Thread regarding Cisco Systems Inc. layoffs

Why does Cisco have incompetent leadership?

Why are VPs and higher at Cisco completely incompetent? Sure, we have some amazing storytellers, but at some point these stories must generate business value.

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| 3811 views | | 12 replies (last August 21, 2020) | Reply
Post ID: @OP+Pwq9Zpj

12 replies (most recent on top)

yeah 3 years later, in 2020 she delivers news about layoffs by smiling and laughing in the internal meeting.. so she must really learnt about leadership....

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Post ID: @h2fxp+Pwq9Zpj

@fmv

You hit the nail of the head. Sumeet is incompetent but we can say nothing. I feel bad for JB. I know sales teams can't stand to have his snake oil personality in front of customers. I had to leave his group to another team because I'm not of his village.

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Post ID: @6swq+Pwq9Zpj

At cisco, we are encouraged to take risks.

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Post ID: @5lqn+Pwq9Zpj

Here's the link for those that are interested.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/future-leadership-francine-katsoudas

"the characteristics that make up the best teams..... They know that their teammates have their back, and there is safety and trust"

It is certainly not like that in Cisco at the moment. Back-stabbing in more common.

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Post ID: @5ppi+Pwq9Zpj

@5shy - The People Deal! Ahh the wonder of it all. Tell me how/why that woman still has a job?

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Post ID: @5ihd+Pwq9Zpj

We are all leaders at Cisco.

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Post ID: @5nkr+Pwq9Zpj

Francine recently publicly announces on linkedin that cisco lacks proper leadership and does not adequately train mangrs or even directors for their position. But now after years of no training cisco found out that it must actually train people for their jobs (quote "a first in our company's history") with, get this, a single day event called 'Leader Day'. Why would you publicly announce this on linked in ? and do you think a single day of someone presenting power point is going to make a difference ?

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Post ID: @5shy+Pwq9Zpj

Bleaching

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Post ID: @2grd+Pwq9Zpj

zbsingh

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Post ID: @1tjo+Pwq9Zpj

@1rvm

New CEO doesn't even allow those questions to be asked.

I'm from HR. Will pass on your comments to our beloved CEO. What's your CEC id so I can provide you with the response via email?

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Post ID: @1sdt+Pwq9Zpj

The former CEO.

He promoted inter BU competition. Why does Cisco still have so many OS's? They could have killed off many legacy OS's if it want for turn building.

Why so many routing platforms? Cisco has a HUGE number of 2RU or smaller routers. Just as bad in switching. Because of BU in fighting and no direction from the top.

So guess what? Our VP and above are ****ing amazing at backstabbing, breaking promises, make alliances and false alliances, stealing resources and credit, etc.

Unsurprisingly, they don't cooperate with their strengths. A great exec in most of the company needs to understand tech, people, sales, marketing, finances, people management, etc. Obviously difficult. So people who are best at covering thier major deficiencies are promoted.

Promotion based on budget/reports and not performance has been standard under the old CEO and the new one has now only allowed this to run rampant (do some basic span of control... 5:1 ratio, me,snr.mgr,dir,snr.dir,vp, svp - we should only have 4 SVPs) allowed his management to fire experienced engineers instead of forcing them to kill off bad middle management.

Old CEO talked a lot about transparency then elegantly dodged all the strategic questions. Yet, any MBA knows what various BU strategies should be, so why not just come clean? Yes, there's a huge huge part of the business that should be in a "sweat the legacy customer" model, which is profitable if you know how... but that means low number of expensive headcount, which is not the software subscription holy Grail, and needs regular HC moving to make it work.

New CEO doesn't even allow those questions to be asked.

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Post ID: @1rvm+Pwq9Zpj

What VPs? Baby VPs, Beginner VPs, VPs, SVPs, EVPs, or ESVPs? You have to be specific too many VPs to keep up!

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Post ID: @ewl+Pwq9Zpj

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