How Cisco is responding to the death of George Floyd

Good morning.

I took notice this weekend when the New York Times quoted a law professor saying most CEO statements about the George Floyd killing “were put together by the marketing team that was trying not to offend white customers and white employees.” Maybe some were. But it’s pretty clear to me, having spent a lifetime poring over dull corporate press releases, that some definitely were not.

Chuck Robbins, CEO of Cisco, falls into the second camp. He called it “horrific,” “maddening” and “truly abhorrent”–words not normally found in the PR playbook. For Robbins, it seems, this was quite personal.