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CRN: A lot's happened in the Cisco channel since 2005. I imagine it'll take some time to digest, but if you were to highlight successes, what sticks out among ways the WWPO has improved since you took it over?
Goodwin: So a couple of things come to mind, in fairly broad categories. I think about it from two perspectives: the Cisco perspective and the partner perspective. From the Cisco perspective, one thing I am certainly proud of is that we really have built a channel -- a Cisco channel for our partners to be a significant and sustainable competitive differentiator. I really do believe that. Partners are viewed more strategically in Cisco than they have ever been in the past. And every discussion we have out here, every strategy discussion, as we talk about how we're going to evolve as a company going forward, our partners are always part of that conversation, and rightfully so.
There are a lot of competitors out there trying to emulate or copy our programs. The one thing that is really difficult to emulate or copy -- and this what I'm proud of from a personal perspective -- is that I think we as a partner team have really created an environment for our partners: an environment of commitment, of openness and trust in terms of our relationship. Beyond that is a real passion to win together in the marketplace by having that focus around delivering value to our customers. I get so excited when I attend various partner events, not just about what we discussed, but the spirit of openness and trust and commitment to working together to win. It feels really good.
The final thing, and I did touch on this, is the leadership team. I think it's the best leadership team in the industry. Each one of those leaders individually is an exceptional business person but also a good friend as well. Those are the high-level things. Maybe just a few other things to note, we are talking about the organization as the Cisco channel, and that is what I inherited seven years ago.
But the organization has clearly evolved over the last seven years, and especially in the last two to three. We clearly continue to have a very strong focus on the channel, our partners who resell -- and Edison as our channel chief has done a phenomenal, phenomenal job in the last few years. But it's become much broader. We're focused on a broader set of ecosystem partners and solution partners who don't resell. That's allowed an expansion of the Cisco sales model and an expansion of our charter. People outside the channel may not know this, but we now have worldwide inside sales as part of our organization as well as our worldwide technical solutions network and a few others. The charter of the organization has grown dramatically.
And then last, it relates a little bit as to how we've built this environment of commitment and trust with our partners -- how during tough times, back in 2008 when the world was kind of crumbling from a macroeconomic standpoint, we really rallied together. Cisco doubled down, and we increased our investment in partners during that time. Partners doubled down on Cisco as well, and I don't know if you remember, we had a theme, 'Navigate To Accelerate.' Experiencing that kind of crisis together makes you strong. The fact that we stayed committed and trustful of each other felt good.
CRN: I'm sure there are things you might have approached differently with the benefit of hindsight. Anything in particular you wish you'd done more of or done differently?
Goodwin: From an overall perspective, there's nothing that jumps to mind that I would have done differently at a high level, or regrets, from that perspective. The only thing I can think of is maybe I would have done things faster. As we've addressed some opportunities and some challenges, addressing those challenges faster and doing it in a simpler way is important as well. I don't necessarily regret, but I do feel there were opportunities where maybe we could have acted a little more quickly.
But I do feel really good about where we've come over the last seven years. No big regrets; we've accomplished a lot with our partners.
NEXT: Goodwin's Successor Heading The WWPO
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