Rise and Fall of the Frito Empire

Sorry to keep harping on the Rise and Fall of the Frito Empire. When you work 60 hours a week, it tends to dominate a person's thought process. I've worked lots of hours for myself, so the long days seem normal... it's working long hours for so little money that's got my nose out of whack. of course, working for myself was long hours and little pay, but at least I felt like I was building for myself, not for a bunch of out of touch upper managers. Out of touch. yes. I think every manger above a district manager (who actually does physical work with his reps), should spend one day every quarter out in the stores. A person not actively touching product during the course of his day should get out from behind their desk and go see what it's like in the field. the Front Line. (again, 2 words, not one). you know where people get dirty. gosh, that means a manicure could get messed up! and not during a freakin' dog & phony show....err, make that dog and pony show - although both accurately describe the ordeal. you know, the circus, dogs running around jumping through hoops, phonies...err ponies galloping around in circles. darn fingers keep wanting to call it a phony show.... Freudian slip I guess, but it is an accurate assessment of the situation. The Frito term is "Market Tour". what a bunch of crap. What happens is a WHOLE bunch of product is shipped into customer locations, tons and tons of displays are set up, upper managers walk through in about 10 minutes and then go eat or play golf. again, what a bunch of crap. The management logic, "team building", "getting product to market", "impacting quarter end numbers". blah, blah, blah, blah. talk about letting the cheerleaders lead the company. When a Senior Vice President of Sales doesn't have the intelligence to ask, "So, how much does this store sell in a week?" while looking at a display that holds 4 months worth of product....for example, a small Dollar General, with towers of displays on the sidewalk, you know, the display that holds $10,000 worth of chips. and the store sells $800 a week, on a good week, with a major holiday. on the sidewalk, where someone has to guard the product to avoid it sprouting legs & walking away. Is that a male thing or what... "Mine is bigger than yours...". and it happens all the time, all over the country. The latest from here in Mid Missouri was 3rd quarter (approximately) 2008. It took all the managers, all extra help, all our temporary displays (the cardboard towers) and shipped everything off to the "bootheel" portion of Missouri for 4 days. So there was hotel bills, restaurant bills, expense reports, PLUS all of our displays for our district, my route, were gone and were not replaced since we were in a budget crunch due to the recession. Recession and we're spending money like drunken sailors to put product out for display for senior vps that should know better. The displays are trash once they are used. PERIOD. to even suggest that they be taken down and used again is beyond ignorant. and that's what happened - "use them again". yeah, right. cardboard tears and potato chips are GREASY. hello? anyone home in logical land? oh, yeah, that's right "Crazy Land." Chapter 3. title: "Dog & Phony Shows".

so our CEO, Indra Nooyi, who gets $12 million + a year, has a blog. "Tales from the Road". nice. and all the little people get to post their thoughts. for about 2 weeks. So I posted this:
"Greetings from the Heartland.
-Core Competancies. What made Frito Lay great? The route representative that took ownership of his route. How has this changed/evolved since the growth of Walmart? The route representative has become a truck driver with less control than ever over decisions for the customer. Rigid adherence to planograms, prescheduled deliveries of products not ordered or wanted by route rep, out of control stale issues. Stack ranking 60% on selling, 40% on "not selling" or stale control. No annual review. Hiring recent college graduates to be managers while passing tenured reps with college degrees. "I read it in a book" mentality. You can't talk the talk if you haven't walked the walk. Back to Basics core competancy, especially in times of economic hardship. Customers are passing on $4 bags of potato chips, Lays = a luxury item. That's just wrong. Lays/Doritos are a comfort food and should be the first in the cart. Thank you."

So that's what I put out there for the whole Frito Lay world to see. and then the blog came down. hmm. wonder what that's all about. I wonder if my comments were too controversial? Dear God, don't let the boss know that there's a problem! send in the cheerleaders!!! STAT! and so the Rise and the Fall of the Frito Empire continues.

ahh, blogging is such a cathartic feeling. doesn't matter if it doesn't get read, at some point, maybe, the obvious will be noticed. good gosh I'm in fantasy land! naive, yes, that's the word, when the obvious is noticed! all I can do is protect myself on the slide down, since that's what I see in the crystal ball. don't buy Pepsico stock! put the 401k in mutual funds! that's the little voice in my head that's seen this type of head in the sand mentality before at Xerox. watched the ole' stock drop with the market share. from $100 a share to $6. free fall isn't fun in the real world.

well off to the 60 hour week plus the 10 hour drive time commute. who needs a life? all for a whopping $5 an hour in a bad week, $10 a hour in a good week. why? to live out in the woods where it is quiet. my happy place. the sound of the "peepers" in the spring. little froggies that don't know any else. the daffodils pushing up in random places where old homesteads once were... the only sound, birds, thousands of birds, jays, turkey, wood peckers, doves. the choir of singing from nature. the happy place, listening to the sun come up, the choir of birds announcing the new day. a rooster here and there, to remind that civilization is at the doorstep.

see, I'm not that cynical - - just can't believe how isolated the decision process gets.