Connecting the Dots by John Chambers CEO CISCO

Book Review by Elvis Beck Founder Director CyberAweh

Chambers starts his book by describing how at six years old he lost his footing on a rock and fell into a raging river with rapids and a strong current while fishing with his Dad

All he could here his Dad shouting was hold on to the fishing pole

Every time he came to the surface spluttering water, he would see his dad running beside him on the shore repeating the same instructions Hold on to that pole.

It was not an especially nice pole but not wanting to disappoint his dad He tightened the grip on the pole and could think of nothing else but the pole.

Finally, he got to a spot where his dad could swim out and pulled him out of the rapids pole and all.

They sat there for a few minutes to talk about what had happened. He describes his dad as a great teacher who always explained the thinking behind why he did things.

His dad was not angry because he had gone too far on the rock and fallen in. He wanted John to know why it was so important that he held onto the pole.

His dad explained that as long as he stayed focused on holding on to the pole he was less likely to panic and fight to get out of the water which by the way is one of the worst things you can do when you are trapped in the rapids. You must go with the flow and look for opportunities to get out.

 At age six he was to young to get out on his own so his dads’ goal was to manage his sons fear so that he could find a place to rescue him.

That Lesson stayed with him for the rest of his life

You cannot stop the fear you just have to manage it.

Stay calm under pressure

Separate emotions from facts

This lesson at Elk River in West Virginia was critical in helping him stay calm through the 2001 dot com crash which wiped out a quarter of CISCO’S customers and 80 percent of the stock price.

He never worried or doubted that they would not make it.

He held onto the pole the entire time.

Chambers parents were both doctors. They were taught that your best weapon in life is your brain, so you better sharpen it.

They were taught that an education gave you something that no one could take away, flexibility to do what you want and the tools and processes for continuous learning.

One of Chambers famous philosophies is that the two greatest equalizers in life are education and the internet.

He also believes that the current education system is letting us down and suggests that governments business and community leaders must come together and have the courage to reinvent education for the new era.

Especially now so relevant during and after Covid 19

Just a little bit of own punting. We believe that our cyber awareness training is new era developed to attain maximum attention and retention.

Takeaway lessons from this chapter

Disrupt or be disrupted

Even more so now with Covid 19 we should embrace digitisation that is transforming how we live work and do business.

The pace and scale of disruption is staggering. Look for shifts in customer behaviour no matter what industry you are in.

We can’t plan for the new world ahead without investing in imagining it, and that we must make time to update our skills as well as our technology prowess.

We should also be vigilant and not to hold on to the old ways of doing things for to long.

He suggests that we change before we have to. Be first, take risks, and move fast. Better to stumble first than arrive last. First movers face the biggest risks but get more attention opportunity and leeway to make mistakes.

Chamberlain advises that we anchor on our core beliefs and strengths.

You can disrupt what you do and what you know but always stick to who you are and what you value.

One of the core values at CISCO is treating employees as family

Dyslexia is a learning disorder that involves difficulty reading due to problems identifying speech sounds and learning how they relate to letters and words (decoding). Also called reading disability, dyslexia affect areas of the brain that process language

Chambers is dyslexic

Growing up in the 1950s it was clear that his brain was wired a little different from that of other kids. It became obvious when he was learning to read.

He would scroll through pages in reverse order from right to left.

He didn’t digest information in a linear way, when he was diagnosed with a leaning ability and later dyslexia one teacher warned his parents that he might not make it through high school let alone go through college.

 Luckily his parents dis not share that bleak outlook. The message they gave him was that he was a bright kid who just needed to learn in a different way.

Who would imagine that this dyslexic kid who’s teacher had doubts in him  finishing high school would become an industry leader and one of the worlds best CEOs who transforms governments by helping global leaders such as French president Makron and Indian prime minister Narendi Modi to create new models for country growth.

When Chambers joined Cisco in 1991, it was a company with 400 employees, a single product, and about $70 million in revenue. When he stepped down as CEO in 2015, he left a $47 billion tech giant that was the backbone of the internet and a leader in areas from cybersecurity to data centre convergence.

Along the way, he had acquired 180 companies and turned more than 10,000 employees into millionaires.

John identifies four key responsibilities of leaders:

Set vision and strategy, develop teams, create the culture, and communicate with clarity.

John set the aspirational vision for Cisco not as a seller of routers, but as a company that would change the way people around the world “work, live, learn, and play”.

Successful leaders are brave, curious, and hungry for new ideas.

Some of John Chambers’ often-cited quotes include:

 Video is the new voice.

There are two equalisers in life: the internet and education.

The Internet of Things will be bigger than the internet.

There are two types of companies: those that have been hacked and those that don’t know they’ve been hacked.

Market transitions wait for no one.

Many companies fail not because they did the wrong thing but did the right thing for too long.

 “The biggest mistake is that we get comfortable and we get disrupted because we didn’t disrupt ourselves,”

Instead of fighting market shifts, it is better to anticipate what many happen five to 15 years ahead.

And The most important skill in communication is absolutely listening,”

Johns tenacity in overcoming personal obstacles reminds me of a beautiful podcast I shared with a few of you recently where the lady proclaims the following

It does not matter what people see in you it matters what God sees in you

It does not matter what your AGE is that is why God chose Abraham

It does not matter what your EXPERIENCE is that is why God chose David

It does not matter what your PAST is that is why God chose Paul

It does not matter what your GENDER is that is why God chose Ester

It does not matter what your APPEARENCE is that is why God chose Zacchaeus

It does not matter what your FLUENCY OF SPEECH is that is why God chose Moses   

It does not matter what your CAREER is that is why God chose Mary Magdalene

God sees great things in all of us Hold on to that Pole