Fast Company Cover Story on Cisco
Fast Company’s December/January cover is on our favorite company…you got it: Cisco. Reporter Ellen McGuirt takes an in-depth look at our company’s collaborative management leadership model and our technology strategy.
A few of my favorite quotes:
“Cisco, (Chairman and CEO John) Chambers argues, is the best possible model for how a large, global business can operate: as a distributed idea engine where leadership emerges organically, unfettered by a central command.”
and
“Chambers wants nothing less than a total redesign of the corporation as we know it. Starting at the top: “You won’t have to depend on the CEO anymore.” About those Cisco execs who left, he says he came to realize that “some people need a command-and-control environment.” But that’s not the way of the future: “We now have a whole pool of talent who can lead these working groups, like mini CEOs and COOs. We’re growing ideas, but we’re growing people as well.” In fact, he says, “where I might have had two potential successors, I now have 500.”“
Posted by John Earnhardt at 12:31PM PST
Brad Dec 15, 2008
Read this article. Brilliant. Cisco has quite obviously taken a lead in innovative, scalable business strategy. Medium-sized companies should take note of Cisco’s less-structured corporate approach. Small group communication is proving to be more effective in driving focused projects, when compared to a traditional top-down strategy. Chambers is a new corporate icon.