No-one can say life is comfortable at Cisco when every two years the company engages on a round of job cutting that tends to keep employees on their toes.
While this year’s job cuts are relatively mild – only 4,000 as opposed to nearly 13,000 in 2011 – it’s notable the focus on culling middle management positions.
“We just have too much in the middle of the organization,” the Wall Street Journal reports Cisco CEO John Chambers as saying.
One of the challenges for businesses is become more flexible when markets are rapidly changing. Having ranks of middle managers makes it harder for organisations to respond.
John Chambers and Cisco are reducing their middle management head count to respond to that need. Many other companies are going to have to do the same.