John Chambers and the Cisco Way: Navigating Through Volatility
"Chambers is a West Virginia choirboy, soft-spoken, articulate, but inside he'll eat you up." --Peter Swartz, Analyst, Salomon Smith BarneyCisco Systems's CEO John Chambers is one of this country's most dynamic and innovative chief executives. His team-oriented management style, technological agnosticism, and near-fanatical focus on customers fueled his company's unprecedented rise in the ultra competitive and volatile technology sector. His personal charisma, innate optimism, and natural competitiveness advanced not only his own remarkable career, but also the interests of his company and his industry. Under his leadership, Cisco dominated computer networking, expanded into critical new markets, and emerged as one of the world's most powerful and important businesses.In his book, John Chambers and the Cisco Way: Navigating through Volatility, business and technology journalist John Waters investigates the Chambers/Cisco phenomenon. Through extensive interviews with industry analysts, venture capitalists, and Cisco executives, employees, customers, and competitors, Waters examines one of the most successful management approaches in recent memory, and chronicles the career and vision of the chief executive responsible for it.Tracing Chambers's personal journey from computer salesman to Fortune 500 CEO, Waters considers the man and the manager in the context of today's volatile economy. Weaving the vision, philosophy, and career of Chambers with the emergence, management, and growth of Cisco Systems, he delivers an honest portrait of one of our most compelling business leaders, an executive who may well be the quintessential Information Age CEO.The story of Chambers's rise to prominence and the evolution of Cisco Systems at the end of the twentieth century holds valuable lessons for seasoned executives, budding entrepreneurs, and anyone interested in business today.