Thread regarding Cisco Systems Inc. layoffs

Hiring decisions like the Americas GSSO SED have consequences. Unfortunately, the consequences are impacting very good people and their families at a very challenging time of year.

If what @yua says is correct that other groups are hiring in GSSO and he is not, then that is a very good indicator of where investments are being made and where investments are not being made such as his group. With that being the case, the SED has failed the TSAs under him.

Either look at those groups that are hiring or look at the competitors as they are hiring. PAN, Crowdstrike, Fortinet, Proofpoint, Microscoft, and many more are hiring and paying more. They have better leaders. Don’t wait until it is too late to move to a hyper specialists team or a competitor. Your SED is not in a good position so that means you are not in a good position.

Account Teams can’t sell security. It has been tried for years with failure after failure. Security teams at customers want to talk to real security professionals whether they be sales or technical. That is why the competition beats Cisco security more times than not.

A massive reduction in GSSO staff to reinvest in the direct teams and moving to agile would be a HUGE improvement. The infighting between CSS/TSA and all the hyper specialists (XDR, Netsec, SSE, Zero Trust) has risen to an insanity level and the productivity per head is laughable. Encourage the account teams to own security (instead of outsourcing to GSSO), and leverage the C2E and let the account teams engage the appropriate specialist. If you don't understand this, you are likely within the GSSO bubble and can't see the problem for what it is. As long as security is treated as a specialist driven motion, it will never be core to Cisco's business and will continue to be a sideshow that everyone in the market laughs at. No idea who will be the new Amer GSSO sales leader, but I'm sure they will determine whether the SE leader stays or changes.

The GSSO SED needs to be replaced. He came into the role and was only focused on pushing C2E and Agile TSA at all cost without getting any feedback from TSAs. I was told he did not get any feedback from his managers either. He was hired only due to EK wanting him to drive the disaster C2E and Agile TSA programs.

Since he was only focused on C2E and eventually pooling TSAs into Agile TSA, he has not been focused on demonstrating the value of TSAs which is why his org is at risk of the LR while other groups are hiring and he is not.

Everyone sees this. Time to get someone that actually can be an SED and lead the TSAs. The TSAs need someone they can trust and follow.

In GSSO there is no need for layoffs as most people will leave on their own and find new jobs.Many open positions but company has a big problem to hire from external.