"Is Chuck leaving? That's the buzz on the street. In our travels and conversations over the past two months, we've heard from several Cisco insiders, and this seems to be a not-so-secret rumor circulating Silicon Valley: Robbins’ retirement announcement may be imminent."
https://www.futuriom.com/articles/news/is-it-time-for-robbins-to-move-on-at-cisco/2024/11
The problem at Cisco is it's now run by dashboards.
Did they ever add dashboard fields for not breaking the build or creating working code? When I was there the branches were broken for months at a time.
The problem at Cisco is it's now run by dashboards. You don't get an opinion just make the dashboard green.
Which would be fine if those green tickboxes worthwhile. Sadly networking and customer are more complex than that, extracting that complexity from the data is not simple.
Changing those behaviours at customers is a long and arduous task.
New exec, new dashboard, a push to make it green. The smart exec gets it green then moves to another area of the business to transform. The not so smart will stay in role and eventually the lack of correlation between the dashboard and the business metrics will become apparent. Then they pursue opportunites elsewhere and spend time with their family with a big wedge of cash..... hmm maybe they are the smart ones.
> https://www.futuriom.com/articles/news/is-it-time-for-robbins-to-move-on-at-cisco/2024/11
What's the author's source? Thelayoff.com posts?
Nothing happened. Now I'm strongly convinced that the author's source are Thelayoff.com posts.
As a shareholder, I would like to see Chuck to be replaced with an external successors as soon as possible. But this article should be taken with a massive grain of salt. It comes from an „Analyst Firm“ whose business model is to bash companies until they invite their „analysts“ to events and give them access to executives and/or set up a monthly retainer for the „analysts firm“ to buy their services.
I don't know how he can rest in his retirement after how he has treated us!
Cisco has been doing layoffs for almost 24 years now, and they've done wage freezes, dry promotions and rank-and-yank as part of common business practices along with questionable techniques for the sole purpose of abusing employees, all under Chambers as well. With this history anyone saying they didn't see this coming or they didn't know what they were signing up for is just announcing they have no awareness of reality.
I don't know how he can rest in his retirement after how he has treated us! He counts his money, and we're all still looking for jobs!
https://www.futuriom.com/articles/news/is-it-time-for-robbins-to-move-on-at-cisco/2024/11
What's the author's source? Thelayoff.com posts?
That older person knew there was a firewall that needs updating if a host is moved or gets a new IP address.
You're running a $231B business on bailing wire and chewing gum. In smaller companies whose business wasn't network plumbing supplies they'd actually have modest process and sufficient documentation to tolerate the loss of individuals. At Cisco anything that can be automated complete with traceability should have shaped the development of network management tools you could both use internally and sell to customers.
While younger workers may be capable, I’m not willing to say they’re more capable.
I worked with many Principal Software Engineers who couldn't pass a sophomore Introduction to Computational Theory or Introduction to Software Engineering course. I knew kids who were more capable at the moment they graduated 40 years ago than many of Cisco's "top" people today. Cisco has a list of massively overrun and cancelled programs to prove it.
any reasonable exec coming in to the CEO seat would conclude that Cisco needs 90% of its workforce rotated out and replaced with younger, more capable, less jaded workers
While younger workers may be capable, I’m not willing to say they’re more capable. I’ve seen it time & time again across multiple teams where older, more experienced & expensive workers are LR’d & new younger workers are hired in 1-2 quarters. Someone on the team has to spend tons of time bringing them up to speed on how the processes work at Cisco, show them the code, and how to test before deployment or release.
Then after 12 mo go by, a server gets renamed, moved, upgraded, or replaced as something suddenly stops working. Whether or not it’s noticed immediately or not is the real question.
That older person knew there was a firewall that needs updating if a host is moved or gets a new IP address. Or that there was automated tasks that ran jobs that didn’t get moved from the old host to the new host, or connected to a host that moved or got renamed & now can’t find the target host.
Or worse, the app needs to read a password from a hidden, read-only file readable only by the app’s user, but since it’s hidden, the new person doesn’t know where it is to update it w/ the new password every time a generic user’s password gets updated. Hopefully now that Cisco is starting to use a “secrets” system & apps are supposed to dynamically retrieve the password on demand instead of being written to a file now, this is less of an issue, but I’ve seen it happen time & time again.
90% cuts is too much. Maybe handle the transition in 25% increments to allow the new workers to come up to speed w/o losing the internal history of how “it” works in one big swoop.
any reasonable exec coming in to the CEO seat would conclude that Cisco needs 90% of its workforce rotated out and replaced with younger, more capable, less jaded workers
Show me thousands of really high quality young people who would spend the next decade sorting out 40 years of technical debt before they could start doing any actual new development. Heck, show me one CEO with a proven record or turning around top 20 tech companies who would take Chuck's job.
Run Cisco's code from the 1990s through any code quality metrics and it should dawn on you even when Cisco was giving out over $10M in stock options to low level engineers they still couldn't attract and utilize talent. Schools don't train people to do the work that needs to be done and people with talent don't want to to be neck deep in other people's p00p. The choices that made Cisco what it is now were made 30 years ago, and since Cisco is now neither a growth company or even a value company, it's chances of going all the way back to growth are less than epsilon.
"90% of its workforce rotated out and replaced with younger, more capable, less jaded workers"
As an older and LR'd person, who indeed was very fortunate to have been around a quarter-century ago at Cisco; I do not doubt that younger people are more capable. But I do believe they are understandably actually more jaded.
My (almost 60 year old) generation, and our parents' generation; have essentially drank too long and too much from the USA money well. My folks have been retired for over two decades, their company had an awesome pension and retirement plan. Plus they have been drawing Social Security for also almost two decades. They are awash in cash, real-estate and investment income.
I likewise was around for the early payout days of Cisco and gladly took the LR years ago. Because of investing, real-estate income, and good planning; I still work, but just a piddly little job for spending money. The early days of Cisco, old (pre-RSU "real" stock options, cheap mortgages, cheap new home construction availability, and "easy" money in the stock market (funded by low interest rates); all enabled an early mid-50s retirement for me.
Fortunate.
I am also fortunate to now work with folks in their 20s and 30s; away from corporate USA. If I were that age now, I would steer clear of sacrificing your life to giving 100% effort for a company. There is no loyalty, and no big reward for great performance anymore. Moreover, why would anyone want to pay a half-million dollars for a home now; that same home being under $200,000 a quarter century ago?
Everything too expensive, and the backstop of a job that will allow those wanting to start a family, and live in a realistic home; well that assurance is just not there anymore.
I do not know what the answer is, just glad I am not a younger worker in today's world of pursuing higher paying reliable corporate jobs.
"90% of its workforce rotated out and replaced with younger, more capable, less jaded workers"
the younger workers with critical thinking skills also get jaded after a year
the more brutal truth is that CR's mediocrity protects the mediocrity of the average Cisco employee
any reasonable exec coming in to the CEO seat would conclude that Cisco needs 90% of its workforce rotated out and replaced with younger, more capable, less jaded workers
this is BS of course... wait... course.... Golf course...Golf... I need to "take a meeting".... talk later!
Worst CEO Ever!!!
The article is well written and on point. Surprised the analyst got the Q1 Earnings Call date incorrect, it's Weds. Nov. 13, not Nov. 12. Earnings are always released on the same Wednesday of each quarter (for the preceding quarter).
Will GS remove some of the current ELT?
Chuckles leaving is one of the worst kept secrets in tech. Everyone and their mom already knows and has since the Splunk acquisition. He's failed on so many levels. His legacy will be one of imprudently bringing politics into business, lackluster stock performance, missed opportunities, destroying trust, loyalty and corporate spirit, and failing as a man to stand up and count for his family and country during a time of vicious attacks to the heart of heritage America. I'm not sure if GS is the man to right the ship, but he certainly can't do any worse than chameleon Chuckles.
YOU'RE FIRED
it’s well known among Cisco employees and Silicon Valley executives (including ex-Cisco employees) that Robbins has relocated to Atlanta, Georgia. It’s also well known that Robbins loves playing a lot of golf
As much as CR is our problem the biggest problem is our management chain from first line to senior management to Directors to Sr Directors to VPs. That fu---n chain needs to be cleaned up
Yay! GTFO!!
Don’t let the door hit you in the you know what on the way out!