There are moments in a company’s journey that matter more than others. Moments that remind us who we are, why we exist, and who we ultimately serve.

The value of onsite engagement  

A few weeks ago, teams from across Cisco took part in One Day at Your Customer. Stepping out of the office and into our customers’ environments. Not to present. Not to sell. To understand how their businesses actually run, what they are accountable for, who their customers are, and where technology helps or gets in the way.

And I mean everyone. Cisco sales, engineering, services, finance, legal, operations, all showed up. Because how a customer experiences Cisco isn’t shaped by one function, it’s shaped by all of us.

There was no packed agenda. The only objective was to listen, observe, and ask thoughtful questions. Not to validate assumptions, but to leave with a clearer picture of how our customers define success, where they feel friction, and how Cisco can make a tangible difference in their business.

I had the opportunity to spend the day at a Safeway distribution center with Albertsons Companies. Seeing the scale and complexity of the operation, and what it takes to serve millions of customers each week, was a powerful reminder of everything happening behind the scenes. It’s easy to lose sight of that when you walk into a local Safeway and see fresh produce fully stocked.

It reinforced the responsibility our customers carry and the role we play in supporting them. When we listen, observe, and learn directly from them, we show up differently. We show up better.

The power of proximity  

I’ve seen this work before. When I was Cisco’s Country Leader for Germany, we sent teams into customer environments with the same intent, to understand how their organizations actually functioned. Teams came back with a better understanding of our customer´s priorities, stronger cross-functional alignment, and a sharper sense of where we could make a real difference.  That experience is why I wanted to broaden the initiative.

What we saw in Germany, we saw again here, at scale. And the energy was remarkable. The most valuable insights didn’t come from presentations or prepared talking points. They came from observation: how decisions get made, where operational constraints exist, where complexity slows progress. Teams came back with clearer strategies, stronger cross-functional alignment, and a sharper sense of where Cisco can simplify and support in more meaningful ways. The impact shows up not just in better conversations, but in better execution, across sales, engineering, services, and operations.

Insights from One Day at Your Customer 

One Day at Your Customer was an opportunity for everyone at Cisco. Account teams led the planning and execution, but the learning belongs to all of us.

More than 10,000 employees participated across almost 100 countries and 1,173 cities, with 3,074 customer sites visited across the Americas, APJC, and EMEA.

What stood out wasn’t just the scale, it was the environments we stepped into and the perspective it gave us. From aviation and public safety to healthcare, energy, hospitality, mining, municipalities, education, and large-scale logistics operations, teams spent time in the real world of our customers’ businesses. On airport floors, inside hospitals, at distribution centers, and even in some of the most complex industrial environments, we saw firsthand what it takes for our customers to operate, serve, and deliver every day.

That proximity changed the dynamic. Customers opened up. The conversations felt different, less like transactions and more like partnerships.

Early themes emerging from feedback:

• Relationships over transactions.
  Customers consistently shared that these visits didn’t feel like sales calls, they felt like real conversations. Low-pressure, high-trust, and personal.
• Discovery before prescription.
  Teams shifted from leading with solutions to leading with curiosity, taking the time to understand how customers operate, what they’re accountable for, and where technology truly fits.
• Two-way dialogue that drives action.
  Customers shared their realities, and our teams listened. That listening is already translating into follow-up workshops, demos, strategic reviews, and new engagements across AI, observability, and security.

Making customer centricity our standard 

This can’t be – and will not be – a one-time event. It needs to become embedded in how we operate, engage, and serve, across every team, every function, every level. The expectation is straightforward: spend time onsite, consistently. What matters most isn’t the structure or agenda of the visit. It’s the intent to learn, and to become more effective partners to the businesses that trust us with their critical infrastructure. That trust is what we’re here to honor.

I’m looking forward to how we build on this momentum, and to seeing even broader participation the next time we do this.

Our commitment to proximity means that we only succeed when our customers do.

Explore some of our latest customer stories to see how these partnerships solve the toughest challenges across industries.