Case Study: Cisco achieves radical clarity and accelerated growth with WorkBoard

Cisco - Customer Case Study

Cisco Security Business Group faced a classic enterprise challenge: drive aggressive product growth while unifying a fragmented, functionally siloed organization. Their previous "Strategy on a Page" was complex and encouraged separate functional plans rather than shared goals, and recent acquisitions added scale and variability that made alignment and consistent execution difficult.

They adopted an OKR framework and the WorkBoard platform, supported by coaching, weekly ops reviews, and routine team-level meetings and recognition tied to objectives. Within two quarters they saw “massive shifts” — closed alignment gaps across the matrixed org, stronger accountability, faster execution, and an enthusiastic leadership team able to scale OKRs across thousands of employees.

Cisco

Anna Birch

Chief of Staff to Cisco Security Business GM & SVP