Thread regarding Cisco Systems Inc. layoffs

@NJOgCuA-kiei - that article really brought back memories of Cisco

It's the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiss_up_kick_down NDS types that are prospering, anybody with a backbone is gone.

@NJOgCuA-htaa

What I meant is that the ex NDS prospering in Cisco are generally those whose high energy is confused with competency. Management likes high energy. Why am I thinking of chickens?

Cisco enterre ses activités françaises dans le traitement vidéo

Le groupe américain a annoncé à ses salariés la fermeture d’un site qui a compté jusqu’à 500 personnes.

Le Figaro27 Jun 2017ELSA BEMBARON @elsabembaron

CHRISTOPHE ENA/AP

John Chambers, président de Cisco.

INFORMATIQUE Les images d’un John Chambers, président de Cisco, aux côtés d’Emmanuel Macron, alors ministre de l’Économie, expliquant que « la France est un endroit génial pour faire des affaires », ont leur revers. Tandis que le patron de Cisco n’a de cesse de clamer haut et fort « son amour » pour la France, la réalité est tout autre pour les salariés de Cisco Video Technologies France (CVTF) à Issy-les Moulineaux, en banlieue parisienne. Le groupe américain prévoit l’arrêt de cette activité, confirmant une information du site Silicon.fr.

Actuellement, un peu moins de 200 personnes sont employées chez CVTF, essentiellement pour de la recherche et développement. Cette division a compté près de 500 salariés. Actuellement, Cisco emploie environ un millier des personnes en France.

En 2012, l’américain avait pourtant mis 5 milliards de dollars sur la table pour acquérir le britannique NDS, spécialisé dans les logiciels et la sécurisation de contenus vidéo. NDS avait lui-même repris Canal + Technologies. Il y a cinq ans, Cisco pariait encore sur les décodeurs télé. C’était avant qu’il cède ses modems et décodeurs à Technicolor pour 550 millions d’euros, en 2015. De plus en plus d’acteurs du marché, et notamment les opérateurs télécoms, réfléchissent à virtualiser complètement leurs décodeurs, déplaçant l’activité du terminal vers le cloud.

Le groupe de John Chambers mène en permanence des revues stratégiques afin de déterminer ses priorités d’investissements. Un moyen de dessiner en creux celles qui n’en font plus partie. La gestion d’un portefeuille d’actifs a beau faire partie de la vie d’une entreprise et plus particulièrement du quotidien des firmes américaines, la réalité n’en est pas moins cruelle sur le terrain. La France n’est pas le seul pays concerné par le désengagement de Cisco des activités liés aux usages traditionnels de la vidéo : le Canada, le Royaume-Uni, l’Inde et Israël sont aussi concernés. Le groupe ne précise pas combien d’emplois sont visés dans le monde par l’arrêt de la vidéo, mais ces restructurations font partie des 5 500 suppressions de postes annoncées l’année dernière. « Les profonds bouleversements de ce marché nécessitent une restructuration de l’organisation mondiale des activités vidéo de Cisco », tranche le groupe.

Reclassements

Les négociations avec les représentants du personnel n’en sont qu’à leur début, mais l’Américain affirme que « tout sera mis en oeuvre pour soutenir les salariés et les accompagner vers les meilleures solutions de retour à l’emploi ». Il espère notamment trouver des solutions de reclassement dans son écosystème. Un de ses voisins les plus proches à Issy n’est autre que Technicolor !

L’arrêt des activités de Cisco a Issy-les-Moulineaux n’aura pas d’impact sur le programme d’investissement de 200 millions d’euros dans des start-up françaises annoncé par le groupe l’année dernière. « Nous continuons à enrichir notre portefeuille de start-up », souffle un porteparole du groupe, glissant que « le salon Viva Tech a été l’occasion de nouer de nouveaux contacts ».

IF they had kept the NDS managers and executive team the group would still be profitable instead of the basket case it is now. Over paid and under qualified so called "executives" parachuted in mostly from Seachange and Advanced Services - d---beats basically with little knowledge of the business that NDS did. Just look at the so called ELT - over paid fat-cats - yes their salaries are online if you care to look ON THIS BOARD YOU WILL GET A PASTEBIN LINK AND YOU CAN READ THEM. Mostly getting bonuses in excess of 100% of their salaries for doing sweet bugger all except destroying morale and the business into the bargain. The one decent product they have has effectively been given away, Evolution, and they kept IVP, Infinite Video Platform - the only thing infinite about it is the number of name changes and the length of time it has taken to 'deliver'.... IVP - rehashed ideas that are long in the tooth - a rehash of what they started the NDS story with, 'VideoScape'. Basically smoke and mirrors. God help anyone that signs up for that lot.

Surely, if NDS was badly managed, then Cisco's first duty was to replace the existing management team. The question is wether making that change would make things better or worse.

On the other hand, Cisco took a number of actions that didn't help matters. For a start, disbanding NDS sales and marketing, letting executives leave, or closing small but important teams (Korea) seem to lead to the opposite conclusion.

@NJOgCuA-fxbd : Do you consider the installed management from within NDS a wise Cisco move?

Based on the current results I beg to differ.

most of the current management are from a hardware background ( if they were working before joining Cisco) so not surprising they have managed to grow the BU to what it is fundamentally; a security hardware business. All Cisco wanted was the most profitable revenue; and that's what they have now. As NDS , there was a chance of making a successful transition to cloud, but that was because the team were talented. look at the NDS People who have been promoted since the take over by Cisco; I hazard a guess none of them would have been given the same position under the NDS management.

to our friends of Jerusalem,

ce n'est pas un au revoir, c'est un adieu!

god bless you

Great post, brought tears to my eyes.. sniff sniff.. NDS , you were a dream company while it lasted.. sadly was round by big pocket demons with 0 management and sales skills.. Goodbye NDS, RIP my friend!

meh. Inigo Montoya is far worse than any scorpion, pink or otherwise.

Good post - left a few years back, when Cisco found the bullet with my name on.

Sad end, but no one wants to see it continue like this presumably (except said execs on fat bonus cheques - whether they deliver or not)

Are you saying that Cisco is just another big bank?

Cisco can't innovate. It's a company lead by incompetent salesmen & politicians.

Get over yourself. No one asked for a red carpet. But we would have liked Cisco to have known what they were buying and how we made money. We were a profitable company before Cisco bought us and Cisco drove us in to the ground. And we are not the only company they have taken from profit to massive loss.

Did NDS make mistakes as well? You bet they did, but there is no getting away from the fact that we were profitable before the buyout. We were not a good fit for Cisco, and Cisco has only itself to blame, it needs to stop buying and start actually innovating.

Nds peeps still moaning they did not get red carpet rolled out when acquired. Get over it. You have to give as much as you take. No wonder it all failed with such an inept culture of everyone is wrong except nds. Or was it the lack of biz class flying that is still bugging peeps.

NDS didn't get properly onboarded for 4 years. It's hard to contribute to the wider company when you nothing about it, and the wider company forgets you. It was a litany of mismanagement from the get go.

What value did NDS bring for Cisco ? Did they contribute beyond their BU ?

So what happened during the All Hands? Did NDS employees got sold to Indian partner L&T?

Sorry Chuck, I promise to behave. Unfortunately, you can't fire me, JC did that a while back. Lighten up, it's almost over. In the meantime, I'm A Bat Outta Hell, and thanks for all the fish.

Less of the noise dudes its annoying and juvenile.

Helpful phrases from the late, great Douglas Adams

• People of Earth, your attention please

• Mostly harmless

• Share and enjoy

• I think you ought to know, I'm feeling very depressed

• Oh no, not again

• Expected the unexpected

• If you've done six impossible things today...

• 42

• Don't Panic

Goodbye to you by Scandal

1:45 hours left

Other suggestions

• You gotta a friend/sailaway (Randy Newman)

• The Sound of Silence/The Boxer

• Nemisis/Hubris (Shriekback)

• Manic Monday

• 1999 or When Doves Cry

• Stand and Deliver

• Anarchy in the UK

• Love will Tear us Apart

• Ashes to Ashes

• So Sorry

• Piano Man

Someone should stream it live.....

can anyone share the webex link of Jerusalem's all hands meeting today? I am interested to attend. I still can use my CEC

Bowie's CH CH CH CH CHANGES

And offcourse Joel's Moving Out

Good luck all

Suggested playlist for today's all hands, or post meeting kaeroke:

• My WAY

• Life on Mars

• The Winner Takes it All (substitute nearly any mid to late ABBA) song

• The End

• Oliver's Army (I'd rather be anywhere else...)

• The End of the World as we Know it

• Seasons in the Sun

• We are never, never, never getting back together

• Roar

• Tower of Song

• The Band Played Walzing Matilda

• We didn't start the fire

• It's my Life

• Candle in the wind

• Champaign super nova

• Jeus Christ, Superstar (JC, get it)

• Always Look on the Bright Side Of Life

Feel free to submit your own suggestions. I think you could do one of just Abba or Queen songs

Good post about the pink scorpion :)

Jerusalem folks, may god bless you.

OP great post. It was great to be a part of NDS. Good luck to all, it's time to move on,

Who is the pink scorpion

xNDS Staines colleague here. Best wishes for the Jerusalem folks. It has been a pleasure working with you all.

Don't confuse about the real cause of this horrible episode.

This sad story is the story of pink scorpion from London.

If he and few of the snakes below him were managing like real leaders we (xNDS engineers) would have lead the Video industry without a doubt for many many more years.

I can't forget how the pink was cinical about YouTube at it's early days...

(linear thinking)

With his enormous ego he took us all to 'rewriting' instead of using the talent to leverage the huge advantage and talent that we had.

And when it stuck, he hust pushed harder to the wrong direction.

Indeed he was a wise leader, but

His wisdom was from the 'snake wisdom' kind which he used very well to position himself 'above the Sky' as an irreplaceable leader.

None of his L1's were good enough in his view to replace him when he ""retiered"" and the one that he brought to replace him was just an actor stands in his epilog.

In that epilog he teached us all a lesson about desiving.

All the 'family' calture (that we felt as a truth) and under that atmosphare he extracted the maximum from us.

All that was only his vichale to play the rock star , we were his private Limousine.

And then, one day he surprisingly sold us all.

Did he knew what he did?

Could he imagine what would be our destiny?

No doubt !!!!

You can say anything about the pink ego but no one could argue about his wisdom (from the special kind that mentioned above)

One can say that he did a briliant business move by selling us at that price.

Indeed, great move.

But this guy knew that we were a 'soul society' and an amazing collection of so many modest and humble people that worked with their mind but also with their heart.

Did he loved his people?

Not clear.

But he surly loved his pathetic story of false success much much more than anything.

Can someone become a leader without a good balance of heart and mind?

Definitely yes.

Will he be a real leader?

Definitely no.

In its last briliant pink episode,

NDS and its heritage is sinking few years after his disappearance.

A very definitive end of story of the pink scorpion from London.

Its about time to get rid of that pathetic story, pay the painful price that the arrogant pink left for us to pay and write a new scene for ourselves.

theshadow please give pastebin for executive pay again. We need to know the massive bonuses these shysters are getting whilst destroying this company

+1

Abe is a great man. He had a very peculiar senior team. None was a fully rounded business leader and most of them hated working together. But many (not all) of them had unique and special skills. Abe was able to make them work together for a common purpose and they were very powerful and successful as a group. Cisco is nothing. It has no soul and no self respect. The leaders are liars. Welcome CC tomorrow with open arms and watch him lie.

Not many are aware that after the 3d Cisco senior manager declined taking on the NDS acquisition almost 16 months into Cisco's purchase, Abe was asked to come back by Chamber's or his mouthpiece. Abe's simply stated 'no.' So Cisco went through more senior Cisco manager's who failed Cisco, themselves and NDS miserably while LR senior Israeli executives and others in effort to show a better bottom-line. With the loss of all senior managerment's institutional knowledge, the self-inflicted mortal wound results in a Cisco sell, sell, sell, reduce the overhead (employee numbers) and quietly, very quietly thinking John Chambers. What were you thinking? What were you thinking?

Well said OP. I'll always remember the good days (pre sh--sco).

The market is still there for our skills and I can only hope the leadership get it sorted out soon.

Lots of good people at NDS. one of a hell of a place to work.

See you CF & Staines, take care.