18 APRIL 30 – MAY 6, 2004 SILICON VALLEY BIZ INK S B A A W A R D S

E ight years ago whilehaving lunch in a café,three visionaries —keeping in mind the

burgeoning small and midsize busi-ness market — came up with aplan. The idea was to build a one-stop shop to help Silicon Valley

entrepreneurs in the small andmidsize segment expand theirbusinesses.

Four years later in October 2000,the dream of the EntrepreneurCenter in downtown San Josecame to fruition after the tirelessefforts of Cisco Systems Inc.employees Richard Steranka andAngela Fields, and DarleneMcKinnon, deputy district directorof the U.S. Small BusinessAdministration in San Francisco.

Since its conception, theEntrepreneur Center has helped20,000 to 40,000 businessesexpand annually, says McKinnon.

On May 11, the SBA SanFrancisco chapter will present theSmall Business Advocate of theYear award to Cisco, a worldwideleader in Internet routing.

“[This award] reflects Cisco’swork in support of small busi-ness,” says Mark Quinn, districtdirector for SBA. “They have takena leadership role in making [smallbusinesses] realize how technolo-gy is important for them.”

McKinnon says the main reasonfor choosing Cisco as the recipientof the award is its effort in respon-sible corporate citizenship.

“As the largest employer head-quartered in the South Bay, Ciscowas the prime sponsor of the SBACisco Systems San JoseEntrepreneur Center,” says Mc-Kinnon.

Other sponsors include the cityof San Jose, Bank of America,Chevron Corp., Microsoft Corp. andIBM.

The SBA is an ideal supportmechanism locally for small andmidsize businesses, and thereforewas a natural entity for Cisco topartner with in this endeavor.

The Entrepreneur Center (or E-Center) is a two-floor resource cen-ter that provides training, counsel-ing and financing to small and mid-size businesses employingbetween 20 and 1,000 people. Atits Santa Clara Street location, thecenter gives counseling, consult-ing, library services and Internetdevelopment services free ofcharge to any small or midsize busi-ness that is starting or growing.

Joe Diodati, senior director ofworldwide commercial marketingat Cisco, was one of the six mainplayers in developing the E-Centeralong with Peter Alexander, vice-president for marketing for Cisco’sworldwide commercial market seg-ment, and Charles Giancarlo, sen-ior vice president and executivesponsor. Alexander will be accept-ing the award on behalf of Cisco

at a business expo in San Jose onMay 11.

Diodati says Cisco’s core valuesare committed to networkingimprovement and providing servic-es to customers. As Cisco pene-trated large organizations, it real-ized that the productivity numbersin small organizations were improv-ing and started to make invest-ments in that sector, Diodati says.

“Cisco is not only making a mon-etary commitment, but also anemotional commitment,” he says.

For about a year and a halfbefore the center’s opening,Cisco’s marketing program manag-er Mimi Jackson along withMcKinnon, worked on the imple-mentation of the E-Center.

McKinnon says a number ofCisco employees devoted theirtime and expertise to the E-center.Many of them volunteered theirtime teaching classes at the centerand one of them created the cen-ter’s logo.

Monetarily, Cisco contributed$50,000 initially for the construc-tion and renovation of the location,pays a representative share of themonthly rent for the Cisco Internet

Networkingleader focuses on small biz

BY FALGUNI BHUTA SC

OTT LE

WIS

PH

OTO

SBA Small Business Advocate of the Year: Cisco Systems Inc.

GROWING WITH TECH WINNERS

Cisco introduced the Growing With Technology awardto recognize creative ways small and midsize organi-zations use technology to unleash their potentialthrough the power of the Internet or networks.

2003 winnersInnovators in Customer Relationship:D.W. Morgan, Pleasanton

Innovators in E-Commerce: CorrugatedSupplies, Bedford Park, Ill.

Innovators in Nonprofit/Public Sector:School District #67 of Okanagan Skaha,Penticton, British Columbia

Innovators in Operational Excellence:Yurcor, Delray Beach, Fla.

Innovators in Sales and Marketing:Garrod Farms, Saratoga

2002 winnersInnovators in Customer Relationship:Constructware, Alpharetta, GA.

Innovators in E-Commerce: Brown &Joseph Ltd., Schaumburg, Ill.

Innovators in Operational Excellence:inChord Communications, Columbus

Innovators in Sales and Marketing:ScubaToys.com, Dallas

“Cisco is not only making amonetary commitment, but also

an emotional commitment.”— Joe Diodati, Cisco’s senior director of worldwide commercial marketing

19S B A A W A R D S APRIL 30 – MAY 6, 2004 SILICON VALLEY BIZ INK

Development Center and the rentfor satellite offices of the ethnicchambers of commerce, McKinnonsays.

Although the E-Center is thelargest in magnitude of Cisco’s out-reach efforts to the small and mid-size business market, the compa-ny also has made other attempts,such as designing e-learning mod-ules with the SBA and offeringmanagement development pro-grams to entrepreneurs.

The e-learning modules aredesigned in a non-technical wayand educate small businesses onhow to bring technology into theirworkplace. These learning modulesare implemented in SBA centersacross the country and in Europe,says Jackson.

Maureen Shea, president andCEO of Two Shea Consulting Inc.,attended the UCLA AndersonManagement Development forEntrepreneurs last February. Thisis a four-day boot camp at the E-Center — partly sponsored byCisco — for teaching businessimprovement skills to entrepre-neurs. Shea’s Lafayette-basedcompany, founded in 1999, pro-vides information technology con-sulting in the Bay Area. It hasgrown with revenues jumping from$800,000 in the first year to $2.4million after three years.

Shea partly attributes her compa-ny’s success to the SBA and the E-Center where she got help budget-ing and forecasting her business.

Cisco has focused on small andmedium businesses since 1995,says Kevin Outcalt, senior directorin Cisco’s worldwide commercialmarketing segment.

The company developed network-ing equipment for large businessesthrough the 1990s. However, inthe late 1990s, small and midsizebusinesses realized the impor-tance of networks for success,Outcalt says.

Cisco has more focus on thismarket because it is the fastest-growing segment of businessesthat are utilizing networking equip-ment.

According to the SBA, there wereabout 23 million small businessesin the United States in 2002.

“In fact, we are just launchingsome more solutions aimed specifi-cally at small and medium busi-nesses that bring even more net-working power and capabilities thatthey can take advantage of,”Outcalt says.

The commercial marketing seg-ment of Cisco’s marketing struc-ture is responsible on a globalbasis for analyzing small and medi-um businesses for putting togetherspecific programs to reach andeducate them about the impor-tance of networks for their compa-ny, Outcalt says.

These outreach programs, suchas the E-Center, benefit the com-pany in several ways.

The advantages to Cisco areaccess to a growing market, gettingdirect customer feedback for futureproduct development and theopportunity to develop good rela-tionships with resellers across thenation for whom such centers cre-ate a large demand for products.

At the E-Center, for example,Cisco has sponsored satelliteoffice space for many ethnic cham-bers of commerce on-site, whichenables training and counseling toimmigrant businesses in theirnative languages.

The Japanese-American Chamberof Commerce in San Jose, whichhas a satellite office in the E-Center, helps Japanese companiesset up their offices in Silicon Valleyand, at the same time, helpsAmerican companies set up inJapan, says director of develop-ment Kathy Haneta.

Haneta says the E-Center pro-vides many business resources

to their clients and Japanese del-egations are often amazed at thefacilities available there.However, many of the programsavailable are underutilized andneed to be marketed more effi-ciently, she says.

Outcalt says in the next 24months Cisco will invest $2 billionfocused on the small and mediumbusiness segment, which willinclude product development,channel support, marketing andoutreach.

Apart from that, to encouragesmall businesses to implementtechnology, Cisco introduced the

Growing with Technology Awards torecognize creative ways in whichsmall and midsize organizationsuse networking technologies andthe Internet to promote productsand services.

“Cisco is setting the bar for othercorporations to step up to theplate,” McKinnon says. “This isabout building businesses, notmaking money. They did it as a cor-porate citizen with the biggestheart.”

Falguni Bhuta is a Biz Ink intern.You can reach her atfbhuta@svbizink.com.

E-CenterOfficial name: SBA • Cisco Systems • San Jose Entrepreneur CenterLocation: 84 W. Santa Clara St., San Jose 95113-1815Phone: (408) 494-0210Web: www.ecenteronline.org

A sampling of services offered by the E-Center:

Counseling and consulting servicesThe Silicon Valley SCORE Chapter

The Small Business Development Center of Silicon Valley

The Silicon Valley Center for International Trade Development

Northern California Supplier Development Council

East San Jose Community Law Center’sSmall Business Development Group

Financial assistanceSBA loan programs

Microloans

Business loans

Real estate financing

Northern California Financial Development Corp.

Venture/equity financing sources

Export financing

U.S. SBASBA Loan Guarantee Programs

Federal Procurement Programs

International Trade Assistance

Chambers of CommerceSanta Clara County Black Chamber of Commerce

Filipino American Chamber of Commerce

Greater San Jose Hispanic Chamber of Commerce

Japanese American Chamber of Commerce of Silicon Valley

Portuguese Chamber of Commerce of California

Vietnamese American Chamber of Commerce of Santa Clara

Cisco Internet Development CenterWhere businesses can find resources needed to help them succeed.