Cisco Case

Cisco Case

1) Because they have an specific and particular method to do business and to keep the company on top. Cisco has a strong culture to keeping people (retaining), evaluating companies through business strategy and flexible to changes. They have a very detailed and generic process that they do before to decide what is the bert to do and which company they have to buy.

Process:

Market needs (evaluation) - planning matrix - BDP - HR screen - Acquisition signed - Integration

2) Cisco as an employee oriented company, with a team player culture, small company mindset, friendly environment, reward ad stock options politics. The bigger challenge to meshing entrepreneurs is to integrate then to a new culture where they are going to find different rules, functions, time and methods and they are going to need to follow and respect.

3) Yes, Planning Matrix (evaluate market needs) where they acquire people than technology. We can characterize it with some bullets points:

* The use of business units to target specific market segments

* The importance of being either #1 or #2 in each segment in which they compete

* The definition of a set of criteria that could be used to determine the suitability of an acquisition

* The reliance on empowered teams and programs to increase the speed of assimilation of the acquired company The notion that the acquisition of technology was the acquisition of people.

I think they do a very good and successful job, of course in the way they gonna commit failures but it didn't eraser the successful process. In the text we can see some evidences that they failed in some acquisitions like Kaplana and Lightstream, off course sometimes they failed in the beginning of the process where they evaluate companies and their cultures but it didn't takes away the successful process.

4) Yes. I think every company should try to get success cases and reply in your company.

5) Future success requires continued flexibility and...