What? Padmasree Warrior is now CTO, SVP and GM at Cisco?

When Padmasree Warrior left Motorola back in 2007 to take the job of Chief Technology Officer at Cisco Systems, I had to laugh at blogger Brad Reese's characterization of her. He wrote, "Why on earth would John Chambers hire as Cisco CTO an individual who has been so badly beaten by Apple and Steve Jobs?" Now she is adding another title of Senior Vice President and General Manager position over Cisco's Enterprise, Commercial and Small Business Development Group.

CTO who really did not fit in as the CTO

I say it's not wise to have a CTO who really did not fit in as the CTO and then to put her in charge of a large portion of Cisco's business. Chamber must not really think too much of the CTO position at Cisco if he is going to allow Warrior to keep her old position as well as the new one.

He should find some young bright American who understands routing and switching, businesses solutions and competition then make that person CTO. Cisco does not need someone who just reads power points; the company needs someone who will take the fight to Juniper and HP. But I doubt Chambers will do that. Perhaps he wants a good foot soldier that will not cause waves, but that's not a good way to keep market share.