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Maciej Kranz

Vice President and General Manager

Corporate Strategic Innovation Group

Maciej Kranz brings 25 years of business and management experience to his position as Vice President, Corporate Technology Group. Kranz leads an effort focused on identifying and capitalizing on major technology market disruptions, shaping and amplifying Cisco technology strategy, and conducting technology due diligence for potential investments/acquisitions.

Prior to this role, Kranz drove the vision, strategy and P&L for a new hyper-growth business unit focused on Internet of Things. As General Manager, Connected Industries Group, he built a 220-person team and $250M business from the ground up in 18 months. He relentlessly evangelized the business across the company to establish the Internet of Things as a major Cisco initiative.

As VP Borderless Networks, Kranz led the efforts across Cisco businesses of defining, prioritizing, and delivering Borderless Network Architecture and roadmaps. Cisco networks enabled enterprises to conduct business and communicate from anywhere, anytime, and in any way they wish – as Borderless Networks.

With his tenure as VP of Marketing for the Wireless Networking Business Unit (WNBU), Kranz drove business and product strategy for business-class indoor and outdoor wireless and mobility offerings.

Kranz also led product management for the stackable Ethernet switching business unit, which he grew to a multi-billion dollar business across enterprise, small business, and Metro Ethernet networks.

Prior to Cisco, Kranz held various management positions at 3Com Corporation, where he was instrumental in the strategy, development and expansion into new markets of 3Com’s $1B Ethernet network interface cards (NICs) product line. He began his professional career at IBM Corporation in International Marketing.

Articles

January 4, 2017

INNOVATION

Road Trip to Transformation: It’s a Journey, Not a Destination

People often talk about deploying the Internet of Things (IoT) as if it’s a discrete project—something you do once, and then you move on to the next thing.  Nothing could be further from the truth. IoT is a multi-year journey, not a one-time event. IoT is not just about implementing IoT technology,…

December 8, 2016

INNOVATION

Pursue Real IoT Solutions, not Big White Whales

The search for the “next big thing” in technology has almost taken on mythic proportions. Just as Captain Ahab became obsessed with his pursuit of the elusive white whale in Moby Dick, it’s easy to get caught up in pursuing big solutions and big technology. But that is not necessarily the path to su…

November 30, 2016

INNOVATION

IoT and the Environment: Making It Easier To Be Green

To celebrate the launch last week of my book, Building the Internet of Things, I am taking a short break from my current series on my “Recipe for IoT Success” to offer an excerpt from the book: We are all aware of the environmental challenges facing both the developing and developed worlds. Pollute…

November 21, 2016

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

Building the Internet of Things:  A How-To Book on IoT

The Internet of Things (IoT) has become one of the most talked-about technology trends over the past few years. Yet many customers remain confused. Line-of-business managers don’t really care that much about the technology behind billions of connections. They care about business outcomes. They aren’…

November 17, 2016

INNOVATION

The Internet of Things Is About People, Not Just Things

Every major technology and business transition affects both process and people. Job roles change, some jobs are eliminated, and new jobs are created. The transition to the Internet of Things (IoT) is no different. While automation and more efficient processes may eliminate some jobs, IoT is creating…

November 10, 2016

INNOVATION

A Strong Partner Ecosystem Is the First Ingredient for IoT Success

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a critical next step for 21st century companies. But it’s also a complex, multidimensional transformation, demanding new skill sets, technologies, and business models. How to get started? Over years of working with companies at various stages in the IoT journey, I’ve…

November 3, 2016

INNOVATION

Securing the Internet of Things Is Everybody’s Responsibility

For the past couple of weeks, security and the Internet of Things (IoT) have been in the news like never before. During the first few days after the massive distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack on domain name service Dyn, I almost couldn’t look at a news outlet without seeing or hearing a dis…

October 26, 2016

INNOVATION

How to Get Started on the IoT Journey: Four Fast Paths to Payback

As I said in my last blog, implementing the Internet of Things (IoT) is a journey, not a one-time event. And like every journey, it begins with a single step. Over the last few years, I have met with dozens of customers across the world and in every industry. Believe it or not, many of them have not…

October 19, 2016

INNOVATION

Generation IoT: The Key to Business Survival in the 21st Century

“The only constant is change.” It’s an adage that goes back 2500 years to the Greek philosopher Heraclitus. But never has it been as true as it is today. Technology adoption is growing exponentially, driving change at a dizzying pace. Billions of devices are connecting to networks—most of them the s…