At Cisco, we engage with a wide range of stakeholders, including our employees, customers, investors, governments, and communities. Much of this engagement takes place as part of normal business practice, but we also solicit feedback from stakeholders specifically on issues relating to our corporate citizenship activities.
These dialogues with our internal and external stakeholders:
- Improve our understanding of how Cisco is perceived
- Help us evaluate stakeholder satisfaction
- Strengthen our citizenship programs
- Allow us to identify important issues to address
Cisco's citizenship programs, too, engage frequently with customers, partners, industry peers, and employees to identify critical issues. We also monitor unsolicited feedback from customers through our sales force and help desks.
Our Civic Councils, 32 employee-led community engagement councils operating out of different Cisco locations worldwide, solicit feedback from our nonprofit partners (recipients of our cash grants and product donations) to monitor the effectiveness of our social investment programs.
Internal Stakeholder Feedback
In July 2006, Cisco surveyed a sample of employees about issues specifically relating to corporate citizenship. Overall, employees view Cisco as a company committed to responsible business practices and giving back to the communities in which we operate. In fact, a large majority of survey respondents believe Cisco is above average or a leader in corporate citizenship among companies worldwide.
Employees seem to most consistently hear corporate citizenship messages from President and CEO John Chambers and they believe that Cisco will continue to focus on social and environmental responsibility, regardless of our level of economic performance. Almost half of employees say that their manager encourages them to get involved in citizenship and volunteer activities. And while 87 percent believe that corporate citizenship affects our overall reputation, employees do not seem as convinced that it directly affects our stock price. Employees rate increasing energy efficiency and bridging the digital divide among the most important issues Cisco faces.
External Stakeholder Feedback
We also identify issues to address by engaging with external stakeholders. In FY2006, we spoke with external stakeholders, including investors, customers, strategic alliance partners, and representatives of nongovernmental organizations and governments, both individually and at industry-related meetings and conferences.
Most external stakeholders view Cisco as a responsible company and a strong performer in citizenship issues. Stakeholders encourage Cisco to play a leadership role in emerging issues, whether social, political, or economic, and show how our company anticipates how these trends will affect our future business.
Stakeholders consistently identify the following four areas as important for Cisco's business and the information and communications technology sector:
- Energy: Using energy efficiently, decreasing products' energy use, monitoring greenhouse gas emissions, educating customers on efficient energy use
- Responsible content use: Ensuring customer privacy, protecting computers from viruses, preventing human rights violations through abuse of data, minimizing technology for socially undesirable purposes (pornography, spam)
- Inclusiveness: Making products accessible to disabled and lower-income groups, working toward bridging economic and social divides
- Waste and material composition of equipment: Extending product lifecycles, recycling and recovery of hazardous waste, educating customers about recycling options
