This is Cisco Systems, Inc. mission statement overview in 2013. For more information on how to write a mission statement, please refer to our article.
Company Background
| Name | Cisco Systems, Inc. |
| Logo |  |
| Industries served | Networking equipment |
| Geographic areas served | Worldwide |
| Headquarters | U.S. |
| Current CEO | John Chambers |
| Revenue | $ 46.061 billion (2012) |
| Profit | $ 8.041 billion (2012) |
| Employees | 66,639 (2012) |
| Main Competitors | Alcatel-Lucent, S.A., Hewlett-Packard Company, Juniper Networks, Inc. and many other companies. |
Cisco Systems is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells networking equipment.
Mission
Cisco mission statement 2013 |
The company doesn’t have an official mission statement, but their vision and strategy statement is closest to what a mission should be: “Our vision and strategy – to become our customers’ most strategic business partner by delivering intelligent networks and technology and business architectures built on integrated products, services, and software platforms – is in our view, enabling our customers’ success, as well as our own.” |
| Evaluation | ||
| Does it include…? | ||
| Customers | Products/ Services | Markets |
| No | Yes | No |
| Technology | Concern for survival | Philosophy |
| Yes | Yes | No |
| Self-concept | Concern for public image | Employees |
| Yes | No | No |
| Does it mention values like…? | Customer or product-oriented? | |
| Citizenship | Teamwork | Customer-oriented |
| No | No | Score |
| Excellence | Integrity | |
| No | No | 1.8/4.5 |
(This evaluation framework is composed of the guidelines listed in our article: Mission Statement for Success)
Overview
We have chosen to evaluate 1 of 2 statements that could be used as Cisco’s mission. The second statement is:“Cisco has shaped the future of the Internet by creating unprecedented value and opportunity for our customers, employees, investors and ecosystem partners and has become the worldwide leader in networking – transforming how people connect, communicate and collaborate.”
Both statements are of average level and don’t provide enough information about the business to Cisco’s stakeholders. The statement we have evaluated also poorly reveals Cisco’s ‘reason for being’ in the business for a few reasons:
- It includes only 4 components, lacking customers, markets, philosophy, concern for public image and employees components.
- It doesn’t mention any of the 4 values used in our evaluation and doesn’t provide them in a separate statement so it’s unclear what guides Cisco’s decisions and actions.
The statement is customer-oriented, which means that the company is focused on customers and their needs rather than on what products to produce.
In order for the company to benefit from having a comprehensive and communicated mission that guides firm’s daily decisions and reveals what the company is about, Cisco should construct a separate mission statement and include all 9 components in it.
Sources
- Cisco (2012). About Cisco. 2012 Annual Report. Available at: http://www.cisco.com/web/about/ac49/ac20/about_cisco_annual_reports.html
- Cisco Newsroom (2012). Company overview. Available at: http://newsroom.cisco.com/overview