John Chambers led Cisco through the rise of the internet—transforming it into the world’s most valuable company at its peak.
On this week’s Grit, the former Cisco CEO unpacks how he scaled the business from $70M to $50B+, pioneered M&A as a growth strategy with 180 acquisitions, and built what many called the best sales force in tech.
Now leading his own venture firm, Chambers shares how he’s backing the next generation of AI-native startups.
Guest: John T. Chambers, Former Cisco Executive Chairman & CEO, JC2 Ventures Founder & CEO
Chapters:
00:00 Trailer
00:45 Introduction
01:45 Track record, relationships, trust
13:21 Acquisitions every year
17:32 Product-focused
24:40 Family, dyslexia, and without shame
30:46 Wang Laboratories
35:59 Ready being CEO
40:17 Reinventing your business
50:08 Numbers don’t lie
54:09 Sales calls and making mistakes
56:20 Adapting leadership style
1:06:32 Best leadership year ever
1:13:35 A busy, exhausting schedule
1:22:07 Candid with me
1:25:21 What “grit” means to John
1:26:43 Outro
Mentioned in this episode: John Doerr, OpenAI, Wang Laboratories, IBM, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Apple Inc., Meta Platforms, FMC Corporation, DuPont de Nemours, Inc., John Mortgage, Don Valentine, Sequoia Capital, Alcatel Mobile, Lucent Technologies, Inc., Verizon Communications Inc., AT&T Inc., Rick Justice, Pankage Patel, Larry Carter, CNBC, Jim Cramer, George Kurtz, CrowdStrike, Randy Pond, Rebecca Jacoby, Mel Selcher
Links:
Connect with John
Connect with Joubin
Popular Podcasts
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.