The lack of posts this week is due to fact that I was at the NetWorld+Interop show in Las Vegas this week (conference blog here). I'll be blogging my impressions of N+I conference over at the Pivia blog for the next two days or so.
But I just wanted to lead into another post and talk about Cisco's marketing story now. John Chamber's keynote yesterday afternoon had a long line even 1/2 hour before it started (when I mosied on over) and it was standing room only. No other keynote (which included CEOs of fairly well-known companies) had anywhere near this level of interest. Chambers is a CEO celebrity. And even my mother (a computer neophyte whom doesn't follow technology or business stories) has heard of Cisco.
A key secret to Cisco's market success is outlined in the book, Momentum: How Companies Become Unstoppable Market Forces, which I will be reviewing for the 800-CEO-READ blog soon. Ron Ricci, one of the authors is now VP of Corporate Positioning at Cisco. From the book, I can ascertain that Ricci prior to being an employee was consulting to Cisco on their strategic positioning since 1996 or 1997.
The results speak for themselves. Chambers showed these numbers yesterday...
In 1995, Cisco's revenues were $10B and its 12 closest competitors revenues totalled $71B. Fast forward just 8 years to 2003. (Don't forget that 2003 wasn't exactly a stellar year in I.T. or network gear spending.) Last year (are you sitting down) Cisco's revenues were $153B and its 12 closest competitors revenues totalled $68B.
Anyway, I'm just whetting your appetite for the review of the book and more details will be revealed then.
Amazing. Unbelievable.
This is truly a marketing success story. Will be looking forward to your review before I buy.
Suhit
Posted by: Suhit Anantula | May 14, 2004 at 05:25 AM