In October 2001 we wrapped up “Business Without Borders: A Strategic Guide to Global Marketing” and sent it to the publisher. We set a pretty high bar for the chief globalization officer (CGO) in a chapter describing leadership characteristics for the next wave of business globalization. A year ago Cisco appointed Wim Elfrink, a long-time Cisco executive with international experience, as its CGO. Echoing our advice to companies appointing a globalization leader, Elfrink noted that “as Chief Globalization Officer, I will be responsible for executing the growth strategy for Cisco globally, including collaborating with Cisco’s worldwide functional leaders to innovatively globalize and scale all functions by leveraging our work in India as a platform. I also have been asked to develop disruptive business models for Cisco to create new go-to-market channels, markets, processes and technologies.”

Last month we caught up with Chris White, a vice president who works with the eternally peripatetic Elfrink in what has become Cisco’s second corporate headquarters in Bangalore, India. We talked about what the Globalization Center has accomplished in the last year, growth, and what India means to Cisco’s strategy.

• How has the Globalization Center changed Cisco? Operating in 120 countries, Cisco set up a South Asian HQ to complement its California headquarters and better support its 24×7 business model. “We want everybody in the company to understand that globalization drives corporate growth, helps us innovate in our products and business model, and gives us a chance to capture our fair share of the global talent pool. In business terms, we’ve seen emerging countries grow at rates 2 to 4 times that of the U.S. and EMEA. Bangalore supports that new market growth. Our Globalization Center’s telepresence drives collaboration and faster decision making for the company as a whole.”
• How committed is Cisco to its Indian operations? “When we landed in Bangalore on January 2nd, 2007 we had 2,000 regular employees. We now have 3,500 and plans to grow that to 5 or 10,000. We also have additional resources through partners like Wipro and Satyam, accounting for another 2,000 people working with us as consultants.” So that it wouldn’t be seen as creating yet another Indian body shop, White said that Cisco needed to show corporate commitment to the Globalization Center. The company located the CGO there along with a team of up-and-coming, long-time executives — “Cisco parachuted in a regiment of 10 execs to set it up and then let it flourish.” They hail from the U.S., U.K. the Netherlands, China, and Singapore.
• Why did Cisco choose India? “We already had various operations around India, including manufacturing in Chennai and a sizable R&D group in Bangalore. We decided to create critical mass in Bangalore. We didn’t want to just replicate our operations in San Jose, but we did want to develop a center closer to the center of the bulk of the emerging markets so we can get faster access to these opportunities.” India is the jumping off point for Cisco into emerging markets where economic development and the accompanying building boom define new opportunities for its gear — the Middle East (construction), China (manufacturing), and India itself (retail and banking).
• What has Cisco learned from its experience? “We somewhat naively thought that indigenous management talent would naturally develop. It didn’t. We’ve been investing in serious managerial development. We’ve put in place a career development program to develop our current human resources, attract more people, and distinguish Cisco from other tech firms in India.”
• Has employee retention been a problem? “Employee turnover attrition rates have not been as high as what the outsourcers have seen. A big cause of attrition at those firms is mind-numbing project work that under-utilizes talent. That treadmill results in self-fulfilling retention problem. Our development work is much more challenging. We’re creating and environment aimed at retaining staff. Our campus is pretty impressive, very ‘green,’ and we’re creating a great life/work balance where people want to be at work.”
• Fast-forward a year. “In 2008 we will get involved in some mega projects across Asia and Middle East, building up a real estate and infrastructure practice as communications, surveillance, and HVAC systems converge into a unified communications network. We want to keep our ear close to the ground to see what big retailers and banks are doing in emerging markets — and take that innovation back to leading western banks and retailers to help them leapfrog their competitors. And we want to continuously evolve our talent machine with a couple of new business units and grow it to 5,000 employees.”

Importantly, Cisco is working hard to fit into the growing Indian technology sector, even as it tries to reshape it. The company is being complimented and quoted by Indian industry pundits because they’re proud of what Cisco is doing in and for India. On a more social note, White told us that there’s more single malt scotch poured at Bangalore cocktail parties than beer or wine — that sounds like reason enough for a road trip.