It’s easy to complain …. But what would you do differently If you were at the top ?
25 replies (most recent on top)
I would ki-l at least 2 of the network OS we have - maybe NX and XR. Sonic and iOS will be the things to sell. It will take a couple of years but that’s why we outsource work to companies like HCL etc. I would also give the S1 team an ultimatum - to integrate better and work faster with the rest of the org. And a deadline on their asic quality. For Webex, I’d keep the pressure on and try some new features with VR/AR. For UCS, I’d start looking at ARM or Qualcomm based server asics to catch the new market! And back to my first point, maybe I’ll ki-l the NOS that can’t be integrated with splunk for observability. Customer service needs to be enhanced too - if you’re in sales and you don’t know how the product works, you gotta let yourself out of the door! Same with engineering- stay updated with tech and tools or walk yourself out!
A big fat LOL to all of you virtue signaling liars polluting this forum.
What would I do differently if I was in Chuckie's shoes...NOTHING. Nada. I would lay off as many of you as I possibly could in a vain attempt to raise the stock price by a buck or two and then cash out when my options vest.
Then I would go for a round of golf at Pebble Beach.
- Remove manager and director layers why are these all needed how does this add value
- Remove silo orgs and decide : Segments like SMB and CMD are either generalist led or specialist led, get rid of the team which is not leading it
- Increase travel opex to meet customers properly, yes we are partner led but we should control the customer
- Address grey market issues properly rather than just talking about it
- Break up all hands to the local geographies no one in the US cares about Europe or Asia and vice versa , stop wasting everyones time with nonsense
it is actually remarkably simple. just answer this question:
What's a Cisco?
once you get the answer down to a single sentence, that's your north star. cut and sell everything that is not in that answer.
Pay freeze is not just paycheck and bonus freeze. It is also stocks freeze - no increases. Every year stock price doesn’t improve they stay there - end of story.
The ELT’s goals are useless for the stocks increases they keep getting.
meh, its just easier to start a new company then and let Cisco die...what are you even retaining in this scenario, the contract with janitorial service at the HQ?
Hardware. 40 years of software mistakes with tiny bits of goodness hidden within to know mostly what you shouldn't do with tiny bits of "don't sc--w this up" on the software side. You'd need to keep the current stuff bringing in revenue until you could produce a far more effective replacement, and you need serious work getting customer buy in to unified solutions without that technical debt that won't need years of customer testing which has been a massive financial gift to Cisco and its shareholders. I don't know how much of IOS-XR Arista walked off with, but it still took time for them to become big enough that customers would consider putting the weight of their business on them, and spinning out a new company means it has to do the same.
The skill and effort required to extract what you need to build something that avoids all the previous pitfalls would require a level of talent Cisco has never before encountered. Most such efforts at most companies fail because companies bring in "the best of the best of the best, SIR" people who don't have any practical experience and don't take the time to understand why their off the cuff solution will be as bad as the previous version. Had Cisco put real talent on the first IOS replacement Cisco wouldn't be where it is now.
Cisco isn't a growth stock, so getting rid of dividends will tank the stock.
there is no choice, any plan to reform the company will demolish the stock in the short term anyway
if you pay the dividend, you will be tethered to the status quo forever
Michael Dell realized it...he had to delist Dell in order to try to save it...
The reality is Cisco needs to become an entirely different company with an entirely different culture with entirely different people
meh, its just easier to start a new company then and let Cisco die...what are you even retaining in this scenario, the contract with janitorial service at the HQ?
The reality is Cisco needs to become an entirely different company with an entirely different culture with entirely different people with a broader range of better integrated solutions not carrying staggering technical debt. No one, or ten, or a hundred, or a thousand bullet points are going to solve for this, never mind the fact that getting to the fourth bullet point sends many of Cisco's current senior people into violent conniptions.
Accept PAY freeze or leave.
Pay is salary which is only a small part of total compensation. CEO's don't take $1 annual salaries because they value the company, they do so because the taxes on stocks are lower than those on high salaries.
Getting rid of Chuck is easy. Once you have no CEO because it's clear the company is in chaos good luck finding someone with real talent to sacrifice their career to take the role. Show us an objectively better replacement (think taking over a dying legacy company and completely revitalizing it, not someone who lead a startup that happened to catch the wind) who would actually take the job first and then we can talk.
0. end dividends.
Cisco isn't a growth stock, so getting rid of dividends will tank the stock.
4. focus on networking
Focus on core hardware and networking.
We need to focus on our core networking business and get away from everything else
Shed weird side businesses like security, collab, compute, AI, Splunk, observability, etc. and refocus all efforts on networking.
After 40 years you can't make any of the routing/switching operating systems work, and you're wasting most of your development budget failing to change this. Putting up posters saying "FOCUS ON NETWORKING!" isn't going to change that.
Getting rid of security and network management when competitors with better integrated solutions are already using those to take market share from Cisco seems like a great idea! Where did all the people go who said HPE acquiring Juniper who acquired Mist was the death of Cisco a few months back?
Bring Back Jayasree [and more from this and other posts]...
Do you think they left because they made everything work at Cisco, or realize that there is no way to make everything work at Cisco? I see no evidence of the former, and if it is the latter there is zero incentive to come back.
Freeze ELT pay and make them demonstrate they have actually established revenue stream increases. Not just one equipment but cycle to the next.
If they feel demotivated after been given tons of compensation for 10 years and not delivering stability - then let’s go find new leaders. Chance is required at the top.
Accept PAY freeze or leave.
Consolidate EVERYTHING! There are too many silos, politics and power posturing. Cisco is too marred in "ownership", clunky like a big cruiseship. Nothing ever gets done. If ELT focused as much effort into zero politics as social justice, the company may survive.
it would be painful for sure
- end dividends. you CANNOT make painful change if you have to provide a dividend stream every quarter. there is no debating this, if you want to keep the dividend, you have little choice but to continue with the status quo
- unload Splunk no matter how painful
- sell all security group assets to...anyone...Cisco is an also-ran in security and will never be anything more than that
- stop pretending to be an AI company, no one is falling for this
- focus on networking
- generally shrink the company, no way Cisco should have more than 50k employees
- accept being a tier-two tech company
I would really integrate all those companies we acquired. Same sales team, same marketing, same Tac support channels.
Jayshree (correct spelling) & Joe are both C-level execs now, with Cisco in their rear view mirrors; they will never return. Getting rid of Joe was MM's worst decision.
Foster internal innovation instead of purchasing startups. Focus on restoring TAC with true subject matter experts, and invest in technical expertise. Align sales compensation with long term customer success instead of short term sales motions (this will require creativity from legal and leadership). Simplify the licensing process and streamline the order to ship process. Focus on meeting customers in person and solving business problems rather than simply closing deals. I could go on, but you get the idea. Cisco as it exists today is too reactionary and lacks vision and direction. We need to focus on developing talent and truly creative solutions in house and setting the technical tone for our customers, rather than reacting to external forces and being left behind.
Enjoy my $40M + 30% CAGR comp.
Sales lead by John C ,BU lead by Jayasree , Services lead by Joe P and a technical CEO. This company will be back on track
Stop acquiring companies with no real plan of monetization. Focus on core hardware and networking.
Cut the sales and marketing teams
We need to focus on our core networking business and get away from everything else
Shed weird side businesses like security, collab, compute, AI, Splunk, observability, etc. and refocus all efforts on networking.
At this point? It's just a matter of milking the cow as it fades.
Arista set the bar with a single control plane architecture so they could use a single OS image, and a common API for all their devices making building a network management layer on top of it.
I don't see how Cisco consolidates X different implementations of the same functionality in one branch copied into Y branches for each of Z operating systems, and without this Cisco's development budget will forever be ravaged by bug fixing.
Just keep the ELT away from Acacia Communications. Let them have their independence and develop coherent optical modules for AI clusters.
Bring Back Jayasree and Joe
Fire Liz and bring back Joe Pinto
Bring jobs back to US
Hire based on merit, and ensure job openings are not pre filled before they are open to applicants
Hold marketing teams responsible for the lack of strategy
Ensure closer sales and engineering collaboration to be engineers who are now delivering better products in other companies
Everyone must code or solve customer
problems. Zero non-techies
If more than 25% of a team gets impacted, the entire management Must go.
Nothing can be done from here on out. Cisco is the next Nortel. It is just a matter of time.