Cisco’s Chambers: A retrospective
You don’t become one of the most admired and successful CEOs in Silicon Valley and in all of business by doing many things wrong.Sure, there were missteps along the way for Cisco during the 20 year leadership of John Chambers. But they are outnumbered by the successes and overshadowed by the company’s sustained growth over those two decades.“The growth of the company, from what it was to what it became,” will be the highlight of Chambers’ career, says Glenn O’Donnell, a Forrester Research analyst. “Cisco is one of the great success stories of Silicon Valley. That will be his legacy.”Chambers will step down on July 26. His successor is Chuck Robbins, a 17-year Cisco veteran and currently the senior vice president of worldwide operations, responsible for direct and indirect sales. That was the same role Chambers had in 1995 when he was named CEO, having come to Cisco from Wang Laboratories in 1991.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here