business is important before getting down to writing for the blogs. Blogger hiring, though quite common in western countries and among MNCs, has yet to catch up in India in a big way. In fact, as of now there are only a handful in India which are hiring bloggers on their rolls. This is because blogging is yet to reach a stage in this country where people would be hired to manage an entire blog and provide content.

Nonetheless, some have realised the impact of the medium as a cost-effective medium. As a result, some of the smaller companies like Communicate2 are even trying this out as an option. It has hired three people a month back who are being trained to become pro-bloggers. They will be writing for the two blogs the company has, both internal and external.

Vivek Bhargava, MD, Communicate2, says; “There are regular brainstorming sessions on what could be the topic of posts. Coming up with new ideas would be a challenge for them and the frequency has to be maintained too. Besides, we are also training them on the businesses they would be writing on. This is essential.”

But to begin with, corporate blogging would require people with a good business background. Besides, bloggers need to first get a hang of the subjects they are writing on.

R Rajesh is R Correspondent in Thailand

Our Marketing guy R Rajesh was seconded to Pepsico's Asia Region Headquarter in Bangkok as Beverage Platform Director. Rajesh is an enthusiastic shutterbug and regularly delights his colleagues with unflattering mugshots of them.

He now shares these pictures of Bangkok’s famous floating market. Rajesh seems to be on the verge of discovering a new platform for sale of Lays. Hey Rajesh! Go ahead and strike a deal!!
Have a sneak view of Bangkok’s most popular floating market – Damnoen Saduak. The Thai name for Bangkok is Krung Thep Maha Nakhon

Rajesh shares :

"The Damnoen Saduak Floating Market is
located about 105 kms from Bangkok. The excellent quality of soil beside the
canal makes it suitable for growing many kinds of fruits and vegetables. The
area is famous for Malacca grape, Chinese grapefruit, mangoes, bananas, and
coconut.

Here one can see the traditional way of selling and buying fruits, vegetables, etc., from small boats. A boat-ride along the canal is a great way to see the traditional Thai houses and the way they live and conduct their daily lives by boats.

The sheer hustle and bustle in the early morning as the sellers spread their wares and buyers jostle for a good bargain and the tourists crane their necks for a good shot makes it one of the “not-to-be-missed” attractions of Thailand !!"

To see more from Rajesh's albums of pix click

http://www.pbase.com/r_rajesh1801/