Building Democratic Products and Networks with Morgan Teachworth, the VP of Engineering & Supply Chain at Cisco Meraki

Setting up a network at home can devolve into a stream of choice words while pulling out your hair. A sudden, global shift to remote and hybrid work can lead to the same frustration for a number of reasons that may or may not include setting up a router. Morgan Teachworth, the VP of Engineering & Supply Chain at Cisco Meraki, suggests that his company was ideally positioned to support a hybrid workflow.

Main Takeaways

• Supporting Hybrid Workflows: It’s obvious that the working world has shifted to many more fully remote or hybrid models. Morgan shares how Cisco Meraki was in a good place to help people from home set up networks easily with what he describes as “plug and play” options. With so much of the workforce under strain, any products that quickly make working from home easier and more secure are valuable to employees and their companies. 
• Straddling Engineering and Supply Chain: Being the VP of Engineering & Supply Chain is a pretty unique job title for Morgan. It affords him the opportunity to connect both worlds together. Fundamentally, it makes sense that any person who builds hardware ought to also be considering the supply chain. Though it may not always be easy, doing so will strengthen products.    
• Needing Engineers With Good People Skills: Teachworth describes how Cisco Meraki engineers embed with outside manufacturers to work as a team to produce products. He makes the point that it is important that these engineers are able to work well with these contractors. Even more importantly, he chats about how these relational skills can be developed when assisted by communicative management. This mentality can certainly be helpful across industries. On one hand, leaders need to find employees that have good relationship skills. On the other hand, these skills can also be leveled-up through clear conversations and training.
• Innovations in intelligence: In terms of future innovations, Morgan points out two primary areas concerning intelligence. The first is intelligence at the edge in terms of devices and gaining more insight into the physical world. The other intelligence aspect is gaining a greater understanding of what’s happening beyond one’s network into other areas of the world, and what he calls the “pipes,” since so much of what’s occurring is interrelated. Each of these types of intelligence could provide actionable insight to initiate changes.
• Democratizing Access: Many people still do not have network access or the ability to use the internet. This is true in the United States and around the world. Morgan contends that working toward democratization is essential. Making easy to use products can be helpful but they must be broadly shared. Morgan explains that leaning into the edge must be a part of the solution to democratize access for the entire world. 

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