Thread regarding Cisco Systems Inc. layoffs

The JH comments apply to JL in collab as well.

I am in SBG, and agree with the last post. SB and JH are nice people but they are also one of the significant reasons that security sales is lagging behind our competition.

In a meeting several months ago, JP asked SB why project Redmond is not working. SB’s answer was she didn’t know one reason of why it was not working. Talk about embarrassing for SB, that highlighted another example of SB being clueless and out of touch with the field. It does not matter that she does not know the cyber security landscape (which is a problem), but the bigger problem is she does NOT know how to lead a sales organization. That is her main role is to lead a global sales organization and she is not able to as she simply does not have the ability or experience in leading a sales team at any level.

JH’s team causes more issues and delays for us. JH’s team is all about trying to show they are driving innovation and direction, when they are completely the opposite. Their TAG meetings and read outs are complete waste of time. We have more accurate and better ways to validate where we should be oinvesting resources into but these TAGs are counter productive. To the poster that we are missing security transitions, that is correct. We own some of that responsibility in SBG but prior leadership feels JH’s team should have so much say. JH’s team creates more work for us. They are arrogant. When JH is challenged, his response is …… “Oookaaaay”. Arrogance at it’s best.

Our competition does not have these TAGs that waste a lot of time and slow down innovation and development.

I agree with some of the comments..SB is clueless about the change in the industry. Still stuck with product sales by reducing cost and doing promotions gimmicks. JH the chief architect should move and allow others to get into the team. their solutions are a joke and they don't accept the feedback positively. SASE, ZT, Secure Branch etc all are same slides ..old stories with new format. Engineers under JH are leaving to competitors. When will ELT will understand this and bring new people into the Org. SB and JH are nice people, they really want to help Cisco to win buy they are not in touch with fast changing landscape. Sorry....Please remove them

ASA performance hit when you turn on crypto/inspection features vs price paid for competitors is a hard sell imho. Just hope nobody asks idk

Incompetent SVPs and VPs make great puppets for EVPs. Why would an EVP want skilled VPs potentially competing with them?

ASA firewall is the best. The FBI, CIA, NSA and all govt departments use it. Maybe it needs a few cosmetic changes (color, size, etc) and it can still sell like hot cakes for next couple of years to come.

Doesn’t help they the product is so terrible.

To the poster that it is the Firewall, yes and no. With the expansion of the security portfolio, the firewall is only approximately 28% of Cisco’s global security business. In that sense, no.

But, we lagged behind firewall industry for many years, so we did lose business and mindshare. In that sense, yes.

One of the main factors is due to this special group within SB’s organization that is supposed to be the global security architecture team and drive direction and innovation with our BUs. Unfortunately, this group has been wrong on nearly every major security transition in the industry to include recently SASE, especially around VPNaaS. This group completely ignored this until it was too late when the pandemic hit, and everyone was going to work from home. Zscaler and Palo Alto Networks we’re prepared for it. While our competitors solutions were not perfect, they were in tune with customers and where the industry were going even before the pandemic. This group of global security architects has done more damage to security sales than our competitors could have ever done. Our competitors are beating us with simplicity and feature velocity, to include integrations that matter for customers.

This missing of the cyber security industry transitions has accelerated under SB “leadership”.

With quota based promotions, you’re going to see a lot more of it.

Look up Peter Principle. That is what we have with SB

SB is a nice woman. Her VP friend of Engineering is a nice woman. I have had women VPs in my career before and they were phenomenal leaders. SB and her VP friend of engineering are not capable of leading a global sales organization. SB has never had a sales leader role before and all of sudden she is VP of a global sales organization. She missed her number big in Q3. She will miss Q4 also unless there are some miracle deals which could happen. Our competitors are growing by double digit growth. SB highlighted that we grew 1% in Q3. That is embarrassing.

As for her friend that she hired to take over the mess she left in engineering, she is nice but way over her head.

There are women that can lead but these 2 cannot. Please bring in seasoned women that can actually lead. I will work for those women with no issues. The 2 we have now have demonstrated they are not able to lead.

You may ask, why not tell them. I have in my feedback on those stupid smart sheet forms that they solicit feedback on. I have never been reached out to one time nor have the concerns that i and others have brought up, ever been addressed. These 2 women don’t want to hear the truth cause they know they are in over their heads.

So, what you’re saying is that the problem with Security sales is misogyny?

Agree with OP that SB and her SLT is a disaster. SB has no control and is not capable of leading a global sales organization

The issue is not sales, it is the product suite itself.

Firewall and Security are the Aorta Artery for an Enterprise.

Cisco needs a Firewall Makeover.

The tough part to realize is once an enterprise cuts over their overall firewall vendor, the rest of their Cisco infrastructure will eventually similarly not be renewed in subsequent renewal cycles.

It's happening now. All over the place.