Chuck Robbins has been the CEO of Cisco for more than 11 years, steering it from a hardware-centric company into a software and subscription-driven business. Under his tenure, Cisco—now valued at $475 billion—has built a combination of networking and cybersecurity capabilities.
Robbins hasn’t shied away from talking about past mistakes. That was no different during a recent interview with Semafor, in which he talked about how Cisco missed the first cloud adoption wave, as well as a six-year stretch with no return on a $320 million acquisition of a silicon and semiconductor company.
During his tenure as CEO, Robbins has learned a thing or two about operating a global team of more than 86,000. One of his main leadership principles is not to worry about scenarios that are out of his control—a skill he partly attributed to his upbringing in rural Georgia.
“You have to plan for them, but you can’t worry about them because there’s nothing you can do about them,” Robbins said.
In the 2010s, the company spent more than $1 billion building its own public cloud infrastructure to compete with the likes of Amazon and Microsoft—but it eventually shut down the cloud initiative and had to pivot.
“When I became CEO and we started trying to rebuild those relationships, you had to listen a lot and you had to let them tell you how bad you were for a long time,” Robbins said.
Over the years, Cisco’s company culture has shifted, too. Robbins said that he lives by the “disagree and commit” framework, and mentioned a behavior he won’t tolerate.
“The one thing that is like death in an organization is passive-aggressive behavior,” Robbins said. He added that a major risk is when a leader appears to agree with a strategy, only to undermine and discredit it behind closed doors.
Looking back on his career, Robbins said that “people issues” are the “most important ones.”
“We always wait too long to make a move on someone who’s not the right person,” he noted. “That is the biggest pain point to this day, if I look back.” At the same time, he said it’s equally important for leaders to hire people who have experience in spaces they don’t.
“There’s a set of things that only I can do, and I have to remember those,” Robbins said. “And there’s a set of things that my team does, and I don’t need to get into those until they need me to get into those.”
In meetings, Robbins said he regularly waits to hear everyone’s opinions before he chimes in. “The trick for me and my team is knowing when they should pull me in on something and when I should get out of the way. There are occasions where I ask my team, ‘Do you guys want to meet with me or without me on a certain issue?’”
When it comes to decision-making, Robbins said he might consult with one of his trusted technical board members, depending on the weight of the choice that needs to be made. “You lean a lot on your instincts, but the reality is, your instincts are just a combination of all your experience over the years.” He later added: “A bad decision that is reversed is better than a delayed decision.”
Innovations in AI are changing businesses at a rapid rate, and Cisco is not untouched. Robbins said that the company is building “AI universities,” going all-in on AI training boot camps for board members and employees alike. Last month, Cisco laid off 5% of its global workforce to shift resources toward AI, which Robbins deemed necessary to “win in the AI area.”
Robbins believes that the “AI wave” is actually benefiting large companies more than small companies. At the same time, he said, one of the most difficult things for big companies right now is to “move faster than we ever have.”
“I think it’s just so important to be who you are, be authentic, communicate frequently, be transparent, and just be clear with your team about what your expectations are,” he said. “And for those people who aren’t moving at the same pace—make the changes faster.”