Bronwyn Fryer and Thomas A. Stewart

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Reprint: R0811D
During his nearly 14 years at the helm of networking giant Cisco Systems, Chambers has developed an uncanny ability to sense market trends long before others do. He predicted, for instance, that voice transmission would become free long before computer networks could even carry it. And Cisco was one of the first to shift from call centers to web-based customer service.
Seeing the future is essential for a company that must start developing a product some six years before it goes to market. How does Chambers do it? He looks for what he calls &#8220;market transitions&#8221;&#8212;subtle social, economic, or technological signs of an impending disruptive shift&#8212;which, he says, start turning up five to seven years before the market actually grasps their significance. The move to open-source software development was one that Chambers saw and Microsoft did not.
Early on, Chambers learned to sense market transitions by listening closely to customers, connecting individual dots of behavior into patterns that indicated future trends. Later, he realized he needed to turn Cisco&#8217;s management processes upside down to benefit from that foresight.
In this interview, Chambers describes how he was able to surrender his role as a command-and-control CEO and institute a collaborative decision-making model that allows the company to respond speedily to emerging transitions. Managers throughout Cisco now form cross-functional teams, working together to identify and exploit new opportunities quickly. The model allows Cisco to simultaneously implement 22 major sales initiatives as effectively as most companies do one or two.

Cisco Sees the Future

Reimpressão: R0811D Durante seus quase 14 anos no comando da gigante de redes Cisco Systems, Chambers desenvolveu uma habilidade incrível de detectar as tendências do mercado muito antes dos outros. Ele previu, por exemplo, que a transmissão de voz se tornaria gratuita muito antes que as redes de computadores pudessem transmiti-la. E a Cisco foi uma das primeiras a mudar dos call centers para o atendimento ao cliente baseado na web. Ver o futuro é essencial para uma empresa que deve começar a desenvolver um produto cerca de seis anos antes de ele entrar no mercado. Como Chambers faz isso? Ele busca o que chama de “transições de mercado” — sinais sociais, econômicos ou tecnológicos sutis de uma mudança disruptivo iminente — que, segundo ele, começam a aparecer cinco a sete anos antes que o mercado realmente compreenda sua importância. A mudança para o desenvolvimento de software de código aberto foi algo que Chambers viu e a Microsoft não. Logo no início, Chambers aprendeu a perceber as transições do mercado ouvindo atentamente os clientes, conectando pontos individuais de comportamento a padrões que indicavam tendências futuras. Mais tarde, ele percebeu que precisava virar os processos de gerenciamento da Cisco de cabeça para baixo para se beneficiar dessa visão. Nesta entrevista, Chambers descreve como ele conseguiu renunciar ao cargo de CEO de comando e controle e instituir um modelo colaborativo de tomada de decisão que permite à empresa responder rapidamente às transições emergentes. Os gerentes de toda a Cisco agora formam equipes multifuncionais, trabalhando juntos para identificar e explorar novas oportunidades rapidamente. O modelo permite que a Cisco implemente simultaneamente 22 grandes iniciativas de vendas com a mesma eficácia que a maioria das empresas faz uma ou duas.

A Cisco v&ecirc; o futuro

Reprint: R0811D During his nearly 14 years at the helm of networking giant Cisco Systems, Chambers has developed an uncanny ability to sense market trends long before others do. He predicted, for instance, that voice transmission would become free long before computer networks could even carry it. And Cisco was one of the first to shift from call centers to web-based customer service. Seeing the future is essential for a company that must start developing a product some six years before it goes to market. How does Chambers do it? He looks for what he calls “market transitions”—subtle social, economic, or technological signs of an impending disruptive shift—which, he says, start turning up five to seven years before the market actually grasps their significance. The move to open-source software development was one that Chambers saw and Microsoft did not. Early on, Chambers learned to sense market transitions by listening closely to customers, connecting individual dots of behavior into patterns that indicated future trends. Later, he realized he needed to turn Cisco’s management processes upside down to benefit from that foresight. In this interview, Chambers describes how he was able to surrender his role as a command-and-control CEO and institute a collaborative decision-making model that allows the company to respond speedily to emerging transitions. Managers throughout Cisco now form cross-functional teams, working together to identify and exploit new opportunities quickly. The model allows Cisco to simultaneously implement 22 major sales initiatives as effectively as most companies do one or two.

A Cisco vê o futuro

Resumo.

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