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Cisco

Cisco is a leading producer of network equipment and related products including security, applications and cloud services. It serves internet service providers, small and medium-sized businesses, and enterprise customers. Founded in California in 1984, Cisco operates worldwide with sales offices in 97 countries.

Summary

Cisco is a leader in digital inclusion. It is the highest ranking company from the United States and the second–highest ranked hardware company in the benchmark. It performs well in the innovation measurement area, where its support ranges from open source to the start-up ecosystem. Cisco is also a leader in the area of use, with detailed disclosure around cybersecurity practices and, notably for a hardware company, several activities relating to child online protection. It stands out in the skills measurement area for the Cisco Networking Academy programme, which has taught tech skills to almost 11 million students since its inception in 1997. In the area of access, the company has a programme inspiring girls to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), and it is a leader in initiatives for people with disabilities. Cisco has strong disclosure, which includes publishing an annual corporate social responsibility report that aligns with global reporting standards. Notably, the company considers digital rights and inclusion a priority area in its materiality assessment. Just a few areas remain where Cisco needs to be more transparent. These include the number of employees with disabilities, its economic value distribution and the principles it follows in ethical artificial intelligence (AI) research.

Ranking position: #6 /100
Total score: 1.47 /2

Measurement area	Score (0-2)	Rank (0-100)
Access	0.84 /2	#31
Skills	1.56 /2	#5
Use	1.59 /2	#3
Innovation	1.88 /2	#3

Access: Cisco supports digital inclusivity for women and girls, and people with disabilities. Examples include programmes that inspire girls to study in STEM fields and products that integrate features for users with disabilities.
Skills: The company leads industry practice in skills development through its Cisco Networking Academy. This programme teaches networking and related skills, and stands out for its reach, attracting more than 2 million participants in 2019. Classes are delivered in 180 countries, including China, Brazil, Colombia, South Africa, Kenya, Mexico, Malaysia and India.
Use: Cisco is committed to cybersecurity and clearly describes its approach and practices in this area. It is highly transparent, publicly disclosing information security management system certification, data breaches and government requests for personal information. Though primarily a network hardware company, it also has a number of initiatives for child online protection.
Innovation: The company is a leader in practising open, sustainable and ethical innovation. It participates in international standards bodies and strongly supports open source projects. Cisco also makes significant contributions to non-profit organisations and university research, and supports the tech innovation ecosystem through its venture capital fund. It partners in the incubation of African start-ups and assists social entrepreneurship in the region.

Access: The company could improve its performance by commissioning a third–party impact assessment of its programmes that increase access to digital technologies. Although Cisco promotes digital inclusivity for people with disabilities, it could report on the number of people with disabilities its employs and its actions to create an inclusive workplace for them. The company should disclose details about how the economic value it creates is distributed among its various stakeholders.
Skills: Being a leader in technical skills development, the company could use partnerships and advocacy to share what it has learnt from the Cisco Networking Academy to accelerate the attainment of such skills among members of vulnerable groups. The company might also consider supporting initiatives in other skills areas.
Use: Cisco discloses in its privacy policy that it shares user information with third parties, but it could better highlight which information it shares and the recipients. The company could also give users the ability to obtain a copy of the information it holds about them in all its markets. Cisco could back its initiatives in child online protection with a highlevel group-wide statement of commitment.
Innovation: Cisco is a leader in open and inclusive innovation and there is an opportunity for the company to make public the ethical principles it follows for AI research.

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2021
2023

More about the company

Headquarters: San Jose, CA, USA
Ownership structure: Publicly listed
Fiscal year: Ends last Saturday in July
Group revenue: US$51,904 million (FY2019)
Group employees: 75,900 (FY2019)
Website: https://www.cisco.com

Cisco

Leading practices

Access

Skills

Use

Innovation

Risks and opportunities