How often are CCIE's also CEO's of an IT consulting company?

I'm curious how often you've seen a CCIE who is also the owner/CEO of a Cisco Gold partner or other type of Cisco reseller. I've come across quite a few companies lately who specialize specifically in offering networking solutions to the government or to other medium-to-large businesses, yet I've never seen any owned by a CCIE.

I recently ran across one where the owner was a CCVP, CCNP, and MBA...but thats been the only one I've seen. Is it just coincidence that I haven't seen this, or do most CCIE's just stick to consulting, don't have the business saavy, etc?

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reaper81

If you go for the CCIE you are really deep into technology. It is the most difficult and technology cert out there. Going from there to a CEO is a big step and most people don't want to loose all touch with technology. I'm sure they could if they wanted since CCIEs are generally pretty smart and can learn pretty much everything if they put their mind to it.

There are probably a lot of CCIEs that are managers for network teams and such though.

Turgon

RickRandhawa wrote: »

I'm curious how often you've seen a CCIE who is also the owner/CEO of a Cisco Gold partner or other type of Cisco reseller. I've come across quite a few companies lately who specialize specifically in offering networking solutions to the government or to other medium-to-large businesses, yet I've never seen any owned by a CCIE.

I recently ran across one where the owner was a CCVP, CCNP, and MBA...but thats been the only one I've seen. Is it just coincidence that I haven't seen this, or do most CCIE's just stick to consulting, don't have the business saavy, etc?

Hardly any. The industry is increasingly owned by business/commercial technocrats who would only recognise a Cisco 7206VXR if it landed on their heads. They slipped in quietly while the geeks got drunk on more and more command line from 1998 - 2006. Within Cisco itself CCIEs are not very high in the senior management eschelons. Increasingly companies are run by business types who are semi technical at best and what technical background they have is years off the pace. I recall in 1998 when I made a call to a company we needed help from with a legacy systems crash that the boss had experience 'but hadn't been pressing buttons for five years'.

What basically happened was the movers and shakers took control of strategy and management, things that turned the geeks off. Technical people became a resource and the management took over the commercial side..which pays the bills. You can always hire another geek if the ones you have become too difficult. Things were different in 1998 when the geeks had the whip hand and the management were running scared but needed geeks. Everyone then tried to move into geekland at the same time as the managers regrouped and made their plans to take over. They did. Many geeks to choose from, recession, management in control and creaming the top salaries by turning the screw on the geek echelons to make savings.

chrisone

It takes a business mind to run a business. It takes a technical mind to solve technical problems.

You can be both, but it is very hard, and it IS frequently done.

mikearama

Turgon wrote: »

Hardly any. The industry is increasingly owned by business/commercial technocrats who would only recognise a Cisco 7206VXR if it landed on their heads. They slipped in quietly while the geeks got drunk on more and more command line from 1998 - 2006. Within Cisco itself CCIEs are not very high in the senior management eschelons. Increasingly companies are run by business types who are semi technical at best and what technical background they have is years off the pace. I recall in 1998 when I made a call to a company we needed help from with a legacy systems crash that the boss had experience 'but hadn't been pressing buttons for five years'.

What basically happened was the movers and shakers took control of strategy and management, things that turned the geeks off. Technical people became a resource and the management took over the commercial side..which pays the bills. You can always hire another geek if the ones you have become too difficult. Things were different in 1998 when the geeks had the whip hand and the management were running scared but needed geeks. Everyone then tried to move into geekland at the same time as the managers regrouped and made their plans to take over. They did. Many geeks to choose from, recession, management in control and creaming the top salaries by turning the screw on the geek echelons to make savings.

Wow Turgon... brilliantly explained. Very nice.

Turgon

mikearama wrote: »

Wow Turgon... brilliantly explained. Very nice.

Thank you very much. Nice you said it was brilliantly explained.

NOC-Ninja

Wise explanation Turgon. It shows your years of experience.

You can always hire another geek if the ones you have become too difficult. Now if this can apply to every company , then we will have a better world.

sieff

My CEO does not hold any certs to my knowledge ... but all Managers, Directors and VP's of Engineering hold at least one CCIE cert, some are dual CCIE's. Almost all have CCIE R&S.

Tackle

I'm another one that'll agree with Turgon.

Currently work in a place like he describes. The owner used to be a big part of the IT here (Was initially a break/fix shop for SMB). He knew and worked on the servers.

Now that we've virtualized and use a SAN for storage, he really doesn't know what is going on or how everything is setup. I doubt he'd be able to figure out how to access a server besides RDP. Wasn't thought about at the time but I'd say that is pretty good job security for us 2 Sys Admins here.

RickRandhawa

What type of company do you work for?

sieff wrote: »

My CEO does not hold any certs to my knowledge ... but all Managers, Directors and VP's of Engineering hold at least one CCIE cert, some are dual CCIE's. Almost all have CCIE R&S.

sieff

RickRandhawa wrote: »

What type of company do you work for?

Cisco Gold Partner

ColbyG

sieff wrote: »

My CEO does not hold any certs to my knowledge ... but all Managers, Directors and VP's of Engineering hold at least one CCIE cert, some are dual CCIE's. Almost all have CCIE R&S.

Same situation here, but I wouldn't say all of our managers, directors, etc, hold CCIEs. We have a ton of IEs and guys with solid engineering backgrounds in middle to upper management.