An Interview with Cisco's Bill Rossi

Answers

Questions

Question #1: Enterprises sometimes talk about the Cisco premium, the extra cost associated with buying products from Cisco rather than from a competitor. Is your strategy in the mobile and wireless market to be the price leader, and if not, what are the value adds that justify higher costs?

Question #2: Cisco has sometimes been criticized for favoring proprietary approaches to networking and implementing only minimal standards compliance that lacks the capabilities of their proprietary implementations. Please comment on this statement as relates to mobile and wireless and WLANs, and specifically as relates to 802.11 standards, the Wi-FI Alliance, and the Cisco Compatible Extensions program.

Question #3: It is sometimes the case that extremely large organizations fall victim to the adverse effects of bureaucratization, allowing smaller and more nimble competitors to gain an upper hand by innovating. Please comment on this, specifically as it relates to the wireless switch market and the challenges Cisco has faced in aligning the priorities of the wireless, switching, and management business units.

Question #4: Please explain the ways in which the internal use of mobile and wireless technologies have enhanced the efficiency and effectiveness of Cisco as a company.

Question #5: What key mobile and wireless technologies and applications would you advise information professionals to contemplate as they develop 5-year plans for their organizations.