I nonetheless do not forget that American Beginner Baseball Congress (AABC) championship recreation the place, with the scoreboard studying 1-1 within the closing inning, a floor ball shot towards me and all the pieces slowed down. The essential double-play required absolute precision – one fraction of an inch off, and our season would finish. We executed flawlessly, establishing the game-winning house run moments later. Years later at Lawrence Stadium in Wichita, Kansas, I discovered myself in an excellent greater highlight – the NBC World Sequence with 16,000 followers making a wall of sound, the vitality electrical as we battled by means of 9 intense innings with each fan on their toes for the dramatic conclusion.
These epic video games taught me one thing I’ve carried into enterprise: in high-stakes conditions, the margin for error is vanishingly small. Groups that succeed aren’t simply proficient — they’re exactly calibrated machines the place each part works in excellent concord to ship outcomes that matter.
Whereas my experiences come from baseball, these ideas of teamwork, preparation, and execution apply throughout all sports activities and aggressive endeavors, whether or not it’s soccer (soccer) groups coordinating intricate performs, biking groups working collectively within the Tour de France, or cricket gamers executing beneath stress. The common classes of elite sports activities transcend the particular recreation.
Rising up in a baseball household formed my method to enterprise technique. From following my father Luis Pujols as he coached the Montreal Expos to spending numerous hours in clubhouses watching Corridor of Famers put together, sports activities knowledge has influenced how I work with our companions at Cisco to create distinctive buyer experiences.
As we put together for the Cisco 360 Companion Program launch in February 2026, I see clear parallels between sports activities coaching and customer-focused companion enablement. Each are about preparation, assessing capabilities, and making mandatory changes to ship profitable outcomes.
The Best Crew That By no means Was
Within the early Nineteen Nineties, my father was the bench coach for what many think about “the best crew that by no means was” – the Montreal Expos squad stacked with future Corridor of Famers like Pedro Martinez, Larry Walker, and Vladimir Guerrero. This wasn’t only a good crew; it was a traditionally nice assortment of expertise poised to win a World Sequence.
Then the 1994 MLB strike occurred, reducing the season brief and shattering these hopes. I skilled this firsthand, shifting between Houston, Montreal, and Florida as my father’s profession dictated our household geography.
Like that Expos crew, our companions have assembled spectacular capabilities. However in contrast to that crew, we received’t let exterior components derail our momentum. The Cisco 360 Companion Program represents our window of alternative – an opportunity to align our enterprise mannequin with buyer wants in ways in which generate measurable worth for them whereas creating sustainable progress for our complete ecosystem.
The Psychological Recreation: Creating Buyer Worth
What most individuals don’t perceive about sports activities on the highest stage is that it’s primarily psychological. The refined changes, anticipation, and strategic pondering separate good gamers from nice ones.
I used to be reminded of this when an previous teammate visited. As we watched a recreation collectively, my spouse listened to our dialog about catcher positioning to shave valuable tenths of a second off throw occasions and different refined changes invisible to most viewers. She was shocked at this hidden layer of the sport occurring proper earlier than her eyes.
Equally, the Cisco 360 Companion Program isn’t nearly altering incentive buildings – it’s about reworking how we collectively create worth for purchasers. By rewarding companions throughout your entire buyer lifecycle – from land to undertake, increase, and renew – we’re incentivizing the exact behaviors that result in superior buyer outcomes. The companions who succeed shall be those that perceive how these refined changes of their method ship the experiences clients have to thrive of their digital transformation.
Dedication, Consistency, and Braveness in Buyer Success
Throughout my teenage years, I spent numerous hours at Olympic Stadium training the identical transfer repeatedly. In the future, pissed off by the monotony, I complained about doing the identical drill for weeks on finish.
A veteran participant overheard me and walked over. “You’re complaining about doing this for days and weeks,” Larry Walker stated, wanting me straight within the eyes. “I’ve been doing it for 20 years. That’s what it takes to be nice: dedication, consistency, and braveness.”
These phrases modified my method ceaselessly. All through highschool and faculty, I wrote “CCC” beneath the brim of my baseball cap as a reminder that greatness requires these three parts.
For our companions navigating the transition to the Cisco 360 Companion Program, this similar “CCC” precept applies to buyer success: Dedication to understanding their enterprise challenges, consistency in delivering dependable experiences, and braveness to evolve your service mannequin to fulfill their altering wants. These qualities separate companions who create transformative buyer worth from those that merely fulfill transactions.
Respecting the Technique of Transformation
Studying to respect the method of transformation got here to me the exhausting manner. After one recreation, I made a careless choice to swing an chubby bat that I had no enterprise utilizing. The consequence was a torn rotator cuff that sidelined me for a 12 months and a half.
Compelled to look at others play the sport I liked, I mirrored on my mistake. I hadn’t correctly ready my physique for that transition. Transformation requires a full dedication – your complete system must be prepared for change.
The lesson applies on to our clients and companions in the present day. Digital transformation requires systematic preparation and holistic change. Our clients want companions who perceive this journey and may information them by means of it safely. With the Cisco 360 Companion Program, we’re enabling companions to develop the capabilities wanted to attenuate buyer threat whereas accelerating their transformation outcomes.
The Excessive-Efficiency Routine
One among my most vivid recollections is watching Pedro Martinez – all 150 kilos of him – in his post-workout routine. Whereas I might almost match his weightlifting numbers as a younger participant, what separated Pedro was his meticulous method to physique upkeep, diet, and restoration.
For our companions navigating the transition to the Cisco 360 Companion Program, there’s the same mindset required for delivering buyer worth. Success isn’t nearly making the massive performs when the highlight is on – it’s in regards to the constant, typically unglamorous work of constructing capabilities, understanding applied sciences, and creating repeatable processes that create distinctive buyer experiences each single day.
The Buyer-Centered Ecosystem
What made nice sports activities groups particular wasn’t simply particular person expertise – it was how these skills complemented one another inside a system designed to win. Every participant had a task, and the entire turned larger than the sum of its components.
That’s precisely what we’re constructing with the Cisco 360 Companion Program. Shifting past transactional relationships to customer-centric worth creation requires specialised capabilities and cross-industry experience. Simply as a crew wants gamers with distinct expertise, our ecosystem wants companions who excel in numerous areas – managed providers, lifecycle help, vertical options, and extra – all working collectively to ship full options that handle our clients’ most complicated challenges.
Prepared for the Buyer-Centered Future
As we method February 2026, we’re in our preparation part. It’s our time to construct capabilities, perceive the place we have to enhance, and make investments earlier than the brand new program launches.
Once I assume again to that Montreal Expos crew that by no means bought its shot at a championship, I’m reminded that we are able to’t take alternatives without any consideration. With the Cisco 360 Companion Program, we’ve an opportunity to align our companion economics with buyer success in methods that may drive mutual progress for years to come back.
The query is: Will you be able to ship the transformative buyer worth that may outline our shared success?
Earlier than his know-how profession, Alex Pujols performed Division 1 baseball (the best stage of U.S. collegiate athletics) as a catcher and third baseman. He’s the son of former Main League Baseball participant and coach Luis Pujols, who’s cousin to Albert Pujols, one in every of baseball’s best hitters of all time.
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