Building Inclusive Organizations With Cisco’s Fran Katsoudas and Great Place to Work’s Michael C. Bush

An inclusive workplace makes all employees feel equally involved
in and supported across all areas. Fran Katsoudas, Cisco CHRO,
and Michael C. Bush, Great Place to Work CEO, join the Talent
Angle to share insights and lessons that help leaders build
inclusive organizations. Both make the case why doing so isn’t
only an altruistic act, but also has real business impact on
outcomes such as revenue and market performance. They also
discuss the pillars that define Cisco’s globally recognized
culture of inclusion, challenges to building an inclusive culture
with a dispersed workforce, emerging ways to foster trust and
belonging, and which new inequities are materializing in a
disruptive talent landscape.


 


Francine Katsoudas is executive vice president and chief people,
policy and purpose officer of Cisco. In this role, Fran oversees
critical functions that instill Cisco’s conscious culture,
contribute to the company’s overall performance and advance
Cisco’s purpose to “Power an Inclusive Future for All.” The
strategic alignment of functions within Fran’s organization
ensures holistic care for the well-being of Cisco’s people,
establishes Cisco as a trusted and valued partner to governments
and global leaders, and extends Cisco’s reach to positively
impact communities everywhere. A 25-year veteran of Cisco, Fran
has extensive experience leading organizational transformations,
driving large scale growth, cultivating successful leaders and
teams, and constructing an employee-first culture. Fran currently
serves on the board of directors for Americares, Global Citizen,
and ADP. Passionate about social justice, Fran is an activist and
advocate for a variety of causes close to her heart, particularly
women’s leadership, homeless youth and the Latino community.


 


Michael C. Bush is CEO of Great Place to Work. His global
research and analytics firm produces the annual “Fortune 100 Best
Companies to Work For” list, the “World’s Best Workplaces” list,
the “100 Best Workplaces for Women” list, the “Best Workplaces
for Diversity” list, and dozens of other distinguished workplace
rankings around the world. Driven by a love of business and an
unwavering commitment to fair and equitable treatment, Michael
joined Great Place to Work as CEO in 2015, bringing 30 years of
experience leading and growing organizations. This includes
serving as CEO of Tetra Tech Communications. Michael is a former
member of President Obama’s White House Business Council and a
founding board member of the private equity seed fund Fund Good
Jobs, which invests in small inner-city businesses.


 


Daniel Dirks is a managing vice president in Gartner’s HR
research practice. He has been with Gartner for eight years and
leads research teams in the areas of HR strategy, HR cost and
budget, total rewards and performance, and working with the CEO.
He has also been in the lead for our global COVID-19-related HR
response task force. Prior to joining Gartner, Daniel was
responsible for all global HR topics at Allianz Group, ranging
from HR strategy and policies to global compensation, talent
management, EVP, diversity, analytics, and global corporate
responsibility. In the 1990s, Daniel led the economics department
at the German Institute for Japanese Studies in Tokyo. He holds a
Ph.D. in business and economics from the University of
Witten/Herdecke, Germany.