It was like hitting a wall, according to Chambers. This trend was reinforced in January and Cisco executives went public with the news that tough times have arrived. Survival is now driving the Internet economy and we have to deal with the world the way it is, not the way we want it to be. The slowdown in capital spending will drive an increased focus on profit, achieved amongst others by adding value. One of the core themes at Cisco s channel partner conference was that the days of being a box shifter were numbered.
Partners have to find ways of adding value to Cisco products in order to survive and thrive.
Conclusion John Chambers and his senior executives remain optimistic that Cisco will be able to ride out the current business slowdown and manage to pull away from its closest competitors in the process. Recent events at Lucent, including the trouble with the Agere Systems spin-off, indicate that Cisco is having more success at weathering the storm. However, it will take some time before the San Jose-based company can breathe a sigh of relief. As pointed out by IDC, Cisco needs to execute well in what it identifies as tornado markets . Cisco has made huge investments in this area and needs these to pay off soon.