Padmasree Warrior

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Cisco, Padmasree Warrior

A 47 year old Indian-American lady has just won one of the world’s most highly prized jobs. Now being called the geek queen, Padmasree Warrior, has been appointed as  Cisco’s Chief Technology Officer.

She fills a post left vacant since July when Cisco promoted former CTO, Charles Giancarlo to the post of chief development officer. Cisco Systems was ranked No. 11 in the 100 Best Companies To Work For in 2007 by Fortune.

Warrior was the highest-ranking female executive in Motorola’s near 80-year history, achieving the rank of corporate vice president and CTO. Cisco chairman John Chambers , to whom she reports, has already dubbed her the world’s technology visionary.

She was once ranked as the 11th most influential global Indian and called a “rising star” by Fortune magazine.

To her credit, while at Motorola, Warrior was acknowledged for the introduction of a blog, ‘Innovate’, on which the company’s 25,000 engineers were encouraged to share ideas and information. “The future belongs to the genius of the collaborative innovator. In the past we had this notion of engineers working by themselves in isolation and trying to come up with things. And that whole paradigm is changing,” Warrior said

Warrior holds a MS degree in chemical engineering from Cornell University and a BS degree in chemical engineering from IIT Delhi. In 2007 she was awarded Doctor of Engineering, Honoris Causa from New York’s Polytechnic University.

Another case of a lady making it to the top of her profession. Another case of an Indian-American executive making a name for herself in the corporate world.

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Technology decides your work place

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Cisco, technology

“Now, Technology decides your work place” says an article in the Economic Times.

It explains how technology has facilitated greater convenience to executives at lower costs. We peek into the working lives of two executives in Cisco and IBM and see how they manage their international assignments working out of Bangalore, India.

Last year , Cisco launched a new technology called TelePresence that makes videoconferencing look like a technology of the Neanderthal ages. Using life like images, high definition video and special voice recording devices TelePresence makes it possible for people sitting in different rooms around the world to connect with each other as if they are sitting across a table.

There are 157 TelePresence rooms across Cisco offices today. Unlike video conferencing, which needs an IT executive to set up the call, TelePresence, claims Cisco, can be launched at the touch of a single button.

But don’t expect your HR head to go running out the door to buy this technology. For one, it is still expensive. It costs about $300,000 (Rs 1.17 cr) to set up a single TelePresence room.

The executives remark that technology can be a good master but you should not end up as a slave to it. Being accessible 24/7 does not mean working 24/7.

Cisco Unveils Globalisation Center East

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Bangalore, Cisco

Cisco unveiled its state-of-the-art Globalisation Centre East campus in Bangalore on October 31. The opening ceremony was presided over by former Indian President Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam and John Chambers, Cisco chairman and CEO.

The Company announced that it is extending venture investment initiative in India by another $100 million to drive growth with high-potential Indian companies This is consistent with Cisco’s long track record of driving growth in the information technology market through investment in the innovation economy. In 2005, Cisco designated an initial $100 million in venture funding for this purpose as part of its overall $1.1bn investment plan for India.

Said Wim Elfrink, chief globalisation officer for Cisco. “India is at the heart of our globalisation vision and provides a platform for Cisco to capitalise on the growth potential and lead market transitions in the emerging world. The commitment we are making to truly globalise our business is reflective of the changing business models of our customers and partners. We will develop products and services here that will fully support the goal of services-led solutions-oriented models for customers in this part of the world”.

At the event, Cisco TelePresence was used to project full life-size images of Cisco executives in California onto the stage in Bangalore, as if they were there in person. The demonstration of an on-stage Cisco TelePresence experience integrated a next-generation display technology with Cisco TelePresence technology.

The Bangalore opening ceremony was also the first time Cisco TelePresence and the Cisco Digital Media System were used to publicly broadcast live content to desktop users via the Cisco Video Portal and participants on campus viewing Cisco Digital Signage. As part of the event, Cisco also demonstrated Cisco TelePresence interoperability with existing video conferencing equipment.