Yesterday I feel I was a part of a key moment in Cisco history – after 20 years of being at the helm of Cisco, John Chambers, our CEO stepped down and handed the reigns over to his successor, Chuck Robbins. But John isn’t leaving Cisco entirely, instead he has taken up the role of Executive Chairman and as they both mentioned, he will be Chucl’s’ ‘wingman’ as he guides the company into the next chapter.
This is a momentous moment in the history of Cisco as John guided us from a single product company into the gigantic multi product range company it is today – almost tipping over the $50bn turnover landmark.
I was fortunate enough to be selected by Phil Smith, CEO of Cisco UK&I, to represent the UK as the region ambassador in San Jose for the Cisco Rocks event. This was an amazing opportunity and something that will stick with me for the rest of my career.
One thing I have learnt in my time at Cisco, is we know how to throw a good celebration event. Cisco Rocks was a Global celebration event to thank John for his 20 years of commitment to Cisco and to welcome Chuck as the new CEO. There were also celebration events happening all over the globe including the UK.
We kicked off the day with Chuck’s first Ask me Anything session as CEO where he introduced the new leadership team and fielded questions from the audience. One of the things that was really apparent during this session, was not just Chuck’s gravitas as he answered the questions, his down to earth nature and humor, but also the cohesion that seems to have developed so quickly amongst his leadership team and the feeling of excitement and just wanting to get started on the execution of the strategy. The other topic that was raised was the diversity of the new Executive Leadership Team (ELT), not just the fact that it is pretty much a 50/50 split male to female which is unusual in a FTSE100 firm, but the age range as well – with Dr. Ruba Borno being the youngest at 34 – with my Early in Career Network hat this is great to see the under 35’s being represented on the board.
After a short interlude we were then taken to the Levi Stadium (home of the San Francisco 49ers American Football Team) where we had an intimate lunch with Chuck, John and the rest of the ELT. We had the opportunity to ask the questions we wanted to with a greater focus on our regions and the burning issues we wanted to raise about Cisco as a whole – with my role as the Early in Career Network lead for the UK, I asked them about what their focus is on developing the young talent coming into Cisco and the glass ceiling we seem to hit when wanting to move into management – to my surprise Chuck and Fran (Chief People Officer) said this was something that was on their radar and they would love to work with the UK ECN more to develop this further and work through a potential solution – I really felt they had their finger on the pulse and took our opinions on board
Then to finish off the somewhat surreal day – might have something to do with Jet Lag – we attended the Cisco Rocks Concert where we had sets from the amazing Christina Aguilera and Keith Urban (American Idol and Country artist for those not up on their US culture).
During the afternoon and as a celebration for John’s work there were a number of farewell messages and of course, it wouldn’t be a Cisco event if John didn’t have the opportunity to say goodbye and for Chuck to be welcomed in as CEO.
One of the most touching moments of the afternoon was when both John and Chuck brought their families onto the stage – John indicating he wants to spend more time with his family, including his grand-children and Chuck acknowledging that he would not be where he was today without his family – John always refereed to Cisco as a family and this really shows the importance of family to both John and Chuck.
So, what does this mean for Cisco? After attending the whole day, I think it is safe to say, we are in good hands with Chuck and his ELT at the helm. I am looking forward to the next chapter in the history of Cisco and I feel honored to have been a part of it.
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