Thread regarding Cisco Systems Inc. layoffs

It’s interesting to see the message someone posted about asking the hard questions was downvoted so much.

It's not like we've just been telling you for ages what's wrong and ways of improving things on this external site, but we did the same inside and in far greater detail. Even C level executives from customers with revenues that dwarf Cisco's have come in to lecture Cisco on what the failures are and what they need to do to correct those failures.

Cisco's leadership has said directly on multiple occasions "we know everything there is to know so there is nothing else you can teach us" as their projects overrun to degrees unseen at any other company because other companies would be out of business long before they could waste that much money.

You want a problem and solution?

Problem: the technical and managerial leadership Cisco has spent countless billions on over the ages can't identify either the problems or the solutions in the context of an open book test where the teachers are screaming out the answers.

Solution: that leadership should be replaced with competent staff.

It’s interesting to see the message someone posted about asking the hard questions was downvoted so much.

It’s easy for us to judge and criticize behind anonymity. But we really should strive to actually improve things instead of rinse and repeating complaint after complaint.

if you are truly "successful" as an employee of Cisco, you don't even know the CEO's name

by that I mean, you completely detach from caring, do the minimum, cash the check, live your life

people here keep talking about "Fran"...who is this person? I have worked at Cisco for six years and don't know and don't care, it might require me watching a Cisco Beat to find out, but to me that is time I take to go outside and look at clouds.

I have never exchanged words or even an emoji nod in WebEx with my manager's manager in six years. I check my email in the AM to see if I have been LR'd or if I can continue to coast.

Stop saying there is a leadership problem - tell us what is lacking. We already know there is a problem.

Go back and read the posts here over the better part of a decade. It's laid out in great detail. OP needs to do the same because leadership is both technical and managerial and goes down into the IC world where many critical decisions are made poorly.

Stop saying there is a leadership problem - tell us what is lacking. We already know there is a problem.

Lacking experience and clarity, reactive and engaged in politics after layoff. Making their org bigger and pretending to be more important than others. Many capable people under them, but they aren't the capable ones.

@cyb half of the leadership has no clue on whether we are winning or losing to competition. Ask them and see the answers you get. We've tried asking or at least I have

Stop saying there is a leadership problem - tell us what is lacking. We already know there is a problem.

Ask your leadership all the way up what is the problem and how they are going to solve it.

We in the employee shareholder roles need to start reminding our goofy leaders they need to actually wow the customer or freaking ask the customer what will wow them if we don’t know.

In all areas whether we’re winning or losing to competitors. Always ask. The only way to keep winning and bigger.