Description: -- Believe in what you're doing with a passion. Chambers seems to want sales not just for revenue and profits, but also because he wants to see the world become a fully networked global society.
-- Listen to customers first and always. Chambers listens to his field managers' voice-mail reports on Cisco's biggest customers every evening of every day of the year.
-- Make experience your favorite teacher. Chambers' years with IBM and Wang, as those companies sank from innovation and industry leadership to become also-rans, powerfully affect his leadership of Cisco.
-- Put people before products. Chambers is known for valuing employees above products, services, systems, and programs. Employee attrition at acquired companies, which can typically measure 50% in hightech, averages 6% in firms Cisco buys.
-- Use the Net to win the Net The company gets two-thirds of its orders from customers over the Internet, and about half those orders go directly to subcontractors that manufacture, test, and deliver the equipment without a Cisco employee ever lifting a hand. More than half of Cisco's new hires applied over the Internet.
-- Look to lead in every line of business. Cisco aims to be number one or two in market share in every one of its products and services -- or buy the company that will put them there.
-- When you didn't develop a new technology, buy the folks who did. Chambers believes that any company that isn't among the first five to introduce a new technology will never catch up without acquiring one of the five that did. Thus, he has bought 35+ companies since 1993, and he has 60 employees looking for new acquisitions.
-- If you can't buy'em, join 'em. Cisco regularlyenters partnerships and alliances when they offer a route to market leadership. In Cisco's 1998 annual report, Chambers noted, "We expanded our relationships with Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, EDS, and Sprint, and created new alliances with KPMG, PeopleSoft, INS, and US West".
-- Success can make you fat, dumb and dead. Chambers resists any feelings of comfort from Cisco's fabulous success to date. Having been with IBM and Wang when those companies rested on their laurels, he manages Cisco as if competitors will bury his firm tomorrow.

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