In fact, some customers and analysts contacted this week said Cisco's problems can be traced directly to an arrogant and even lazy sales force, which is too used to taking orders rather than aggressively selling and serving customers. Then she was told, to her surprise, that Cisco offered the kinds of products she was looking for. She rejected the offer to come in, saying it was Cisco's responsibility to come to her. I mean it was a textbook. From Miller's perspective, Cisco has reached the same point IBM reached more than a decade ago.
Cisco is a safe bet.
Turning this around is going to be hard, and if they trip, this is where it will happen. Climbing from the wreckage Whether Cisco officials recognize the problem is another question. In addressing the company's problems in an analysts conference call this week, however, Chambers laid the blame at the doorstep of the economy. He said the company's long-term growth estimates for countries with good economies remain unchanged at between 30 percent and 50 percent. This is very unusual.