If you could change things around, what would you do? Is there anyone who could fix what's broken? Who would you put in charge?
13 replies (most recent on top)
@ds you seem to be part of an org which is not allowed to go to GSX and jealous as f*ck. Get your life together bro and be positive you will get your chance someday.
@h1 that was a very d-mb response!
Cult of personality exists at Cisco akin to North Korea or St-lin’s USSR. In reality CR is a toady, nauseating sales weasel who’d sell his own mother if there were 2c in it for him. Ditto the rest of the ELT.
Stop showing Figma mockups to technical sales folks while pretending it's the actual reality, it's just embarrassing.
Why would anyone from CX go to GSX? That’s such a d-mb idea that you just be Cisco “leadership” material.
@ew
100%
Both Cisco AI courses (AITECH and AIBIZ) should be discontinued and associated roles eliminated because they offer negligible market value and superficial content. Users widely report the exams are trivial—completable in under 15 minutes without study—rendering the certification "resume noise" that fails to validate genuine competence or justify headcount.
The curriculum covers basic concepts easily self-taught online, creating a redundant expense for knowledge that adds no unique strategic advantage.
The training’s heavy vendor lock-in distracts from developing versatile, industry-standard skills, making staff reliant on these badges less valuable than those with deep, practical engineering or product experience.
Basically it's BULLSH-T, RISKY, and WASTES $$$$$$
Top companies are bypassing this altogether
Execs get curated feedback
God help them they hear how terrible their ideas are in the field
Listen to sellers and engineers without the layers of filters and managers who will stroke egos for career advancement
Stop thinking Cisco is prestigious and it's the 90s look at how we are losing market share due to broken selling and products
#1 and ASAP
Cancel Cisco's 16-week upskilling course.
16 weeks cannot manufacture the years of engineering experience required for technical credibility, leaving PMs unable to manage complex AI/network risks or earn the respect of senior engineers.
This initiative creates a massive opportunity cost, draining millions in salaries and slowing engineering velocity during the training "black hole," while the broader 2026 industry trend (seen at Oracle and Microsoft) is aggressively eliminating these layers via AI automation and "de-layering" to fund GPU infrastructure.
Instead of propping up an obsolete role, Cisco should redirect funds to promote Senior Engineers into leadership, a faster and higher-ROI path.
Massive risk
Get rid of Liz and Lavanya! They do more damage to the overall org than any good! Liz is more worried about hiring generic leaders that is taking from our budgets to allow for all of CX to attend GSX! Laying off Lavanya to follow would also be a huge benefit! She too stands behind the scenes adding zero value as an executive!
They speak from speaker notes written by their assistance and make recommendations that had ZERO value to anything with Cisco!
simply leverage AI to identify their blind spots and implement strategies that successful tech companies have developed.
Executives should spend time with the foot soldiers
Listen to unfiltered feedback
Answer real questions not the prepared ones
Do a week on the job in 2026
Stop thinking it's 2006
The bulk of our leadership should be rooted in engineering, not sales.