Cisco Looks to Process Change for Productivity Gain

Cisco has sought to transform its operations during the industry downturn, said Randy Pond, SVP of Operations, Systems and Processes at Cisco Systems, speaking at the Morgan Stanley European TMT Conference. During the late 90s, the whole industry was "in a tornado" and growth could be achieved in all directions. Post downturn, said Pond, Cisco has changed its goal from growing market share to looking for profitable markets. Cisco has launched a "Six Sigma" program to drive operational efficiencies throughout the company. This includes jettisoning several business that have delivered strong profitability. Cisco has also become much more selective in its industry acquisitions. The pace of acquisitions is down significantly principally because Cisco now expects any deal to be accretive to earnings with a few quarters. Pond said there are huge opportunities within the company to improve its overall productivity through process change.
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