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Stephan Monterde

Director, Corporate Strategic Innovation

Chief Strategy Office

Stephan Monterde is the Head of Strategic Foresight and New Businesses for the Cisco Chief Strategy Office. He is responsible for detecting discontinuous change early, developing plausible futures, interpreting the consequences for the company, as well as defining “future avenues for innovation”.

Together with his team, he explores new territories, hunting for new ideas at the crossroads of technological breakthroughs and business model innovation. Taking into account macro-economic factors and unique insights from programs like the Technology Radar, he focuses on finding and assessing disruptive and bold ideas that have the potential to shape the future of Cisco’s business, outside of the usual areas of focus of our business units innovation programs.

In his previous role as Director of the Technology Intelligence and Strategy group, Stephan developed and established best in class Technology intelligence programs, practices and tools. In particular, he is the inventor of the Cisco Technology Radar, which was awarded for excellence in innovation management.

In 2007, Stephan joined Cisco to bootstrap Cisco’s Innovation TechCenter for Europe. Its charter was to identify and capture value from technology disruptions to drive new market creation through the definition of innovative products and services. Stephan built the local teams and contributed to the development of Cisco’s local foot print and image of a key strategic partner.

Prior to joining Cisco, Stephan was Head of Messaging Services at Orange Group, FT Global Operations. In that role he defined global products roadmaps, developed end-to-end services and ran strategic fixed-mobile telephony convergence initiatives. He outlined to France Telecom’s executive committee the fundamental challenges of telecom convergence and resulting regulatory implications, leading to the refinement of the global strategy.

Stephan Monterde holds a Bachelor of Electronics and an MSc in Communication Systems from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) in Lausanne, Switzerland. He also holds an MBA from IMD with honors in leadership.

Articles

June 22, 2016

INNOVATION

Developing a Digital Strategy Isn’t Robotic Surgery, But Critical for Your Organization’s Future Survival

3 min read

When I think about the future of business, the behavior of consumers gives me serious pause. Their demands are changing how we do business—even how we innovate. I know we’ve heard this before. But something’s quite different. The digital era is like nothing we’ve ever experienced before. It’s going to play a role in everything. […]

June 8, 2016

INNOVATION

It’s Time to ‘Do or Die’ in the Growing Global Bazaar

3 min read

A whopping 59 percent of manufacturers expect their company’s strategy to change as a result of real-time information in the next three years. That’s in just three years. But what about the years after that? Our team developed The Business World in 2025 report with the Global Center for Digital Business Transformation, an IMD and […]

May 11, 2016

1

INNOVATION

In Less Than Ten Years, Your Organization Could Be Out of Business!

2 min read

Four of today’s top ten incumbents—in different industries—will be displaced by digital disruption in the next five years. Four! This stat has kept me up at night. Which organizations will thrive? Which will cease to exist? How can organizations successfully navigate the digital age? I believe it begins with the right strategy to stay ahead […]

January 14, 2016

3

INNOVATION

2016 and Beyond: Technologies and Trends that Will Change the Future of IT

5 min read

2015 was a wild year in technology advancements and decay, and there is no reason to think that 2016 won’t follow suit…

September 17, 2015

2

INNOVATION

Where is Technology Innovation Heading?

2 min read

Today, in universities around the world, leading professors are looking for top notch PhD students and researchers to push the boundaries and explore areas that will enable tomorrow’s technology innovation. To have a preview of what the future could look like, we at Cisco asked 60 leading academic professors in Electrical Engineering (EE) and Computer […]

September 4, 2015

4

INNOVATION

Disruptive or Driven. Which Innovation Type is Right for Your Organization?

2 min read

Today’s conversations around innovation – particularly within the IT industry – tend to paint it as something disruptive, technology-based and radically changing markets. This is a partial picture of it. It’s not always necessary to be radical, and it is not just about introducing new products or services into a market. There are several types […]

August 24, 2015

7

INNOVATION

The Innovation Imperative: Why Does Innovation Matter?

2 min read

Innovation has become an imperative for society at large. Whether it be entrepreneurs starting new ventures, large established corporations trying to defend their market position, or countries facing increased global competition, everyone is attempting to innovate. What does this mean? It means they turn new ideas into widely used practice. The reasons are clear: the […]