>> From Palo Alto, California, it's theCUBE, covering the conference boards sixth annual Innovation Master Class. >> Hey, welcome back everybody, Jeff with theCUBE, we're at the Innovation Master Class at Xerox Parc in Palo Alto. It's put on by the conference boards, a relatively small event. But a bunch of really high powered people, terrific presentations. If you ever get a chance to go, I suggest you check it out. We're happy to be here for our first time, we're here and one of the big themes on innovation is how do you innovate well as a big company. It's not easy to do, there's a lot of barriers in the way. We're excited to have an expert in the field, he's Alex Goryachev the senior director of innovation strategy and programs at Sisco. Great to see you. >> Thank you, I'm glad to be here. >> So you just gave a presentation on this topic so first off, give us a little overview of what your role is at Sisco and how it plays with innovation. >> So at Sisco, I'm lucky to lead two things. One is how do we work with the ecosystem, at our network of global innovation centers. And the second one is how do we capture best ideas from our employees. And most importantly, support them in making those ideas happen, turning them into products, or process improvements. >> Right, so Sisco's an interesting company, it's like intel and a lot of really dominant players in their field. Terrific market share, dominant for a long time. So it's really hard, that innovators dilemma is really written for companies like Sisco, so those innovation centers, how did those come about, how many of them are there, and what is the mission of the innovation centers? >> So the mission, if you think about innovation, it doesn't happen in San Jose or doesn't happen only in San Jose, it happens around the world. So when we think about the innovation centers, we've got around 12 of them around the globe. With a core mission of working with ecosystem players. Whenever that's start ups, customers, partners, academia, governments, and coming up with solutions that then we can deploy in a local market and potentially scale around the globe. >> So it's interesting, you lead with really working with the ecosystem partners, so their mission is more leveraged that greater ecosystem versus we need to come up with the great ideas inside of our four walls. >> Absolutely, because if you think about it, we have a lot of great ideas inside the four walls, but when we look at the specific problems that are you know, problems for Japan, may not necessarily be the same that they are for Australia. And what we really want to do, is be able to work on an issue of national relevancy and focus on the economic strengths and problems that are in the particular area, so that we can make a meaningful impact. >> Right, so one of the topics in one of the earlier presentations here, was how do big companies manage innovation centers, and we're here at Xerox Parc, this is probably one of the most historic innovation centers ever in computers industry. So how do you manage this kind of dichotomy between having them kind of set aside, the people at the innovation center in their own separate little location and still be innovative and kind of unbridled from some of the corporate tail winds I guess, would be head winds I should say. But also make them part of the bigger Sisco environment and still make em feel like they're included and that these things are important, not just to what they're working on and even their ecosystem, but are important to the whole Sisco. >> It's a great question, and I think that's where the corporate government comes in really well. Because at the end of the day with the innovation centers we don't want to boil the ocean right? We want to make sure that everybody wins. So when we think of creating products and solutions, we want to work with customers that have real problems and with start ups that can potentially close that gap and help us co develop a solution with them. So we're very focused on ar engineering priorities and be our specific country priorities and particular opportunities that exist in the country. For example, we have a center in Australia, right? And if you look at the Australian economy, a lot of it is with agriculture, right? So what we have in Australia is a concertia with other industry players in the region to focus on solving some problems for the agriculture. Which utilizes the internet of thinks technology. So that's one of the ways that we're connected to companies mission which is iot, one of the corporate missions. And at the same time we're solving the local problem, working with the ecosystem and creating something that can then be scaled around the world. >> Right, so the other part of your job that you mentioned is inside the four walls and trying to help foster the innovation that does come from your own internal people that are in line jobs, more regular jobs. So what are some of the initiatives that you have in place to identify and to surface and to ultimately support and maybe those grow into new products and divisions and whatever. What are some of the secrets you can share there. >> Well I think the secret is very simple. It's everyone, at the end of the day, everything in the company comes down to talent. People generally invest in talent, not necessarily in ideas. So, one is recognizing that the innovation is a mindset, and then the second thing is really focusing on empowering every single employee to innovate. And in practical terms, that means that we have to redefine innovation. It's not only about new product development, it's not only about top line grove, right? It could be about process improvements. It could be about other things that bring value to the company. Could be about corporate social responsibility, when you go in and listen and engage with employees across the entire company, you actually have far better ideas that touch all aspects of your business, and can produce a lasting impact. Not only in products but with sound process improvement as well. >> And how do you support that? How do you give people the encouragement to say listen, we're interested in your ideas or interested in your innovations across this broad swath of opportunities, like I said from product all the way to social responsibility or cleaning out the Guadalupe river, I'm sure there's all kinds of interesting things that you can point to. How do you make sure that's communicated, that this is a priority for us, the company, that we want to support you, our employee, in some of these opportunities. >> Well first of all, we're lucky to have the sponsorship of our CO Chuck Robbins, who really put this as one of his key priorities. The second one is because innovation is about talent first and product second, we're lucky to work with our chief people officer, Francine, and she's a sponsor for this as well. So we have an incredible opportunity to go and message this as a top corporate priority to our employee's year after year. But the other thing, which is the key, is for every single function in the company, we worked with them to define innovation ambition. So that when we got to employee's and say hey help us, give us your best ideas, we can go and guide them towards some of the Sisco's key priorities. So we connect them with strategy. Obviously at the end of the day, some of them will give us whatever ideas they're passionate about. And there are a lot of great things there as well. >> So Alex I'll give you the last word. We'll be at Sisco live in Barcelona, it's right around the corner, and Sisco live US, etc. This is a really small event. So for you as an attendee and also as a presenter what is this type of event here at the innovation master class mean to you, what are you hoping to get out of it, what do you get out of participating in these type of events? >> Well if I think about, the most important thing, again going back to Sisco, we believe that no single company can do this alone. The innovation program that I just talked about, they innovate everywhere, we put it for the entire world to use and I think just connecting with other fellow practitioners is very important. At the end of the day, innovation teams, they typically go against the grain. So a lot of this is group therapy, it's support. It's the human connection, but then we learn so much from each other, right? Because at the end of the day, we face the same challenges, we face the same problems together. So any industry concertia, we can make a meaningful difference for our companies and for our employee's. And by the way, if you're at Sisco live Barcelona, do stop by our booth, we have the innovation network booth, where we talk about the Sisco innovation centers, and the innovation programs that we run. >> Great, we'll do that. Well Alex thank you for taking a few minutes, and I guess we'll see you in Barcelona. >> Pleasure. >> Alright, he's Alex and I'm Jeff, and you're watching theCUBE, we're at the Innovation Master Class, put on by the conference board here at Xerox Parc in Palo Alto, thanks for watching. (upbeat techno music)