I've seen it happen a few times - some of which involved top performers. How can someone go from a 9 in the block rating system to "made redundant" in 12 months?
Neither HR nor Directors/VPs would dare intervene the decision to lay off the person in question - even if they knew they were losing a top performer to competition. In most cases that I've seen, it was personal targeting by the employee's manager, but for liability, everyone in management would stick to the narrative "due to opex optimization, your position has been made redundant" and nod their heads along.
A year or two later, the guy/gal laid off would come back after the person who laid them off leaves Cisco. Even to the same position.
No company is perfect. No product portfolio is ever complete. Deadwood exists in each and every company. It's not greener on the other side, it's greener where you water it the most. Just like at any other organization, you must keep your skills sharp.
That being said - and coming from the Sales org, if you find a manager you can work with - understands the business, the customers and the market, Cisco isn't that bad of a place to be. I think the same applies to any other organization.
The problem with Cisco is that it being a very large and complicated environment, mid-management are spending so much effort on lobbying rather than on actually improving the work environment, getting actual results. It's so easy for an individual contributor to get washed away in the tides of his/her manager. Nurturing this kind of kiss-a-- environment is really demotivating to those who put in hard work and good effort.
My 2cents.