Cisco Systems

Ahmed Moussa

Company overview Cisco Systems, Inc. is the worldwide leader in networking

for the Internet. Today, networks are an essential part of business, education, government and home communications, and Cisco Internet Protocol-based (IP) networking solutions are the foundation of these networks.

Cisco hardware, software, and service offerings are used to create Internet solutions that allow individuals, companies, and countries to increase productivity, improve customer satisfaction and strengthen competitive advantage. The Cisco name has become synonymous with the Internet, as well as with the productivity improvements that Internet business solutions provide.

Mission and vision “At Cisco, our vision is to change the way people work, live, play

and learn” – Cisco Company’s mission is to enable people to make powerful

connections-whether in business, education, philanthropy, or creativity.

Cisco Systems also strove to deliver a wide range of new products, expand its offerings through internal and external efforts, enhance customer support, and increase its presence around the world.

Organizations started to recognize the value of their information networks and the Internet as a source of business advantage; all of this drove company’s mission and vision.

Cisco saw the need for multiservice network and were trying to find the ways how to integrate voice, video and data networks together.

Executive leadership team John T. Chambers - Chairman and Chief

Executive Officer Gregory Akers - Senior Vice President and

Chief Technology Officer for Global Government Solutions

Tony Bates - Senior Vice President/General Manager, Service Provider Routing Technology Group

Susan Bostrom - Executive Vice President, Chief Marketing Officer, Global Policy and Government Affairs

Owen Chan - President, Asia Pacific Theatre

History 1984 - Computer scientists, Len Bosack and Sandy Lerner, from

Stanford University, found Cisco Systems. They invented technology to link their disparate computer systems together.

1985 – first corporate logo is developed and first system the Massbus-Ethernet Interface Subsystem (MEIS), is shipped.

1986 - Cisco forever changes the networking communications industry and the Internet by launching its first routing innovation, the AGS multi-protocol router.

1988 - John Morgridge joins Cisco as President and CEO. 1989 – Revenues reach $27 million. 1990 – Revenues reach $69 million. Cisco goes public on February 16,

listed as “CSCO” on the NASDAQ. 1991 – Revenues reach $183 million. Market capitalization reaches $1

billion. 1993 – Revenues reach $714 million. Cisco makes its first acquisition:

Crescendo Communications and its 100-Mbps Copper Distributed Data Interface (CDDI) technology. With the acquisition of Crescendo, Mario Mazzola joins the company.

History (cont’d)

1994 – Revenues reach $1.3 billion. Cisco becomes the first major supplier of Multiprotocol internetworking products to be awarded ISO 9001 certification—an internationally recognized endorsement for quality management and quality assurance.

1996 – Cisco makes acquisitions with such companies as TGV Software, Inc., Stratacom, Inc., Telebit Corp’s MICA Technologies, Nashoba Networks, Netsys Technologies, Inc., and Metaplex, Inc.

1997 - Cisco makes its first appearance in the Fortune 500 at number 332. Revenues reach $6.5 billion. Makes acquisitions with more companies and corporations such as Ardent Communications. Cisco introduces first in a series of products aimed at the voice-over-IP and fax-over-IP markets; Outlines the first phase of voice/video/data integration strategy.

1998 – Revenues reach $8.5 billion. Cisco becomes the first company in history to achieve a market capitalization of $100 billion in just 14 years. Makes acquisitions with such companies as American Internet Corp., and Pipelinks, Inc.

1999 - Fortune magazine recognizes Cisco as one of the top 25 best places to work in America and the 8th most admired company in the world. Market capitalization reaches $300 billion. Makes acquisitions with about 20 companies and corporations. Cisco forms partnerships with 10 leading companies to create standards for wireless Internet technology.

2000 - Cisco became the world’s most valuable company, in terms of market cap, on March 27, with a high of $82 a share (market cap: $569B), closing at $80.06 (market cap: $555B). Makes acquisitions with about 30 companies and corporations.

2003 - Cisco entered home networking market with its acquisition of The Linksys Group. Cisco receives Presidential Award for Corporate Leadership. 2006 – Revenues reach $28.5 billion. 2009 Revenue reach 9.4 billion

Key players

John Morgridge – he shaped the Cisco culture from day one, focusing on customer satisfaction, product quality, and frugality.

John Chambers – was known for his fair but ultra-competitive nature. He is a former IBM and Wang Laboratories marketing and sales veteran, fostered Cisco’s strong customer focus and was credited with continuing Cisco’s striking success in the networking industry.

Goals and strategies Company was trying to expand rapidly and offer new

services and products. The main element of Cisco’s strategy during this expansion phase was to maintain a passionate customer focus and consistently try to exceed customer expectations.

Company targeted three key markets: enterprise, service providers, and small/medium business.

John Chambers wanted to enhance and expand already recognized brand and increased Cisco’s marketing to include television, Internet, and print advertising.

Cisco also strove to maintain its product leadership in each of the market segments it already served. The product leadership strategy involved the innovation of Cisco’s engineering teams, complemented by alliances, acquisitions, and minority investments.

Goals and strategies As the networking space became more competitive, and as

minimizing time to market became more important, Chambers realized that Cisco could not keep up with the changing market needs solely through internal development.

Acquisitions and alliances to gain access to world-class technologies and people became a defining component of Cisco’s strategy.

This strategy is relatively unique: most high-tech companies considered looking to the outside for technological help a sign of weakness.

“The companies who emerge as industry leaders will be those who understand how to partner and those who understand how to acquire.” – John Chambers, CEO.

If Cisco did not have the technological capability, engineering capacity, or time to develop the product internally, the business development group would opt to acquire or partner with external player.

Goals and strategies (cont’d) Cisco was an active minority investor, which gave it

insight into new technologies without having to deploy internal development resources.

Cisco was the most effective tech company at identifying, acquiring, and successfully integrating companies into its culture.

“When we acquire a company, we aren’t simply acquiring its current products, we’re acquiring the next generation of products through its people.” – John Chambers, CEO.

Market and industry With an early foothold in this rapidly growing industry,

Cisco quickly became the leader in the data networking equipment market – the “plumbing” of the Internet.

By 1997, Cisco made approximately 80% of the large-scale routers that powered the Internet.

Cisco held the number one or two position in most markets in which it competed.

Customers sought end-to-end networking solutions. The ongoing deregulation of telecommunications and

technology convergence were driving the trend toward the integration of voice, video and data networks.

Telecommunications market consisted of $250 billion.

E-Commerce opportunities Historically there were three separate types of networks:

phone networks for transmitting voice, computer networks for transmitting data, and broadcast networks for transmitting video – but advances in digitalization allowed these forms of communication to be translated into binary computer language.

This made it possible to transmit voice, data and video over one network more efficiently and economically than using three disparate networks.

Cisco believed that this transition to this new networking would enable to capture share in $250 billion market.

Cisco was already a leader in networking, had excellent engineering and management teams and saw this opportunity as the best match for company.

E-Commerce initiative Cisco decided to address three key issues: time-to-

market, recruiting top talent, and integration with the relevant Cisco business unit.

Wu Fu Chen, networking entrepreneur and two Cisco employees launched new networking company.

The product concept had potential, and the founding team was flush with engineering talent.

Cisco management team called this spin-in venture Ardent Communications. Wu Fu was the president and CEO.

“Make this product and we’ll give you lots of money.” – Mike Volpi, vice president of business development.

For Cisco to buy new company, Wu Fu and his team needed to develop a traffic aggregation device for data, voice and video with certain functional requirements.

Ardent Communications First product was called Ardent 101. Ardent 101 requirements included ability to accept data, voice and video

traffic, up to 2 Mbps traffic, support ATM, frame relay, and TDM trunks. Milestones for Ardent 101 included: after six months company shall

have completed the specifications for function, architecture, and design for the product; after twelve months begin integration of product, after fifteen months begin beta program for the product, after eighteen months first customer shipment should occur.

Cisco gave the founding team and employees a large ownership position – over 55% on a fully diluted basis.

Retaining employees: Cisco laid out a four-year vesting period for the options granted to employees – 25% would vest after the first year, with the remainder vesting monthly over the next three years.

The founding team proposed a simple put/call structure that would give Cisco the option to purchase the company at a prespecified price, but would also obligate Cisco to purchase the company if the new team succeeded in building the product.

Perspective analysis Technological drivers of change: companies

recognized the need for multiservice network. Growing technological world built a need for high-speed networking. Advances in digitalization allowed forms of communication to be translated into binary computer language. The ongoing deregulation of telecommunications and technology convergence were driving the trend toward the integration of voice, data and video networks. The evolution of network infrastructure was creating business opportunities in virtually every sector of networking.

DSIR “Department of Scientific and

Industrial Research ”

Cisco wanted to become “get it right and get big” company. Most of the networking equipment market were Cisco’s products. Cisco was known for excellent brand, quality products and superior customer service. Cisco enjoyed 80% market share.