3 ms·
I recall an interview with John Chambers of Cisco many years ago where he mentioned having 20 or 30 direct reports, to avoid too much meddling in people's affai
by mathattack 13y ago
I recall an interview with John Chambers of Cisco many years ago where he mentioned having 20 or 30 direct reports, to avoid too much meddling in people's affairs. This can work if you don't need to make drastic changes (we have had a massive disruption in our industry and need to let half the workforce go - which half?) and if there doesn't need to be any cross-functional tiebreakers.
What's strange is in a more recent (2009) article [1] he claims to be more command and control, but shifting towards a more bottom-up organic method.
[1] http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/mckinsey_conversations_with_global_leaders_john_chambers_of_cisco http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet...
- Swannie 13y agoToday JC's direct report more or less == Cisco Board. He really only has three: COO and Co-President Gary Moore, Co-President Sales & Development Rob Lloyd, and CFO Frank Calderoni. Pretty much all other C-level and EVPs report to Gary and Rob. John talked about cutting, primarily, middle management during the recent 4000 job cuts announcement. You can guess how well that has worked. There is still plenty of scope to broaden the span of control in Cisco.