CISCO Systems, Inc - Assignment Example

History of CISCO Systems, Inc. Cisco Systems, Inc. is world’s largest supplier of computer networking products, systems and services. In 1984, Cisco Systems, Inc. was founded by Leonard Bosack and Sandra Lerner. Cisco has three market segments in which it functions. Large organizations, which include government bodies, corporate entities, educational institutes etc. they also serve service providers and wireless service providers and small and medium sized businesses. (Funding Universe) Cisco Systems, Inc. is also developing its expertise in the area of fiber optic networking as well as the concomitant expertise in multiservice networks, which offer video and voice capabilities in addition to the traditional data capability. (Funding Universe) Cisco Systems, Inc was founded in San Francisco, California in 1984. As of now, its Headquarters are in Milpitas, California, United States. Its product line includes, Networking device, networking management, interface and module, optical networking, storage area networks, wireless, VOIP, security devices, data center etc. Cisco Systems, Inc is present in various countries worldwide be it North America, Asia, Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America or Middle East, Cisco is in every corner of the world. This shows how diversified Cisco Systems, Inc is. It is widely known for its corporate social responsibility activities which make it a highly responsive corporate citizen. It is an organization which is a bench mark when it comes to being a responsive citizen. Cisco is not only socially responsive, but environmentally responsive as well. Plus it maintains healthy relationship with investors. Awards and Certifications Cisco Systems, Inc. is a successful and responsive organization and has worked for the greater good of the society, which is why it has been awarded the following awards and certifications. Following awards and certifications are proof of the good it does. J.D. Power and Associates 2011 Certification (Cisco, 2011) Association of Support Professionals (ASP) Awards (Cisco, 2011) Technology Services Industry Association (TSIA) STAR Award (Cisco, 2011) TSIA Hall of Fame Lifetime Achievement Award 2011 Awarded for winning fifteen STAR Awards since the inception of the awards in 1990. (Cisco, 2011) Best Online Support 2010 Cisco Inc was awarded the above for successfully providing an effective web self-service experience for customers. This was also given to them for getting customer feedback regarding personalizing the experience and for being customer oriented. (Cisco, 2011) Best Online Community 2009 Cisco Systems, Inc is one of those organizations that provide best online support. It has high customer participation through discussion forums and wikis. The online support gives a platform for the customers to interact and give real-life experiences that they had with Cisco’s products and services. This makes it easier for the customers to trust and rely on any new products and services. (Cisco, 2011) Best Online Support 2009 This award was given to Cisco Inc. for its web-based technologies and management systems that give effective, immediate and personalized solutions to customers’ queries. (Cisco, 2011) Best Customer Commitment 2008 Cisco Inc was awarded for utilizing data for customer satisfaction and for consistent improvement in their services and products which gained customer loyalty and customer satisfaction. (Cisco, 2011) Best Embedded Product Support 2008 Cisco was awarded for Smart Call Home (Cisco, 2011) Service Excellence in Consumer Support 2008 Cisco Systems Inc. was awarded for support centers used for improving customer satisfaction. (Cisco, 2011) Service Excellence in Outstanding Improvement 2008 Cisco provides great customer service and keeps improving which is why it has been awarded. (Cisco, 2011) SSPA Hall of Fame Lifetime Achievement Award 2007 Cisco was inducted into the SSPA Hall of Fame which is a special recognition awarded to companies that have won five STAR Awards since the program inception in 1989. (Cisco, 2011) Best Service Delivery Optimization 2007, Enterprise Best Customer Commitment 2007, Enterprise (Cisco, 2011) Service Excellence in Partner Management 2007, Enterprise this was presented because Cisco helped third parties to provide services to customers. (Cisco, 2011) M2M Value Chain Award (Cisco, 2011) SCM Logistics Supply Chain Excellence Award (Cisco, 2011) Customer Contact Association (CCA) Excellence Award (Cisco, 2011) Kepner-Tregoe International Rational Process Achievement Award Cisco Technical Services, Asia Pacific team, was awarded a 2006 Kepner-Tregoe (KT) International Rational Process Achievement Award for Organizational Use of Process. (Cisco, 2011) WBR Field Service Award Cisco High Touch Technical Support Service was presented with the 2006 award for "Most Innovative Approach to Service Delivery" for its time-based escalation process. (Cisco, 2011) Recognition 2010 Ranked 37th in Diversity Incs Top 50 companies for diversity Placed in the Working Mothers Magazine Top 100 Best Companies and one of five top companies in the magazines list of Best Companies for Multicultural Women Included in the National Association for Female Executives Top 50 Companies for Women Executives list Scored 100 percent for the fifth consecutive year in the Human Rights Campaigns Corporate Equality Index Ranked fifth in the International Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerces 2010 International Business Equality Index Received the Association of Diversity Councils Honors Award recognizing the top 25 diversity councils in the United States Ranked eighth in the Diversity Journals Innovations in Diversity Awards: Laura Ipsen, SVP of Smart Grid, was placed on the magazines list of Women Worth Watching John Chambers received the Diversity Best Practices 2009 CEO Diversity Leadership Award Ranked 39th in Careers and the DisABLED Magazines Top Companies for People with Disabilities list Included in the Top 50 places for Women to Work in the United Kingdom and Ireland by The Times newspaper Named Most Admired Company for Minority Employees 2009, by US Black Engineer, Hispanic Engineer, and Women of Color magazines Awarded "Most Woman Friendly Employer" at the Women in Leadership India Awards Included in Top 50 Companies for Diverse Managers at Work by Diversity MBA Magazine Corporate Social Responsibility Cisco’s Corporate Social Responsibility programs are designed to give long-term assistance and support to its employees, customers, investors, shareholders, stakeholders and partners. However, they focus mainly on employees, environment and social investments. Global Reporting Index (GRI G3 Index) The Global Reporting Initiatives (GRI) G3 Sustainability Reporting Guidelines are a set of internationally recognized indicators that tell about a companys social, economic and environmental impacts. Cisco Systems, Inc. reports as per GRI G3 indicators. These can be observed in detail in their Corporate Social Responsibility Report, 2010, Annual report and their website. It includes all G3 core indicators including those that they do not report against. Employees Communication Cisco promotes flexible and cross functional teams that allow employees to interact with one another and brings them together which gives the organization new opportunities and areas to work in. the employees communicate with each other from distance even. This is done by telecommunicating which keeps employees from different locations connected as well. Cisco ensures that the individual level decisions, strategies and values confirm with that of the organizations. Cisco organizes many events which give the employees opportunity to interact with the top level management. Leadership There are virtual strategic leadership meetings and virtual sales meetings. There is an employee connection intranet site as well. At Cisco, there is a collaborative leadership which focuses on organizational transformation, executive talent management and leadership development. (Cisco, 2011) Since the level of communication is extremely well, therefore there is a close connection between employees and they work together for the greater good of the company and eventually lead to helping the society. Moreover, the efficient leaders help the employees in staying motivated. Environment Cisco maintains an environment where it is essential for all employees to stay healthy and safe. Cisco gives its employees freedom to work however they like and whenever they like. This helps them keep a balance between their personal and office affairs. Cisco has an Occupational Health and Safety Program which helps in tracking and reducing illness from employees. There are teams that keep track of effectiveness of this program. They have a Global Ergonomic Program as well. This program helps in providing support on one-to-one basis as well as virtual support to aid in measuring, identifying and reducing ergonomic risks for office based employees, Cisco also gives security to those employees who are working in Labs. For this, they have Lab Safety Program which ensures that employees are safe when working in labs and they inform the employees about safety hazards and the measures that they can take in order to be safe. Thus all the support that Cisco gives to its employees makes them work for the better good of the organization and helps Cisco in keeping a good image in the society. Culture Cisco has an open and diverse culture. Since Cisco operates in a lot of countries worldwide therefore it has to have this cultural diversity and has to be flexible in order to welcome people from different countries in their workforce. Cisco has an annual Pulse Survey which helps them in understanding the needs, problems and requirements of their employees. It also helps in understand what employees have experienced in their organization, what the positive factors of the organization are and what the negative ones are. Moreover, it gives an insight on how satisfied their employees are. Cisco has a culture of inclusion and diversity which makes it such a great organization. It open heartedly includes women and people from different cultures. This brings diversity to workforce and eventually leads to generation of innovative ideas. Learning Opportunities for Employees Cisco gives its employees an opportunity to learn with the change in market. The employees are able to learn and are given opportunities to improve their skills. Cisco focuses on the skills of its employees and while training and giving them learning opportunities it focuses on polishing and nourishing these skills the most. There is a Midyear Career Discussion which helps the managers and employees discuss their development opportunities. 76% found the Pulse Survey effective in the year 2010. Rewards for Employees Since Cisco claims that it’s the employees who make the organization succeed, therefore it makes sure that it shares its success and profits with its employees with the help of whom Cisco is able to achieve all that it does. Cisco gives bonuses to employees based on company’s or individual’s performance. Cisco is flexible with its employees and provides them benefits and leaves that are considerable. Social Investments Cisco Networking Academy Cisco Networking Academy helps individual in improving their careers and educational opportunities for individuals around the globe. Individuals from all over the world have been benefited by this academy. They have either been benefited by becoming a student or by becoming an instructor at the academy. This opportunity is given to people without any difference in cast or creed. This has opened a new to opportunities for a lot of people around the globe. Education Cisco has been engaged in many programs related to learning throughout the world. Cisco has funded many educational programs such as, Mexico Engagement 21st Century School Initiative (21s),NYC iSchool, NYC DoE - Creating the Vision and Global Education Leaders Program. Cisco has formed public private partnerships where it partners with an educational institute and helps in giving technology driven education to people around the world. In order to give benefits to the society that they alone cannot give, Cisco has formed partnerships with the following nonprofit organizations: Net Hope, Community Voice Mail, Habitat for Humanity International and Tech Soup Global. Cisco believes in collaboration which is why it has formed partnership with many Nonprofit Organizations and Non Government Organizations. Cisco gives Product grants, cash grants and its employees also volunteer. Environmental Sustainability Cisco is not just socially responsive but environmentally responsive as well. According to Cisco, “technology can help them learn, live, play and work in new and sustainable ways. They are innovating to address environmental challenges, reduce our own impact, and help customers reduce theirs”. Cisco wants to build a climate conscious business model. Cisco has a new Utilities/Smart Grid which is basically a modernized energy platform. There is substation automation, home energy management, business energy management, and grid security and data centre operations. Cisco tries to meet green goals and tries to save on operations cost. Cisco also has energy efficient data centers. Cisco also has efficient work practices, for example, Cisco management would video conference with each other rather than travelling to different place of the world. This saves cost and is a step of an environmentally friendly organization. Cisco has smart buildings and workplaces which are environmentally sustainable. They keep in mind that they have to use environmental friendly products for building their buildings. Cisco is focusing more on product innovation and stewardship which means that they are not only focused on giving the best products but they also want to be environmentally friendly at that. Thus Cisco focuses on being both, socially and environmentally responsive. Benchmarks and Good Practices Cisco is in itself benchmark of good practices of sustainability. There are many other organizations today that are focused on being environmentally and socially responsive. Cisco has had top rankings when it comes to being socially and environmentally responsive. Effects on Cisco of its Investments in Sustainability Brand Image Cisco is known for its environmental and social responsiveness. Nowadays customers focus on companies that are doing all this. They even agree on paying a premium price for the activities that Cisco is doing. This means that customers have a very positive and strong brand image for Cisco in their minds. Innovation Cisco is known for its innovation and what customers appreciate the most is that they get these innovative products from a company that makes these products keeping in mind that they have to be environmental friendly. Recommendations Cisco should make their own school or should partner with an NGO to make a school where they can give education related to technology. The teachers can be the employees who can teach the students what they practice at Cisco and what they learn there. Cisco should also volunteer in catastrophic situations as this makes the employees come closer to one another in a way that no other activity can. Cisco should focus on training its employees as well. It should hold sessions that will help the employees in learning more. Moreover, Cisco should help the employees in educating their children. Given the current situation, Cisco should help its employees lessen the burden of education of their children. This will also give an image that Cisco wants the nation to be educated and learned. Conclusion Thus, it is obvious that a company needs to be socially and environmentally responsive in order to have sustainable future. Taking care of society and environment makes the company an apple of the eye for its customers and helps the company in gaining customer loyalty as well. Cisco is an organization that we can look at as a paradigm for sustainability. Cisco has been doing activities which have favored the communities and societies that it works in. It has received many awards and certifications for this as well. Moreover, Cisco has been an organization that favors its employees and gives them benefits and trains them and helps in development of their future as well. Thus Cisco is organization that is living up to the expectations that people have from an organization and is giving back to the society. All this will definitely help Cisco have a sustainable future. References Funding Universe. Cisco Systems, Inc. Company History. Retrieved from http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/Cisco-Systems-Inc-Company-History.html Cisco, 2011. Environmental Sustainability. Retrieved from http://www.cisco.com/web/about/citizenship/environment/index.html Cisco, 2011. Corporate Social Responsibility. Retrieved from http://www.cisco.com/web/about/citizenship/index.html Cisco, 2011. Our Employees. Retrieved from http://www.cisco.com/web/about/citizenship/employees/index.html Cisco, 2011. Social Investments. Retrieved from http://www.cisco.com/web/about/citizenship/socialinvestments/index.html Cisco, 2011. Utilities/smart Grid. Retrieved from http://www.cisco.com/web/strategy/energy/external_utilities.html Read More