Cisco Systems Announces New Organizational Structure
Eleven Technology Groups Formed to Replace Line of Business Structure
SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 23, 2001--Further executing against its breakaway strategy and six-point business plan, Cisco Systems (Nasdaq:CSCO - news) today announced several organizational changes that align the company's focus around changing customer requirements and emphasize the company's advantages as the communications market consolidates. These changes include moving from the company's existing line of business structure to centralized engineering and marketing organizations. The new engineering organization will focus on 11 new technology groups, while marketing will focus on communicating Cisco's unique technology differentiation.
``At the heart of this change are our customer requirements and our clear market transition opportunity. Our line of business structure has served us very well in the past, when customer segments and product requirements were very distinct. Today, the differences have blurred between these customer segments and Cisco is in a unique position to provide the industry's broadest family of products united under a consistent architecture designed to help our customers improve productivity and profitability,'' said John Chambers, president and chief executive officer of Cisco Systems. ``We are making these changes at a time when we are beginning to see signs that our business is stabilizing. Although we can't predict the future, our orders for the first weeks of this quarter are in line with the expectations we discussed in our fourth quarter earnings call.''
Cisco also announced several executive changes related to the new organizational structure. Mario Mazzola, an eight-year Cisco veteran and former senior vice president of Cisco's new business ventures group, has been named chief development officer. Reporting directly to Chambers, Mazzola will oversee the 11 new technology groups that comprise Cisco's entire engineering organization. Charlie Giancarlo, formerly senior vice president of the commercial line of business, will run four of these technology groups and report directly to Mazzola. Michelangelo Volpi, who has played a key role as chief strategy officer, will take on a new operational role at Cisco. He will be in charge of the largest technology area, Internet Switching and Services, reporting to Mazzola. James Richardson, formerly senior vice president of the enterprise line of business, will run Cisco's marketing organization as chief marketing officer, reporting to Chambers.
Kevin Kennedy, formerly senior vice president of the service provider line of business, will be leaving Cisco to pursue external opportunities. Moving forward, Kennedy will be an industry and technical advisor to Cisco. During his eight years of leadership at Cisco, Kennedy has been responsible for leading Cisco's strategy to take advantage of the time-division multiplexing (TDM)-to-packet revolution in the service provider
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