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Cisco Systems and Its Community Fellowship Program (A) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution

Case Study Description of Cisco Systems and Its Community Fellowship Program (A)


Focuses on the introduction, implementation, and initial evaluation of Cisco Systems Community Fellowship Program. This program provided Cisco employees affected by the layoff the option of working with a nonprofit organization for one year. Instead of a severance package, the employee received one-third of his or her salary and retained all benefits and stock options. Includes the perspectives of the program's manager, several fellows, and the leadership of a nonprofit organization participating in the program.

Authors :: Diana Barrett, Sheila McCarthy

Topics :: Organizational Development

Tags :: Downsizing, Human resource management, IT, Operations management, Social enterprise, SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis

Swot Analysis of "Cisco Systems and Its Community Fellowship Program (A)" written by Diana Barrett, Sheila McCarthy includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Cisco Fellowship facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Cisco Systems and Its Community Fellowship Program (A) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Downsizing, Human resource management, IT, Operations management, Social enterprise and Organizational Development.


Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Cisco Systems and Its Community Fellowship Program (A) casestudy better are - – there is backlash against globalization, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, geopolitical disruptions, increasing energy prices, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , wage bills are increasing, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing transportation and logistics costs, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, etc



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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Cisco Systems and Its Community Fellowship Program (A)


SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Cisco Systems and Its Community Fellowship Program (A) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Cisco Fellowship, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Cisco Fellowship operates in.

According to Harvard Business Review, 75% of the managers use SWOT analysis for various purposes such as – evaluating current scenario, strategic planning, new venture feasibility, personal growth goals, new market entry, Go To market strategies, portfolio management and strategic trade-off assessment, organizational restructuring, etc.




SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix


SWOT analysis of Cisco Systems and Its Community Fellowship Program (A) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Cisco Systems and Its Community Fellowship Program (A) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Cisco Fellowship
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Organizational Development field.
4. Making a Organizational Development topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Cisco Fellowship




Strengths Cisco Systems and Its Community Fellowship Program (A) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Cisco Fellowship in Cisco Systems and Its Community Fellowship Program (A) Harvard Business Review case study are -

Training and development

– Cisco Fellowship has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Cisco Systems and Its Community Fellowship Program (A) Harvard Business Review case study by analyzing – employees retention, in-house promotion, loyalty, new venture initiation, lack of conflict, and high level of both employees and customer engagement.

Diverse revenue streams

– Cisco Fellowship is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Cisco Systems and Its Community Fellowship Program (A) case study a diverse revenue stream that has helped it to survive disruptions such as global pandemic in Covid-19, financial disruption of 2008, and supply chain disruption of 2021.

Effective Research and Development (R&D)

– Cisco Fellowship has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in, as mentioned in case study Cisco Systems and Its Community Fellowship Program (A) - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.

Operational resilience

– The operational resilience strategy in the Cisco Systems and Its Community Fellowship Program (A) Harvard Business Review case study comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the industry, building diversified operations across different geographies so that disruption in one part of the world doesn’t impact the overall performance of the firm, and integrating the various business operations and processes through its digital transformation drive.

Innovation driven organization

– Cisco Fellowship is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Cisco Systems and Its Community Fellowship Program (A) Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.

Highly skilled collaborators

– Cisco Fellowship has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive segment. Secondly the value chain collaborators of the firm in Cisco Systems and Its Community Fellowship Program (A) HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.

Successful track record of launching new products

– Cisco Fellowship has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Cisco Fellowship has effective processes in place that helps in exploring new product needs, doing quick pilot testing, and then launching the products quickly using its extensive distribution network.

High switching costs

– The high switching costs that Cisco Fellowship has built up over years in its products and services combo offer has resulted in high retention of customers, lower marketing costs, and greater ability of the firm to focus on its customers.

Organizational Resilience of Cisco Fellowship

– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Cisco Fellowship does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.

Learning organization

- Cisco Fellowship is a learning organization. It has inculcated three key characters of learning organization in its processes and operations – exploration, creativity, and expansiveness. The work place at Cisco Fellowship is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Cisco Systems and Its Community Fellowship Program (A) Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.

Analytics focus

– Cisco Fellowship is putting a lot of focus on utilizing the power of analytics in business decision making. This has put it among the leading players in the industry. The technology infrastructure suggested by Diana Barrett, Sheila McCarthy can also help it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.

High brand equity

– Cisco Fellowship has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Cisco Fellowship to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.






Weaknesses Cisco Systems and Its Community Fellowship Program (A) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Cisco Systems and Its Community Fellowship Program (A) are -

Need for greater diversity

– Cisco Fellowship has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.

Capital Spending Reduction

– Even during the low interest decade, Cisco Fellowship has not been able to do capital spending to the tune of the competition. This has resulted into fewer innovations and company facing stiff competition from both existing competitors and new entrants who are disrupting the industry using digital technology.

Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy

– From the instances in the HBR case study Cisco Systems and Its Community Fellowship Program (A), it seems that the employees of Cisco Fellowship don’t have comprehensive understanding of the firm’s strategy. This is reflected in number of promotional campaigns over the last few years that had mixed messaging and competing priorities. Some of the strategic activities and services promoted in the promotional campaigns were not consistent with the organization’s strategy.

No frontier risks strategy

– After analyzing the HBR case study Cisco Systems and Its Community Fellowship Program (A), it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Organizational Development strategy. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.

Slow decision making process

– As mentioned earlier in the report, Cisco Fellowship has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the industry over the last five years. Cisco Fellowship even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.

Workers concerns about automation

– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Cisco Fellowship needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.

Skills based hiring

– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Cisco Fellowship has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.

High bargaining power of channel partners

– Because of the regulatory requirements, Diana Barrett, Sheila McCarthy suggests that, Cisco Fellowship is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the industry.

Products dominated business model

– Even though Cisco Fellowship has some of the most successful products in the industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. firm in the HBR case study - Cisco Systems and Its Community Fellowship Program (A) should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.

Interest costs

– Compare to the competition, Cisco Fellowship has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.

Compensation and incentives

– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Cisco Systems and Its Community Fellowship Program (A), is just above the industry average. Cisco Fellowship needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.




Opportunities Cisco Systems and Its Community Fellowship Program (A) | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis


The opportunities highlighted in the Harvard Business Review case study Cisco Systems and Its Community Fellowship Program (A) are -

Reconfiguring business model

– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help Cisco Fellowship to reconfigure its entire business model. For example it can used blockchain based technologies to reduce piracy of its products in the big markets such as China. Secondly it can use the popularity of e-commerce in various developing markets to build a Direct to Customer business model rather than the current Channel Heavy distribution network.

Building a culture of innovation

– managers at Cisco Fellowship can make experimentation a productive activity and build a culture of innovation using approaches such as – mining transaction data, A/B testing of websites and selling platforms, engaging potential customers over various needs, and building on small ideas in the Organizational Development segment.

Developing new processes and practices

– Cisco Fellowship can develop new processes and procedures in Organizational Development industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing etc.

Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains

– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Cisco Fellowship can build a diversified supply chain model across various countries in - South East Asia, India, and other parts of the world. This reconfiguration of global supply chain can help, as suggested in case study, Cisco Systems and Its Community Fellowship Program (A), to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.

Redefining models of collaboration and team work

– As explained in the weaknesses section, Cisco Fellowship is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Cisco Systems and Its Community Fellowship Program (A) case study suggests that firm can utilize new technology to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.

Using analytics as competitive advantage

– Cisco Fellowship has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in the sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled, as illustrated in the Harvard case study Cisco Systems and Its Community Fellowship Program (A) - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Cisco Fellowship to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.

Identify volunteer opportunities

– Covid-19 has impacted working population in two ways – it has led to people soul searching about their professional choices, resulting in mass resignation. Secondly it has encouraged people to do things that they are passionate about. This has opened opportunities for businesses to build volunteer oriented socially driven projects. Cisco Fellowship can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.

Low interest rates

– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Cisco Fellowship can still utilize the low interest rates to borrow money for capital investment. Secondly it can also use the increase of government spending in infrastructure projects to get new business.

Buying journey improvements

– Cisco Fellowship can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Cisco Systems and Its Community Fellowship Program (A) suggest that firm can provide automated chats to help consumers solve their own problems, provide online suggestions to get maximum out of the products and services, and help consumers to build a community where they can interact with each other to develop new features and uses.

Learning at scale

– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Cisco Fellowship to conduct training and development for its employees across the world. This will result in not only reducing the cost of training but also help employees in different part of the world to integrate with the headquarter work culture, ethos, and standards.

Creating value in data economy

– The success of analytics program of Cisco Fellowship has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Cisco Fellowship to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Cisco Systems and Its Community Fellowship Program (A) case study. Cisco Fellowship can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.

Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities

– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Cisco Fellowship to expand its talent hiring zone. According to McKinsey Global Institute, 20% of the high end workforce in fields such as finance, information technology, can continously work from remote local post Covid-19. This presents a really great opportunity for Cisco Fellowship to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.

Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions

– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Cisco Fellowship in the consumer business. Now Cisco Fellowship can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.




Threats Cisco Systems and Its Community Fellowship Program (A) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis


The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Cisco Systems and Its Community Fellowship Program (A) are -

Backlash against dominant players

– US Congress and other legislative arms of the government are getting tough on big business especially technology companies. The digital arm of Cisco Fellowship business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.

Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution

– Cisco Fellowship has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Organizational Development industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Cisco Fellowship needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Organizational Development sector. According to Mckinsey study top managers believe that the adoption of technology in operations, communications is 20-25 times faster than what they planned in the beginning of 2019.

New competition

– After the dotcom bust of 2001, financial crisis of 2008-09, the business formation in US economy had declined. But in 2020 alone, there are more than 1.5 million new business applications in United States. This can lead to greater competition for Cisco Fellowship in the Organizational Development sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.

High dependence on third party suppliers

– Cisco Fellowship high dependence on third party suppliers can disrupt its processes and delivery mechanism. For example -the current troubles of car makers because of chip shortage is because the chip companies started producing chips for electronic companies rather than car manufacturers.

Shortening product life cycle

– it is one of the major threat that Cisco Fellowship is facing in Organizational Development sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.

Increasing wage structure of Cisco Fellowship

– Post Covid-19 there is a sharp increase in the wages especially in the jobs that require interaction with people. The increasing wages can put downward pressure on the margins of Cisco Fellowship.

Consumer confidence and its impact on Cisco Fellowship demand

– There is a high probability of declining consumer confidence, given – high inflammation rate, rise of gig economy, lower job stability, increasing cost of living, higher interest rates, and aging demography. All the factors contribute to people saving higher rate of their income, resulting in lower consumer demand in the industry and other sectors.

Capital market disruption

– During the Covid-19, Dow Jones has touched record high. The valuations of a number of companies are way beyond their existing business model potential. This can lead to capital market correction which can put a number of suppliers, collaborators, value chain partners in great financial difficulty. It will directly impact the business of Cisco Fellowship.

Easy access to finance

– Easy access to finance in Organizational Development field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Cisco Fellowship can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.

Trade war between China and United States

– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Cisco Fellowship in the Organizational Development industry. The Organizational Development industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.

Barriers of entry lowering

– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Cisco Fellowship with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.

Aging population

– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.

Stagnating economy with rate increase

– Cisco Fellowship can face lack of demand in the market place because of Fed actions to reduce inflation. This can lead to sluggish growth in the economy, lower demands, lower investments, higher borrowing costs, and consolidation in the field.




Weighted SWOT Analysis of Cisco Systems and Its Community Fellowship Program (A) Template, Example


Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers in the HBR case study Cisco Systems and Its Community Fellowship Program (A) needs to zero down on the relative importance of each factor mentioned in the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants. We can provide the relative importance to each factor by assigning relative weights. Weighted SWOT analysis process is a three stage process –

First stage for doing weighted SWOT analysis of the case study Cisco Systems and Its Community Fellowship Program (A) is to rank the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. This will help you to assess the most important strengths and weaknesses of the firm and which one of the strengths and weaknesses mentioned in the initial lists are marginal and can be left out.

Second stage for conducting weighted SWOT analysis of the Harvard case study Cisco Systems and Its Community Fellowship Program (A) is to give probabilities to the external strategic factors thus better understanding the opportunities and threats arising out of macro environment changes and developments.

Third stage of constructing weighted SWOT analysis of Cisco Systems and Its Community Fellowship Program (A) is to provide strategic recommendations includes – joining likelihood of external strategic factors such as opportunities and threats to the internal strategic factors – strengths and weaknesses. You should start with external factors as they will provide the direction of the overall industry. Secondly by joining probabilities with internal strategic factors can help the company not only strategic fit but also the most probably strategic trade-off that Cisco Fellowship needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.



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