Henry R. Luce, Creator of Time-Life Magazine Empire once quoted, “Business, more than any other occupation, is a continual dealing with the future; it is a continual calculation, an instinctive exercise in foresight”. (Henry R. Luce Quotes 2010). Fluidity is pertinent for any corporation’s business survival in order to keep competition in check and continue to remain profitable especially in the current global market where competition and increasing consumer demands are a challenge. The main objective of this proposal is to provide an appropriate analysis pertaining the operational challenges faced by Cisco Systems, an Internet networking icon in their business environment towards achieving their strategic goals. The analysis would include suitable recommendations to manage these challenges based upon concepts and theories from the planning and organizing component with attention to management by objectives and information systems. Cisco is a renowned company possessing one of the biggest market capitalizations in the world ,they were quoted as 'one of the most astounding success stories of modern times ' in a book titled INSIDE CISCO – THE REAL STORY OF SUSTAINED M&A GROWTH by Ed Paulson.(Paulson 2001) Their list of products and services are seemingly endless and ranges from networking systems (i.e. routers and switches), collaboration, voice and video (i.e. telepresence), data center (i.e. unified computing), small businesses (i.e. wireless), home (i.e. home networking) and services such as technical services and advanced services. (Cisco Systems, Inc 2010)
However despite this success story, Cisco has also its fair share of setbacks and challenges. As an illustration, Cisco went through a series of stumbling blocks due to the dotcom bubble burst which took place in 2001, a global phenomenon which changed the
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