Cisco Security Business Chief of Staff, Anna Birch, and Deidre discuss the importance of alignment to drive growth in large enterprise. An acquired team brought OKRs in and the Security Business embraced them to unlock faster growth. Anna shares their journey, including the initial leadership alignment breakthrough, and how they’ve operationalized leading for results.
The Cisco Security Business OKR practice helps align teams on common growth objectives in a matrixed org with a deep product portfolio. Since the Security team brought OKRs and WorkBoard into Cisco, it’s continued to spread across other business units — especially those with collaboration and dependencies with Anna’s group.
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Anna Birch is rmer Chief of Staff for Cisco’s Security Business Group, where she scaled a multi-billion-dollar cybersecurity powerhouse and drove massive transformations. She's all about OKRs and radical alignment to get thousands of people laser-focused on real growth and execution.
Before Cisco, she built the people and culture engine at OpenDNS as VP of People Operations, fueling its growth right up to acquisition. Her superpower is turning complex orgs into high-performing engines with clear priorities and shared wins.
Deidre Paknad has founded and led three tech startups, acquired companies and been acquired, and led a high-growth business as an executive at IBM for several years; this affords her a unique perspective on using both speed and scale to drive growth. In her role as CEO at WorkBoard, she works with senior leadership teams at some of the world’s largest companies to clarify, align, and drive strategic priorities with greater speed and agility. She is a frequent speaker on Outcome Mindset™ and tapping into ambition.
Deidre has over a dozen patents and has twice been inducted into the Smithsonian Institution for innovation. Goldman Sachs named her one of the 100 most intriguing entrepreneurs of 2019. Deidre hosts The OKR Podcast, which focuses on accelerating outcomes and fostering an outcomes culture.