Chuck Robbins has already made his mark on Cisco by announcing a new executive team to accompany him as he attempts to market the company to a new generation.

He’s aiming for a high target - but maybe this team has the smarts to get him there. Robbins has hired five men and five women, an impressive move seen against Reddit’s interim CEO Ellen Pao’s recent sexism suit against venture capitalist firm Kleiner Perkins.

First Amongst Equals

Compare this team to the numbers from other major Silicon Valley companies and you’ll see the difference. Google just has three women out of twenty on their senior team!

It’s also interesting to see the wide age distribution. Dr Ruba Borno, who is 34, has been hired as VP of Growth Initiatives and Chief of Staff, as well as Hilton Romanski, 42, who is taking over as CTO from the well-known Padmasree Warrior.

Reflecting the Market

Robbins recognises the company must reflect the complexity of today’s market in order to deliver the new vision of outcome-oriented solutions.

In a blogpost, Robbins stressed the need for a team of leaders with more diverse backgrounds to help grapple with Cisco’s latest challenges, which requires innovation to “pull away from the competition.”

Its certainly a move that will make Cisco unique in Silicon Valley, where the lack of diversity runs rampant.

Old Habits

In sharp contrast, see Snapchat co-founder Evan Spiegel’s latest interview at the Re-code Conference, where he dismissed inequality in his company and declared it be the problem of ‘society as a whole’.

Photo courtesy of reddit.com.