Cisco’s Center for Collaboration Leadership clarifies for executives what type of leadership and business results are expected of them, making success easier to envision.

Plenty of programs move women through the pipeline for top jobs at this information technology and networking company. Deliberately sought out to fill positions at the VP level and above, candidates are then interviewed about their goals and provided with an executive coach to design a career plan. Female directors and VPs who join the Executive Action Learning Forum receive extra guidance, interact with female leaders and get a rare chance to study how different company strategies affect the bottom line. Members of the Connected Women employee resource group attend events that address a range of business topics, from office politics to online networking; some also participate in executive shadowing sessions, in which they observe those farther up the ladder.

Chairman & CEO: John Chambers

Interim Chief HR Officer: Jim Gemmell

% of senior managers who are women: 20%

% of corporate executives who are women: 17%

% of promotions to manager, senior manager and corporate executive positions that went to women: 24%

% of the top 10% of the company’s earners who are women: 18%

% of corporate executives with profit-and-loss responsibility who are women: 12%

% of the executives running divisions with revenues of more than a billion dollars who are women: --

% of executives who report directly to the CEO who are women: 20%

% of the members of the board of directors who are women: 15%

% of female workforce participating in mentoring: 64%