Cisco - Strategy & Planning Lead

Position: Strategy & Planning Lead-India

Location: Bangalore

Company: Cisco is the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate. Founded in 1984, Cisco engineers have been leaders in the development of Internet Protocol (IP)-based networking technologies since the company's inception. This tradition of innovation continues with industry-leading products in the core areas of routing and switching, as well as advanced technologies in areas such as Unified Communications, Network Security, Video, Virtualization and Cloud Computing. Innovation is a core part of the Cisco culture and annually $5.5 Billion is invested in R&D; Cisco has more than 20,000 Engineers in more than 10 labs worldwide; more than 4200 patents have been awarded to Cisco inventors. Currently 750+ patents have been filed from India and 450+ issued for innovations across all technologies.

Cisco India: With sales and marketing operations spread across key cities in India and a Software Development Centre in Bangalore, Cisco leads the networking market in core technologies of routing and switching, as well as WLAN and network security.

Job Description

The APJC (Asia Pacific, Japan & Greater China) Corporate Strategy and Planning team is responsible for the development of strategy and business plans to identify and accelerate new growth and to develop the pathway for Cisco business evolution in the APJC Region. The team is responsible for strategy development, long range planning, market intelligence and new business incubation fostering alignment across theatres, segments and functions. The team is also responsible for setting the Region governance and management structure.

Cisco seeks a Business Planning Lead to provide an increased integration and alignment across the theaters/segments by (i) driving the translation of India business strategy and growth opportunities into clear outcomes and actionable plans, (ii) leading the India long-range planning (LRP) and Integrated Country Planning processes, (iii) orchestrating India’s business review and driving business excellence i.e., funnel management reviews, operationalizes scorecards and ensures that the theater teams deliver against them, and business performance, growth and share reviews, etc.

This role requires someone who is a proven, influential thought-leader, experienced in planning, strategy execution and sales operations. The candidate must be a strong cross-group orchestrator who constructively challenges legacy practices, test the practicality of new ideas, capable of communicating ideas clearly and thoughtfully, with vision to identify future trends and needs, translating objectives into clear deliverables and operating plans.

Key Responsibilities:

- Business Planning: Lead, orchestrate and support the long range and yearly planning processes in the India Theatre ensuring tight coordination, collaboration and alignment with key constituents including but not limited to APJC Planning, Business Entities, India Theatre Countries, Segments, Architectures, Partner Business, Finance, HR, Operations, etc. Work with cross-organizational counterparts in other Theatres to drive team participation as needed for business planning activities and operations reviews.

- Rhythm of the Business: Working with the Strategy lead, orchestrate and drive theater business management processes including scorecard alignment, performance target setting and reviews, funnel management analysis and reviews and drive the investments optimization/resources prioritization and allocation against funnel health and business performance metrics. Execute continuous productivity and process improvement initiatives through effective change management and project management methodologies.

- Strategy Projects: Support high-impact cross-organization projects as needed to meet the changing business environment, ensure projects are aligned with core goals and strategies, contain achievable targets given time frame, and ensure the team is achieving commitments. Provide general business management support for Theater Lead (e.g., cross-group alignment and collaboration, ad-hoc project management and analysis)

Key Requirements:

- Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience; MBA from top schools preferred.

- At least 8-10 years of professional experience in a fast-paced business environment with proven track record in planning and business management/operations,

- Ability to deal with ambiguities, influence without direct authority, and work in a heavily matrixed environment.

- Ability to see the big picture; strong creativity and high-energy strong independent thinker with sharp business acumen and judgment.

- Strong experience in managing and leading large multi-functional teams without having a reporting line.

- Strong oral and written communication skills, including the ability to build compelling internal/external PowerPoint presentations and comprehensive business review materials as well as the ability to translate abstract thoughts, key themes and tactics into understandable messages for broad consumption.

- Demonstrated excellent analytical skills, problem solving capability, great attention to details, strong at “connecting the dots” and driving execution.

- Strong organizational agility and cross-group collaboration skills, negotiation and critical thinking skills.

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