Cisco: Thank God for our 2011 crisis

Vendor claims learning how to ditch its 'fat around the middle' taught it major long-term business lessons

Cisco has looked back on its 2011 "crisis" fondly, claiming that without the bumpy year, the firm would have been in "very difficult shape" today.

In a presentation to investors, the networking giant's president and chief operating officer Gary Moore said that losing its "fat around the middle" three years ago was essential to Cisco's long-term growth strategy.

Back in 2011, Cisco announced it was cutting one in 10 jobs across its global operations as part of plans to take $1bn (£615m) of costs out of the business.

Around the same time, in a candid email to staff, the vendor's chief executive John Chambers admitted his company had lost credibility and had been too slow to make key decisions.

But the troublesome period fired the starting gun on Cisco's transformation, Moore said.

"We had become more, I would just call it, fat around the middle in a lot of areas than what we could afford to be, given the new growth trajectory, and we really were investing in too many things," he said, during the presentation transcribed by Seeking Alpha.

"So it was really a time to restructure the company. I'm the kind of person who always looks for the bright side of every situation [so] while it was very painful three and a half years ago for Cisco to go through what we had to go through, it really did set the foundation for what we're doing now.

"I actually thank God that we had that crisis because today in the way the market is moving so fast, if we were operating in our old environment, we would be in a very difficult shape."

As it revealed its latest financial results for Q3 last month, Chambers said he was confident in his long-term goal to make Cisco the "number one IT company".

Although both profits and sales fell annually in the quarter, they dipped less than expected, prompting a seven per cent spike in its share price.