We are using India to create disruptive business models, proclaimed Cisco CEO John Chambers. He walked the talk decisively last year. As part of the globalization center started in 2006 in Bangalore, Cisco announced two major dealsone with Wipro to build IT infrastructure products for the Indian, the Middle East and African markets, and another with Satyam to create a health services network in India and build solutions for the global market.

Even as Ciscos globalizaton efforts out of India continued in full swing, probably the most important challenges for the company will be that after a series of top manager exits in 2006-07 (including the exit of Jangoo Dalal, the then country head in June 08), there is some stability at the top.

In the market, it was the usual story. Traditional segments, switching and routing grew by 27% and 26%, respectively, while newer areas like unified communications and network storage grew at 60% and 100%, respectively. WebEx, a Cisco subsidiary, also grew in triple digits, even as Cisco put an all out effort to sell the Telepresence, its new passion globally.

On the sales operations, it did restructure based on market feedback by moving to a regional approach from an earlier centralized one. It appointed regional sales heads in North, South, East and West for the enterprise business, though the service provider group continues as a national entity. What necessitated the change of heart was Junipers foothold in the enterprise switching market.

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l Start-up Year:1995 l Products & Services: Networking l Employees: 4,000 l Address: Birla House (East Tower), 25 Barakhamba Road, New Delhi110001 l Tel: +91-11-42611000 l Fax: +91-11-2376 6126 l Website: www.cisco.com/in
Highlights n New globalization center east campus in Bangalore housing the largest campus data center outside the US n Planned to employ 10,000 people in India by 2010 n Launched Network On Wheels, a mobile showcase of its customized networking solutions Strengths p Undisputed leader in networking p Strong expertise in unified communications by means of Telepresence Weaknesses q Still learning the tricks of the SMB market, which will drive the next phase of growth in traditional product lines q Top management stability in India has been an issue		Naresh Wadhwa, president & country manager Ajay Goel, senior VP, Industry Business, Strategy & Operations, India & SAARC Rajesh Chainani, senior VP, Service Provider Pramodh Menon, senior VP, South & Sri Lanka R Dhamodaran, senior VP, Channels Operations & Commercial Strategy Ranajoy Punja, VP, Business Development, Advanced Technologies, India & SAARC

In the government sector, a dampener was the loss of the Himachal and Bihar SWAN projects to Juniper. Cisco did well, on the SMB side, and launched an SMB financing scheme to effectively handle the threat from competitors like D-Link and HP Procurve.

Cisco, which announced a $1.1 bn investment in India in 2005, reiterated that the plan is on track. Cisco is using India to build innovative solutions for local markets, which it plans to take to other emerging markets. It expects that by 2010, 5% of its global revenue and 20% of its top talent will come from India.

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