How Cisco's CEO John Chambers is Turning the Tech Giant Socialist

admin.lzt-csc.lzt.com.au — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 05:54:17 GMT

One of the first references we used inhouse for social networking acceptance in business was an article that appeared in ZDNet based on an interview with John Chambers, CEO of Cisco in the Australian Newspaper titled " Cisco CEO sings praises of Web 2.0 future" which was way back in May 2007.

Cisco like all technology companies is suffering from the financial turmoil but with considerable insight and universal acceptance of social networking tools across all aspects of it's organisation is in a much better position to weather the storm. John Chambers offers the following advice:

"Focus on what we can influence, and not over- or underreact to things we cannot. It's a question of living in the world as it is, not the way we want it to be."
Assess the damage externally -- vendors, customers, colleagues. "In 2001, we went to our customers in energy, manufacturing, and automotive, to name a few. We asked, 'How are you handling this?' "
"Ask yourself, 'Is this a market-driven phenomenon or did we do it to ourselves?' " Based on the answers you get, formulate a response. "In 2001, our strategy was working extremely well before the downturn, and it seemed to be working from the customers' side, so we said it was 90-10. That turned out to be about right."
Make a determination of how long this will last and how deep it is going to be. "Prepare yourself for it to be longer and deeper than you think. And then build flexibility to adjust quickly if you need to."
Get ready for the upturn. "What's our vision for where this industry is going with or without us?" That, he says, is a five-year horizon. "What is our differentiated strategy within that vision?" That's a two- to four-year plan. "How are we going to execute in the next 12 to 18 months?"

In a related series of interviews by by Ellen McGirt in Fast Company Magazine John Chambers explains in detail how he is "Turning the Tech Giant Socialist". Again a remarkable insight into how Cisco is embracing social network productivity tools in every aspect of it's business and what they have achieved and what they expect to achieve over the next 18 months.

A recent interview with John Chambers by Harvard Business Publishing compliments this article:

Insight

How Cisco's CEO John Chambers is Turning the Tech Giant Socialist