2011 has been a challenging year for Cisco. The company has had to layoff staff and restructure in an effort to remain competitive in an increasingly volatile marketplace.
During Cisco’s 2011 Financial Analyst Meeting on Tuesday, Cisco CEO John Chambers assured analysts that Cisco is changing. Chambers stressed that Cisco is focused on driving innovation forward and will be significantly more aggressive in going after competitors like Juniper Networks, HP and Huawei.
As to why Cisco ended up in trouble this year, Chambers provided some candid comments on what his company was doing wrong.
“We were fat,” Chambers said. “We had an extra four to five inches around the waistline and that slowed decision making down and we got away from the basics.