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August 15, 2007
Why C-Scape?
Last year was the debut of our C-Scape Global Forum. Many of you will fondly (I hope!) remember the previous iteration of that event, the Worldwide Analyst Conference, or as it was known internally – WWAC. So, why did we ‘whack’ WWAC? (you’ll now have that nursery rhyme “This Old Man” playing in your head for the rest of the day. Sorry...)
We made the change because we believed WWAC wasn’t providing either of us with the best value possible. Essentially, WWAC had turned into a reporting vehicle. We had the parade of senior executives from the various business units and product areas with their 40-slide updates, and we ended up pitching at you instead of engaging you.
Hence, C-Scape. We realized we weren’t culling the best strategic value from our relationships with the industry influencers, so we redesigned our event to focus on discussion, debate and dialogue. We wanted to bring the prevailing issues of the day to this forum and engage you in two-way conversations. We wanted to create an environment where there was more networking time; more opportunities for one-on-one meetings; and more meaningful discussions.
Our philosophy around how we engage and interact with the industry analysts and other influencers has undergone a transformation over the last couple of years, and there is no one better than our chairman and CEO, John Chambers, to explain why that change has happened. This clip was taken from a recent internal meeting with employees, where John answered the question on how his views on the use of industry analysts has changed over time.
Duration: 1 min. 40 sec.
Have we been successful in that? You’ll be the ultimate judge obviously. We believe we took some positive steps with last year’s event, but we want to ensure we make any needed changes as we go into this year’s forum. If you have any ideas, suggestions or comments, please let me know. I’d love to hear from you.
Posted by Skip MacAskill on August 15, 2007 10:49 AM
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Comments
Skip, we face the same issues for our big analyst event. You can contact me to hear what we face and how we get things done..
Posted by john simonds on August 15, 2007 06:15 PM
Skip, from an old Gartner colleague...good to hear John's views...sound like he realizes the influence game has changed in the last few years. As a fellow blogger clearly I believe blogs have some influence now. But CIOs are relying more and more on each other (I run a firm which works with CIOs)...somebody sent me this quote a few months ago
"In the 1970's when CIO's wanted to know what to buy, they asked IBM.
In the 1980's when CIO's wanted to know what to buy, they asked Andersen Consulting.
In the 1990's when CIO's wanted to know what to buy, they asked Gartner.
In the 2000's when CIO's want to know what to buy, they ask each other."
Good luck with your blog...
Posted by vinnie mirchandani on August 18, 2007 01:32 PM
Compare to all of the other CEO's of companies in this space---John has made himself available to the Analyst community, and is not afraid to take on the tough questions and challenges us on his view. I wish other companies were as consistence with this. It's very valuable in understanding the top line strategy. Keep it up.
Posted by Ray Mota on August 23, 2007 01:43 PM
