The case titled, ‘Cisco India (A): Innovation in Emerging Markets’, part of a case series, describes the challenges a multinational corporation, Cisco Systems Inc, faces in an emerging market in developing new products specific to local needs
01 February, 2021, Bengaluru: A case titled, ‘Cisco India (A): Innovation in Emerging Markets’, co-authored by Professor Rishikesha T Krishnan, Director, IIM Bangalore, Professor Srivardhini K Jha, Chairperson, Entrepreneurship area, IIMB, Professor Charles Dhanaraj and Professor Ivy Buche has been declared as one of the 2020 bestsellers on The Case Centre (UK) [formerly ECCH] platform, in the Economics, Politics and Business Environment category. It was published by the Institute for Management Development (IMD).
The case is part of a case series. Case A describes the challenges a multinational corporation, Cisco Systems Inc, faces in an emerging market in developing new products specific to local needs. Dr Ishwardutt Parulkar and his team at Cisco’s Indian subsidiary in Bangalore had identified a promising concept that could potentially become the company’s first product developed end-to-end at the India site. They had to address three critical issues: how to define the right product to address the specific needs of telecom network customers in the emerging market; how to build the business case for approval from the headquarters in the US, and how to compensate for the significant gaps in the Indian ecosystem that was not fully mature in terms of partners and skills required to develop such a product. Case B presents how the Cisco team resolved the new product development challenges. The success of the new Advanced Services Router (ASR) 901 would mark a milestone in Cisco’s journey of evolution of engineering capability in emerging countries into the next phase of innovation and thought leadership.