Speaking at a Las Vegas company gathering that was attended by 15,000 of Cisco’s customers, partners and others, chief executive John Chambers reflected on the company’s internal policies. The board-based decision-making system he set forth about four years ago greatly slowed down Cisco, subsequently contributing to the decline the networking giant has seen in past year. “We were too complex,” Chambers said. “You will see us leaner and more focused.”

Mr. Chambers said the reorganization, which the company has been promising since mid-May, will cut the number of groups involved in developing new products. For example, multiple groups that create operating systems for Cisco will be combined into one, he said.

This internal streamlining also translated into thousands of layoffs. The staff reductions expected to be announced by August will reduce Cisco’s current workforce of 73,000 by about 6,000 people, when calculating in early retirement offers. Some think the number could get higher than that though: Gleacher & Co. analyst Brian Marshall believes 7,000 employees may  lose their jobs by the end of August, while Bloomberg cites two sources that claim the number could go as high as 10,000.

Cisco is currently a work in progress, as some called it, and some analysts are optimistic. The networking company’s stock has gone down by more than 30 percent in the past four quarters, which according to Barron’s means that it may be a good idea to buy shares while they’re still cheap.

Cisco is restructuring internally, and is also focusing on improving its somewhat fragmented products portfolio. Shortly before rolling out its Android-powered Cius business tablet, the company has launched AppHQ, the official enterprise-oriented app platform of the device.