John Chambers - Internet Evangelist

"He would gather kids from wherever he could find them and convince them to join a team," said his father, Jack Chambers. "Somehow, all of these different kids would pull together and play very well as a team."

At the time, the elder Chambers had no inkling that his son would parlay his team-building talent into building networking giant Cisco Systems. But looking back, the now-retired doctor, 78, is convinced that it was the key to his son's,and Cisco's,success. "He has always been able to find the right people, and he was able to organize groups and focus the people on the things he was interested in. That's a talent he still has," the senior Chambers said. Since taking Cisco's reins as president and CEO in January 1995, Chambers has used that talent to turn a router company with $1.2 billion in sales into a market-dominating telecommunications powerhouse logging nearly $18.9 billion in revenue annually.

Cisco Senior Vice President Howard Charney agreed that Chambers' team-building skills have helped fuel Cisco's success. "John knows how to find the right people and rely on them to do what's necessary," said Charney, who came to Cisco in 1995 when the company acquired switch vendor Grand Junction Networks. "Part of his strength is to march the army in the right direction and then get out of its way."

Chambers also changed the way technology goes to market, said Cisco Senior Vice President Charles Giancarlo. "John made sure that Cisco's primary focus was on the customer at a time when other vendors were focused on technology," Giancarlo said. "That has allowed us to supply what customers need and want." Charney concurred. "John Chambers has been at the center of making it clear that technology for technology's sake is silly, but technology for reducing the cost structure of business is very powerful," he said.

Indeed, Chambers' ability to look beyond the technology is what makes him a leader, said Rick Justice, also a senior vice president at Cisco. "He sees the impact of technology on business results, on education and on government," Justice said. "John's greatest contribution is the vision he has for the Internet,not the technology, but the vision of how it will change the way we live, work and play. He is the one who was able to put that in visceral terms that people could relate to."

Staying focused on customers has driven Cisco's growth over the years, Chambers said. "At Cisco, we make customers our No. 1 priority, not only by delivering innovative technology and good service but also by listening to their needs and responding appropriately," he said. "That is really at the heart of this company, from the top down. You have to walk the talk, and I make every effort to meet with customers on a daily basis."

In the same vein, Chambers has served as the de facto chief evangelist of the Internet's potential for improving the way businesses are run. And even while dot-coms crashed, major companies such as General Electric embraced the Internet as means to sharpen business processes. In his book "Straight from the Gut," former GE CEO Jack Welch said Chambers sold him on the idea.

"Another important lesson came from John Chambers of Cisco," Welch wrote. "He urged us to shut down the parallel paths of online and offline workflow processes. Until we did that, people would still rely on paper and wouldn't really use digitization to drive productivity. Within months of John's presentation, more than 150 GE managers were crawling all over Cisco. Everyone wanted to know what Cisco was doing to digitize workflow."

In his role as Internet evangelist, 53-year-old Chambers evolved his message over time. In the go-go years of the dot-com boom, Chambers advised companies to embrace the Internet for competitive advantage. At the brink of the economic downturn in 2001, his message became about Internet solutions that produced a quick return on investment. This year, it's about solutions that boost productivity. In a market with scant growth, the company that increases productivity the fastest will win, Chambers said.

As Chambers' message has evolved, so has Cisco. Through speaking engagements and frequent visits with customers, Chambers has a developed an ability to foresee which technologies businesses will need in the future and make sure that Cisco provides them. Since its launch as a router company, the vendor has added technologies along the way,including switching, storage and IP telephony,as customer needs have changed.

Chambers' technology foresight and his insistence that Cisco adapt to forthcoming business IT needs have been crucial to the company's success, according to colleagues.

"When we look back, we'll see that John Chambers has led this company to be not just a powerhouse in communications, but also a survivor," Charney said. "I know this is true because Cisco has evolved through changes that have killed other competitors. A company survives because of leadership."

Richard Orlando, who hired Chambers away from IBM to work at Wang in 1982, said Chambers "was always a step ahead technology-wise," even back then. "He spends a tremendous amount of time with customers and he listens to their needs," said Orlando, who is now CEO and president of Saztec International, a Billerica, Mass.-based IT services company. "Through that, he is able to see where technology should be going and wrap a business case around it."

Chambers' father always knew that John could do whatever he set his mind to, even if it wasn't apparent to others. "I don't think you would have looked at him in junior high and said, 'This boy will be one of the leaders of industry,' " he said.

But as the leader of San Jose, Calif.-based Cisco, Chambers' influence stretches well beyond the high-tech sector. He regularly meets with political leaders and industry titans. He even serves as one of President George W. Bush's economic advisers.

Many industry observers view Chambers' political connections as a sign that he's preparing for a career in politics. However, Chambers said he plans to be at Cisco for a long time.

"I would like to reiterate that I am committed to Cisco 100 percent and I'll be here as long as the board will have me," he said. And when retirement comes knocking, education is a more-likely next move. "In terms of retirement, I've considered many options. One thing that I am truly passionate about is education. I would really like to teach young people," he said.

Despite his success and power, Chambers remains the same man he was when he took the job at Cisco, said Orlando. "Of course, he has grown quite a lot. He's much more of a man about the world," Orlando said. "But he really hasn't changed who he is. He still likes sports. He still has his sense of humor. Every time I see him, he asks about my kids and remembers their names."

That's a source of pride for Chambers' father. "John is successful because he's the same as he was when he left home," Jack Chambers said. "He still treats everybody the way he always did. I'd be really upset if he let his success go to his head."

And Chambers' friendly public persona doesn't vanish behind closed doors, Justice said. "John is fundamentally a really good person. He cares about people and treats everyone as an equal," he said. "If a child walks into his office, he stoops down to talk to him. That's just who he is."

When Justice arrived at Cisco's partner conference in Orlando, Fla., this past April, he learned that his father had passed away while he was traveling. "As soon as I arrived, John said, 'You need to get back there. Take my plane.' " Justice said. "This was not a corporate jet; we don't have one. It was John's personal plane."

The kind gesture was one of many that Justice has seen Chambers make over the years. "It really didn't surprise me," he said. "It's just the kind of man he is."

Still, Chambers is no softie, Charney noted. "In business and in life, John is so competitive that it's startling," he said. "If you go fishing with him, he wants to catch the biggest fish or the most fish. And you do not want to play cards with this man. He is going to play to win."

Chambers also maintains a sense of humility, declining to discuss his personal accomplishments or the personal favors he does for his employees. But he will say that John Chambers the CEO and John Chambers the family man are one and the same.

"I really am the same person," he said. "I like to spend time with my family when I am not working, and I try to make that a priority. I have a very understanding wife, and my children are adults and have lives of their own. But I still think it's important to strike a balance between work and family. I recently gave up tennis to take up golf, which my wife took up a few years ago, so that we could spend more time together."

Although the past two years have been tough on Chambers, with the slow economy squeezing Cisco's business and forcing layoffs, Chambers said he remains focused on his duties as CEO.

"I truly believe that the role of a CEO should focus on three areas: setting the strategy of the company, recruiting and developing the leadership team to implement that strategy, and developing the culture, which plays a much stronger role in success than people realize," Chambers said. "These are the philosophies I have followed since becoming CEO, and they haven't changed over time."