Cisco Case Study

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GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS

CASE: GS-66 DATE: 06/05/09

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CISCO SYSTEMS, INC. : COLLABORATING ON NEW PRODUCT INTRODUCTION

On November 13, 200?, more than 100 employees of Cisco Systems, Inc. assembled in classic Cisco fashion: they dialed in from multiple locations around the world for an important meeting. The purpose of the gathering was to get the green light from senior management to manufacture a new high-end router that would make the giant networking company more competitive in an 1 age of sur~~~~intemet traffic. < :,\ .~\,.? _ '

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The project's code name, Viking, said it all The router for broadband service providers would break ground in power and speed, reminis ent of the Norse warriors _a~~\ explorers of Europe during the eighth to eleventh centuries. The meeting represented a culMination of several years of development work by a cross-functional, global team of Cisco specialists in engineering, manufacturing, marketing and other areas. Just months earlier, in mid-200?, Cisco oyerhauled~\ the project by sharply boosting the router's speed and capacity. This would allow the company jQ.-kapfrog competitors and offer a low-cost, powerful new router platform for the next 10 to 15 .; ~ years. That day in November, the Viking team was seeking an "execution commit" from senior ) management in manufacturing. If it got the go-ahead, Cisco would be ready to coIIlI9it the ~ resources to launch the new product.

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G) But the Cisco

team knew it faced many challenges. The Viking project would be one of the company's most complex new product introductions ever. W' even though the project had been essentially re-started in mid-200?, Cisco was still aiming to announce the machine in November 2008. That would give it just a year to line~up~I!1!nufactl.tdn~.~upply _ch~i!Land marketing arrangements-an lJI11.lsu!l:.!.!Y accelerated...