Are you a head of state? Come to Cisco.
You may have seen that U.S. President George W. Bush visited Cisco’s campus last week. He called Cisco, "one of America’s most innovative companies." Very nice of him to say that and I must agree, although, I probably would have said "world’s most innovative companies," but still...
He was in Silicon Valley to talk about his competitiveness initiative and we were all pleased that he chose Cisco in order to do so. Joining him, at a table of six, were our CEO, John Chambers, and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger among others (who a friend suggested we may need to get a cube for him as it was his second time visiting Cisco in as many weeks.) The President’s full remarks can be read here.
Anywho, President Bush is not the first head of state to visit Cisco’s campus in San Jose, CA. Since I have been at Cisco (circa 1999) we have also hosted the Presidents of Chile and Mexico, as well as the King of Jordan, and in 1998, then-U.S. Vice President Al Gore and Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin…this is not an exhaustive list, however.
What does a head of state get out of meeting with Cisco? First and foremost: knowledge. Cisco invented the technology that forms the core of the Internet. We use the secure internet to run our business and save billions of dollars in operational costs and efficiencies. We can help governments do the same.
Why does our CEO and other senior executives spend time with leading government officials? There are really two answers: 1) (and this is where government affairs spends all our time) these are the leaders who can use the bully pulpit to shape the regulatory and legislative landscape more favorably for IP communications, and 2) Bluntly, governments have money to spend on IT.
So, if you are a head of state (or Governor or Prime Minister or Legislator or Regulator or Minister or Secretary or Mayor or other leading government official) and you want to learn about how your healthcare system can be run more efficiently, how your government can be run more efficiently, or how you can leapfrog from your county’s existing telecom infrastructure to tomorrow’s communications infrastructure, then you need to come to Cisco…or, we do make housecalls, we can come to you. However, for the majority of you, our weather is likely nicer.
Posted by John Earnhardt at 09:45AM PST
: Cisco High Tech Policy Blog Jul 30, 2006
The British Are Coming!! UK Prime Minister Visits Cisco SAN JOSE, CA - British Prime Minister Tony Blair visited Cisco headquarters today to talk about innovation, research and development and how the UK can attract more Silicon Valley investment. Cisco CEO John Chambers gave the Prime Minister a tour...