Employees Are Family: How John Chambers Played Hardball at Cisco Without Getting Ruthless

Under John Chambers, Cisco grew from $70 million to $47 billion, completed 180 acquisitions, and became the most valuable company in the world. He built the company on one idea: employees aren't employees, they're family. Then the dot-com crash hit, and John had to lay off 7,854 people, almost all of whom he'd hired himself. He calls it his worst year as a leader. In this episode, Dart and John explore why John calls employees family, how John builds a leadership team, and why playbooks creat...