21DATA: FROST & SULLIVAN. ROBBINS: JASON ALDEN/BLOOMBERG
Q&A CiscoCEOChuck Robbins
Robbinsappeared onBusinessweekTalks, where
headdressedhowthetradewaris affecting
CiscoSystemsInc.andthecompetitivechallenges
facingthe$49.3billiontechequipmentmaker.Howdifferentwill5Gbe?What’s thepotential?
Thinkaboutwhereyouare
todayandwhatyoucandowith
yourmobiledevicevs.whatyou
could 15 yearsago.Thisis no
different.You’regonnaseea steep
change,andthisoneis probably
exponentiallybetterthanwhatwe
feltoverthelastdecade.Whatkindofapplicationscouldwesee?
Withspeedsoffour,five,six,eight,
10 times[currentlevels],you’re
goingtoseemorethanmy18-year-
oldsonputtinghisphonein the
middleofa tableandhavingeightof his friends around, playing real-
time gaming because the phone
is serving as a hotspot. We also
should be able to deliver real-time
health care into rural areas in ways
that we haven’t been able to. That’s
because we’ll be getting [very high]
speeds out into these environments
over spectrum as opposed
to having to go pull fiber and run
terrestrial circuits. Hopefully,
it will change the economics for
our carriers on a global basis.What’s the biggest challenge facing Cisco?
The irony for us is that six years
ago there were seminal threats
that were believed to be fatal to our
company. And what’s turned out
to be the case is that we’ve actually
embraced many of those shifts
and turned them into advantages.
The transition to cloud that was
viewed as being very negative has
turned out to be very positive
for us. As one of my engineering
leaders says, “We moved the
applications to the cloud, we didn’t
move the employees to the cloud.”
Our biggest challenge is prioritizing
areas to invest in right now, which
is a good place to be.What do your customers say has changed the
most in how they conduct their businesses?
Technology is no longer some
optional cost center; it’s now at the
heart of the strategies that they’re
deploying, whether it’s delivering
citizen services in government
or whether it’s the way a bank
interacts with its customers
in the branch. But technology is in
the middle of everything. So our
customers don’t say anymore,
“Oh, it’s a little tough, so I think I’m
going to slow my spending here.”○ Listen to Bloomberg Businessweek
With Carol Massar and Jason Kelly, weekdays
2 p.m.-5 p.m. ET on Bloomberg RadioHow has the trade war affected Cisco so far,
and how are you managing the impact?
Because we have a globally
distributed supply chain, we have
the capacity to move things
around on a regular basis. Our
teams did such an amazing job
optimizing our supply chain over
the last eight months that they
actually put us in a position where
the latest 25% [tariff] really had
a pretty nominal effect from
a pricing perspective. My bigger
worry is not the impact it will
have on us at Cisco, but more
on the macro and what it does
to customers’ overall sentiment.○ Hired1997;CEO
sinceJuly 2015
○ Previously
workedat
BayNetworks
andAscend
Communications
○ Graduated
fromUniversityof
NorthCarolina
witha bachelor’s
in mathematics