Summary of A Great Place to Work for All

John Chambers and Cisco

John Chambers spent two decades as the CEO of Cisco. During that time, Cisco’s revenues increased from $1.2 billion to $47 billion. Cisco created the structure for today’s Internet. In many ways, Chambers acted like a conventional executive who always sought to win. Yet his beliefs differentiated him from many other leaders. He realized that to succeed, he needed to tap into the strength of his employees.

Chambers built an outstanding culture that encouraged the people in his workforce to deploy all their talents to serve the organization. His passion for building an outstanding culture repeatedly earned Cisco a slot on the list of “100 Best Companies to Work For.” The Great Place to Work organization publishes this list annually in cooperation with Fortune magazine.

Chambers offers cautionary advice about the “emerging digital economy.” At present, the web connects to about 17 billion devices. By 2028, he says, it will link to 500 billion devices. Businesses will confront an avalanche of data they must decipher and act upon. As a result, firms will find that they must entrust decision-making authority...