Topic: John Chambers

Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz: "I'm Just a Manager"

Think the scrutiny of managing the Yahoo fishbowl is unnerving? Maybe you wouldn't be fazed by having all those eyes on you if you'd grown up with pig eyeballs on your dinner plate. The CEO of Yahoo on the challenges of leading, making mistakes, and cursing people out.READ»

Russian President Medvedev to Tour Silicon Valley With Jobs as Tour Guide

So, Dmitry Medvedev has hit California for a three-day tour. He's safe, since Jack Bauer is probably holed up with a caipirinha (caipirosky?) on a South American beach. (I could tell you where, but then I'd have to go dark and, ...READ»

Cisco Offers Up Its First Smart Grid Products

It makes sense that Cisco wants to break into the smart grid industry--it requires much of the same technology as the computer networking industry. Last year, CEO John Chambers announced that the computing giant had an unlimited ...READ»

Avoiding Corporate Death Spirals in a Sea of Change

Leaders either have to figure out how to help their companies solidify their position in a constantly evolving market or run the risk of becoming a victim of that market change. Learn what not to do from one-time market leaders.READ»

Today in Most Innovative Companies

Daily news of note from our Most Innovative Companies, including Cisco, Spotify, Microsoft, and HP.READ»

Can Port-au-Prince Be Saved, or Should Haiti Move the Capital?

The real question facing Haiti isn't whether to rebuild the capital or move it inland; it's how do you build a city that creates opportunities instead of slums?READ»

Cisco's Big Bet on New Songdo: Creating Cities From Scratch

The world is bracing for an influx of billions of new urbanites in the coming decades, and tech companies are rushing to build new green cities to house them. Are these companies creating a smarter metropolis -- or just making money?READ»

How High-Profile CEOs Could Revitalize the Libertarian Party

The time is right for Silicon Valley -- style progressivism to woo independents into a political force under the Libertarian Party banner. Here's how.READ»

Letter from the Editor: Attitude Is Everything

My father-in-law uses an expression, "Attitude is everything." It's his nonconfrontational way of saying, "Stop complaining." This expression has been on my mind lately when I talk to media and advertising executives about the ...READ»

HP Acquires 3Com for $2.7 Billion, Brings Fight to Cisco

The news that Hewlett Packard has just slapped down $2.7 billion to acquire 3Com looks like a move that will be good for the two firms. Both companies' respective products will dovetail nicely to turn HP into what could easily be ...READ»

Cisco's Collaboration Platform: Facebook for Business?

Not content with bringing socialism to its boardroom, Flip cams to the family room, and comedic product placements to the nation's TV screens, Cisco has just unveiled a set of Web-based communication products that could put the San Jose company into direct competition with both Google and Microsoft.READ»

Cisco Spends $3 Billion To Beef-Up Teleconferencing

Cisco Systems is making a bid for Norwegian video-conferencing firm Tandberg--it's a move to consolidate its teleconferencing strengths, but it's coming at a steep price: $3 billion in hard cash.Tandberg is a "global leader in video ...READ»

Cisco's Web Engine: A Growth Machine

When it comes to economic crisis, grizzled veterans like Cisco have stared into the abyss before and lived to tell the tale. We look at how several giants are approaching today's meltdown with distinctive strategies for not only surviving but also thriving.READ»

Flip UltraHD Is Pure Digital's Best Pocket Camcorder Yet

There was nothing wrong with regular camcorders--at least it didn't seem that way until Pure Digital released the Flip Ultra. Here was a video recorder that solved every problem that you never really knew you had with other ...READ»

Cisco, NASA Bare "Planetary Skin"--Sci-Fi Sensor Eco-Map of San Francisco

Cisco CEO John Chambers is "healthily paranoid," he told the BBC today. Maybe that's why he's planning to spread sci-fi, panopticon-esque vigilance across entire cities and even ecosystems, in a collaboration with NASA ...READ»

Even Madoff Had Great References

With the daily revelations about executives acting in their own self-interests while their companies, shareholders and the marketplace suffers, you have to wonder who hired all these Nero-clones while Rome burns to the ground? The irony is that they all had stellar references. This article identifies how even great references can lead to hiring mistakes.READ»

Cisco Buys Flip Video Cam Maker for $590 Million

Cisco Systems, most commonly associated with business technology infrastructure and networking hardware, is using a chunk of its massive cash reserves to buy Pure Digital Technologies--creators of the highly popular Flip range of ...READ»

• The Fast Company 50 - #7 Pure Digital Technologies

Feedback

Socialism? We'll admit it: John Chambers's Cisco isn't a "socialist enterprise" in the traditional sense ("Revolution in San Jose," December 2008/January 2009). As senior writer Ellen McGirt explained to one reader, "The ...READ»

Can Good Design Save Detroit? Again?

The Big Three Automakers managed to hand in their loan papers to the Bank of Congress without getting their hands slapped again. But what they really need to do is make cars that people want to drive.READ»

Contributors

Kevin Van Aelst For this issue's Now section, artist Kevin Van Aelst created a fictitious holiday world to spell out the words "December & January." He arranged bits of a broken champagne flute in the spot where he once dropped ...READ»

How Cisco's CEO John Chambers Is Turning the Tech Giant Socialist

A hard-core republican turns Cisco into a socialist enterprise -- one with $26 billion in cash.READ»

• Cisco's CEO John Chambers On How to Weather the Downturn

Editor's Letter: Bright Spots

Michael Phelps, the Olympic swimmer, stopped by our offices recently. He didn't look like anyone special. Without his gold hardware or a pool to churn through, he could have been any run-of-the-mill mall rat: iPod buds ...READ»

The Content Credibility Question

Perhaps my most important responsibility as the head of a boutique public relations consultancy is to anticipate client needs and challenges.  Like all small businesses, we bet our investment capital, professional development ...READ»

3D Breakthrough Changes How We Meet, Share, Buy & Play

He was in Bangalore and his co-presenters were in San Jose, yet Cisco’s CEO appeared live - on thesame stage. How? By using a breathtaking 3D holographic-like technology.They tout it as, “the world’s first real time virtual ...READ»

Breaking Down the Best Companies to Work For

Shouldn't it be "The Best Companies For Whom to Work?" Whatever. Let's take a look at the companies making this highly-publicized list for 2008: Number of publishers: Zero.  That's unfortunate now, ...READ»