By Darshana Nadkarni, Ph.D.
Blog: www.darshanavnadkarni.wordpress.com
Twitter: @DarshanaN
John Chambers will be giving a keynote speech at TiEcon 2023 (largest entrepreneurship conference) and it is destined to create much excitement. Chambers once famously said, “if you agree with everything I have said, then I have failed”. Not only his talks have been at times controversial but they have also been thought provoking. It is but a rare and effective leader who gets people to enlarge their perspectives and think differently on known issues.
Under his leadership as CEO of Cisco, from 1995 to 2015, the company’s annual sales grew from $1.9 billion to $ 49.2 billion. After retiring from Cisco, Chambers has been leading JC2 Ventures as founder and CEO, in an effort to build a new model of the modern day VC firm. Central to this venture is the JC2 leadership team’s belief that startups will be the core driver of economic growth, job creation and innovation, in the coming decades. Experienced leadership team expects to be closely involved in selecting and coaching disruptive startups and helping them grow and scale. JC2 is eyeing such digital technology startups that will be monumental in solving the world’s major challenges.
Chambers often reiterated at Cisco that “market transitions wait for no one”. His credo has been to find a market transition and act on it before anyone else and get the leadership spot. Technology startups are well aware today that they must scale quickly and efficiently or they may die a slow, painful death.
Chambers will be giving keynote address at #TiEcon2023 in May at Santa Clara Convention Center from may 3 to 5. Professionals in the audience will expect many insights and pearls of wisdom from an amazing lineup of speakers. For tickets, go to www.tiecon.org .