Chuck Robbins is bringing someone else with North Carolina experience to help him run Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) as he takes over as CEO in July.

Ruba Borno, a 2001 graduate of UNC-Charlotte who speaks both Arabic and Spanish, joins Robbins’ newly named executive leadership team as chief of staff and vice president of growth initiatives.

She believes in “putting people first” as a tech company transforms – as Robbins has said Cisco will.

“Ruba will join Cisco from The Boston Consulting Group where she is a Principal and leader in the Technology, Media & Telecommunications, and People & Organization practice groups,” Robbins, a UNC-Chapel Hill graduate, wrote in a blog post.

“She holds a Ph.D. and a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan, and a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering with honors from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

“For the last seven years, Ruba has been advising enterprise and consumer technology executives on organizational change, increasing operational effectiveness, and accelerating business growth.

“Ruba has been an Intel Ph.D. fellow at the National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center for Wireless Integrated MicroSystems, contributed to multiple peer-reviewed research publications, and is a supporter of Bay Area organizations tackling education and poverty challenges.”

“Putting People First”

Robbins’ new team of 10 people is part of many changes that the man replacing long-time CEO John Chambers as of July 25 plans fot the company.

As chief of staff, Borno no doubt will be key to that transition.

In a 2014 blog post at BCG, Borno and four others wrote about the challenges of transforming a technology company, noting that “Putting People First” is crucial.

“Technology companies today face unprecedented change. Consider some of the major shifts now under way: from hardware to software, from point products to platform positions, from on-premises to cloud computing, from waterfall to agile software development, from selling products to selling solutions. As throughout the broader economy, in technology, traditional products are becoming commoditized, and nimbler emerging companies with stronger business models are routinely and readily outpacing dominant market players,” the authors explained.

“To compete in the maelstrom of today’s markets, established technology companies must transform. Now. And swiftly. As one chief human resources officer (CHRO) told us, ‘It’s insane to think that you have 18 months to make a transformation stick.’

“If transformation is urgent, so is the realization that it’s not only about strategy and processes. It’s about the most crucial asset technology companies have: people. And the impacts of change in the industry on people and the organization are enormous.

“The implications of these changes and the challenges they pose for HR organizations are equally enormous. From talent needs to organization structure, the pressures to transform the role of the CHRO—and the entire HR function—are escalating. Yet in all too many technology companies, HR struggles to meet these challenges. It’s time for technology companies to formulate a new view of HR and forge a deeper partnership between HR and the business. Doing so will require a fundamental change in HR strategy and operations.”

Read the full blog post at:

https://www.bcgperspectives.com/content/articles/human_resources_hardware_software_transforming_technology_companies/