Wired for Change
Wired for Change
Podcast Description
In a world that's evolving faster than ever, the key to staying ahead lies in understanding the intricate dance between people, process and technology - and the impact they create for humans, organizations and society. This dance is critical for moving forward and yet, more than 70% of these initiatives fail. This show is meant to help leaders and teams with the many decisions and shifts that are required to drive successful innovation, transformation and change.
Podcast Insights
Content Themes
The podcast explores a diverse range of topics focused on the impact of technology on society and organizations, offering episodes such as Healing the Health Data Divide which delves into digital health education and initiatives, The Trust Crisis addressing misinformation and its societal implications, and What's Changing in Cybersecurity that discusses the evolving landscape of cyber threats amid digital transformation.
In a world that’s evolving faster than ever, the key to staying ahead lies in understanding the intricate dance between people, process and technology – and the impact they create for humans, organizations and society. This dance is critical for moving forward and yet, more than 70% of these initiatives fail. This show is meant to help leaders and teams with the many decisions and shifts that are required to drive successful innovation, transformation and change.
What does transformation look like inside one of the largest technology ecosystems in the world?
For decades, Cisco has operated one of the most influential partner ecosystems in technology — a global network of resellers, integrators, and service providers that helped scale networking infrastructure across industries and geographies.
But over time, even successful systems accumulate complexity.
In this episode of Wired for Change, host Amy Yee speaks with Elisabeth De Dobbeleer, Senior Vice President of the Cisco Partner Program, about what it takes to reinvent a decades-old ecosystem while preserving the trust and relationships that made it successful in the first place.
Elisabeth shares how Cisco approached the redesign of its partner program — from defining a transformation “North Star” to co-designing new structures with partners and managing the human realities of large-scale change.
The conversation explores the shift from product transactions to lifecycle value, the role of managed services and customer outcomes, and the leadership mindset required to guide transformation across complex systems.
Whether you lead a technology ecosystem, a digital transformation initiative, or a large organization navigating change, this episode offers a rare behind-the-scenes look at transformation at global scale.
In this episode we discuss:
Why mature ecosystems eventually require redesign rather than optimization
How Cisco defined the “North Star” for partner ecosystem transformation
The role of co-design and feedback in large-scale change initiatives
Managing resistance and identity shifts during transformation
Lessons for leaders navigating complexity in large organizations
Chapters
00:00 Introduction – Transformation at ecosystem scale
01:05 Cisco’s global partner ecosystem
03:00 Why the partner program needed to change
05:00 Optimization vs redesign in mature systems
06:30 Designing the transformation “North Star”
09:00 Building the transformation team
12:00 Sustaining momentum during long transformations
15:30 Leading change as a transformation leader
17:30 The three major shifts behind Cisco 360
20:00 Co-designing the partner ecosystem with partners
22:30 Releasing early versions and gathering feedback
25:00 Measuring partner sentiment during transformation
27:30 The human side of change and resistance
30:00 Identity, roles, and fear in transformation
32:00 Leading change when not everyone agrees
34:00 Designing for agility and future evolution
37:00 Maintaining internal alignment at scale
40:00 Marking milestones and sustaining momentum
42:30 Launching the new partner program
43:30 Closing reflections on transformation leadership
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