interview with Semafor<\/a>, during which he talked about how Cisco missed the first cloud adoption wave, plus a six-year stretch with no return on a $320 silicon company acquisition.<\/p>\nDuring his tenure as CEO, Robbins has learned a thing or two about operating a global team of more than 86,000. One of the main principles that Robbins upholds as a leader is to not worry about scenarios out of his control\u2014a skill he partly attributed to his upbringing in rural Georgia. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to plan for them, but you can’t worry about them because there’s nothing you can do about them,\u201d Robbins said.<\/p>\n
In the 2010s, the company spent more than $1 billion building its own public cloud infrastructure to compete with the likes of Amazon and Microsoft\u2014but it eventually shut down the cloud initiative and had to pivot. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I became CEO and we started trying to rebuild those relationships, you had to listen a lot and you had to let them tell you how bad you were for a long time,\u201d Robbins said.<\/p>\n
Over the years, Cisco\u2019s company culture has shifted, too. Robbins said that he lives by the \u201cdisagree and commit\u201d framework, and said the one thing he won\u2019t tolerate is passive-aggressive behavior.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe one thing that is like death in an organization is passive-aggressive behavior,\u201d Robbins said, adding that a major risk is when a leader appears to agree with a company strategy, only to then undermine and discredit it to their team members behind closed doors.<\/p>\n
Looking back on his career, Robbins said that \u201cpeople issues\u201d are the \u201cmost important ones.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cWe always wait too long to make a move on someone who’s not the right person,\u201d he added. \u201cThat is the biggest pain point to this day if I look back.\u201d At the same time, he said it\u2019s equally important for leaders to hire people who have experience in spaces they don\u2019t.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a set of things that only I can do, and I have to remember those,\u201d Robbins said. \u201cAnd there’s a set of things that my team does, and I don’t need to get into those until they need me to get into those.\u201d<\/p>\n
In meetings, Robbins said he regularly waits to hear everyone\u2019s opinions before he chimes in. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe trick for me and my team is knowing when they should pull me in on something and when I should get out of the way,\u201d he said. \u201cThere’s occasions where I ask my team, \u2018do you guys want to meet with me or without me on a certain issue?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
When it comes to decision-making, Robbins said he might consult with one of his trusted technical board members, depending on the weight of the choice that needs to be made. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou lean a lot on your instincts, but the reality is your instincts are just a combination of all your experience over the years,\u201d he said, later adding that \u201ca bad decision that is reversed is better than a delayed decision.\u201d<\/p>\n
Innovations in AI are changing businesses at a rapid rate, and Cisco is not untouched. Robbins said that the company is building \u201cAI universities,\u201d going all-in on AI training bootcamps for board members and employees alike. Last month, Cisco laid off 5% of its global workforce to shift resources towards AI, which Robbins deemed necessary to \u201cwin in the AI area.\u201d<\/p>\n
Robbins believes that the \u201cAI wave\u201d is actually benefiting large companies more than small companies. At the same time, he said, one of the most difficult things for big companies right now is to \u201cmove faster than we ever have.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cI think it’s just so important to be who you are, be authentic, communicate frequently, be transparent, and just be clear with your team about what your expectations are,\u201d Robbins said. \u201cAnd for those people who aren’t moving at the same pace, make the changes faster.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chuck Robbins has been the CEO of Cisco for more than 11 years, steering it from a hardware-centric company into a software and subscription-driven business. Under his tenure, Cisco\u2014now valued at $475 billion\u2014has built a combination of networking and cybersecurity capabilities. Robbins hasn\u2019t shied away from talking about past mistakes. That was no different during<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14237,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brand-spotlights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}