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Mr John Chambers is the Chief Executive Officer of networking major Cisco. He has led the $43-billion company for the last 16 years and is credited with restoring its health after a series of missteps around a year back.
The company, he says, had acted to “trim flab” in management to make it move faster than competition.
“We accepted competition, competition took advantage of that. Never again. I wish I was a better person but I'm not.
“When they come after your profitability, we're going after them,” he makes his aggression apparent.
According to Mr Chambers; developed markets should be more competitive if they intend to take on the emerging markets. Throughout the mid-2000, Cisco built a significant presence in India.
It established its Globalisation Centre East in Bangalore, which houses the company's business development and research and development centre. It was Cisco's second unit outside the US.
Nearly 20 per cent of its leaders would be based in Bangalore in the coming days.
Speaking on the sidelines of the 16th Cisco Partnership summit in San Diego, Mr Chambers takes questions on its India plans. Below are the edited excerpts:
Can you brief us about your India plans?
We are committed to India investments (business development and research and development centres) in the long run.
We plan to have 10,000 people in the research and development centre. We intend to use the India centre as a part of our emerging market strategy. We would like to focus on strategies, engineering and architecture in the emerging markets ( such as China and India) for the world and then bring them around the globe (introduce them in developed markets such as the US and Canada).
What role does India play in your organisation?
India is one of the largest emerging markets in the world (for us). Partnerships are welcome. As I have said earlier, we are committed to our partners here.
Who are your partners and what is your strategy for India?
We have partnerships with some of the major players such as Reliance, Wipro and Infosys amongst others. And over the years you will see us lead (in the region) and not follow.
You had expressed interest in investing in social infrastructure, education and healthcare in India. Can you elaborate on your plans?
There are areas such as technologies and social infrastructure that we would like to look into. There are various other things that we can talk on too. We would like to talk to the government on overall issues (including government projects).
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