During their conversations together, Emily Kiely and a group of her PepsiCo colleagues would often talk about how they wanted the world to be, and what they could to do to help it get that way. "What would happen if we took all of the passion, creativity, and energy we put into a brand launch or marketing campaign, and instead channel it into some kind of challenge in the 'real world?'" Emily recalls thinking. "What kind of impact could we make and what kind of solutions would we come up with?"
Inspired and committed, Emily was among a crew of eight employees on different teams, including fellow project leads Manoj Fenelon and Emily Silver, who eventually turned this idea into reality. PepsiCorps is now a month-long, international, corporate volunteering experience that provides PepsiCo associates the opportunity to put their business skills and expertise to use to address issues like clean water, nutrition and fitness, and sustainable agriculture.
Developing such a program wasn't in anyone's job description. And it certainly didn't happen overnight. The biggest learning for me is that no matter what your title may be, you can have an impact in so many ways, reflected Emily, PepsiCo's director of category management for retail customer Target. You don't need to feel constrained by your job description. Ideally you have a group of people who are also passionate-and there's really no limit to what you can accomplish.
Starting a corporate volunteer program wasn't even Emily's area of expertise. Prior to PepsiCo, she had spent most of her career in finance working on mergers and acquisitions. As challenging and rewarding as it had been, her priorities shifted when she and her husband started their family. Looking for better work-life balance so she could spend more time with her new little one, Emily took a finance position at PepsiCo. Emily was especially attracted to the company's Performance with Purpose mission: the idea that the company's long-term profitable growth is linked intrinsically with the ability to deliver on social and environmental sustainability objectives.
This idea also resonated with a number of her coworkers, and it was this shared passion that led to that initial brainstorm of how to help employees engage with the Performance with Purpose mission in a more experiential way. But how did a hypothetical discussion among co-workers turn into a full-fledged corporate-supported program?
We originally thought about this being a personal sabbatical type of program, says Emily, But we realized there's also a very strong business case for a cross-functional, cross-geographical team to focus on areas that are critical to our business - and that use our unique expertise - so that people can bring back learnings to the rest of the company.
Support from senior leadership doesn't hurt either. Emily and the team seized a unique opportunity to sit down with PepsiCo's CEO Indra Nooyi, and pitch their idea to make Pepsi's mission more tangible for its employees. Indra loved the idea, seeing the business case immediately. Then she told them to get to work to make it happen.
Because this wasn't technically part of their day jobs, one of the biggest hurdles for the team was finding time to build the program. It's a complete passion project for all of us, Emily explains. We'd find 30 minutes here or there during our day to work on it - sometimes during our nights and weekends. It's amazing what you can do when you pick who you can work with and what you want to work on.
After spending a year talking to other companies who had tried similar programs, and speaking internally with leaders across multiple functions, they finalized a plan for a month-long program that would allow enough time to make an impact.
The inaugural PepsiCorps team went to Ghana in October 2011 to help a local community in Denu gain better access to clean water. It was an undeniable success. The community ended up with a plan to better manage their water resources, and the employees who participated have brought back valuable skills and experience to the company. This is probably one of the best talent development programs I have seen, said the manager of one PepsiCorps participant. The stories and insight we've received are making a real difference to our team and the rest of the organization.
Emily and the original group of eight are still involved and planning the next evolution of the PepsiCorps program in 2012. She says the long-term goal is for PepsiCorps to be incorporated into the HR group to make it an enduring leadership program within the company.
Emily's proud of the impact she and her colleagues have made through all their hard work. If you have an idea you wish existed, she says to aspiring changemakers, make it exist.