Skip to Content | Skip to Footer
Letter from Tae Yoo, Senior Vice President of Corporate Affairs
Cisco’s vision is to change the way we work, live, play, and learn. At the heart of that vision is a world where people use networks to enhance and integrate all aspects of their lives. Our approach to corporate social responsibility (CSR) aligns responsible business practices and social investments to create long-term value and sustainability for our business and for our global communities. Even in a challenging economic environment, we have continued to support CSR initiatives that have a positive and measurable impact in four key areas: our employees, corporate governance, the environment, and society as a whole.
First and foremost, for our employees, we strive to foster a corporate culture that empowers employees to work for positive change. We provide engaging and challenging employment as well as career development that enables our employees to make significant contributions to the information and communications technology (ICT) industry. But equally important, we support and encourage CSR initiatives and other activities by our employees that help promote sustainable economic growth and improve community life.
Our second area of focus, corporate governance, is enhanced through our collaborative leadership structure, supported by collaboration technologies such as Cisco TelePresence and WebEx. We are changing the way Cisco works. Cisco’s collaborative management model enables cross-functional teams to govern a broad range of market adjacencies and concentrate expertise where it is needed for improved, scalable, flexible decision-making in the business.
Third, our engagements with stakeholders give us fresh perspectives and help us improve business by making our operations and products more efficient and easier on the environment. We have made considerable progress in designing efficiencies into our products and developing innovative technologies that help Cisco and our customers reduce environmental impacts through better collaboration, control, and resource management. We partner with suppliers and other members of our value chain in our sustainability efforts.
And finally, our social investment strategy looks to empower individuals and organizations, as well as to strengthen communities, specifically in the areas of education, healthcare, economic development, and basic human needs. Our strategic, long-term approach to these engagements is implemented through public-private partnerships and networking technologies.
Cisco’s social investments in education have had a positive effect on improving the welfare of individuals, their families, their communities, and their countries. No company, country, or region can fully participate in the global economy without an educated workforce. The ability to prepare students to thrive in a connected global economy and assume leadership for the economic and societal challenges we face is essential for both developed and emerging markets. Beyond academic success, learners will need to collaborate, to problem solve, and to be information-literate like never before. Partnering with education stakeholders, we are actively engaged in helping transform systems to meet the needs of 21st century learners, educators, and organizations.
Cisco’s multiyear, collaborative partnerships with government and nongovernmental organizations help us design programs that address real community needs and can produce results that significantly enhance quality of life. We aim to provide innovative healthcare, education, and economic development infrastructures through the creation of scalable, replicable, and sustainable solutions, such as the design of a multipurpose mobile health clinic that enables those in remote rural communities to have access to better-quality healthcare.
In all of Cisco’s CSR efforts, we draw upon the valuable input and diverse perspectives of our many stakeholders. This infusion of ideas, together with our collaborative approach and the talents of our employees, enhances our ability to strengthen economic development, generate opportunity, and promote well-being.