Cisco CEO John Chambers is a strong advocate of telepresence to cut travel costs and improve efficiency
In a meeting with Wall Street analysts earlier this week, Cisco CEO, John Chambers, said that job cuts are not planned at this point but that if they eventually happen “we’ll do it one time, not multiple small steps.”
This is an “instant replay” of the last downturn
Just like 7 years ago during the previous downturn, where Cisco laid off 8,500 employees – 18% of its workforce – and announced a staggering $2.2 billion inventory write-off, Chambers wants to make this one-time-cut deep and clean. The Cisco chief also said that it will encourage redundant employees to move to adjacent business units to keep their job inside the company.
Chambers pointed out that Cisco has reduced by half its travel expenses this year through the use of telepresence, social tools and online video.
Cisco wants to “aggressively” acquire more startups
Despite the gloom, Cisco plans to be an aggressive acquirer of smaller technology companies of 100 engineers or so. “Cash is king,” Chambers said. “And everything is for sale!”
Chambers also said that he’s spending more time bonding with Fortune 500 CEOs, to position Cisco for the upturn when they are ready to spend money, and not to desperately sell them network equipment now; although I’m sure there’s a lot of arm twisting too!
Jean-Baptiste Su
Mark Boslet
February 5, 2009 at 12:16 pm |
[...] the same time, remember that Cisco CEO John Chambers said in December that cutting the fat from Cisco’s payroll would not be done in small steps. If it happens, he [...]
February 24, 2009 at 7:51 pm |
Cisco had a layoff today in most US sites although it was called a “restructure”.
February 25, 2009 at 5:37 pm |
That is amazing…
Cisco employees lets discuss on my website
March 15, 2009 at 6:45 am |
750 people were laid off on Feb. 24.
Cisco is also doing a lot of outsourcing to India (also referred to as “limited restructuring”).
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/031209-cisco-downsizing-outsourcing.html
March 15, 2009 at 2:49 pm |
Thanks for the note!
jb