To: Prof. Massen Franklin University
From: Ashwin Pereira
Subject: Cisco Code of Business Conduct
Date: February 17, 2014

Business Brief

Cisco has developed a comprehensive Code of Business Conduct (COBC) for its employees. The code of conduct attributes high importance to integrity, transparency, fairness, and trust. The COBC guides an employee’s conduct when interacting with colleagues, clients, and business partners. It is used as a reference point when an employee faces an ethical dilemma. The cornerstone of this policy is doing business ethically, transparently, and respect for one another. The mantra that drives Cisco’s COBC is “any success that is not achieved ethically is no success at all.”

Ethics Violations

An employee who does not conduct one’s self in accordance with COBC policy automatically violates the ethics policy. An employee will be in violation if any of the following lapses occur:
Commits financial fraud – Violation of this nature would involve not reporting financial data accurately or intentionally manipulating financial information.
Commits Illegal Acts – A Cisco employee does not adhere to local or international laws.
Breaches - US Foreign Corrupt Practice Act. A violation of this nature would mean that the employee involved in corrupt practices outside the United States.
Discriminates – Any form of discrimination within Cisco will lead to a violation. Cisco employees who discriminate based gender, race, color, religion, ancestry, etc are in violation of Cisco’s ethics policy.

Reporting Ethics Violations

Cisco encourages its employees to report any activity with their business environment that the employee does not feel right doing. The Cisco COBC provides its employees very helpful “as yourself” tool to answer key ethical questions. These questions help the employee make an ethical decision. Based on this tool if an employee finds out that a violation has taken place, Cisco asks that its employees do the following:
Discussion with a Manager or HR representative – As a first step Cisco asks that the employee talk directly to a manager or a human resource representative.
If an employee is not comfortable discussing an ethics violation, Cisco provides many avenues for an employee to report a violation. The employee can choose to:
Email – The employee can e-mail the ethics office at ethics@cisco.com or cobc@cisco.com
Online – Cisco provides its employees many options online to report violations, some of which are an anonymous web form, ethics disclosure tools, or a secure internal case reporting tool.

Phone – Cisco employees have access to a multilingual toll-free ethics phone line which is available 24 hours, seven days a week. This toll-free line is available across the world with country-based access.
Regular Mail – Cisco employees can choose to send an anonymously to the audit committee.

Based on Cisco’s longstanding commitment to ethics, the Ethisphere Institute has recognized Cisco as one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies for 6 consecutive years (Cisco Company Website, 2014).

Reference

Cisco Company Website. (2014). Retrieved from Cisco: www.cisco.com

To: Prof. Massen Franklin University
From: Ashwin Pereira
Subject: Message for Analysis
Date: February 17, 2014

Business Brief
After thoroughly reviewing the message, it is found that the message lacks planning and structure. The author’s main point is not clear throughout the message. The purpose of the message is not clear. The message fails to analyze the audience. The message lacks organization. The message is not logical. The text is not well-organized which makes it difficult to read. The author does not clearly define the goals or objectives. The message appears direct without providing any background information. Message lacks structure and does not adhere to sentence formation guidelines. This message lacks a topic sentence. Message fails to communicate efficiently. The message does not ask for any action from