????思科（Cisco）業績呈兩位數增長的時期或許已經結束了，但這家科技巨擘在過去幾年里已采取了一系列明智的措施來調整策略——比如削減成本，專注于自己前景最佳的業務，并且在該公司30年歷史上第一次向股東派發季度股息。作為思科首席財務官，弗蘭克?卡爾德洛尼在上述許多策略調整措施的幕后發揮了積極有益的作用。我們有幸對他進行了采訪，和他一起探討了思科派發巨額股息背后的策略、思科目前復興措施的進展以及如何才能提振公司股價等問題。

《財富》：思科為什么在這么多年之后決定開始派發股息呢？

????卡爾德洛尼：我們目前的處境很幸運，我們在資產負債表上擁有接近500億美元的現金。鑒于我們擁有這么多現金，加上我們良好的財務業績，我們的股東們對獲得良好的回報都很感興趣。多年來，我們主要致力于通過從2002年開始的股票回購計劃來給他們提供大量的回報。但我們通過聽取股東們的意見，了解了他們最重視的東西是什么之后，發現他們希望思科派發股息。我們向股票持有者派發股息的部分原因是我們手頭擁有大量現金，但還有部分原因是投資者越來越希望公司派息的這個趨勢。

????大約兩年前，我們開始派發股息。而在今年8月份，我們做了一個非常大膽的舉動——大幅提高了股息，現在我們成為股息收益率最高的公司之一。我們還為未來制定了一個框架，我們稱之為資本分配策略。就是說，每年，以年度為基礎，我們將把50％的現金流回報給股東們。投資者希望在回報方面獲得更多的確定性，他們希望我們做出某種對公司未來業務有信心的表現。我們預計我們的業績將會持續增長，持續產生現金，而我們愿意把這些現金回報給他們。

思科的整體戰略進展如何？

????大約在一年前，我們改變了業務發展策略，不再追逐許多不同的業務市場機會，而是更加專注于我們的五大優先發展的基本核心業務。我們公司內部為此開展了大量的工作，確定了負責這五大基本核心業務的領導人，并且確保這些領導人設有合適的業績衡量標準。一年多前，我們還不得不將運營成本削減10億美元。我認為投資者很欣賞這項計劃。我們曾表示需要約三個季度的時間來完成這項計劃，但我們在大約兩個季度的時間內就完成了，因此他們對此留下了深刻的印象。我認為，由于10億美元絕不是一個小數目，而且投資者知道削減成本并不是一件容易的事，因此他們最初對此有些懷疑。在那次削減成本的計劃中，我們采取的其他措施之一是為投資者重新構造財務業績增長模型。也就是說，我們放棄了幾年前制定的年營收增長12％-17％的四年戰略目標。由于把專注目標重新調整到五大基本核心業務上，我們將之前的年營收增長目標下調到了5％-7％之間。

削減成本是一個方面，但未來五年思科的營收增長將從何而來？

????目前數據中心業務顯示的很可能是我們最高的業績增速。數年前我們尚未涉足數據中心業務，而現在，從市場份額的角度來看，我們已經成為第三大數據中心服務供應商。我們擁有非常先進的數據中心產品，而且我們預計這種趨勢將會持續下去；其次我想說的是網絡安全業務，還有無線以及Wi-Fi網絡和視頻及協作領域正在出現的進展。還有我們的服務業務——我們在這塊業務中看到了更多的軟件和服務的機遇。

????Cisco's (CSCO) days of double-digit growth may be over, but the tech giant has made some smart moves over the last couple of years—like cutting costs, focusing in on its most promising businesses, and giving out a quarterly dividend to shareholders for the first time in its nearly 30-year-long history. As the company's chief financial officer, Frank Calderoni has played an instrumental -- and behind-the-scenes -- role in many of these shifts. We caught up with him to discuss the strategy behind Cisco's hefty dividend, how its turnaround efforts are working out and what it will take to get its stock back up.

FORTUNE: Why did you decide to start paying a dividend after so many years?

????Calderoni: We're in a fortunate situation where we have close to $50 billion on our balance sheet. As a result of the amount of cash and our financial performance we have a shareholder base that's interested in getting a good return. For a number of years we were primarily focused on providing them a substantial return of cash through our buyback, which we started in 2002. But what we found by listening to our shareholders and understanding what's important to them is that they wanted capital allocation. Part of it has to do with the amount of cash that we have, but also there's been a growing trend with investors to look at a dividend.

????About two years ago we introduced a dividend. And just this past August we made a very bold step of an aggressive increase in the dividend to the point that now we're one of the highest paying yielding dividends. We also laid out a framework for the future which we call the capital allocation strategy. This says that every year, on an annual basis, we will return 50% of our cash flow. Investors wanted more certainty and they were looking for a statement from us that we felt comfortable about our business going forward. We see our business continuing to grow continuing to generate cash and that we're willing to return that cash.

How is Cisco's overall strategy working out?

????If you step back over the last year or so, we have transformed the business and moved away from going after many different opportunities and are staying more focused around our five foundational priorities. We did a lot of work internally around that, and identified business leaders to drive those foundational priorities and made sure they had the right metrics. We also had to take $1 billion out of our run rate over a year ago. I think the investors were appreciative of that. We said we'd do it in about three quarters, and we did it in about two quarters, so they were impressed with that. I think there were some skeptics early on because of the magnitude of the $1 billion and knowing that it's not easy. One of the other things that we did as part of that process was to reframe the financial model for investors. So we were talking about larger growth opportunity in the 12% to 17% range back several years ago. With the refocus on the five foundational priorities we took that rate and said 5% to 7% revenue growth.

Cutting costs is one thing, but where will your revenue growth come from over the next few years?

????The data center business is probably showing the highest growth. If you go back a few years ago we were not in the data center market, now we're now number three from a market share perspective. We've got very leading-edge products in the data center and we see that continuing. The second thing I would say is security. There's also wireless and what's happening with wi-fi networks and video and collaboration. And there's our services business--with that we see more of a software and services opportunity.