Giancarlo’s Departure: Connecting the Dots to Avaya

The resignation of a high-level executive, like Charlie Giancarlo, inevitably leads to wild speculation from people who are not at all privy to that executive’s plans and thoughts. These people aren’t conveying actual knowledge, as much as they’re trying to read the tea leaves. I just noticed my cup is empty. Let’s see what we’ve got. The first thing I thought of when I heard about Charlie joining Silver Lake was the fact that Silver Lake is one of the two firms that took Avaya private this year. Avaya is a primary competitor to Cisco, particularly in the unified communications space. Charlie understands the UC space, and his Cisco credentials could help validate and strengthen Avaya’s attempts to differentiate itself in that market. Avaya has also announced an initiative for greater SMB penetration – which is an area that Charlie once ran for Cisco. It stands to reason he might have a thought or two about how to do that successfully. It’s hard to say what’s real, and what’s imagined at this point. It’s likely that Charlie’s contract with Cisco forbids him from going to a direct competitor. I don’t know that for a fact, but such clauses tend to be pretty standard, and are typically much more enforceable than when you, or me, or anybody among the great unwashed switches companies. Would working for Silver Lake, instead of Avaya, circumvent the issue of going to a competitor? Hard to say. I’m sure a good lawyer could make either argument. Should Avaya’s Lou D’Ambrosio be concerned about his job? Probably not for awhile anyway. And if the future numbers work to Lou’s favor, he probably won’t have to worry at all. But I agree with the folks who are speculating that Charlie’s departure from Cisco is directly linked to John Chambers’ decision to remain CEO for a few more years. Being the likely heir to the king must be nice for a time. But I imagine that desire for the next upward bump gets pretty strong after awhile. Giancarlo wasn’t the only Charlie waiting someone out to be king. Fortunately, he can change companies when he feels the need to do so. But it’s not like the other Charlie can change monarchies.