Have
a big idea? Dreaming of ‘Kab Banega Crore pati’?
Driving down the road…and flash! You hit upon an idea that
could change the world. An idea that will put you into the annals
of history as a pioneer…but how and where do you start? I’ll
help you find out.
Meet
John Chambers, CEO@Cisco
Cisco
routers, networking solutions and the Internet- the association
is almost seamless. Provider of 80% of all communications equipment,
Cisco dominates this sector just as Microsoft does for desktop
applications.
“No Cisco… no Internet” is how an analyst preferred
to describe Cisco dominance. The reason for this success is largely
due to the efforts of John Chambers, third person to occupy the
seat of CEO at Cisco.
Born
in a family where both parents were doctors Chambers preferred
to graduate in Law with a management degree from the University
of Indiana. It is surprising to many that despite the fact that
Chambers is not an engineer he happens to be the founder of a
technology driven enterprise.
Endowed with the gift of the gab, Chambers uses it to the fullest.
His presentation skills are legendary. Another important thing
that he values the most is customer service. It is said that Chambers
walked in late for his first board meeting as CEO because he was
attending to a disgruntled customer!
Competitors and customers admire the corporate culture that Chambers
has built; so much so that a competitor once exclaimed, “Why
is everybody smiling at Cisco?” It is said that chambers
spends a lot of time with the people at Cisco. Barbara Beck, a
senior employee once refused promotion because it would eat into
the time she had to spend with her young children. To this, Chambers
said that if Cisco could not be flexible to her needs, it was
not a good company. Barbara Beck is now a senior VP at Cisco.
Mergers and acquisitions are not an uncommon feature at Cisco
since Chambers took hold of its reins. Despite the fact that Cisco
is known for the largerst M&As in the technology segment,
Chambers does not believe in retrenching employees.
Cisco has been billed as an M&A giant. Since Chambers took
command of Cisco, the company has been involved in some of the
largest takeovers in the technology segment. One factor remains
constant across all the M&As: employees from the acquired
company are never retrenched. At the time of acquiring any company
Cisco looks at the value-add it can bring in terms of talent and
not only financials.
Cisco has taken in a number of dotcoms and start-ups only to make
sure that it gets new ideas that will keep up the winning streak.
Chambers believes that Cisco has the talent to power the Internet
and lead the market as the most influential company in American
Corporate history because the team at Cisco believes in this mission
as much as he does.
Have
a big idea? Dreaming of ‘Kab Banega Crore pati’?