The Pepsi 349 Incident Introduction

Speaker 1 0:00

Have I ever failed you? In February 1992, pepsi Philippines announced they would print numbers ranging from 001 to 999 inside caps, crowns of Pepsi, 7-up, mountain Dew and Miranda bottles. Certain numbers could be redeemed for prizes which ranged from 100 pesos about $4 United States money to 1 million pesos, for a grand prize of roughly $40,000 US dollars in 1992. Pepsi allocated a total of 2 million for prizes. A similar promotion known as Numeromania, later ran in Poland in 1995. However, on May 25th 1992. Are you ready for this, clark?

Speaker 2 0:47

no, I'm not. I don't.

Speaker 1 0:48

I honestly don't know what's happening abs, cbn evening news programs, tv patrol announced the grand prize number for that day was three. Four, nine grand prize winning bottle caps were tightly controlled by pepsico. Two bottles of the caps, that day's winning number were printed inside them and a security code for confirmation had been produced and distributed. However, before the promotion was extended to add new winning numbers, 800,000 regular bottle caps had already been printed with the number 349, but without the security code. Theoretically, those bottle caps were cumulatively worth $32 billion.

Speaker 1 1:30

Oh my gosh, you're probably wondering what happened.

Speaker 2 1:34

Are you wondering what happened? I am.

Speaker 1 1:37

Well, you'll have to tune in next time.

Speaker 2 1:40

Just wait. Monica, and that was another episode of CorporateStrategybiz.

Speaker 1 1:46

We'll see you guys next week. That's your Pepsi trivia for the week. Aren't you so curious? What happened? You know what? If you want to find out what happened, you have to wait until the end of the pod. Then you'll find out what happened with that $349. That's right. That's right. $32 billion, uh-huh, uh-huh, oh my gosh dude.

Speaker 2 2:06

What do you think happened I?

Speaker 1 2:07

mean what's, what's, what's your theoretical? You know what, what hypothetically would happen in this case?

Speaker 2 2:13

I mean, I think with the corporate scum that is out there in the world, they definitely 92. Still they, still they. I think they reneged this, they renege it and they're like nope, we're gonna pull it all back. It's actually number 350, that's my guess. They just, they just find out the plus next time on dragon ball.

Speaker 1 2:34

Pepsi, you're in for a shock, clark, a shock to your core I'm excited.

Speaker 2 2:41

I am really excited. I had no idea we were going to start with that, but that was a lot of fun.

Speaker 1 2:45

It's a little treat. A little treat, a little surprise, a little tasty treat. Why not A little carbonated poppin' beverage for you? Start the day off the right way Sugar, carbon, water in your mouth.

Speaker 2 3:01

Well, today's a special episode. You know why? Why my birthday is tomorrow, woo.

Speaker 1 3:08

Woo, I don't think it picked up either of our woos. I think it censored the woos.

Speaker 2 3:12

Yeah, I saw both of our green little soundbar things go completely silent, so it did not want the screaming.

Speaker 1 3:19

It did not want it, but I was going to say crappy birthday, I don't know why, like there's no reason for it.

Speaker 2 3:30

What is wrong with you? What did I do I?

Speaker 1 3:32

was like who the heck says crappy birthday?

Speaker 2 3:37

I usually love that response it's someone's birthday, you just go crappy birthday.

Speaker 1 3:41

My mind was just shouting in my ears like say crappy birthday, say crappy birthday, say it Say. Mind was just shouting in my ears like say crappy birthday, say crappy birthday, say it, say it, say it. I'm like I don't want it. That seems mean, it doesn't seem fun.

Speaker 2 3:51

it's really mean this is terrible. Yeah, crappy birthday, clark. Well, thank you. And also I appreciate you, uh, wearing the proper attire. You're dying, you're dying. He is, he is Okay, people, people. He is keeled over in his chair. Happy birthday. His face, his face is tomato red. He is scooting his chair back and crying. He's rocking back and forth.

Speaker 1 4:24

Goodness me, goodness me, I don't know what came over me. He's rocking back and forth. Goodness me, goodness me, I don't know what came over me. That's why you should never listen to your inner compulsion this is I have so many thoughts right now.

Speaker 2 4:35

This is why they invented the game Grand Theft Auto. So people who have those inner feelings of I just want to start running people over. They don't do it in person you do it in the game.

Speaker 1 4:45

Do you know how many views that trailer got this week?

Speaker 2 4:50

I have no idea.

Speaker 1 4:50

Probably a lot. Is that why you brought it up? Cause you saw the trailer.

Speaker 2 4:53

No, I didn't. No, no, I was just thinking back to a crazy coworker who told us like he lets off steam by going home and just murdering the hundreds of people.

Speaker 1 5:02

Serendipitous. Serendipitous rockstar dropped their second gta 6 trailer this week. 475 million views, holy cow. Half a billion, half a billion views in two days. Half a b, that's literally. Like you know, a tenth of the world's population is going to buy that game. It's crazy. That is absolutely one I'm going to check it out. I mean, you know what? Real talk, Real talk. I thought the first trailer was better.

Speaker 1 5:36

Second trailer sets up a lot of the character arc. It's a love story this time and I'm totally down for that. Based on their history with previous games and stories like GTA 4, Red Dead 2, really solid stories I'm totally down for that. Like. Based on their history with previous games and stories like GTA 4, Red Dead 2, really solid stories I'm very curious for them to do a love story. I think that'll work well, especially with, like, the dual protagonist and the ability to swap. But it's I mean, like I already knew that from the first trailer and like second trailer is just kind of like. It's given me. It's. It's given me all vibe, no ride. You know what I'm saying. I want to see what them cars drive like. I want to see what it looks like when you run a person over.

Speaker 2 6:09

That's what I want. I want to get that feeling. I want to get that feeling.

Speaker 1 6:14

Things I can't do in real life Running people down the streets.

Speaker 2 6:20

You know, I really hope our listeners have any idea what you're talking about, because I surely don't.

Speaker 1 6:25

Nor do I Welcome back to Corporate Strategy the podcast. That could have been an email. I'm Bruce and I'm Clark.

Speaker 2 6:33

How's it going, Clark, Bob check, Bob check. Oh, thank you. I haven't played GTA since San Andreas and that was what early 2000s.

Speaker 1 6:43

Yeah, good one, that was a good one. That was 2007?

Speaker 2 6:48

I think it was earlier.

Speaker 1 6:49

It might have been earlier. You might be right. I don't remember. I think I was right.

Speaker 2 6:53

I was young to be playing that game.

Speaker 1 6:58

Yeah, I played Vice City in middle school, so it couldn't be 2007. Let's see San Andreas. I'm going to re-guess 2024. 24 2024. That's clearly wrong 2004, which it was, it's 2004. My brain.

Speaker 2 7:17

Heads up. Your brain is on some weird wavelengths. Today, crappy birthday. Guessing San Andreas was 2024, when you obviously lived through playing that game.

Speaker 1 7:27

Yes, I did not sleep well last night. Oh no, I'm running on. Little sleep, a lot of boba tea. It's a dichotomy happening in my brain chemistry right now. That is going to unveil itself throughout this podcast.

Speaker 2 7:43

I love that.

Birthday Celebrations in the Workplace

Speaker 1 7:44

You doing the wiggles fingers at me.

Speaker 2 7:45

Yeah, I was, I was giving you the idea for the tea some banger boba tea coming your way. Um, yeah, yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, it's a good day. It's a good day. I am very tired, but my birthday is tomorrow, which is exciting. You will be there, be in attendance the wiggles. The wiggles will also be in attendance, so I love them. Everybody, be scared, be worried for us. Um, I wanted to ask you a question I'm ready to give you an answer because we both did a little bit of a vibe check.

Speaker 2 8:14

Sounds like you're low on sleep, so this is going to be fun. How do you handle your birthday in the workplace?

Speaker 1 8:21

I don't, no one knows it, which is no one has any idea. Yeah, and it was. It was kind of annoying because in my previous job, like some of my bosses would give it away and tell people and I'm like, please don't do that, that's my private personal information. I'd rather you didn't, uh. But now when you're a director, ain't no one gonna go to like the chief marketing officer and be like, oh, when's bruce's birthday? No, I ain and uh, he wouldn't tell anyway. So I don't, no one knows my birthday is. I'll give them my astrological sign if they're, if they're so curious. But yeah, don't celebrate it, don't care about it. Not a birthday boy, I'll go to yours. Obviously I want to experience the crappy birthday IRL you ain't getting. Oh, I mean, the real reason I'm going to your birthday party is because that Australian children's wonder group, the Wiggles, will be there. Can't wait. I hope Anthony field shows up and you know, play some guitar. But you didn't know. I knew the Wiggles, did you?

Speaker 2 9:16

No, you're going way deeper than I expected.

Speaker 1 9:21

Boy do I?

Speaker 2 9:27

know the wiggles. Clark asked me on a podcast. So yeah, nobody. So you don't like celebrating yours? I'm the same way. Now, I'm actually the same way. I prefer people don't know my birthday however, a very unfortunate thing happened, which was not done under my consent. Our organization started sending out happy birthday notes to everybody's birthday. What Was that day in our organization?

Speaker 1 9:49

Are you ready for something, Clark? I'm ready. Are you ready for one who had to drop with you? I'm scared. So ours did the same thing, Our HR team. I sent them a message and said don't you dare do this. We work for a security company and birthdays are private information often used to access accounts. You will not be posting happy birthday messages without people's permission in the general chat of Slack. So now they check. They're like no, that's totally fair. I'm like, yeah, it's totally fair, Get out of here. Wow, Good for you. I rained on all the parades.

Speaker 2 10:23

Yeah, you're smart, see, I did that. Years ago they did some sort of system reset. They started doing it again and I happened to filter all those emails to a folder that I never check, every single one from that distro. I was like I never check these. And so it went out this year and I was like gosh dang it. How did I not know these things were going out? And so I went and checked that folder filled everyday emails about birthdays and I was like gosh dang it. Now everybody knows.

Speaker 1 10:52

Yeah, I mean like no offense to your, your birthday tomorrow. I mean, I have one too but like I think people treat birthdays so seriously and it's like, firstly, firstly, my brother and Odin, you didn't choose to be born, you were. Let's not celebrate that, let's not celebrate an action that was forced upon you without your consent and we're going to just celebrate this specific day every year at the same time, like who can't? Everyone does it, everyone has a belly button. Like, like, who can't? Like you want a trophy? Do you want a trophy for being born, literally the easiest thing that you could do? I mean your mother, obviously, that's different, but like, literally the easiest. Yeah, I just existed, I came into existence.

Speaker 2 11:36

You didn't actually do anything. You were somebody else. Somebody else did you. How does that sound? Someone else did you.

Speaker 1 11:49

That's how you came into resistance Sounds wildly inappropriate, but yes, you're correct. And it like why can't we celebrate something cool, Like, oh, you know, I'm going to choose to celebrate the day that I won the state acting tournament. You know, my state thespian championship. That's what I want to celebrate every year. Come, come join me for a celebration of actual accomplishment in my life, Not just existing. For another year. Come join me for a celebration of actual accomplishment in my life, not just existing for another year, not just existing.

Speaker 1 12:10

I didn't choose this. Get out of town.

Speaker 2 12:13

Yeah, I was curious what your thoughts were. Mine are the same way. I would prefer people not to know because I don't want to make it a big deal. I mean a lot of the times like I'm actually surprised they didn't do it this time. A lot of the times I'll take the day off, like if it's my actual birthday on the week, I'll just be like, oh good excuse to just not work today, I guess. Great excuse.

Speaker 1 12:32

Yeah, yeah, it's like it's not because I'm doing anything. Tell you that I I have done that before and especially if it's if my birthday is on a weekend or a monday, like, oh, just take the day, because your boss will be like, oh yeah, no, I see why you're doing this in the calendar, but no one else needs to know yeah, no one needs to have any idea.

Speaker 2 13:01

See, I remember back when we started working in big corp, our manager used to get people cakes. You remember that? Yeah, have a team meeting, you would get the cake. You'd bring it in. It was very thoughtful. I'll be honest, I am not that good at creating culture. He was great at creating like, a positive culture, making people feel happy in the workplace. Yes, I am not good at that.

Speaker 1 13:28

Nor am I. Nor am I. I just I'll just come out and say I don't like celebrate. What I like to celebrate is accomplishments. If you do a good job, I'm going to send you a letter not handwritten, but you know like an email or a Slack message to say, hey, you really crushed it. Yeah, thank you, and this will be remembered at review time. Fyi, like where it matters most, in the paycheck, don't, don't you? Don't you worry?

Speaker 2 13:54

yeah, I got you I got curious what other people. I'm curious if other people are like I love the birthday announcement, I love the birthday cake, I love the pageantry, and I'm curious because I I had and I love my team. So I'm gonna caveat this for whenever they listen to this sometime in the future, all 600 episodes they're gonna have to find it in the 600 episodes. But in case they ever do, uh, I think the the thing that I want them to remember when I, when I'm about to say this, is I appreciate them. They did a little birthday thing for me one year and like I was appreciative, like it was fine. They threw like a little conference room thing and like it was fine, I appreciated the thought. I just didn't need it, you know, I just was like I could have gone my whole day without that. But thanks for being thoughtful, I guess.

Speaker 1 14:42

I love it. I feel that I vibe with that so hard. So I mean, you've heard that. You've heard that. Like the, the concept of love, languages yeah Right, I'm sure you've heard that and like some people like praise, some people like gifts, some people like nothing at all, I do think that there is like some psychology in all of this. I think you and I definitely skew a very specific direction when it comes to I want to be recognized for the things that I do not, for the things that I don't do. Right, like, if you give me praise for nothing, I'm going to slap you across the face Like no, don't do that, don't do that, criticize me. You better criticize me for not doing the thing that you're criticizing me for.

Speaker 2 15:21

I want some hard feedback. That's what I want. Give me that hard feedback, good criticism. Tell me how it could be better. That's what I want. That's what fires me up.

Speaker 1 15:29

It does, it's a gift, especially when it's good. I will say it's not a gift when it's like oh, that's not helpful feedback at all. In fact, that's not helpful, you missed a period on that slide.

Speaker 2 15:42

You should have done better.

Speaker 1 15:43

It's like actually none of the slides have period. It's a stylistic choice, but thank you for noticing. Thank you, and please continue to send me these kind of pieces of feedback.

Speaker 2 15:52

Any email on saturday, please, it's a great use of all of our time. Thank you very much. Please can I?

Speaker 1 15:59

have some more really appreciate you doing this product manager.

Speaker 2 16:03

Um yeah yeah, anyway, that's. I'm actually happy because we're in a hybrid work schedule, so we don't go to the office on fridays, and thankfully today is the day before the weekend and I did not have to worry about anything happening in the office. It just happened over our chat. I am, everybody was like happy birthday and I'm like gosh, dang it, but at least there wasn't something formally in the office.

Speaker 1 16:30

That's better, better than that, love it. I've been on vacation all week. I've only logged into my email to approve someone's PTO request. That's it, nice, I like that, that's it Nice. I like that, that's the only thing I would do. Other people have asked for help, but I won't help them, sorry. No, it's your week off. A PTO request. Absolutely, enjoy your life. I'm going to help you enjoy your life, but everything else, nah, nah, it's off the books.

Speaker 1 16:57

So I'm kind of confused about something You're not sleeping well on. Ah, that's right, and I don't know why. I just had, like I had, recurring nightmares last night, like it was really weird. I don't know why it was strange, but I kept waking up like cold sweat, fear about these very strange happenstances that were occurring in my dream. Huh yeah, very strange. I didn't sleep well because of that.

Speaker 2 17:20

It's probably about this podcast, wasn't it it?

Speaker 1 17:21

was it, was it's like this podcast, wasn't it? It was, it was. I was like, oh, what if we don't have a topic? What will we do?

Speaker 2 17:27

What will we do? What if I tell someone crappy birthday instead of happy birthday? What am I going to do?

Speaker 1 17:36

How am I going to turn that into a five-minute bit on this podcast?

Speaker 2 17:39

that is a nightmare. That is a nightmare yeah we're here. Should we talk about something we're already?

Speaker 1 17:46

here we're rambling. Should we do, we're recording. I mean when in Rome?

Speaker 2 17:52

I mean I mean, you're here, I'm here, craig's here, like we might as well have some fun cameras are on, mics are on.

Speaker 1 18:01

I got no place to be. I'm not working today. Lay it on me.

Speaker 2 18:04

We're wearing a similar color shirt we obviously coordinated this. It's looking very nice, very plain gray shirts.

Speaker 1 18:11

Prepping for a big birthday bonanza tomorrow.

Speaker 2 18:14

Prepping for it Calling up the Wiggles, just making sure they're confirmed.

Evaluating CAC: Culture in Interviews

Speaker 1 18:18

Making sure Anthony Field's going to be there. Wiggles reference Dropping it firms. It's great.

Speaker 2 18:23

Making sure Anthony Field's going to be there. Wiggles reference Dropping it. You know your Wiggles. I think we need to carry on our conversation from CAC. We talked about CAC. We talked about state of our CAC. I talked about how your CAC looks, how your CAC feels. Now I want to talk about how you evaluate CAC in the interview. A quick little update for the people as you're interviewing, you're shopping around companies Now that they know their CAC. All the new listeners have sized their CAC. They've made sure their CAC is up to speed. I don't like this.

Speaker 2 18:56

I don't like this one Now I think they need to look at. If I'm pulling plan E and I'm looking at companies, how do I know if they're going to match my CAC?

Speaker 1 19:03

Yes, yes. Firstly, before we, I'm just digesting everything you just said, but which is not working Last week's episode. If you didn't listen to last week's episode, boy, are you missing out? You're just missing out on all the information about CAC, specifically culture, autonomy, challenging compensation and rather than us rehash that for our study listeners, that did happen to listen to last week's episode. It was a bonus pod. It was a bonus pod. By the way, you got a twofer. Go listen to that. It was short, it was sweet, it was 20 minutes. Listen to that. It was short, it was sweet, it was 20 minutes. Listen to that and then come back and listen to the rest of this and then, when you get to the end of this, you'll get the rest of the Pepsi story too. So I mean, what a fortunate episode this is for y'all. But yes to your point, clark how does one evaluate a catch at the interview process?

Speaker 2 19:57

Yeah, so yeah, if you are too lazy to go back and listen, it's culture, autonomy, challenge, compensation. I'm just going to remind you what CAC is. It's used to basically assess your workplace happiness. What do you value, what do you prioritize, and so it's important that you find a workplace that is also going to match kind of what you value in being happy in the workplace. Because you spend a lot of time there, you should be happy in it. You should enjoy what you do.

Speaker 2 20:28

So in an interview, there's a lot of ways to assess CAC, but if you're in the interview process, it's all about what questions you come up with. It truly is on you. Like, whenever they say what kind of questions you have, don't say, oh, I got no questions. Or don't be like, yeah, everything sounds great. Or like what's the pay? Again. Like truly try to ask questions around how essentially you're, how happy you're going to be, because they need to sell themselves to you just as much as you need to be able to sell yourself to them. And so, as you're looking at that, you know maybe we start with the first. How would you evaluate good culture? What kind of questions do you ask?

Speaker 1 20:59

I mean this one's really easy for me because I just come out point blank and say it. I say what kind of culture can I expect on your team? It's broad, it's open-ended, and the nice thing about it is they have to fill in all them blanks, like they can't say oh yes, we have a culture Like. If they say that run, most normal people will think like, oh geez, well, I have to actually talk about, like I think about for a second, what is our team's culture and then summarize it for the interviewee, without giving away all of the secrets, and make it. You know, there's gonna have to be a little bit of a read there on the interviewee side, or the interviewer's side too. It's like do does this person? If I like this person, I want to get them on board. Like I have to. I want to get them on board Like I have to. I have to sell them on our culture with this question.

Speaker 1 21:43

So it's a I think it's a really good one to come in just very broad, just straight up, ask what is the team culture like and then, if you get an answer that you like or dislike, you can always follow that up with. Is that unique to your team or is that organizational as a whole? Right, so you can even expand that. That's a. That's a two-part question to help fill in your interview time. That gets them on the back foot. They have to fill in all of those blanks for you, yeah.

Speaker 2 22:09

It's a great question and it also puts to your point like you're kind of re-engaging them, makes them think about it, and it also shows that like you're asking questions because obviously you're interested in working there, so you're asking questions about their team and you're thinking about the broader workplace, making you seem like a more experienced employee, because it's like not only did you ask about this team, but then you asked about the broader organization and a lot of the times, like a team is great, the broader organization might really suck. You and I have been on teams like that where it's like team's awesome, rest of the organization sucks and where it's like team's awesome, rest of the organization sucks, and so it allows you to get a real good feel of being like, okay, this manager seems great, team seems great, but if the rest of the organization suck, how is that going to impact the culture here on this team at some point in time in the future?

Speaker 1 22:53

I mean, if I receive an honest answer there like team culture is great, love it. We do everything we can to make it as like, friendly, open, communal as possible. Organizational culture needs some work. I'm I'm immediately more interested in working at this place because, like now, I know like I can trust this person. They probably have been through the same level of crappy birthday that I have and we're going to get along great. Like you, you've now passed my vibe check on the culture by being honest with me.

Assessing Challenge and Autonomy

Speaker 2 23:23

Right, yeah, I love when you're interviewing for a place and it gets to a point where they're just being honest and you can tell like the integrity is there, being like listen, it's not all sunshine and roses. Like we have our challenges. Here's a couple of our challenges. And I think that's another thing you can do is like ask about okay, so what are some of like the challenges that you guys face as a team? It kind of goes into the culture aspect but helps you understand a little bit more of the work of being like what's your biggest challenge as a team? And I love asking that as like a follow-up to culture or maybe another way to ask about culture. Or, if you have multiple interviews and you already asked about culture, ask about challenge, because then you can kind of learn like what is a difficult part about working on this team or working for this organization.

Speaker 1 24:03

I do think that there is an opportunity to hone the question a bit when it comes to challenge for your preference, right? Because, unlike culture, which is generally something that is, it's broad strokes I got to understand like are you friendly, Are you communal? Is everyone independent? Like heads down, Like there are ways to evaluate that I think challenge means a lot of different things to different people. So if you're in an, like an engineering interview and you're like, you know how challenging is the work, what might be challenging for some is not challenging for you. So I think it's for this question specifically, it's worth you quantifying, like, what you're interested in.

Speaker 1 24:43

I love difficult programming assignments. You know I code and go on the weekends for fun because I hate myself. Like what, what's the expectation here when it comes to getting outside the box and going beyond just writing meaningless for loops all day, right, Like you can you can obviously don't ask it with that amount of snark and sarcasm, but like you can tell a little bit about yourself in that question while you're asking it to have them evaluate for you what the challenge is going to be like, they might say you know what that's super cool. Like it's good to have your level of energy and enthusiasm. Unfortunately, a lot of the coding assignments here they're a little more high level. It's a lot of, you know, sort of repeat task code review. We don't get too deep in the weeds on some of the more low level concepts here. It's a good answer, right, Because now you know what kind of work it is. And if that's a checkbox for you, great. If it's not, well, that's also great. Now you're able to filter this thing out. Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2 25:39

Yeah, and specifically for engineers, I love that question and just to build on it and be like you know how. How involved are we in actually like coming up with the solve for the problem? Are we just handed, like the, the coding tasks that we need to do, or do we are we involved in like, hey, here's the problem, how can we solve it? And if you're more on like the, I want to be challenged and I want to approach like how to solve problems rather than just be handed solutions. I think if you're looking for that, like, that's a really good way to evaluate it from an engineer's standpoint.

Speaker 1 26:07

I know I was looking to phrase that too.

Speaker 2 26:09

Yeah, yeah, that's a great, great question, and if you're on like the product management side, you know, you can ask like hey, you know roadmaps. I think it's really important for me to understand like the broader vision and kind of come up with different strategies to approach it. Is this more of like top down you know they create the roadmaps and we execute against the roadmaps or is this more of we have to build and own and operate our own roadmaps and essentially bubble those up to see how it aligns with the strategy? And that kind of feeds a little bit into the challenge, but also a little bit into autonomy as well, to be like do I have any power for decision-making, or is it truly just going to be like, okay, you tell me what to do and I just go do?

Speaker 1 26:44

it. This is the one I actually need help with. Uh, because and I started thinking that when you were, when you're going, it's like challenging autonomy can be very tightly linked in this question and in the past I have literally asked people like, how do we work together? Because I'm curious, like especially in marketing. Right, marketing can go a lot of different ways. It can be everything falls on Bruce, bruce is responsible to everything, or it can be well, I am very involved in marketing, even though it's not my department, it's not my job, it's not my focus.

Speaker 1 27:16

I like to get my fingers in it and tell you what to do, and I've had to ask people before like, how involved are you with the marketing process? And I've had them lie to me, which is interesting. But, uh, like you know and it's because for me we've talked about this, I value autonomy more than anything. So I'm asking the people on the call, like if they're not in marketing directly, and I'm doing some kind of cross organizational interview, how involved are you with marketing? Because I've been burned before by, specifically, product management getting in my crap all the time, even though they shouldn't be, and they continue to be. So you know, it's interesting and I will say the answers I've gotten have not been accurate, with the outcomes that go with that question. So I need a better question for autonomy.

Speaker 2 28:03

Yeah, it's always a tough one and I think you can to your point.

Speaker 2 28:07

It's like you get one perspective from the hiring manager and somebody who's like running that division. You get a different perspective when you're doing like a team interview or interviewing someone on the actual team and you get an even better perspective from someone who is like there's an interview step called the peer review process and typically they'll pull in one of the partners from engineering, from marketing, from product management, somebody that's not on their direct team, to be like I want you to interview with this person because you're going to have to work with this person. That is a great person to ask these types of questions, because they have an outsider's view to the team you're going to be working on and I think you can ask those types of questions and they're probably going to be honest with you because they're like I don't know this job, I don't know what sucks and doesn't suck and what they care about, what they don't. So I'm just going to give you the answer when a hiring manager or somebody on the team is probably to give you a more optimistic look.

Speaker 1 28:56

That's a good point. That's a really good point. And I unfortunately I never get the opportunity to do peer reviews. I'm always interviewing with management or leadership, so when I ask the questions, I'm getting management or leadership answers. But if I could actually interview a peer, oh my gosh, I would never take any job ever probably.

Speaker 2 29:15

Yeah, yeah, you'd be like Ooh, this sounds terrible. You actually hate those guys, don't you?

Speaker 1 29:20

I mean, it is a gift of mine to get people to open up and tell me everything, so I would probably ask them the questions that they would give me the answers to, and then I'd never work anywhere. You just quit working all together. It's not going to work for me, sorry, don't get my vibe.

Speaker 2 29:39

Yeah, yeah. I always force anybody joining my team to do a partner interview because I want to know like my partners they're going to work with all the time. I'm like I need them to interview this person so I can get a totally different perspective and also I can understand, like, what kind of questions did they ask this person and particularly, you know it just gives that you know those partners, an idea of who you're hiring and who's good and who's bad, what they saw that we didn't see. So just different perspectives.

Speaker 1 30:05

Have you ever had someone that you interviewed, or do a partner interview, come back to you and say I'm not interested in the job because of the partner interview?

Speaker 2 30:10

I've never had that, but I have had partners be like hey, this person really sucked. And then I'm sitting there like they actually were really great, like I got to dig into this. What is the disconnect?

Speaker 1 30:22

Yeah.

Speaker 2 30:23

That happens too.

Speaker 1 30:24

It's very interesting. You can learn a lot about people. You can learn a lot about your co-workers from having them interview people. It's a good activity. Hold people when you don't normally do. That's just the side tangent pro tip for this episode.

Compensation Conversations and Power Moves

Speaker 2 30:38

Yep, might as well, I agree. What haven't we touched yet? Compensation, last one. Compensation the hard one Might as well, I agree. What haven't we touched yet? Compensation, last one. Compensation the hard one, the hardest one. This one's always awkward, isn't it? Yeah?

Speaker 1 30:47

it is. You definitely want to talk about it with, like your, the team manager. This is not appropriate to bring up with anyone outside of the HR side of things and you let them negotiate.

Speaker 2 31:02

You can bring it the hiring manager, I guess, because I have talked compensation with hiring managers before but like it's, it's those two individuals, no one else, right yeah, yeah, it's usually like I think about hiring for my team and I know the range, the hiring manager knows the or the uh, the hr manager knows the range, but the person on my team who's going to be managing this person doesn't really know the range. They've got a ballpark of what they make, they know what their team makes, but they don't know the range that this person would be eligible for to that level. So, exactly to your point, it's like the HR person who calls you and does an initial screen to be like are you a decent human being? Can you actually hold a conversation? That person, probably one of the first questions they're going to ask you being like okay, cool, you're interested in this position. Like what salary range are you looking for? Like they're very much going to kind of start with that question before you actually get to like face-to-face interviews with the team.

Speaker 1 32:03

It's a little bit of a red flag these days. If you don't get that on the first call Like not on the first call, but like on the first serious HR call, where they're actually talking about putting you in front of other people If they don't have an idea of what your range is, that's a bad sign. Yeah, that's a bad sign.

Speaker 2 32:17

And it could surprise you, but I think more more often than not, it is a bad sign. And then also, like you could waste a lot of people's times because your salary range might be a lot higher than what they actually might be able to offer you. So it saves everybody some time if they're like okay, your range is like 50% higher than we're going to go, we're going to offer, are you still interested in this position? But I've had the weird situation I don't know if you've had this too where I think I've given a range that's automatically like disqualified me from getting to anyone yes, individually which kind of sucks too, cause it's like, but I actually really like solving this problem. So like I'm willing to be flexible, but also like I don't want to give, I don't want to get a low ball and that's what I'm trying to avoid.

Speaker 1 33:01

So I've had that conversation before and I've said, like here's what I make today. I'm really interested in this opportunity and I'm willing to, you know, consider other options based on you know what, what is available for you. But I think also in this process I will show you that I am worth the value that that I asked.

Speaker 1 33:24

I love that uh, yeah, very confident answer yeah, I always and this is probably, this is probably as much as a problem as it is a solution I always act like I have the job and I'm the one rejecting them. Yeah, I've never been rejected from a job interview. I've rejected the jobs.

Speaker 2 33:49

I have been rejected from job interviews, but I didn't do it that way.

Speaker 1 33:51

So maybe, maybe that's a pro tip. Yeah, I mean to be fair. Who wouldn't want me at their company? You know, I'm just throwing it out there.

Speaker 2 34:00

Oh, I love the confidence. I'm just going to go into into my next interview and at the very last interview I'm just gonna be like, yeah, I can't wait to get started on Monday, I'll see you then. I just ended right there how incredible power move. Yeah, I love that you get a free trial, you get a one week free trial of clark.

Speaker 1 34:21

I start monday, by the way. Uh, you get a one week free trial. Better be starting getting paid after week one.

Speaker 2 34:26

Just fyi, that's in the how would you react as the hr manager? Wait, what did they just say?

Speaker 1 34:34

that's the ultimate power power move. I'm going to go post a LinkedIn post about this after this.

Speaker 2 34:41

At your last interview, make sure you say can't wait to see you on Monday, I'm excited to get started. You don't even have the job.

Speaker 1 34:46

Pro tip LinkedIn fam, don't just act like you have the job. Have the job, just start working, trust me.

Speaker 2 34:54

Just show up at the office and say you belong to work there looking for my badge and laptop.

Speaker 1 35:00

Do you have it?

Speaker 2 35:04

I'm dying like imagining someone actually doing this like that. That would be the funny. I honestly might just be like I mean, hell, they're already here, just like, let's see what they got. I mean, 30 days. Right like, let's go that would be so funny.

Speaker 1 35:20

Man.

Speaker 2 35:20

I'd have so many questions coming out of that for, like, I'd be like calling the HR person. Did you offer them something Like how did this go down? So, long story short, these are some pro tips on how you can evaluate CAC, and I think you've got to start by listening to that other episode. You know evaluate. You know which one of those things culture, autonomy, challenge, compensation matter to you most, in what kind of order? And then ask the probing questions that hopefully give a little bit of insight behind you know, the curtain of what is actually going on in that team. I've had so many people that I've interviewed that the questions they ask are just boilerplate kind of boring questions, and it does tell me like they're not that experienced, like somebody who actually knows what they want and what they're looking for and is not just desperate for a job, is going to ask really good questions that are probably going to make me pause for a second and be like man how do I answer that?

Speaker 2 36:10

But I usually get the ones and this is usually when people I'm just like I'm probably not going to get the job. They're not that qualified, the interview wasn't that great. They'll ask, like you know, very basic questions of like, what do you enjoy most about working there? And that's not a bad question, but it's just like a boilerplate question. That's just asking you know, just something that anybody could ask, anybody. I think, if you want to dig one level deeper and like understand, do you want to be sold to this company? Do you truly want to work there? You got to think a little bit deeper on what types of questions to ask the um, the pro tip I'll offer.

Speaker 1 36:43

I think I've done. I've offered this multiple times now, but who knows who listens to this, especially when you get this late in the pod. If you're an interviewer, this is my favorite question of all time. I've never had it fail on me. I get, so I get more information out of this question than anything else, which is sad. But I always ask everyone I interview what is the question? I should have asked you but didn't, and I legit like it has never failed me.

Speaker 2 37:08

It's never once failed me in snipping out great candidates yeah, yeah, because the really good ones are going to be prepped and they're going to be ready to answer a plethora range of questions and when they go through an interview they're going to be like yeah, I really prepped for this, thinking this was going to be a focus point, and I'm surprised you didn't ask. And it's interesting because, yeah, it lets you know they were really prepped.

Speaker 2 37:34

Maybe I asked them questions that didn't help them shine and I might want to do a follow-up interview exactly oh, I didn't see what I wanted to see, but they were so prepped on this which is important, like maybe I need to have another interview with them you know it's funny too, is everybody asked that question?

Speaker 1 37:49

I just ask what's the question I should have asked you? I never tell them give me the answer. They always answer the question too. Yeah, like every single time, and I'm good with that. I want them to. But like it is funny, like you can't just give me the question.

Speaker 2 38:02

Oh yeah, you should have asked me what my favorite color was you should have asked me uh, what's my favorite part about being unemployed?

Speaker 1 38:09

that would have been a great question I've never just gotten a dead question back, but, uh, I'm looking forward to the day that I do. I hope that it happens. Oh, I can't wait to hire.

Speaker 2 38:24

Yeah, I can't wait till the person I interview just tells me at the end yeah, I can't wait to get started. Thanks for the job offer. I'll see you monday. Hired you're immediately hired.

Speaker 1 38:34

If I'm interviewed, they're gonna they're gonna look you dead in the eye and they're gonna be like thanks for the job, clark, and you're gonna have this moment of like panic well up inside you, like wait, did I just get played?

Speaker 2 38:47

what happened? That happens? You're hired.

Speaker 1 38:48

I don't care what the role is, I don't care how qualified you are hired on the spot, look them square in the eye and just say thanks for the job. Clark, just like that, that'd be incredible.

Speaker 2 39:01

Hey, speak to Clark.

Speaker 1 39:03

Oh, boy, yeah, go ahead.

Speaker 2 39:05

I was going to say we've left the people hanging for a while. What's the answer? What's the end of the story?

Speaker 1 39:13

I'd love to give it to you, but first we have to address something.

Speaker 2 39:18

I don't want to. I don't want to.

Speaker 1 39:20

I know what you're trying to avoid, but we play a game on this podcast called what Do you Meme With an M. It's a podcast game where we describe memes which are often visual in nature with our mouth parts. And it's clark's turn the way he plays uh, going to our, our discord by looking at the the link tree and your your podcast show notes joining our discord. It's a great community, good people, good vibes. Occasionally they'll post memes of things from the previous episode and, clark, it's your turn to describe the two gifs the bourgeoisie correspondent, alex ristrepo, has posted in the what do you meme channel. So go ahead, clark, describe them do I have to?

Speaker 1 40:02

you absolutely do. It's the rules of the game. But it's my birthday, but it's your crappy birthday oh, fair enough, fair enough.

Speaker 2 40:14

Okay, I going to get prepped for this one. I'm watching it over and over again and, like I just have more questions, start with the first. I kind of want to do the first one last Okay. Okay, just because I feel like the second one needs to be addressed first.

Speaker 1 40:35

Because I have so many questions. I like where you're going. Okay, let's do it okay all right.

Speaker 2 40:41

So imagine if you will, you've done this before you go to a gas station, you pick up a single slice pizza that's been sitting there all day. You get the little box, it's a perfect little triangle. You pop your pizza in there and you're like great, I can't wait to go home and eat this piece of pizza. And so, as you're getting ready, you're getting home, you're so excited you get your favorite, you know condiment out. Maybe it's garlic, you know from Papa John's, or maybe it's ranch, maybe you just really love ranch, yeah, so what you do is you say, great, I can't wait to eat my piece of pizza, let me get my condiments ready.

Speaker 2 41:14

I'm going to sit down, I'm going to prep myself to eat this pizza, and you know you could do it like a normal person. You know, just dip a little piece into it, wait till you get to the crust, dip a little bit in ranch. I enjoy doing that from time to time. You could also choose to prep to eat this pizza by bathing in ranch and be covered in it and and be covered in it and then proceeding to, rather than just sprinkling a little bit on your pizza or dipping the crust, stick your whole hand in a vat of ranch, a giant yellow bucket, and shoving it into your face, which is subsequently covered in ranch. Your hair is covered in ranch, your whole body is ranch at this point. That's what this gif is. And then, of course, naturally, you followed up with holding your ranch bucket up to the sky, putting on your sunglasses, and you say ranch it up.

Speaker 1 42:03

Who wants some ranch Clark? Firstly, excellent job, excellent job. I had more questions from your description than I did from watching the GIF itself. So good job, Good job there, clark, who buys a single slice of pizza.

Speaker 2 42:22

Yeah, who does that? I mean to be fair, like looking at the GIF, which is not great quality, it looks like a good piece of pizza. I mean it doesn't look bad. Yeah, it doesn't look like a bad piece of pizza.

Speaker 1 42:33

Also, did you notice at the end of the, the gif, the second he takes the bite like there is a recoil, like this person rethinks every single life decision they've ever made once that bite goes in their mouth like it is, it's that moment of realization.

The 349 Alliance: Pepsi's $32 Billion Mistake

Speaker 2 42:52

This is one of those things you just like can't take your eyes away. You know, like in the more details like you start to pay attention to. Let me look at the surroundings. It's a dark room. They've got a black painted nail. That's in a point.

Speaker 1 43:06

Black thumbnail yeah.

Speaker 2 43:08

Black thumbnail. They've got long hair just covered, doused in ranch. I just have so many questions. The table is pretty clean, which I'm actually really impressed Like. The table that they're on is spotless until they get ranch all over it so many questions, so many questions, but so many answers.

Speaker 1 43:29

Thanks to you for playing that game, Clark Paul. What do you mean? Now I think it's time we talk about the aftermath. I'm so excited. Thousands of Filipinos rushed to Pepsi bottling plants to claim their prizes Because, as you can remember, at the beginning of the episode, 349 was not printed on two bottles, but 800,000. Hundred thousand. The PCPPI initially responded to the erroneously printed bottle caps that had no confirmation security code and could not be redeemed. The following morning, newspapers announced that the winning number was actually 134, adding to this confusion. After an emergency meeting of PCPPI and PepsiCo exclusives at 3 am on the 27th, the company offered 500 pesos $18, to the holders of mistakenly printed bottle caps as a gesture of goodwill. This offer was accepted by 486,000 people, costing PepsiCo $8.9 million.

Speaker 1 44:29

Oh my gosh. But that's not all, there's more. Many irate 349 bottle cap holders refused to accept PCPPI's settlement offer. They formed a consumer group, the 349 Alliance, which organized the boycott of Pepsi products and held rallies outside of the offices of PCPPI and the Philippine government. Most protests were peaceful, but on February 13th 1993, a school teacher and a five-year-old child were killed in Manila by a homemade bomb thrown at a Pepsi truck.

Speaker 1 45:01

In May, three PCPPI employees in Davao were killed by a grenade thrown into a warehouse. Pcppi executives received death threats. As many as 37 company trucks were overturned, stoned or burned. One of three men accused by the NBI of orchestrating the bombings claimed they had been paid by Pepsi to stage the attacks, to frame the protesters as terrorists. Then Senator Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo I just butchered that name suggested the attacks were being perpetuated by rival bottlers attempting to take advantage of PCPPI's vulnerability. The Committee on Trade and Commerce of the Senate of the Philippines accused Pepsi of gross negligence, noting it was involved in a similar fiasco in Chile just a month before the 349 incident. Wow, people died.

Speaker 2 45:52

That is insane. I mean, only half the people took the settlement, that's right, and like half of them were part of this alliance literally the 349 alliance, which I.

Speaker 1 46:04

That's the best name ever. I love that name. Like I'm surprised because of this bottle cap it's incredible.

Speaker 2 46:10

You rally around a cause against big corp. What story. But it's really unfortunate. People died Like Holy cow. Yeah, it went to, I mean there was literal terrorist attacks.

Speaker 1 46:20

Bombs were grenades. Like military grenades were used because of this stupid prize bottle. This is the power of marketing, right? Like if you mess up marketing, your life could be in danger. Like I don't want to belittle the violence and death that happened here. This is like for realsies. Marketing is powerful and when you play with people's, you know ability to feel like they've gotten what they deserve or not. That's how jokers are made.

Speaker 2 46:53

I'm just saying it's true, it's how jokers are made a whole line about this for an evil villain. That is insane. So they never got like a settlement for like a lawsuit or something at the end uh, so well clark, I guess if you're asking me to read the next section.

Speaker 1 47:11

About 22 000 people took legal action against PepsiCo. At least 689 civil suits. 5,200 criminal complaints for fraud and deception were filed. On January 1993, pepsi paid the Department of Trade Industry a fine of 150,000 pesos for violating the promotion's approval conditions. On June 24, 1996, a trial court awarded the plaintiffs of the lawsuit 10,000 pesos, about $380 each, in moral damages.

Speaker 2 47:38

Wow, so they did better than the settlement or whatever it was.

Speaker 1 47:45

Yes, I mean, I don't know if the moral of the story is hold out and sue because you'll get like a few pesos more, but that is indeed what happened in this case.

Speaker 2 47:56

I mean, it's a takeaway you can hold out and be like no, no, I'm waiting for the good stuff. And then it's a risk risk versus reward. There will be terrorist acts against these crimes and you may or may not want to risk your life because of three, four, nine Alliance.

Speaker 1 48:12

That's right. This was a. This was referred to as the Pepsi number fever or the 349 incident. That's wild. Yeah, I was literally just looking for a fun Pepsi fact to share. Continue our shenanigans around Pepsi. For some odd reason on this podcast it's become so Pepsi-oriented and when you see something that says the Pepsi number fever incident you gotta click it. And then when you read it, you have to share it with the world. So yeah, that is that.

Speaker 2 48:47

Always remember, always remember the 349 Alliance.

Speaker 1 48:51

They're probably still out there. I mean, that's gonna be our when we create our second pod. That's what we're going to name it.

Speaker 2 48:58

It's going to be called the 349 alliance podcast.

Speaker 1 49:01

Never forget how we dismantled pepsi as a two-person organization. We're gonna take them down. We're taking them all the way down either bring back pepsi man or we bankrupt that company again, because they have been bankrupt before, so we could. We could do it again.

Speaker 2 49:17

Get back into the video game industry. Bring Pepsi man out of the cages and shackles. You have them in right now.

Speaker 1 49:24

And we'll be satisfied.

Speaker 2 49:26

We will literally take you down.

Speaker 1 49:29

We're going to organize. Does Pepsi have stock? Do they have stock? Can we do a buyout? Oh yeah, for sure.

Speaker 2 49:36

We could definitely short them.

Speaker 1 49:38

Oh, they're down. Uh, 130, 136. Ooh, that's a little high.

Speaker 2 49:45

It's a little high.

Speaker 1 49:46

I wasn't ready to go Wow, this is wild. Clark Coca-Cola. Higher or lower, lower.

Speaker 2 49:55

Really I think so, that'd be my guess. I don't know if that's true, why? I think it's just because probably just the divestiture of shares Okay, so it's probably just more volume of shares, would be my guess, you're smarter than I am.

Speaker 1 50:08

You're right 70, 86.

Speaker 2 50:12

Okay.

Speaker 1 50:12

Yeah, about half. About half the price of pepsi if pepsi does a split, we can try and short them. We need to know when this happens. If pepsi splits corporate strategists worldwide all 10 million of you that listen to this podcast, that's right, 10 million of you. There's a lot I need you all to buy one share and together we're going to vote to bring back the pepsi man, and if they don't, we're going to tank this company. We need Pepsi man, and if they don't, we're going to tank this company.

Speaker 2 50:38

We need it on the agenda for the board of directors to review and be like what do they want to do? What's Pepsi man?

Speaker 1 50:43

Who is the corporate strategy Three, four, nine?

Speaker 2 50:48

movement. Why do they own?

Speaker 1 50:52

51% of our company. That needs to be our end goal. That really doesn't need to be our end goal for this podcast. As a collective, as our Discord corporate fam, which you can join by looking in your show notes, you can join the Discord. We own 51% of PepsiCo.

Speaker 2 51:12

Don't let the 349 be forgotten.

Speaker 1 51:15

Don't let Pepsi man be shackled in a basement. Let him out, let him breathe, let him serve Pepsi and the world, and the world, and the world. Let us not forget. On that note. I've got nothing else, clark, no, I think that's it.

Speaker 2 51:35

Like share, bring back Pepsi man. I think that's it, yeah, uh, like share, bring back Pepsi man. Hashtag See ya.

Speaker 1 51:41

Hashtag Save the man, Save the Pepsi. Uh, link tree for everything, Everything Swag. Support the show Website. Who cares?

Speaker 2 51:51

I mean at this at this point, like if you haven't figured it out by now. What are you doing? I can't help you. Why are we even saying it.

Speaker 1 51:58

We can't help you, I can't help you. If you can't interview with your cack, you're certainly not going to be able to join the Discord.

Speaker 2 52:04

If you can't interview with your cack out, then what are you doing?

Speaker 1 52:07

What are you doing? Oh, power, move, bring a Pepsi into an interview. Interview, it's a big bottle, two liter. Yeah, I'm talking by the end of it. Make sure you finished it. And then when they say excuse me, excuse me, sir and or madam, did you just drink a two liter bottle of pepsi during our interview? And then you say coca-cola and got crap on me. Hang up the call. No, I'll see you on Monday. Hang up the call.

Speaker 2 52:41

Can't wait to get started. I really gotta pee. I'll see you later.

Speaker 1 52:47

This Pepsi is hitting my bladder in some kind of way. I have to go, but I will see you on Monday.

Speaker 2 52:55

Do you remember the Pepsi flood of 1989, with the Pepsi on my floor?

Speaker 1 53:02

do you remember the 349 movement?

Speaker 2 53:07

that's a new question. That's what you ask. You say are you part of 349 alliance? And if they say no, you walk out, look them dead in the eyes and say that's what you ask. You say are you part of 349 Alliance?

Speaker 1 53:19

And if they say no, you walk out, Look them dead in the eyes and say I don't respect you and walk away, you obviously have no morals or values. I'm hurting, it hurts to live.

Speaker 2 53:37

I'm crying.

Speaker 1 53:38

That hurts to live. Mmm, oh, I'm crying. That was so good. There are tears in my eyes. There are tears. Oh bless it, I'm done, I'm good, I'm toast.

Speaker 2 53:49

I've been good. For about ten minutes I'd say we go ahead.

Speaker 1 53:52

Do it as always drink your Pepsi. I'm Bruce and I'm Clark and you're on mute. We will see you next week. Crappy birthday everyone.