Slightly greater than a 12 months in the past, Cisco introduced our subsequent large ambition: 40 Communities. The ten-year initiative is audacious by design: to work in communities the place we might be genuinely embedded, hearken to native leaders to grasp what’s working and the place wants are best, and focus our efforts the place Cisco can add significant worth. We interact, help, and make investments deeply in these locations, utilizing Cisco’s know-how, assets, and partnerships to deal with advanced challenges and co-create and ship options that construct towards a future the place everybody can thrive.
In our first 12 months, we designated Western North Carolina as our inaugural website within the devastating wake of Hurricane Helene, as communities grappled with isolation and the significance of connectivity and trusted native networks got here sharply into focus. Mumbai adopted as our second website — and first worldwide market — constructing on Cisco’s 30-year historical past of partnership and purpose-driven innovation in India. Whereas these communities differ in important methods, our work has surfaced highly effective shared insights about constructing partnerships formed by native information, rooted in proximity, and designed for lasting affect.
Listening first: Letting communities lead
In September 2024, Hurricane Helene devastated Western North Carolina, isolating small mountain communities and disrupting very important strains of connection. Cisco’s Disaster Response group mobilized to revive emergency connectivity to frontline responders, and by December, Western North Carolina turned our first 40 Communities website. These early weeks illustrated one thing vital about what efficient partnership seems like in follow: the local people already understood the wants and the way greatest to fulfill them — our best contribution was to pay attention.
Erin Connor, Director of Cisco Disaster Response, describes this “pay attention first” strategy as foundational to the work. “We now have to begin by actually listening — by making an attempt to grasp what’s already occurring, who the native actors are, and what work is already being completed,” she displays. “Approaching this with some humility and actually listening to grasp the priorities is crucial.”
“We’re not the specialists right here; the communities know their wants greatest. Once we pay attention first, we will present up as actual companions and catalyze work that’s already in movement”
— Erin Connor, Director of Cisco Disaster Response
That very same posture guided our work in Mumbai. Moderately than arriving with predefined options, we convened a workshop that introduced collectively native thought leaders, tutorial establishments, nonprofit companions, and company friends to make clear neighborhood priorities and the place Cisco’s capabilities might add probably the most worth. Their insights formed all the pieces, from which focus areas to prioritize — like closing digital expertise gaps, supporting innovation and early-stage entrepreneurs, and constructing cyber resilience — to how we’d co-create options with our companions.
Throughout each communities, listening has grounded our work in native information and lived expertise, permitting us to form initiatives in real partnership with the folks they’re meant to serve.
Proximity issues: Constructing belief over time
From the outset, we knew that constructing belief can be central to the partnerships underpinning 40 Communities. However how does an organization like Cisco work with a neighborhood to construct and nurture that belief? The reply that has emerged throughout Yr One is proximity — embedding ourselves within the communities the place we work and being extraordinarily intentional about how we present up and keep engaged.
Christian Bigsby, Senior Vice President of Office Sources at Cisco and North Carolina resident, has seen firsthand how proximity builds belief in Western North Carolina. “Being proximate means exhibiting up in 3 ways. First, there’s preliminary triage, working instantly with folks on the bottom. Second, we commit assets to point out we’re right here for the long run. Third, we maintain that power and participation. You want all three to construct belief and be an efficient associate.”
Proximity has equally been central in Mumbai, the place Cisco has operated for 3 a long time — not simply as a enterprise, however as a associate in social affect. Via 40 Communities, we’re strengthening longstanding partnerships whereas cultivating new ones to stay aware of evolving wants. In India, 30 years of proximity have laid a robust basis of belief — our job now’s to stay intentional about how we present up, pay attention, be taught, and adapt because the work unfolds.
“On the finish of the day, we’re not looking for to be vacationers in these locations. These are locations the place we work, the place we stay. We’re dedicated to those communities as a result of we’re part of them.”
— Christian Bigsby, Senior Vice President of Office Sources
Staying targeted: Serving as a catalyst for lasting change
Listening and proximity strengthened one other lesson from Yr One: focus issues. Once we focus on areas the place Cisco’s know-how and experience add probably the most worth — connectivity, workforce growth, help for startups and small companies, and digital resilience — we will function a catalyst for community-led, sustainable change.
Harish Krishnan, Managing Director & Chief Coverage Officer of Cisco India & ASEAN, describes how in Mumbai, India’s personal digital ambitions converge naturally with this sort of targeted partnership. “India’s digital journey is reaching new heights, and thru 40 Communities Mumbaiwe see immense potential to align with the federal government’s imaginative and prescient for a Digital India and function a real drive multiplier,” he says. “By staying sharply targeted on priorities like digital expertise, small enterprise help, and cybersecurity, we will leverage Cisco’s core strengths to speed up India’s digital transformation.”
“This focus allows us to ship significant, scalable outcomes that foster entrepreneurship, strengthen cyber resilience, and equip folks with the abilities and instruments they should thrive in a quickly evolving digital economic system.”
—Harish Krishnan, Managing Director & Chief Coverage Officer of Cisco India & ASEAN
Brian Tippens, Senior Vice President and Chief Social Affect & Inclusion Officer, describes how this precept has held true throughout each communities. “In each Western North Carolina and Mumbai, our companions know the place the wants are, and so they assist us channel our assets for max affect,” he says. “Listening and co-creating with our companions helps us really feel assured that we’re growing these options with the wants of the communities in thoughts and driving systemic, sustainable change.”
“Regardless of the place we’re working, the foundational rules are the identical. Listening and proximity assist us perceive how Cisco can add worth and be a drive multiplier for real affect.”
— Brian Tippens, Senior Vice President and Chief Social Affect & Inclusion Officer
Our dedication to have interaction, help, and spend money on 40 Communities stays audacious. One 12 months in, we’ve constructed a robust basis that can permit us to deepen our work in our first two communities whereas thoughtfully increasing to new ones. Driving significant change in a quickly altering world would require iteration and adaptation, however these rules — listening first, getting proximate, and staying targeted — will function our north star within the years and communities to return.
