Customer Reviews

Inside Cisco: The Real Story of Sustained M&A Growth

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

There's no reason to beat around the bush: This is not an objective history of Cisco. It is an unabashedly adulatory look at one of the most influential companies of the New Economy. If you're looking for a critical assessment of Cisco's business model and execution, look elsewhere. That does not mean that you should ignore Inside Cisco, however. On the contrary, we from getAbstract strongly recommend this book for its detailed dissection of Cisco's acquisition methodology, from its target identification and selection to integration and employee retention. Anyone in business would do well to read this book, study these processes and make them their own.

Paulsen does a commendable job in clearly explaining the Cisco methodology which John Chambers apparently adapted from the M&A strategists Clemente and Greenspan. This orientation,coined as market-focused and detailed in "Winning at Mergers & Acquisitions" seems to have been employed rather broadly throughout Cisco. Similar to Clemente/Greenspan's core methodology which analyzes the people, products and processes from strategy through integration, Paulsen explores the integration at Cisco of personnel, products, and production. It's hard to ignore the incredible similarity or get beyond the fact that so much of the guidance has already been introduced to the genre by Clemente and Greenspan in articles, white papers, and books over the last decade. Still for those who have read Winning at Mergers, there remain many interesting anecdotes and discussions in Inside Cisco. What I find most interesting is Cisco's incorporation of M&A into every facet of its being, and its quest for culturally compatible targets. Paulsen stresses that this is a mjor reason for acquisition success and I agree. John Chambers has developed an efficient and successful machine that -through no fault of his own - became unraveled as his industry did. I wonder how a share price in the teens will impact the strategy in the future. Nevertheless, the book is well written and therefore keeps the reader interested.

I don't 'get' why so many people think so highly of this book. I was one of the M&A folks at Cisco, doing mostly A. It wasn't so structured, nor so successful, nor so wonderful. We just did the best we can -- each deal is different.

Nice to have the name, the money, market share, etc. Made it much easier to get an acceptable deal. If I were on the other side of the table, life would have been less nice.

The author's uncritical look at the Cisco way makes me suspect that (a) he just didn't know or (b) he was paid off.

I had big hopes based on the interviews a read about this book, but at the end of the day, it was really disappointing.

No real insights. Basically, a collection of standard methodologies and know how that most people (even with very little exposure to M&As) already know.

There are some interesting stuff, but don't expect much.

And the constant "cheerleading", with not a single critical view, does not help to add value.

What a piece of garbage. I was looking forward to reading a well-balanced piece describing Cisco's A&D process. What I got instead was unabashed cheerleading. Honestly, they must stock this one in the Cisco corporate lobby.

The author has a serious man-crush on Cisco. Consider some of the following quotes--

"Cisco has the goal of tying the entire world together using Internet technology. Now, how is that for a grand, world-class goal?"

"...look for ways to apply this information to your own situation so that we can someday write a book about your company."

"In essence, the Cisco operational model leveraged Crescendo's products to generate 50 times the revenue stream. Sounds like leverage to me!"

"As usual, Cisco got there first!"

Looks like I will need to keep looking in order to find a real book of substance about Cisco, rather than a cretinous piece of fanboy tripe. I only paid a $1.98 for this through a secondhand bookseller. I now realize that this was fair market value.

I live and breathe Cisco, and I must say that this book is accurate perhaps if you think of the Cisco some 8 to 10 years ago, when it was still a very young start-up, thriving and shaking things up like no other company. It is an ok read. I did not enjoy it as much as I wished. Perhaps reality is a harsh pill to swallow.

I found this text to be a good overview of Cisco practices and rationale behind the decisions that have brought the company to this point. Inside Cisco is quite readable, in fact perhaps erring too much on the side of easy readability - it could stand to be condensed a bit into a "Cliff's Notes" version. For all that, however, it's convenient to have a reference as to the Cisco processes; most companies considering any sort of M&A activitity could stand to take pointers!

Please allow me to disclose my bias... I am a former Cisco M&A, or as Ed Paulson would say a
Cisco A&D (Acquisitions and Development).
And a disclaimer: These comments are my own, and represent my own opinions, not Cisco Systems's.

To position Ed's book, let's first look at the current body of M&A research.

"We know surprisingly little about mergers and acquisitions, despite the
buckets of ink spilled on the topic. In fact our collective knowledge can be
summed up in a few short sentences", noted Joseph Bower in his article "Not
all M&A are alike - and that's what matters" (Harvard Business Review, March
2001). A year later, Roy Harris wrote in his article "A lesson before
buying: University executive-education programs tackle one of the business
world's toughest jobs: Teaching M&A",

"You feel the question taking shape in the opening lecture of Robert
Holthausen's "Mergers and Acquisitions" class. As the Wharton professor
recounts the problems with deal-making today, ticking off two dozen reasons
why mergers fail--from valuation errors to culture clashes--the discouraging
statistics fly by on the screen behind him. McKinsey says 74 percent of
deals fail to create shareholder value, KPMG says it's 83 percent. At last,
the inevitable hand shoots up in front: 'Is this going to be a class about
why we shouldn't acquire anybody?'" (May, 2002, CFO The Magazine for Senior
Financial Executives)

Paulson's "Inside Cisco: The Real Story of Sustained M&A Growth" provides a
well researched analysis on how to do successful M&As. I hope the book will
be used as a textbook at many American and international executive M&A
programs.

"To date, your book Inside Cisco: The real story behind sustained M&A growth is my favorite regarding the topic of mergers and acquisitions. I used to work at a Merchant Bank in Irvine doing financial analysis in connection with mergers and acquisitions for a summer and a lot of the work we did involved growth through acquisitions. Your book clearly explains a lot of the rationale behind M&A strategies."

Douglas Lee

This is an easy to read book that covers a lot of what made Cisco succeed in the 1990s. I liked the conversational writing style but also got a lot out of the content. A solid book that anyone looking to grow their business through acquisition should read.