Cisco: How To Do It Right

We’d praised Cisco for adopting blogs a few months ago, but I don’t think any of us suspected just how great a job they’d do of understanding the medium and really embracing it.

While most of us were busy being Apple fanboys after the announcement of the iPhone (Macworld takes place down the street from Six Apart’s offices, so it’s quite possible that they put something in the drinking water), there were only a few mentions of the fact that Cisco owns the name. Then, word leaked out that a lawsuit was pending, and most of us would expect some boring one-sentence platitudes to get leaked out through News.com over the next few months as the lawsuit dragged on.

But Cisco’s made a really surprising, and very smart move: They’ve posted an honest and intelligent update on their blog, outlining their reasons for the suit and explaining their very reasonable position:

I was surprised and disappointed when Apple decided to go ahead and announce their new product with our trademarked name without reaching an agreement. It was essentially the equivalent of “we’re too busy.” Despite being very close to an agreement, we had no substantive communication from Apple after 8pm Monday, including after their launch, when we made clear we expected closure. What were the issues at the table that kept us from an agreement? Was it money? No. Was it a royalty on every Apple phone? No. Was it an exchange for Cisco products or services? No. Fundamentally we wanted an open approach. We hoped our products could interoperate in the future. In our view, the network provides the basis to make this happen—it provides the foundation of innovation that allows converged devices to deliver the services that consumers want. Our goal was to take that to the next level by facilitating collaboration with Apple. And we wanted to make sure to differentiate the brands in a way that could work for both companies and not confuse people, since our products combine both web access and voice telephony. That’s it. Openness and clarity.

Mark Chandler, Cisco’s SVP and General Counsel, speaks in the first person with a matter-of-fact tone of voice, and it’s enough to overcome the skepticism of even the most diehard fanboy. Impressive work, and it really shows the impact a couple of Movable Type-powered blogs can have on the way a company communicates with its community.