In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Cisco underwent two major reorganizations of its marketing department structure. In 1997, it aligned business units with new market opportunities while keeping marketing decentralized. In 2001, Cisco centralized its previously decentralized engineering and marketing teams in response to increased competition and changing market conditions. This centralized structure aimed to focus engineering on new technologies and marketing on Cisco's differentiation. While centralization provided benefits like reduced conflict and synergies, it risked losing specialized knowledge about different product areas.

1. Andrew Logan
Roderick Sherlock
William Leung
Cisco Case Study

2. In 1995, there was a decentralized structure where each business unit had its own
marketing and engineering teams headed by its own VP and General Manager. In 1997,
Cisco aligned its lines of business to new market opportunities. Marketing was still
within the business units, but the company was more strategically aligned to consumer
demands.
In 2001, Cisco centralized from distinct business units to a centralized engineering and
marketing structure. The engineering focus was around 11 new technology groups and
the marketing team was to focus on Cisco’s unique technology differentiation.
Cisco’s marketing position grew as a response to manufacturing and service
opportunities resulting specifically from rapidly nascent emerging IP technologies…
Cisco’s marketing prior specialization in networking grew beyond to include a broader
range of products and services ancillary to the global implementation of these
technologies.
Marketing position geographically expanded to clients in Asia and Australia, and
services and networking products were developed to adapt to their rapidly expanding
inter-office domestic and international business communication needs.
Evolution of Marketing Department within
Cisco’s Organizational Structure

3. In 2000, at the height of the dot-com bubble, Cisco was the most valuable
company in the world. This was largely due to Cisco’s monopoly on the
hardware powering the internet.
The dotcom bubble phenomenon however had dire economic consequences
which prompted Cisco to tighten up its growth projections affecting its
previously extraordinary successful, if not aggressive, capitalization/expansion
trends.
Competition from nascent high-tech companies (such as Juniper) strengthened
the resolve to ‘pull together’ into a more defensive, and effectively successful
centralized structure in:
1) Engineering, with a renewed product development strategy, adapted to
emerging markets in IP technology; and
2) Marketing, in a radically more centralized approach, concentrating on a
‘pull strategy’ - comprehending a mix–variable strategy of product and
promotion elements, specifically, product features, services, and
advertising..
Motivation Behind Reorganization

4. Pros
• Less conflict due to centralized direction and goals.
• More synergies between sales and marketing teams.
• Less duplication of effort.
• Ability to see the bigger picture, and take on the mantle of
their expanded global stature.
Cons
• Less specialized knowledge about the company’s different
products and/or services leading to an inability to market to
their specific benefits.
Pros/Cons of Centralized Marketing
Organization