Fragments

Technology changes, partners remain the same

June 17th, 2008 | by Klemen Stular |

One of the basic questions that trouble global companies today is how to achieve as much geographic coverage as possible, while at the same time ensuring consistent, high-quality services and products. Rapid growth demanded by owners makes this problem even more complicated, as it is almost impossible to stay focused on two things at the same time – technological development as the company’s basic activity, along with market development. Large global companies tackle this situation in different ways; there is no universal recipe.

A few days ago I discussed this issue with a high-level representative of Cisco Systems. Cisco has long been recognized as a company with an excellent marketing model. Instead of setting up a megalomaniacal internal organisation that would ensure global market penetration, Cisco focused on cooperation with technical and sales-oriented partners. In this way, it managed to establish genuine relationships with final buyers, who prefer to cooperate with local companies capable of understanding local specifics.

Is this marketing »recipe« reflected in Cisco’s practices? It is, in most cases. However, as Cisco partners we sometimes feel that rapid growth of local Cisco teams, especially in what is called »emerging markets,« speaks the opposite. In our conversation, I challenged my Cisco partner on this issue. His response was that Cisco earmarks the largest share of its budget to technological development and sales, which clearly speaks of Cisco’s goals and orientation.

I liked the development part. I also liked the sales part – as long as its purpose is raising market awareness, rather than competition with Cisco’s partners. In the end, we agreed mainly that the extremely rapid growth required by the Cisco owners can only be achieved in the long term by focusing on the development of new products and solutions. Their placement in individual environments still has to be left to capable partners that are competitive with each other, thus providing the fast introduction of new technologies. For this reason, Cisco does not intend to change its strategy for the long run, and quality partners will remain its key element.