VITAL-BARITONE presented qualified Pepsi employees to Coca-Cola, but none advanced. A senior manager explained the company deliberately avoids hiring competitors' staff, not by formal rule but cultural preference. Coca-Cola would rather hire "water" than poach from Pepsi.
Um, but I, I used to work at Coca-Cola, right? My first couple of months, I was presenting candidates from competitors. They were, they were not making it through the interview process. I, I had a, a very candid conversation with one of the senior hiring managers there. I said, if I bring you some people from Pepsi, would those be highly desirable? He said, we don't hire from Pepsi. And I'm like, is there some sort of agreement? Or he's like, no, it's not an agreement. It's It's a culture. Let's say that you go to a restaurant in another state, right? Because I'm in Georgia, they're going to have Coke. But let's say you're in New York and you go to a restaurant and you ask for a Coke and they say, oh, we don't serve Coke here. We serve Pepsi. What do you say? And I'm like, I probably would just get water. And he goes, that's the problem. That's why we don't hire from each other. And I'm like, oh my God, that makes a whole lot of sense.
Scaling Talent at Hypergrowth: Leadership, AI, and Hiring Excellence with Cindy Nicola
