I remember way back when we routinely made fun of Cisco and Cisco WaaS. There was even hype that we were "the next Cisco."
But then strangely, we started hiring managers, directors, VPs and even a CEO who came from over there. The results of their collective leadership now speak for themselves. Turns out Cisco didn't have to spend any money or build better products to beat us.
Sharing my factual views in a humorous way:
The Inhuman Experience Agency: " We found 3 candidates as per your requirements, now how do you want their placements in the company?"
The Supreme Leader: "Put about 100 bricks in a closed room. Then send the candidates into the room & close the door, leave them alone & come back after a few hours and analyze the situation:-
1) If they are counting the bricks, Put them in Accounts dept.
2) If they are re-counting the bricks, Put them in Auditing.
3) If they have messed up the whole room with the bricks, Put them in Engineering.
4) If they are arranging the bricks in some strange order, Put them in Planning.
5) If they are throwing the bricks at each other, Put them in Operations.
6) If they are sleeping, Put them in Facilities.
7) If they have broken the bricks into pieces, Put them in Information Technology.
8) If they are sitting idle, Put them in Human Resources.
9) If they say they have tried different combinations yet not a single brick has been moved, Put them in Sales.
10) If they have already left for the day, Put them in Marketing.
11) If they are staring out of the window, Put them in Customer Care.
And.......
12) If they are talking to each other and not a single brick has been touched, Congratulate them and put them in Top Management.
13) If they however have no idea of what the bricks are, and they blame you for what they ought to do, and claim all the credits for the good work that you have done, put them in CUSTOMER SUCCESS.
You think a competitor is dumb enough to send their best people to you? It’s obvious we picked up their B & C talent who were either layed off or had no future there. Ci$co has since moved on without then and is doing very well under a very capable CEO whom they wisely did not let go.
Hindsight being 20/20, although I haven't been at Riverbed long (less than 4 years), it is too easy to think that hiring from a competitor works. It can in some cases, but there are so many other factors to consider such as: sc-appiness to work with fewer tools, fewer personnel resources, fewer processes, startup thinking vs big company thinking.