He suffered from dyslexia, and without special education he would not have been able to go to college, he says. It's just the infrastructure isn't quite in place yet, and we don't know how to manage it from a social point of view. But in a decade, we will. So if we don't fix this education system in our country, where we're 19th in math and 21st in science, we're going to leave the majority of our young people behind. The velocity of change requires people who can think quickly, Chambers says.
Cisco is well-known for moving quickly to seize opportunities, particularly in acquisitions.
Chambers says Cisco should have moved quicker. It could have had Cerent six months earlier at a quarter the price. Leadership in this environment is about listening hard and acting fast. The best ideas almost always come from customers and lower-level employees, Chambers says. It's also different than it used to be.