Chambers saw this happen at Wang, where the company clung too long to old businesses and it eventually became Chambers' job to fire 5,000 employees. He says he will never do anything like that again. At Cisco, Chambers and his cadre of very smart lieutenants keep an eye on the market and use their incredibly deep pockets to buy more companies in whatever technical direction the industry moves. It's a game of catch-up that Cisco can afford to play, one that reduces uncertainty and probably saves money in the long run. Chambers does this knowing that unlike most of its competitors, Cisco is good at assimilating acquisitions and, what's more, is itself too large to be acquired.
Chambers leaves nothing to chance.
Nothing to chance, that is, except the future, which he can't control. There is no five-year plan at Cisco, no distant goal other than getting bigger and more profitable by pushing bits in whatever direction makes the most sense at that time. Chambers' strength is his ability to live with that reality, to trust the smart people around him to brilliantly execute a plan written in sand, knowing that next year or the year after it will all change again. Chambers's natural role is that of sales manager, and he brings a sales-management approach to the whole company. He gives his private office number to customers and urges them to call if there are problems.