Cisco company
Cisco is a famous networking company that is considered the prominent leader among the technologies-producing companies worldwide. This company primarily focuses on developing communications using IT technologies. Being founded in 1984, Cisco funded various firms and start-ups in the networking communication sphere (Kodama, 2017). Thanks to that, today, the organization has approximately two hundred affiliated companies all over the world. The total market cap of Cisco Inc. Groups is higher than 200 billion dollars (Kodama, 2017). This outstanding company is also famous for its significant role in developing communications and technologies which have spread worldwide.
Cisco strives to the development of networking communications all over the world. The company gained its popularity not only because of its astonishing revenue, number of acquisitions, and unique technological innovations. One of the supereminent peculiarities of the company is its unique management strategies leading to success. Cisco has a proficient human resource management approach which is worth discussing. Considering that the company is multinational, it is pretty helpful to analyze the approach to organizing global communication. Analyzing the experience of Cisco can allow me to gain valuable knowledge in the management sphere.
Cisco’s General Management Strategy
The essential point in Cisco’s management strategy is the e-commerce oriented approach. The usage of networking opportunities to create the companies e-infrastructure allowed to build the valuable management strategy based on distant communications. The company is mainly project-oriented, which requires developing the management strategies for each event, service, or product (Hirasawa, Kodama, and Yasuda, 2017). To pursue the multiple projects aims, Cisco developed dynamic virtual teams which are divided into the core and extension subteams (Hirasawa, Kodama, and Yasuda, 2017). Each group has different tasks in strictly determined projects and spheres.
The first one is responsible for market and business implications and financial issues. The second group’s points of interest are human resource management and knowledge-based development. Such a division allowed Cisco to develop the coordination significantly (Hirasawa, Kodama, and Yasuda, 2017). Thus, the primary management approach of the company can be compared with the strategic collaboration one. Through the dynamic virtual teams, Cisco addresses all the components of strategic collaboration: knowledge, creation of values, partnership working. In other words, Cisco abandons the traditional structures of the management in order to implement the most efficient collaborative approach among its subsidiary corporations.
One of the acquired by the Cisco companies, the MindMed Corporation, also follows a similar strategic collaboration structure. However, this subsidiary company also has particular management approaches relevant for local goals. In general, the structural pattern complies with parent organization’s one. As far as the company’s aims and research are often practical, it requires centralized approaches to build practical experience. Thus, its management strategies include decision-making, behavioral, and quantitative approaches. MindMed strives to create a group of specialists who can use artificial intelligence (AI) in psychedelic drug development (MindMed Streamlines Leadership, 2021).
The first and second mentioned strategies help the company find partnership opportunities and analyze the psychological implications of collaboration (MindMed Streamlines Leadership, 2021). The third one contributes to the research regulations and practical estimation of the involved knowledge and other resources. As well as the parent company, MindMed uses networking opportunities and broadens the local virtual teams (MindMed Streamlines Leadership, 2021). Generally, the company also strives to collaboration in order to gain the diverse overlook on the market challenges.
Leadership
In the sphere of innovations, leadership is a core element contributing to the efficient work of the whole company. The emerging technological changes require strict control to be implemented. The leaders are responsible for directing the activity of their subordinates. Therefore, they should be creative and innovative to work with the sphere of developing technologies. In order to achieve this aim, Cisco made collaborative leadership a central strategy (Kodama, 2017). In such a vast organization, leaders are not just the individuals but the whole councils and boards. There is even a special Development Council which is in charge of the leadership activities (Kodama, 2017).
Moreover, the company proposed a multi-level leadership strategy for decision-making (Kodama, 2017). Emphasizing the role of the leaders’ decisions and double-checking their activity through collaboration, the company started to complete projects faster (Kodama, 2017). Such task distribution alleviated the work of leaders and allowed them to participate in several projects simultaneously.
Generally speaking, the leadership strategy applied at Cisco can be called holistic. Holistic leadership is often associated with collaborative management due to the interaction between leaders (Kodama, 2017). The role of leadership in such a company is vital because the objectives-formation is essential in global project-oriented activities. The holistic leadership model of Cisco consists of the three fundamental levels of leadership: centralized, dialectical, and distributed (Kodama, 2017).
All the mentioned levels focus on enhancing collaboration between workers. The first one is applying the technologies; the second is using the psychological boundaries; and the third is implementing the culture of working together (Kodama, 2017). This approach also highlights the importance of analyzing the individual’s worldview respecting all the workers. The leaders try to set tasks taking into consideration the individual preferences and abilities. Therefore, Cisco has a structured approach to leadership management focusing on collaboration. Such a detailed and diverse approach is indeed the main factor of the company’s success.
The subsidiary companies also strive for collaboration, thereby sticking to the holistic leadership model. For example, MindMed publications often provide information about the company’s consolidations with other corporations or individuals (MindMed Streamlines Leadership, 2021). The publications mention the collaborative boards of leaders (directors). Moreover, the company emphasizes the role of a leader in the upcoming projects and strives to find decent people to set efficient tasks (MindMed Streamlines Leadership, 2021). This shows that Cisco manages its subsidiary companies integrating the collaborative culture through leadership and management strategies.
Cisco’s Human Resource Management
Rational human resource management is another factor of Cisco’s success. According to the collaboration business strategy, which is the crucial concept of the company’s policy, the workers are the key to successful marketing (Hirasawa, Kodama, and Yasuda, 2017). In order to develop efficiently, the company needs to comply with the constantly changing market conditions. The only possible way to meet such a challenging environment is the constant development of the workers.
By developing their abilities, workers will always be ready for any difficulties and strive to increase the company’s total performance. Following this idea, Cisco uses the mentioned above layers’ structure for HR management (Hirasawa, Kodama, and Yasuda, 2017). The leaders consider the employees’ psychological peculiarities, talents, and skills to provide suitable and engaging tasks.
Moreover, the company enhances the communications between workers of different levels through implementing technologies such as Unified Communications Manager (Hirasawa, Kodama, and Yasuda, 2017). It allows people from all over the world to be engaged in the working process no matter their location or post. As a result of technological advancement, the company developed an efficient approach for distributing human capital.
The usage of the informal type of communication and distance meetings enhances the trustful relationships between the colleagues and empower the experience exchange. However, the company also has “strict decision-making rules, regulations to enable strategic HR management” (Hirasawa, Kodama, and Yasuda, 2017, p. 47). Thus, the combination of these two strategies allows the company to solve complicated issues and adjust to the changing market conditions.
Another fascinating aspect of the HR management in the company is the unique technologies adaptation. For example, the Cisco Employee Connection (CEC) system was created to enhance a new level of communication with the employees (Hirasawa, Kodama, and Yasuda, 2017). It contributed to the better and quicker interactions of subsidiary companies from all over the world. The company also offers a motivation strategy to enhance the efficiency of the workers (Kodama, 2017). The main point f this approach is to encourage employees to advance the company and their abilities. The progress of the company opens new career opportunities for workers and allows them to develop new skills.
Multinational Problems Solving
As far as Cisco heads believe that the companies’ success involves innovations and creativity, the leaders support the multinational collaboration. The perspectives of employees from different countries enhance the new opportunities. The international experience among the employees allows them to analyze the market from different views. Moreover, the implementation of this concept allowed Cisco to become one of the most famous multinational companies (Kodama, 2017).
Translation of the Cisco Employee Connection website into many languages permitted the company to broaden its horizons and invite people worldwide. Involvement in the creation process of people from different countries leads to problems with cooperation and placement. However, Cisco, thanks to the management policy, found efficient solutions for these issues.
The critical factor is implementing emerging technologies to ensure a comfortable working atmosphere and corporate information accessibility. For example, vision, strategy, execution, and metrics language (VSEM) was created to improve the multinational collaboration among the employees (Kodama, 2017). This system includes the number of coded information that people can understand from a particular domain of knowledge. Representatives from different countries constantly renovate VSEM contributing to better integrity (Kodama, 2017). As a result, the company has created a unique system of corporate management available for everyone.
Another event that was conducted to develop international communication within the company was the translation of the CEC into multiple languages. This decision allowed the Chinese, Japanese, and other nationalities to become part of this global company (Kodama, 2017). Generally speaking, most of Cisco’s activities and important meetings are held online. So the territorial difficulties have no impact on the employees’ development, learning, and efficiency (Kodama, 2017). Moreover, the company has international policy regulations, which require a respectful attitude towards different nationalities (Kodama, 2017). Thus, collaboration strategy is a crucial element of Cisco’s management.
COVID-19 and Possible Improvements
Concerning the recent pandemic changes, there are no global changes in the management approach of Cisco or its subsidiary organization MindMed. The leaders adjusted the organizational goals to suit the current international situation. For example, MindMed holds experiments revealing the tools to cure social isolation’s negative psychological and physical implications of social isolation (Can LSD cure our pandemic anxiety, 2017). As we can see, the company manages to meet the changing situation in the world and quickly adjusts the goals and planning. Therefore, COVID-19 did not affect the management policy of the company. On the contrary, the pandemic provided new opportunities for the company’s development.
It is pretty complicated to offer the improvements for such a prominent company as Cisco. Probably, the development of the transnational management strategy can be implemented. It can be achieved by exploring the different cultures’ peculiarities to create more relevant products. Cisco’s managers should also discuss the religious connotations and difficulties, which can be a severe obstacle in implementing some technologies. For example, MindMed is based on AI usage in medicine. Some religions claim that people’s life should never be trusted to the machine. Thus, an ethical management strategy can be developed to ensure tolerance to different nations and religions.
Cisco has an outstanding management strategy, which led the company and its subsidiary corporations to success. The company develops the technologies which are later efficiently used in the business and management approaches. The strong points of Cisco are the human resource management, multinational approach, detailed leadership strategies, and implementation of emerging technologies in the working process. An essential factor of the rapid development of the company is employee-oriented working process. Providing comfortable working conditions, leaders empower employees to increase their performance. The analysis of the Cisco and MindMed management approaches shows that the secret of success is the accurate organizing of people’s activities.
Reference List
Hirasawa, K., Kodama, M., and Yasuda, T. (2017) ‘MA thinking and innovation in global high tech companies: the lessons of business model innovation in apple and cisco systems’. Ma Theory and the Creative Management of Innovation. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 43–80.
Kodama, M. (2017) ‘Collective management based on holistic leadership: a case study of cisco systems’. Developing Holistic Leadership. London: Emerald Publishing, pp. 143–169.
Can LSD cure our pandemic anxiety? MindMed is spending big to find out. (2021). Web.