Maintaining Focus Is Fundamental
By Lawrence Walsh |
In this interview with Channel Insider, Cisco’s global channel chief Keith Goodwin reveals how video is driving virtualization adoption and that midmarket companies – not large enterprises – accelerated Cisco’s next-generation data center and networking vision.
LW: Some Cisco rivals say that they are better positioned in the market
and with products because they are more focused on their core competencies.
They point out that Cisco has made 44 acquisitions in the last five years
ranging from enterprise-class technologies to consumer technologies like the
Flip camera. So how does Cisco maintain its focus and its leadership across all
of these various segments?
KG: At the center of everything we do is the network, and the network is a
common platform. For years people have been saying certain segments of our
market have been commoditized. From a product technology perspective, we
continue to innovate to provide differentiation around what a lot of people
would position as non-differentiable products—routers and switches. From a
partner perspective, we look where partners can add value, and value always
equates to profitability. The ability to position with a customer, the
borderless network architecture enabling mobility, for example, in connecting
that to the kind of the business architecture that's where the customers
deliver value, then it becomes a discussion not about routing and switching but
about the ability of a borderless network to enable new business
transformation. So whether it's borderless network or virtualization at the
data center, it's that architectural approach that really brings home the
value.
LW: A reseller of one of your competitors recently said that aside from
Cisco's brand strength and marketing power, it's exceedingly difficult to
compete with Cisco in a deal because Cisco will pull CEO
John Chambers and other executives in to help close the sale. How much of an
asset is it to have an executive team, as a general practice, that is engaged
in customer retention and competitive sales activity?
KG: That's one of the things that I love about Cisco and the Cisco culture.
John Chambers established a culture within Cisco that we are customer driven
and partner driven. If there is an opportunity to help close a deal or to help
a customer, that should always take precedent over anything else we have on our
agenda or on our calendar. Chambers sets that bar and he personally believes in
it, so any executive in Cisco, not just in the field organization, but any
executive in Cisco, is always looking for opportunities to jump in to help with
customer situations.
LW: On a similar note, some partners of competing vendors have said that
they get creamed every time they walk into a Cisco shop and pitch alternatives
because they are talking to a Cisco certified engineer, and it's paramount to
threatening that Cisco engineer's job. What is Cisco doing to maintain the
value of its end-user certifications and that sales advantage?
KG: It's a huge competitive advantage for us. I think you have hit on one
of the reasons why I believe that our channel, our partners are not only one of
Cisco's biggest competitive advantages but our most sustainable competitive
advantages. Even if someone wanted to replicate our corporate and channel
strategy, and they had unlimited investment to do that, it's very, very
difficult because we built a brand around those partners and individual
certifications. The Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE) brand is very
valuable in the marketplace. One of the things that I think over the last few
years that we as a company have come to recognize is the value of that and
continuing to invest in those individuals and those individual specializations.
It's all about continuing to make those individual certifications more relevant
in the future by evolving the content associated with achieving them, and we're
investing heavily to do that.
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