Executive Mentor Protégé Program Launches at Cisco

Global Supplier Diversity Business Development Director Denise Coley launched our newest program for diversity suppliers on April 28, 2008, the Executive Mentor Protégé Program (EMP²). The program involves one to two years of mentoring by Cisco executives throughout the company and is quite successful and is sponsored by Chief Operations Officer Randy Pond.

Six executive vice presidents and six diversity suppliers were selected to complete the first class of the EMP² in 2009. The program has been very successful and has been extended to July 2009. The teams meet every 120 days using Cisco TelePresence technology to review program status, business opportunities, and spend opportunities and discuss best practices with each other. Seven multipoint locations are used to conduct this program’s business, and each team member has expressed how great the experience is over Cisco TelePresence. The program will launch globally in Q4FY09 to several countries in which Cisco does business today.

For our first class several types of businesses were chosen, namely, manufacturing integration companies, web IT services, design and creative services, and outsourced and IT staffing companies, to name the top few. Following are the EMP² Vendor Profiles:

• Duarte Design
• PCI Inc.
• M3iworks
• The Experts Bench Inc.
• Varite Inc.
• Wintec Industries

Our program is intended to mentor protégés with advice, counseling, business opportunities, business development, technology, and a host of Cisco’s own telecommunications technology training and education. Business partnering is encouraged, advocated, and adopted through this program across Cisco into all business functions.

The GSDBD program at Cisco is positioned to:

• Increase Cisco’s awareness of diversity suppliers and their services
• Advance diversity supplier offerings, increasing their revenues
• Rapidly increase Cisco’s sales revenue
• Stimulate the supply chain
• Fulfill and exceed customer requirements

Successes for the protégés to date have been:

• Duarte Design: Focus groups and surveys have been conducted throughout Cisco with the current teams using Duarte Design services. Feedback has been positive, and Duarte has launched a new intranet site just for Cisco.

• PCI Inc.: Received its Cisco Select Partner certification, enabling it to increase its revenue opportunity directly with Cisco’s Channel Partner Program . PCI an integration and manufacturing diversity supplier located in Denver, Colorado.

• M3iworks: Completed several Cisco branding workshops and web framework training to prepare for several web site projects within Cisco. M3iworks’ web accessibility expertise has made them a primary component for future projects, enabling web content delivery to a wider array of customers, partners, and suppliers.

• The Experts Bench Inc.: This supplier has seen an increase in her business by 85% over 2007 earnings with Cisco. The Experts Bench is located in Atlanta, GA and provides creative services staffing and marketing professionals.

• Varite Inc.: Several new opportunities developed over the last few months for Varite as the mentor and other mentors from the overall team communicated out Varite’s excellent services. Varite has seen an increase in revenue quarter over quarter of 5% to 8% with the program.

• Wintec Industries: Wintec is a manufacturing company that has received a great response in this program. Having been named and nominated as Supplier of the Year for our Manufacturing Supply Chain, Wintec continues to enjoy revenue growth quarter over quarter.

If you are a diverse company and certified with WBENC or NMSDC and want more information about our EMP² opportunities, e-mail us at gsdbd-emp2@cisco.com .