CISCO
Cisco predicted that the Internet would change the way we work, live, play and learn. Just four years ago this was considered a bold statement, but today few would argue that the Internet is changing every aspect of our lives. Cisco Systems is managed by 2 board of directors, 7 officers, and 12 senior staff members. John Chambers is president and CEO of Cisco Systems, the worldwide leader of networking for the Internet.
Before working at Cisco Systems, Chambers worked at IBM and Wang. Chambers is the first to admit that his prior employers have had a tremendous impact on his current leadership style. At IBM, for example, he was once given a poor evaluation after meeting nine out of ten self-determined objectives. As a result, he tends to focus on a few achievable goals. At Wang, he witnessed a successful company’s demise during which he had to personally oversee five layoffs—over 4,000 people. This is an experience he has vowed never to repeat. Shaped by these experiences, Chambers developed a very clear idea of how he would run a company—as a coach. Chambers vowed to train his executives to be leaders in their own right and make their own decisions, not to follow him. John Chambers’ hands-off management style has enabled an environment of risk takers to flourish
Chambers joined Cisco in 1991 as Senior Vice President, Worldwide Sales and Operations. Since January 1995, when he assumed this position as CEO, Chambers has grown the company from $1.2 billion in annual revenues to its current run-rate of approximately $20 billion. Some of Chambers strong points as a leader are his visionary strategy, his ability to drive an entrepreneurial culture, and his warm-hearted, straight-talking approach. Chambers is considered one of the most innovative and dynamic leaders in global business today, not only by the government, but also by countless publications worldwide. Examples of a few publications are the National Investor Relations Institute, The Sunday Times (U.K.), Fortune magazine, and the Network World. Today most employees who have met John agree that he is the man they most admire at Cisco. However, all also agree that Cisco would not have become Cisco without its early adoption of the Internet and Internet related technologies.
Cisco’s core values are of education, leveraging technology, and the involvement of their employees in the process. The management strives to promote a culture of charitable giving and connect their coworkers to nonprofit organizations serving the communities in which they live. They invest their best-in-class networking equipment to those nonprofit organizations that best put it to work for their communities. One can see a common thread running through everything they do: they want to empower people to help themselves.
Cisco is proud to play a key role in shaping the Internet economy. Using Internet applications, Cisco realized more than US$1.7 billion in cost savings last year. In 1997, Cisco conducted one-third of the world's electronic commerce. Today more than 90 percent of Cisco's orders [next page]