Connecting the Dots: Leadership Lessons in a Start-up World. John Chambers

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      The lessons and values that my mom and dad handed to me are similar to the ones that Elaine and I taught our son, John, and daughter, Lindsay. And bear with me, as a proud parent, when I tell you how I now see them live those values every day in their professional and personal lives. Lindsay wouldn’t be the leader in her field of residential real estate development and interior design if she wasn’t highly attuned to the changing patterns, preferences, and trends of her partners, clients, and industry at large. She’s always looked forward and dreamed big. And John has created a career helping disruptive companies like Houzz, Netflix, Walmart.com, and JC2 Ventures enter new markets, adopt new strategies, and understand changing customers. They’ve both achieved success while operating with the highest integrity, building strong relationships, and genuinely caring about people around them. Although my children didn’t grow up in West Virginia, they are also as proud of our family’s ties to that state as Elaine and I are. You don’t have to disrupt who you are to disrupt what you do.

      I love West Virginia. There’s nowhere like it on earth. At the same time, the story of my home state is a cautionary tale in what can happen if you don’t make bold moves to get ahead of a market shift. You have to disrupt, or you will be disrupted. Like our own stories, this one is far from over. Nobody is too far behind to come back and nobody is so far ahead that they can’t be replaced. The strengths that you build can be deployed in a new way. It’s not easy but if you start by shifting your focus to the big picture and look for clues to what’s around the corner, you’ll have a head start on those who are focused on preserving the past.

      I’m starting this book in West Virginia, in part, because it’s where I got my start in life. The bigger motive, though, is that I see a lot of parallels with what happened in my home state and what’s happening in every part of business, the country, and the world today. We all know that markets are shifting. Whether it’s Uber in transportation or Amazon in retail, no industry is untouched by the disruptive power of new technologies. We’re not just coping with new products and competition from places like China or Mexico. Every company is becoming a digital company. Every person on the planet has the potential to compete against a multinational—and win. With digitization, anyone can innovate and leapfrog the competition at a scale and speed that’s unprecedented. Once mighty companies have failed. America’s dominant position as a center of tech innovation is coming under threat as other countries start to move ahead. Even Silicon Valley’s position as the world’s leading hub for disruptive innovation is far from assured. As everything becomes connected, the rules for success start to change. How you adapt will determine whether you win.

      It’s a mindset that shaped how I led Cisco. If you were to ask our customers what we did better than our peers, many of them would say that we moved quickly, with a sense of urgency, to get ahead of market transitions. We absolutely got knocked back on our butts a few times, but in each case, we came back stronger, as our competitors went bankrupt or got consumed. I’d like to say that we were smarter, faster, nimbler, more advanced, and perhaps even better looking than our rivals (you’ll get used to my sense of humor, or lack thereof, as you read this book), but the reality is that we recognized what was happening, responded, and learned to better spot what was coming and get ahead. We were one of the first companies to bet big on China in 1995. We were pioneers in outsourcing manufacturing because it made sense for our customers and enabled us to keep up with rapid growth. We’ve moved from selling routers to partnering with governments that wanted to transform their economies through digital innovation. A lot of people are scared by the next wave of innovation. They can see the threat. What’s less clear is how to respond.

      It’s not unlike the challenges that hobbled West Virginia. The difference is that what I saw play out over the course of two generations there can now happen within a few years. I’ve been lucky to spend my career on the front lines of the tech revolution, seeing entire industries get disrupted and building a company that became the backbone of the internet. Now, I believe we are on the cusp of a revolution that will take the impact of the internet and multiply it—possibly by a factor of three to five—and play out faster than seems conceivable from the vantage point of today. The coming era of digitization represents an inflection point like no other in our history. The individual trends may sound familiar: artificial intelligence, virtual reality, Big Data, cybersecurity threats, drones, the Internet of Things, driverless cars, block chain technologies, and more. Put them together and the market shift will be profound. We’ve gone from connecting 1,000 devices to the internet when Cisco was formed to more than 20 billion today. Within a decade, some 500 billion cars, fridges, phones, robots, and other devices will be communicating online. The digitization of just about everything will force us to rethink all aspects of our lives—from our business models to our education system. If we don’t get it right, entire industries and even countries could be left behind. A few years ago, I predicted that the disruption would be so brutal that 40 percent of businesses probably wouldn’t exist in 10 years. I got a lot of pushback for that. In retrospect, I think I was being too conservative.

      As I first learned in West Virginia, no person, company, industry, or place is immune from disruption and no one factor is to blame when it happens. And when it does happen, incredible opportunities are always created—both for emergent players and for incumbents. I’ve talked in these first few pages a lot about disruption from the lens of the incumbent. I am equally enthralled with the role that startups play in driving the disruptions and then growing, and the lessons they can take away to increase their odds. I believe that a thriving startup environment is critical to every country, and that tomorrow’s leaders will be those who nurture a healthy set of disruptors to move us forward. Over the coming pages, I will lay out a set of lessons—based on a lot of scars, moments of genius, and episodes of failure—that apply to any individual and leader in business today. If the lessons of my last few decades help even a few leaders, pioneers, dreamers, and change agents more successfully navigate the digital world in front of us, this book has served its purpose.

       LESSONS/REPLICABLE INNOVATION PLAYBOOK

      Disrupt, or be disrupted. Embrace digitization and new technologies that are transforming how you live, work, and do business. The pace and scale of disruption are increasing. Look for industry innovators, startups, new technologies, and—most important—shifts in customer behavior. You can’t plan for a world ahead if you are not investing in imagining it.

      Keep learning. Education is the great equalizer. Make time to update your skills as well as your technology prowess by learning about innovations in your industry and beyond. If you are an employer, create opportunities for people at all levels to learn and innovate in the digital world.

      Change before you have to. The worst mistake is to do the right thing for too long. The time to pivot is when your business is still healthy and you’ve earned customers’ trust. Try out new technologies, and embrace a philosophy of constant change.

      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.

      Be a magnet for talent. As an individual, be the person who’s known for embracing innovation and promoting change. And remember the adage, “People won’t remember what you say, but they’ll remember how you made them feel.”

      Seek diversity in colleagues, neighbors, customers, and local industries. Company towns can die when the company goes away and like-minded people tend to reinforce existing points of view. Diversity breeds resilience and innovation.

      Anchor on your core values and strengths, even as you question conventional wisdom. You can disrupt what you do and what you know, but always stick to who you are and what you value. Build on what you know, and use your expertise to guide you into new areas.

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