The weather over Thanksgiving is one of the reasons I so enjoy being back in an area that sees all four seasons. We had 11 inches of snow the day before and we all had four wonderful days off to enjoy it.
Being unable to justify the purchase of the new Nintendo DS for my son, I found a way to get one by signing up for a variety of services including Blockbuster's monthly DVD rental by mail. I just watched The Terminal with Tom Hanks. What a masterpiece and what heart! It is sensitive and surreal. You laugh and cry - a regular Spielberg story.
After recently attending a local Cisco executive briefing - I was struck how such a modern marvel could do so well and still not understand what their real value is. They own the enterprise network infrastructure market yet they chase after the ISP and small and medium business market as well. They count their success in units shipped and have lost their way and the commodity players will keep them from reaching their goals. They also make software for managing their networks because the customer requires it, but that software is not 'world class', that is to say it is not up to the higher standard that their hardware reaches. But that is the real value to an enterprise today, software which allows organizations to effectively manage the investments in hardware they have made. They make good software to manage individual devices, but to create a policy that would propagate to a variety of their systems to achieve the intended effect would be invaluable and achieve the aims of Cisco to ensure a 'lock' on the market. I assume that Cisco is just too short sighted to not demand immediate returns from software that guaranteed long term returns from the hardware. The current requirements of compliance regulations such as Sarbanes Oxley give them a unique opportunity to give the customer the value they want without coming across as exploiting the situation for their own benefit (to be a real partner instead of a parasite). If they do not jump at this situation they risk a third party (such as Orchestra) coming along with a solution which would in effect commoditize their hardware. Similar thinking might also persuade them to open up the 'slots' of the Catalyst 6509 to third parties for development of compatible modules. Cisco has a high opinion of themselves despite a lot of discontent among their customers you encounter at their big events such as Networkers. Chambers would do well to change his organization in a way that rewards identification of discontent and reduces the value of "praise".
Our synagogue faces the same problem. Some who consider themselves leaders are more concerned about getting acceptance of their ideas and plans than opening up the can of worms that is the result of listening to our priorities as customers (members and potential members). They see themselves as being the only hope we have and thus deserving our trust and respect, this is exacerbated by their perception that they have a lock on the market, that we have nowhere else to turn. This is a fatal error and inspires resourcefulness on the part of the customer. This was all too obvious recently during a 'town hall' of the board and members concerning the recent merger of the religious schools of the local temple and local synagogue. Many of the parents and staff are outraged by the lack of input any of us had in the hasty merger between schools which was done under the cloak of secrecy. The anger was palpable at the meeting and the 'officials' were on the defensive throughout the meeting. They basically refused to hear the concerns and simply insisted upon all of us getting over it and moving on to the next stage of implementing plans and 'getting on board'. In Judaism there is a concept that would have resolved this matter perfectly called repentance. This involves asking forgiveness and then making restitution (in this case simply, 'OK let's back up and start over'). But when that party refuses to admit the error you aren't going to get that progress.
Recent Comments