Cisco: Corporate Research

Charlie Rocco
Coms 330
Abigail Kingsford
7 November, 2016
The University of Kansas

For my corporate research project I chose a company I was decently familiar with,
it is a company my father has been working with for the majority of his life. Cisco,
previously known as Cisco Systems, is a technological company that specializes in
networking. I was able to setup an interview with one of my fathers co-workers and
friend, Akari Muhisani.
The exact job position title Akari holds is Collaboration Sales Specialist. The
positions main focus is to demonstrate the effectiveness of cisco collaboration products
to customers. Collaboration products include things like face-to-face web chats,
integrated phone systems and other products alike that provide business connections over
multiple mediums. Akrai has many responsibilities including, locating potential new
customers, providing new opportunities for Cisco partners, engaging internal and external
resources along with documenting his progress on Cisco Spark and saleforce.com.
This particular position requires some level of previous experience. Including 2-5
years of business sales experience, advanced customer relationship skills with proven
sales record, comprehensive sales skills ranging from cold calling to SWOT analyses.
The applicant needs experience working with field sales, partner, technological and
operational.
Cisco is a very rounded company; Akari started in engineering and was able to
move horizontally into sales once he saw a better opportunity vertically in sales.
Progression is difficult alike any big organization, in that competition for the next
position is always fierce. Staying on this path succeeding in sales by having consistent
good numbers and great communication gives the potential for upward mobility into a
manager position and higher to better markets and more important customers and

partners. Although very rounded Cisco is strict as any big organization should be.
Progress through the ranks comes with hard work turned in on time.
The anticipated salary for a student coming out of college is about $45,000,
standard for a typical sales job where applicants are well educated and determined. Once
experience is thrown into the mix the anticipated salary for a higher-level sales job is
around $80,000.
I have known Akari for a good deal of time now, he worked directly with my
father for several years while he was still working in an engineering position. Once he
switched over to sales the two no longer worked together but were already friends and
continued contact with one another. Although I have known him for a good portion of
my life I didnt know much about Akari, and that is why I though he was a perfect
candidate for this assignment. The interview was conducted on 10/13/16 at 1:00 pm. We
talked over WebEx, which is a Cisco product that mimics Skype, but with more features
and benefits. We started out by discussing his daily life and his personal duties. Akari
told me that as a Chicago resident he is very fortunate that he is able to work from home
and enjoy his beautiful city. The majority of his clients are located in Texas this gives
him the options to conduct business in his own way. He does most of his work from
home and at the Chicago Cisco locations but visits his clients across the nation on a
monthly basis, along with road shows he frequents regularly. Because Cisco is a leading
giant in the telecommuting industry Akari has access to some of the most advanced
communicating systems. One of these systems is a type of room in multiple locations all
around the world. It is a half circle room with a big screen at the front, the room connects
to others just like it and basically simulates a full room experience. While the room is

only 180 degrees, the full experience is 360 with the other half being in an identical room
in another location. Akari can use these rooms to bring together big projects where
multiple people are needed to collaborate that are in different places. Along with these
advanced rooms Akari has the WebEx program already described to talk in smaller
groups or one-on-one.
Cisco was founded in December of 1984 in San Francisco. Employing 74,000
people annually, while about 17,000 work in the headquarters in the Bay area. The
company focuses on networking products and systems for other large organizations.
Basically Cisco deals with everything Internet once data hits a router. They provide
complex networks publically and privately. This means when a company like Allstate
needs software for backlogging and storing customers information safely, Cisco comes
in determines the needs and builds that network according to the specifications required.
It also means that when the Chicago police department needs a cheaper way to get
inmates in front of judges for trials, Cisco can help. Just for the example, Cisco installed
a network of high definition cameras in prison cells so that the inmate would never need
to be moved to have their trial. With that specific project Akari and my father worked
together directly, as my father was the salesman and Akari was the leading engineer.
As I stated earlier Akari was not always in sales. He started as an engineer
working with my father who also came from an engineering back round. Up until a few
years ago Akari was still an engineer, he was working to complete his CCIE, the PhD
equivalent of networking. After realizing that the CCIE certification was not on his
horizon he decided to make the switch to sales. He has been very happy in his new
position and says that he plans to climb the corporate ladder of sales in Cisco.

Moving to the sales position required a refresher course on communication for

Akari. Although a fantastic communicator employees in the sales job need to be very
proficient in how they communicate. He learned fast and now uses varied type of
communication mediums depending who he is talking with. He told me that the majority
of customer communication is in e-mail and WebEx presentations. The majority of coworker communication is done though the new Cisco Spark program along with quick
video sessions, which Cisco is pushing for better communication. The company feels
that seeing the person really helps with the connection and trust needed in business.
Akari ended our interview with telling me where Cisco is going. The main focus as of
now for the company is cloud services and they are developing software to handle the
high demand for storage in the cloud. The organization also is very excited to launch
artificial intelligence that will range from parabolic mics that focus on the speaker to
better voice command programs like siri.
I learned a lot from this interview and saw a very viable option for me after my
college career to move into the job market. I was able to understand how communication
is done at this point in time with a company that is leading the information world. Akari,
also was exactly the gentleman I though he always was and it was great catching up with
and learning from him.

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