It doesn’t get more ridiculous: while the ELT is carrying out further layoffs, nearly 20,000 salespeople and useless middle managers are being flown to Vegas to party. How is that compatible with the layoffs and the H1B scam? GSX must cost over 100 billion USD with those private concerts. A slap in the face for all customers, employees, and partners who pay a lot but get less service .. or get fired.
21 replies (most recent on top)
You are coping, coping and seething! Just let them have their SKO
@a9 Baskin Robins
Literally every company does it. You think Microsoft or AWS cancel their sales kickoffs because of layoffs?
It's a necessary evil. Sales can be grueling. a 20 million dollar event is a drop in the bucket compared to the ROI if it motivates your sales team enough to hit their targets
The best sales meeting was at the Super 8 in Burlingame.
@fc Thats nothing.....
Scientific Atanta, Starent, NDS, Splunk (?) - tens of billions splurged on acquisitions that certainly in the case of Scientific Altana and NDS (both of which I had some short training on) were obviously peaked and about to descend on the way down badly...
Obviously some great ones too (Webex, Tanburg, Stratacom, etc)
Apparently they even turned down aquiring Google early on...
I was at Cisco as Sales for aprox 15 years. GSX was WOW for me for few first years. Then during cost cutting and marketing bulls... rise it lost its value for me. I remember my last GSX. I was so full of hate towards Chucks everchanging ELT and corporate fake positivism that I just rented a convertible and drove around US during last days of GSX. I agree that this company is throwing away money for these events, stupid acquisitions. Then ELT is forcing Sales team to have zero sales expenses. They are cost cutting in engineering. AND I WILL NEVER forget ACACIA acquisition. Cisco first announced plans to buy Acacia Communications for $70 per share in cash in a $2.6 billion deal on a fully diluted basis in July 2019. THEN SOME ID--T IN CISCO FORGOT TO APPLY FOR APPROVAL IN CHINA witch resulted in deal RENEGOTIATION and CISCO paid $115.00 per share in cash, or approximately $4.5 billion. So aprox $2 billion WASTED. Imagine how many good engineers and customer focused events could be financed with it.
@c4 its a slap as well for customers, paying too much while support goes to patel land.
Ah yes the Vegas thing. H00kers seem to be a historical fav among the shady but married. Infidelity rampant. Drinking and cheating galore. Human rights and ethics 100%. What a motivator!
OP - GSX does not cost 100 Billion USD (twice our annual revenue?) - get real. More like $10M. It's designed to motivate the sales team. Without sales, you don't have a job at Cisco. But I agree, it feels like a slap in the face to those who've been impacted by the LRs.
@b9 tell me you are stupid without telling me you are stupid. Sales at Cisco? lol really.. You mean the old guard order takers? Never so so many useless sales people like at Cisco.
@b9 and what you wanna sell if there is capable engineer who builts what u sell? what a mo--n.
@ba but we've had nothing but layoffs the past many years. You fu---n loser of a sales engineer who nobody listens to on calls
This event enables the sales team to pay for your salary and benefits, knucklehead.
Tell me you are not in sales without telling me...bashing an event you never went to! lol. It used to be much better, allowing expenses etc but now its pretty much locked down on what you can spend, $100 per diem. Dinners are catered or paid for by partners, and if you don't attend, you will be responsible for your own meal elsewhere. Events have been reduced and the concert this year is cancelled...sales are the fuel that drives growth...so it should be celebrated...but not if you are a low level QC engineer I suppose..lol
GSX is where we hold the o-gy and bl-od drinking ceremonies while picking the best day to close RTP
@OP Ex Cisconian here - I heard the costs all up are about USD 20-50M - still a massive amount of money.
While I was at Cisco I felt exactly the same - thats 20 Mil could be a lot of people employed.. However if you do the maths its only 200-400 staff...
Cisco sacks that many on a bad month without even reporting it..
Its a thing for the sales folks to try to get them re-motivated (not really a problem!) and re-trained (its ok for AMs.I guess).
I enjoyed the first few events, but found the whole thing a bit ridiculous to be honestly...
@a9 I can name a lot of companies who are no so ridiculous to hold such an event while conducting layoffs, replacing workforce with h1b and offshoring to India. Not to forget that a lof of Cisco folks misuse GSX to spend vacations after/before the event and expense the flights on company costs. Open secret not?
@a9 Cisco has consistent quarterly budgetary layoffs - including talented engineers who build the stuff you sell. The CPF last year was something like 36. This year’s bonus and merit/promotions are horrible. There is zero strategic vision for basically the entire product portfolio. Only VPs+ have a travel budget (and brag about it lol).
But hey sure let’s fly thousands of people to Vegas, at huge cost, to party and gamble for a week. Really just needs to be a remote event.
We all cannot wait to see the smirking, hubristic face of our illustrious, all-knowing leader CR and his merry band of sycophants hanging on his every word. He is our savior without whom we'd be lost in the tech ocean, rudderless. He will steer us to safe harbor [NOT]
There are two buckets of people at Cisco.
The manipulators, who kiss @$$ upwards, use their intelligence to manipulate and control others; and have a main focus of making sure of controlling having others under their control as available to LR when necessary.
Then there are the rest, the sheep, who pretend the above comment is a bunch of baloney; and instead choose to be ethical and strive to do good objective honest work, often to be LR'd eventually.
Which are You?
Name a company that does have a sales Kick off?