Crumbling the multi layers of un-productive and useless hierarchy amongst management. This will increase efficiency and remove barriers to innovation. Cisco will then be Engineers and products led company. Tough change but that’s the only way out if ELT is paying attention.
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Has anyone ever done a cost analysis of how much Cisco would save a year if they removed management from groups that do not bring money into the company?
Management isn't just leading technical, sales, marketing, etc... tasks, it's acquiring and deploying resources including what pays your salary. I don't need a study to know we stop paying the ICs.
The fact of the matter is Cisco makes a lot of products so big and so complicated that even after the sale customers need to spend sometimes more than two years testing before it can be fielded. Cisco will spend many years before that doing the R&D where before FCS you get nothing, and after FCS you may be rejected by customers or simply be beaten by your competitors. That leads to another area of management known as risk management, something at which Cisco is profoundly incompetent.
project managers. Wtf do they even do.
At well run companies that's an honorific title given to managers who are responsible for doing the overall management of a project which may be one of many projects that make up a larger program, serially and/or in parallel, and insures everything is always delivered on time and on budget.
At poorly run companies it's a spreadsheet jockey who really only collects data and writes up spreadsheets that are ignored while the person who should be managing the project runs it into the ground.
Anyone who is not responsible for bringing revenue - out the door.
So if I create something great that other companies ultimately succeed with in the market I'm the one who gets tossed because Cisco couldn't create revenue by failing to market and sell it?
The reason Cisco is a box company that will never be a systems company is not only because so few have the brain power to keep track of a very long list of interactions between a very long list of components in a system to see how to make it all work together but because most don't know this needs to be done. For Cisco's products and services to create the most revenue both the individuals and their interactions need to be aligned and optimized to get the best out of the whole.
Just watch a 5 minute meditation video and you will be fine.
Anyone who is not responsible for bringing revenue - out the door.
project managers. Wtf do they even do.
I was in groups that had 3 managers on top of my work, where none of them actually understand the detail and approach. Every meeting I have to explain and argue with them about my work, at the end everything is just slowed down and they control the gate to delivery and communication outward.
There are senior managers and directors in cisco with only 4 or 5 reports for many years , its simply atrocious. There is ample opportunity to consolidate at that level, remove middle level managers and make directors manage atleast 4 or 5 FLM's with atleast 8 reports each.
My former manager in TAC was very great and not useless at all! I feel much appreciated to him! He was promoted to senior manager. God bless him and good people in TAC!
This will increase efficiency and remove barriers to innovation.
If your software engineers at your "software company" don't know computer science, software engineering, or even the language and OS they're coding with, and you're spending most of your development budget failing to fix bugs as you have for decades, how does having fewer managers suddenly fix your technical debt and imbue your engineers with basic skill sets that have eluded them for a lifetime?
When I joined Cisco there were 5 layers between me and John C, now when LRed, there were 11. You all can do the math where bloating is. Remove six plus layers of middle management doing nothing but putting check points and causing friction adding to toxicity and abuse. This is the first step in Cisco becoming a technology company.
Liz said she was comfortable with the amount of layers of management they have
"remove barriers to innovation"
ROFL
Cisco no longer has any DNA for innovation, and it doesn't matter who you fire
the company is built on acquisitions, and the acquired employees just phone it in and count down the days until they can collect their money and leave
what remains is a well-intentioned assembly of maintainers, doing the minimum work to keep things running
sure, fire a bunch of managers, you'll get no arguments here, but all you're doing is saving some money
Too many useless product managers in SBG. At least 50% should be fired with no package.
Why there is no reduction on business side ? especially these analysts every group ?
When Cisco is spending 1B dollars in AIML/GenAI then why they need analysts to build reports and dashboards.
Red badge is concerned whoever is in Q1 they will continue in Cisco for life time and keep crunching Cisco money. Why can't all red badge is outsourced to offshore ? It will not because thats where the money laundering is happening
Has anyone ever done a cost analysis of how much Cisco would save a year if they removed management from groups that do not bring money into the company?
Ameen!
Start with the CEO down. F those csuites good for nothing losers.
Who cares anymore. This is a dumpster fire. The amount of incompetency is too much to get rid of now
Taking 5 layers out from an 85k person company? Yeah, that's realistic.
Not going to happen, unfortunately.
There are 7 mgmt layers between me and lame CR.. trim that down to 5 easily
Most needed change