Cisco's Organization Culture
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Case Details:
Case Code : HROB069
Case Length : 12 Pages
Period : 1984-2005
Pub Date : 2005
Teaching Note : Available
Organization : Cisco
Industry : Information Technology Countries : USA
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Excerpts
What Drives Cisco's Culture?
Customers First
Cisco's success has been attributed to its relationship with its customers.
Cisco professed a 'worship of customers', which was a part of the company's
culture right from its inception. "This is a culture where the customer comes
first. If the customer has a problem, we drop everything," said Pete Solvik (Solvik),
Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer (CIO), Cisco. Cisco viewed
the assessment of customer satisfaction as a continuous process. One of the
elements of this assessment was getting regular customer feedback, which helped
Cisco employees to be proactive in identifying problem areas, rather than
waiting for an annual customer satisfaction survey. Cisco's field teams designed
the questionnaires that were used to assess customer satisfaction...
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The Work Culture
The organizational structure of Cisco fostered a spirit of employee
involvement. "Very often it's most efficient to just work with the person
involved, without the formality of passing through every layer of
management. But that requires a level of trust that not all organizations
have," mentioned Solvik. If a Cisco employee wanted the top management
support for an innovative idea, he had to discuss the idea with an employee
decision-making team and get its assent. If the decision-making team
accepted the idea, the top management gave the green signal. "They (the
decision-making teams) are empowered to make that decision because we put
the authority, the responsibility, and the accountability at the same
layer...
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Recruitment at Cisco
Cisco's recruitment practices reflected the company culture. Cisco's
recruiting team identified candidates whom they felt the company
'should hire' and then designed its hiring processes to attract them
to the company. In the late 1990s, the company was hiring at a rate
which averaged 1000 new employees every month. For recruiting
candidates who fit into the culture of Cisco, a selection criterion
was developed which targeted candidates who were frugal,
enthusiastic about the future of the Internet, and were not obsessed
with status - all hallmarks of the Cisco culture...
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'Built To Last'
According to some analysts, Cisco faced the risk of diluting its
culture due to the influences of new recruits who brought in
behaviors from past job experiences. "We're focusing on what it will
take to communicate the culture and preserve it. That's another
learning experience: Culture is not automatic...
Exhibits
Exhibit I: Stock Market Movement for Cisco Between 1990 and
2005 at Nasdaq
Exhibit II: Characteristics of Strategic Alliances at Cisco
Exhibit III: Employee Comments on Cisco Culture
Exhibit IV: Net Sales and Net Income of Cisco Between 1995 And 2004
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