How Cisco broke out of its slow growth trap in India

Globally the company’s revenue was stuck for nearly a decade but in India it doubled

- Sohini Bagchi

Cisco, which is into networking, security, collaboration, cloud management among other technology products and services and is set to celebrate four decades of its birth next year, has been facing growth challenges globally. 

The firm, best known for its networking equipment, has seen its global revenues get stuck in the region of $48-51 billion for almost a decade before growing in double digits for the year ended July 2023. 

Its India business, in contrast, has virtually doubled in the same period in local currency. Though the slide in the value of rupee over the years has meant the local business continues to contribute around $1 billion to the global business through the years. Last year, it was over $1.4 billion.

In FY23, India's net sales were at ₹11,903.4 crore.

Numbers collated by data platform VCCEdge, now shows that Cisco’s Indian arm broke out of the low growth trajectory with 40% jump in revenues. This came after the firm was slowly but steadily growing its operations in the country.

To be sure, the momentum seems to have continued in the current year. However, Cisco declined to comment on this article.