Clever Geek Handbook
2 February 2026

Eat or Be Eaten

Recommendation

As the book jacket states, "There are plenty of books out there that show you how to climb the corporate ladder by applying the good old-fashioned virtues of honesty, integrity, loyalty and hard work. This book isn’t one of those." In fact, this manual isn’t for the faint of heart. It contains some of the nastiest, dirtiest tricks around for getting ahead, including how to punish your subordinates, take your supervisor’s job and spread vicious rumors. Although the battle imagery can be grating, what the author writes is (unfortunately) usually true. Those climbing the corporate ladder will benefit from his advice. Those already at the top apparently already know everything in this book. Still, it’s entertaining and easy to read - perfect for lunchtime. BooksInShort recommends this book for corporate climbers willing to do what it takes.

Take-Aways

  • It isn’t what you know; it’s whom you know.
  • Managing subordinates is the second most important thing in a master corporate politician’s life. See the first line above for the most important thing.
  • Perception is reality. Act important, and others will think you are important.
  • Learn to say no.
  • Use anger effectively. If you’re mad - or just appear mad - people will do whatever it takes to make sure you calm down. Then, you’ll get what you want.
  • Remove adversaries kindly. Find them other jobs, so you can take their jobs.
  • Do as you’re told. (This tactic only works if your boss is an idiot. When his or her boss asks why you did something, say you were only "following directions.")
  • Stall. If all else fails, form a committee to solve the problem.
  • CYA: Cover your ass.
  • Tell management what they want to hear.

Summary

Welcome to the Jungle

If you work for a big corporation (or even a small company), then you already know working isn’t much different from war. Only the strong survive. Before getting into specific survival tactics, it’s important to know the basics.

  • It’s whom you know.
  • Don’t use the same tactic over and over. Mix them up.
  • Be social and network. Keep careful records.
  • Develop and maintain a professional image. Image makes you powerful, not titles.
“There are no police courts in corporate politics, and no courts of appeal.”

Learn to tap dance - that is, master the art of improvising. If you don’t know the answer, fake it. Make it up. For example: Your supervisor asks why the product is late. You apologize, say you’ve had problems with parts, and reassure your boss that you will make up the schedule unless you hit more snags. Throw in some numbers, which may or not be true. Your boss walks away satisfied. If you’re late, repeat the cycle - or blame somebody else.

“I would rather have a loyal person who’s mediocre in ability than a disloyal person who can walk on water.”

If you want to play the got’cha game, it works like this: First, you sniff out something bad about another manager’s department, like a missed delivery on a critical part or a program that doesn’t work and never did. Guard this information carefully. Don’t talk to the responsible manager because if you do, she will be prepared to answer your got’cha when you reveal it in step three. Reveal the got’cha at a general-manager-level or higher meeting. This will give the general manager the impression that you’re on top of things and the guy you’re dropping the got’cha on is not. Watch him tap dance or die.

“One thing all the big shots have that most young managers don’t is patience. Patience is the willingness to wait for what you want.”

As part of playing the game, tell jokes, which will get you attention and recognition. People will naturally gravitate toward you if you’re funny. Hire smart. Even though most managers feel threatened by people who are smarter than they are, you know better. "Hire people who are more competent than you are, keep them well paid, and they’ll push you to the top." Titles don’t mean anything; don’t be intimidated by them.

Stalking Your Prey

Now you can move on to more difficult maneuvers. Master corporate politicians always seem to have things go their way. Many people call that luck, but it’s really skill and hard work.

“Put together a ’tiger team’ to fix a problem. Teams give the world the illusion that something is being done to fix a problem.”

Matrix positions - wherein you report to two or more bosses - are somewhat new to the corporate world. Although difficult to grasp at first, matrix positions can be quite good for getting what you want. Being in a matrix position, where you are usually responsible for functions not people, makes it easier to divide and conquer. If one boss is an idiot, hopefully the other is not. If they’re both idiots, at least you can play them against each other.

“Authority is not a quality one person ’has,’ in the sense that he has property or physical qualities. Authority refers to an interpersonal relation in which one person looks upon another as somebody superior to him.” [Erich Fromm]

Fight fire with fire. If your supervisor yells at you, yell back. Being screamed at provokes one of two responses: defending yourself or cowering in fear. Defending yourself takes courage, but it shows you’re willing to fight when necessary. However, if you made a mistake and the screams were warranted, accept the attack. Anger, whether real or imagined, is a useful tool. "A vice president I know became so angry one time he threw his briefcase at the wall and kicked the table. He didn’t get his way, but he sure did get everyone’s attention... Anger tends to make people pay attention and, in most instances, concede something."

“Hire people who are more competent than you are, keep them well paid, and they’ll push you to the top.”

Ask for more than you need. The person you’re dealing with will cut back on your request - and if you pad it, you will get what you originally wanted. This rule applies to all situations: budgets, vendor proposals, new jobs, etc. Pick and choose your battles. If you try to win the war in one battle, you will lose. Aim small and attack the enemy piece by piece.

Strategies for the Hunt

To get what you want, learn to stall. Master corporate politicians stall all the time in a variety of different ways. Perhaps the most common response is to say, "I’ll get back to you," and then don’t follow up. When someone wants to "get together and talk," make an appointment as far in the future as possible and then break it. Claim a meeting conflict. You can safely do this at least twice before the person goes above you.

“Always ask for more than you want or expect to get.”

Agree and then do what you want. This only works if you are charming. Smile and be as nice as possible. By the time anyone figures it out, it will be too late. Don’t overuse this tactic or you will lose credibility. If all else fails, divert attention. If you don’t want to discuss something, don’t. Choose another topic, preferably one that interests the other person.

Leaving a False Trail

If you know you’re going to fail, get the wolves off your scent first. Disassociate yourself from the failure. Assign someone else to the problem - preferably a matrix manager. Another strategy is fireproofing, which legally means "contributory negligence." Prioritize. If you can, ask for help from a higher-up. If your tasks are so awesome that you can’t accomplish them alone, find out what tasks need to be done first and do those.

“If you want something, go right to the top. Why waste your time dealing with the subordinates?”

Hear what you want to, and tell them what they want to hear. The more people you get to agree with a decision, the less heat you’re going to receive if it turns out bad. If you tell management something other than what they want to hear, they may not listen to you. Judge when it’s easier to give them what they want, and when it’s appropriate to tell the truth. Other stalling tactics include reorganizing, creating new systems, redoing the budgets or forecasts and working overtime. (Bosses love to see you work overtime).

Saving Your Hide

Everybody fails sometimes. If you have never failed, you haven’t taken any risks. Never admit that you’ve failed! Use the tactics below instead.

  • Deny everything - What failure? I didn’t fail.
  • Tell the truth - If you can’t deny it, ’fess up.
  • Change topics or shift the focus to another department and blame them.
  • Blame your employees - This will backfire with overuse, so use it sparingly.
  • Blame procurement - Or data processing.
  • Claim other priorities prevented you from focusing on the problem.

Keeping the Pack in Line

Your people can be your greatest success or your biggest failure. As a manager, you must keep them in line. Be loyal to those who work for you. They may take your job someday, and they will remember how you treated them. Handle ambitious employees appropriately. Some subordinates think they are ready for more challenge when they are not. Tell them why - tactfully. If it’s your style, you can scream at employees who get out of control, but be prepared for them to scream back. A better way to control them is to use intimidation. If you make a threat, follow through on it if you want to be taken seriously.

“I act as if I were the stereotypical army officer. I scream, yell, and threaten because it’s necessary.”

Remember that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. For whatever reason, some employees are deemed failures. Good people are hard to find. If you suspect that talent is waiting in the graveyard for a second chance, provide that chance. The employee will reward you with loyalty. Promote your people when they do well. Blow their horns as well as your own. In a way, you are tooting your own horn. When your subordinates look good, so do you.

Feasting

How do you get the promotion you deserve? Ask for it or force management to give it you by becoming so technically adept that nobody else could possibly do the job. Find a job in the company that would force them to promote you (if they want to keep you). Or, find your boss another job and take that one. "There are several ways of getting a promotion, and none of them involves directly asking for it. They all require that you make your boss, and perhaps his boss, want to promote you. Directly asking for a raise puts your supervisor on the spot, and he will tap dance his way out of giving you one - unless he feels you deserve it."

“Only the risk takers ever make it to the top.”

If you find another job within the company, either your boss will reorganize to give you more responsibility so you can stay, or she will lose you to another department. If another department wants you, this boosts your credibility with your current boss. But, be prepared to take the other job if necessary. Seek employment elsewhere if nothing is available internally.

“When you submit a budget, pad the hell out of it. Budgets are one of the ways management uses to beat the stuffing out of you.”

Get praise in writing. Letters of recommendation in your file tell management that you did a good job, shows them that someone recognizes and appreciates your ability, and keeps you visible. When promotions become available, your name is in their minds. Finally, follow a rising star and be loyal. When she’s promoted, you will be, too.

Dirty Tricks

If you can stomach it, read this section. Do not use these survival tactics, but know they exist and may be used against you. These dirty tricks include writing nonexistent letters and blind copies, reprimanding and then commending, and starting rumors. Nonexistent letters are simply CYA (cover your ass) memos written after the fact. Don’t claim you never got the memo, even if you didn’t, because people will think you’re making an excuse. The only way to fight this tactic is to guard your date-stamper zealously. Getting blind copies mean that the author of the letter or e-mail does not advertise its distribution. Blind copies may give you a short-term advantage, but sooner or later this tactic will come back to haunt you.

“Zapping your employees is easy. Your employees have no defense. They did screw up, and if you don’t defend them, then no one else will.”

"If you want to destroy a guy, unload your losers on him, then write them letters of commendation. He can’t fire them when they have such glowing letters in their personnel files. He can’t do anything other than find them another job. If you want to make an enemy for life or get even, use this tactic."

“’Master Corporate Politicians’ go to the manager who will agree with what they want and avoid the manager who will disagree with them.”

If you want to destroy someone, start a rumor. It doesn’t matter if it’s true or not. (Most rumors aren’t true). Effective rumors for destroying a man include saying he beats his wife, fools around or was in a mental institution. Effective rumors for destroying a woman include saying she has an illegitimate child or does drugs. Women have an advantage over men when it comes to rumors. They can claim mistreatment (from sexual harassment to rape) more easily than a man. Even if it isn’t true, just the idea is enough to get a man fired. "If you’re a man, pray your female employees don’t read this."

Little Things Mean a Lot

In the end, the little things add up. In fact, lot of little things can make someone quit. If that’s what you want, then micromanage. Don’t give raises, make overtime permanently mandatory, cancel your subordinates’ vacation plans, send him on road trips, take trips yourself to give him plenty of chances to screw up, or give him long-term assignments far away. Finally, if you really want to force someone to leave, conduct an internal audit. Employees who break protocol can be fired - and you will never need an excuse to conduct an internal audit because you’re trying to weed out the bad.

About the Author

Phil Porter has worked at some of the world’s most competitive companies, including McDonnell Douglas, Northern Telecom, Flowers Industries and General Dynamics. His corporate career spans more than 30 years.

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Eat or Be Eaten

Book Eat or Be Eaten

Jungle Warfare for the Master Corporate Politician

FT Prentice Hall,
 


2 February 2026

Collaborative Advantage

Recommendation

Jeffrey Dyer, an accomplished scholar and management teacher, has developed a cogent and sophisticated theory of extended enterprise management based on a wealth of empirical data from the history of Toyota in Japan and from his six-year study of Chrysler Corp. before its merger with Daimler-Benz. Beyond being a detailed and rigorous case study of the automobile manufacturing industry, Dyer’s book presents an extremely valuable model for vertical integration. His model can be applied to other complex product industries, though he is honest about the limits of its applicability. This book provides a clear, effective blueprint for achieving value-chain collaboration. BooksInShort recommends it to consultants, executives in complex product industries and leaders in firms that supply components or materials. If you always suspected you were part of a greater whole, now you can be sure.

Take-Aways

  • Production networks, or value chains, will become important units of competition.
  • Companies traditionally manage the value chain through vertical integration and arm’s-length relationships.
  • The costs of distant relationships sometimes outweigh the pricing benefits.
  • Partnerships are more feasible due to information technology advances, and more desirable because of increasing product complexity and demand customization.
  • The value chain of collaborating partners achieves the coordination advantages of vertical integration and the specialization advantages of outsourcing.
  • Extended enterprises can achieve this collaborative advantage.
  • Toyota’s keiretsu model is a good model of collaborative advantage.
  • Implementing a keiretsu-type system requires supplier segmentation, learning time and an identity for the extended enterprise.
  • Chrysler’s keiretsu system achieved time-to-market, cost and quality advantages.
  • Future keiretsu systems will probably extend vertically and become modular, with major suppliers becoming, in effect, subcontractors.

Summary

Competition and Collaboration

How companies achieve competitive advantage is a fundamental question in strategic management. The two traditional answers are either the "industry structure" approach, which views the industry itself as the most important factor, or the "resource-based" view, which says that competitive advantage resides in a firm’s differentiated, value-added resources and capabilities. Both answers omit the competitive value of the production network, or value chain. Traditionally, a company manages its value chain in one of three ways:

  1. Vertical integration: Bring production in-house - Transaction cost theory generally suggests customization and dedicated asset utilization as the criteria for vertical integration (that is, bringing functions in-house). General Motors, for example, produces 65% to 70% of its own components. Over time, though, problems become apparent. Vertical integration entails little competition (because the buyer wouldn’t go elsewhere), limited access to customers (such as competing manufacturers), increased labor costs (because large automakers tend to be unionized), and created a larger, less flexible organizational structure.
  2. Arm’s-length relationship: Buy what you need - Arm’s-length supplier management, which tended to be the practice for outside purchases, had several disadvantages. Suppliers resisted making dedicated investments and sharing knowledge with buyers. Administrative and inventory costs often exceeded the discounts achieved through bargaining. Making smaller purchases from many suppliers reduced both the suppliers’ ability to achieve economies of scale and the buyer’s volume buying power. As it turned out, most of the pricing and quality advantages of a multi-supplier market could be replicated using two prominent suppliers and then adjusting volume according to performance.
  3. Partnerships: Buy from a few suppliers and have long relationships with them - Over time, three trends made partnerships more beneficial. First, new information technologies made inter-firm coordination more efficient. Second, increasing product complexity raised the value of specialization. Finally, customized demand calls for greater supplier involvement.
“Recent studies suggest that extraordinary productivity gains in the production network, or value chain, are possible when companies are willing to collaborate in unique ways, often achieving competitive advantages by sharing resources, knowledge and assets.”

The challenge is finding a balance between outsourcing for specialized needs or bringing manufacturing in-house. Because "productivity grows with the division of labor," firms buy supplies from outside specialists. Yet, specialization also increases the costs of communication and coordination, creating an incentive to bring activities in-house.

“I am convinced that General Motors, due to its emphasis on negotiation skills and bargaining power, extracts a greater percentage of the pie that it jointly creates with suppliers relative to Chrysler. However, Chrysler wins by keeping a smaller piece of a bigger pie.”

Specialization and coordination reside in the "value chain" of the extended enterprise’s set of collaboration processes. In complex industries, more suppliers will become strategic partners, particularly during long-term economic expansion when the goal is creating long-term value. In simple product industries with standardized components, arm’s-length sources prevail, particularly when suppliers have excess capacity or buyers need to cut short-term costs.

Toyota and the Keiretsu Model

Toyota’s success with "lean production" processes was explained in 1990 in The Machine That Changed the World. But lean production alone does not explain Toyota’s competitive edge, even over Ford, which is America’s best lean producer. The missing piece is the keiretsu model. In Japanese, keiretsu refers to an alliance of companies that collaborate with one another. The keiretsu model has three components: trust development, knowledge exchange and dedicated asset investment.

  1. Trust - This magic combination of perceived reliability and fairness, as well as goodwill, is the foundation for all keiretsu activities, knowledge exchange and investment. To build trust, Toyota selected suppliers based on their performance record and history, resulting in a 90% re-win rate across model changes. Toyota’s tradition of long-term employment helped individual employees build relationships and improve communication over time. Inter-firm career paths created further ties between Toyota and its suppliers. Toyota built goodwill with many mechanisms of free assistance. Finally, Toyota took a minority ownership position in a number of its major suppliers, which helped align the parties’ interests.
  2. Knowledge exchange - Toyota began the process of knowledge exchange in 1943 with a supplier association. In the 1960s, it offered on-site consulting teams from its Operations Management Consulting Division (OMCD), which established voluntary study groups of key suppliers in 1977. The groups could "systematically diffuse knowledge" among members of Toyota’s network. Toyota also formed problem-solving teams from among its ranks. These teams applied Quality Assurance or Design Engineering Department expertise to emergent problems within the network. Both permanent and temporary inter-firm employee transfers created additional links. Toyota also monitored implementation of new processes and technology.
  3. Dedicated assets - Toyota specialized its sites by concentrating its Japanese plants in Toyota City and locating nearly every assembly plant within 34 miles of its headquarters. This made it easier for affiliated suppliers to locate an average of 30 miles from the assembly plants they served. This facilitated just-in-time (JIT) deliveries and lowered buyers’ and suppliers’ costs for inventory, transportation and coordination. Suppliers dedicated 22% of their capital investments to their business with Toyota, enabling faster "through-put" and greater product customization. To help people specialize individually, Toyota hosted full-time "guest engineers" at its technical center in Toyota City, while sending its own engineers and managers to work either temporarily or permanently at suppliers’ sites. This helped increase quality and decrease development time.

Importing Keiretsu

In the early 1990s, many U.S. automakers slashed their supplier bases in imitation of Japanese keiretsu. This gave manufacturers the power to extract volume discounts, insist on JIT delivery programs and make suppliers responsible for quality. While it helped improve efficiency and reduce inventory and defects, it failed to capture the full power of the extended enterprise model. Chrysler cut 60% of its supply base, but unlike its other competitors in the U.S., Chrysler went further. It followed Toyota’s keiretsu model by developing trust, knowledge sharing and dedicated asset investments. Here’s how:

  1. Trust - Chrysler built trust by placing its own and its supplier engineers in cross-functional teams at the Chrysler Technology Center. Pre-sourcing - that is, "choosing suppliers early in the vehicle’s concept-development stage and giving them significant, if not total, responsibility for designing a given component or system" - became the norm.
  2. Knowledge exchange - Chrysler introduced the Supplier Cost Reduction Effort, or SCORE, an incentive program for supplier suggestions. By 1992, SCORE was a formal part of the supplier rating system. Chrysler built supplier support by focusing first on what Chrysler was doing wrong, then addressing changes to lower-tier-supplied parts and materials, and only later asking suppliers to change their own operations. In addition, Chrysler facilitated knowledge exchange with a common e-mail system, an advisory board of executives from its top 14 suppliers and an annual supplier meeting for its 150 strategic suppliers.
  3. Dedicated assets - Chrysler invested in people, in physical assets and in site specialization. Chrysler housed suppliers’ engineers at Chrysler sites. They negotiated volume discounts and encouraged suppliers to use a common CAD/CAM software package. Finally, Chrysler invested in dedicated facilities to improve suppliers’ ability to do just-in-time deliveries. Unlike Toyota, Chrysler did not take equity stakes in suppliers, export its executives, create a supplier association or develop study groups. This compromise made it easier for Chrysler to drop under-performing suppliers but more difficult for it to minimize its supply base.

Chrysler’s Results

As a result of these changes, Chrysler was able to cut new vehicle development time by more than 30%, cut cost per vehicle by 20% to 40% and increase profit per vehicle more than eightfold. Chrysler’s success could be traced to quicker development, improved quality and lower costs for product development, production and transactions.

  1. Quicker development: time-to-market economies - The partnership model minimized supplier searches, contract negotiations and bargaining time. Because it no longer needed to conduct competitive bidding on pre-designed parts, Chrysler could engage in simultaneous, rather than sequential, development. Because suppliers were involved early in the product-development process, they had extra time to develop solutions to design and production problems. Finally, investments in dedicated assets increased the efficiency of communication and information exchange, and therefore improved coordination.
  2. Lower product development costs - Savings came from spending fewer engineering hours in the shortened product-development cycle, thus lowering engineering, research and development (ER&D) costs. Hard tools could be purchased closer to production, reducing the hard-tool investment period. Facilities costs were reduced by the shorter timeline and re-tooling expenses were reduced, since they were often caused by poor prototype-tool match. Finally, earlier attention to design cut pre-product and launch (PP&L) costs.
  3. Better production cost economies - Because suppliers worked with Chrysler for the life of a model and beyond, they progressed along the experience curve. Suppliers could plan long-term production and investment, which improved the efficient use of capacity. They could also use existing assets more effectively, by employing carry-over designs. Finally, suggestions from the SCORE program reduced production costs by increasing efficiency.
  4. Lower transaction and procurement costs - The two-supplier-per-category rule lowered search costs; the lack of competitive bidding lowered negotiation and contract costs.
  5. Improved quality - Quality went up because suppliers had less incentive to scrimp.

Lessons for American Keiretsu

Chrysler’s experience suggests several lessons for those who wish to try similar programs:

  • Segment your suppliers - Conduct an extended enterprise-building program with your strategic segment - that is, suppliers who provide high-value components and systems that help competitively differentiate your final product. Pursue a "quasi-arm’s-length" approach with non-strategic suppliers. Use three or four long-term suppliers, assure them of future business and invest in some coordination mechanisms, such as order entry and electronic data interchange systems.
  • Create an enterprise identity - The Toyota Group identity was developed around the concept of "kyoson kyoei," or "co-existence and co-prosperity."
  • Realize that collaborative advantage takes time - Begin by establishing relationships and creating an enterprise identity. In the second phase, strengthen ties between the suppliers and the manufacturer in a spoke-and-hub fashion. Finally, develop inter-supplier relationships, connecting the spokes.

Directions for the Future

Two directions are likely as extended enterprises evolve. The first is the "modular extended enterprise," in which major suppliers take responsibility for important subsystems. Volkswagen’s Brazil plant has had an early success with this program. Second, the extended enterprise is likely to extend vertically, with first-tier suppliers creating extended enterprises with second-tier suppliers, and second-tier industries develop links with third-tier suppliers. Both Toyota and Chrysler have seen this process begin.

About the Author

Jeffrey H. Dyer is an associate professor and holds the Donald Staheli Term/Chair in international strategy, organizational leadership & strategy at Brigham Young University. He has worked as a consultant and manager for Bain & Co.

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Collaborative Advantage

Book Collaborative Advantage

Winning Through Extended Enterprise Supplier Networks

Oxford UP,
 


2 February 2026

Nothing But Net

Recommendation

David Stauffer’s impressive new book seeks to explain why Cisco is one of the world’s most important companies. At the heart of the book - and perhaps the company - is the management style of Cisco CEO John Chambers, who once worked for IBM and Wang. The book illustrates how Chambers noted the problems at both of his former employers and resolved that they would never show up at Cisco. The author also covers Cisco’s famed acquisition strategy, and explains how the company targets employees, rather than profits, in its acquisition sights. Although the author seems enamored with the company, it’s tough to argue with his main points, especially when he cites other companies, such as Oracle and Microsoft, that have replicated Cisco strategies. BooksInShort recommends this definitive and entertaining book as an insightful look into a pivotal new-economy company, and the strategies that got it to where it is today.

Take-Aways

  • In some ways, Cisco is more impressive than Microsoft.
  • The reason why Cisco is not being investigated (and Microsoft is) may come down to simple politeness.
  • When Cisco falls behind, it simply buys the technology it needs.
  • Cisco CEO John Chambers learned what not to do at Wang and IBM.
  • Cisco is an obsessed, customer-driven company that bets on the future.
  • Cisco’s Web site pulls in $32 million in daily sales, some 80% of the company’s total revenue.
  • Other companies are following Cisco’s principles.
  • Cisco believes in leading from a statesmanlike stance and in staying on message in every forum.
  • Cisco endeavors to become one of the top-five competitors in any business area that it enters.
  • When Cisco buys a company, it’s looking mostly to acquire the company’s talent.

Summary

The Right Company in the Right Business at the Right Time

If you want to learn from another company’s spectacular success, look at Cisco Systems, the company that drives the Internet. For many reasons, Cisco appears to be the right company in the right business at the right time, and it has always capitalized on its opportunities.

“If you bought $10,000 of Cisco stock at the IPO price, it was worth $8.2 million at the turn of the millennium.”

John Chambers is the head cheerleader for a Cisco team that appears unified and dedicated to the overarching goal of networking the world - forging communication links that can overcome seemingly intractable problems of ignorance and poverty. These principles give Cisco’s work its greatest meaning and can do the same for you:

  • Above all else, do what you love - Given today’s intense competition and continuous change, passion for your work is essential to achieving and sustaining success.
  • Know what you’re about and keep it always in sight - The first step toward achieving anything is formulating a clear statement of what you want. A mission, a vision and goals are essential raw materials in any recipe for corporate success.
  • Create and keep a winning culture - Your organization’s culture is the bedrock required for building long-term success. It’s not a set-and-forget proposition - your proactive attention keeps it alive and vibrant.
“John Chambers seems genuinely to act first in the interest of a cause, secondarily in the interest of revenue and profits. The cause, he never tires of saying, is to extend the Internet, the greatest educational and poverty fighting tool in human history - to every corner of the globe.”

Cisco believes in leading from a statesmanlike stance. Also, Cisco believes in staying on message in every forum and reaching people with a consistent, straightforward benefits statement.

Win the World With E-Commerce

Cisco’s Web site pulls in $32 million in sales daily, accounting for 80% of the company’s total revenue. Cisco employees don’t get involved in these Internet transactions until the customer’s check arrives. Subcontractors first manufacture, test and ship the equipment direct to the customer. About 70% of customer-support inquiries are handled over the Internet with no employee involvement.

“Partnering is increasingly a necessity, not an option, for successfully competing in an ever-changing world, and Cisco does it as well as anyone. ”

Cisco harnesses several e-commerce advantages, including custom-made manufacturing, using e-commerce to extend the personal touch and supply-chain savings (by automating, Cisco saved the estimated cost of hiring more than 1,000 engineers). The firm built its own "Internet ecosystem," with a network that provides flexibility and responsiveness.

The Internal Net Revolution

To fully exploit the Internet’s virtually unlimited advantages, don’t just look outward. You can approach long-standing functions and systems within your organization in whole new ways when you apply a digital evaluation of how things get done.

  • Turn information systems into a competitive advantage - Use the Internet’s capabilities to deliver more accurate and detailed information to more managers more quickly.
  • Hire better, faster and cheaper with the Web - Using Cisco’s methods, Internet-based hiring can deliver better people, more quickly, with significant savings in recruiting costs.
  • Hop aboard the e-train - Employee training is better suited for the Internet’s inherent capabilities than any other business activity.
  • Become an e-learning organization - Companies can no longer afford to have all information roads lead through their top ranks. Knowledge sharing has never been more important than it is in the emerging knowledge economy.

Employee Assets

A company’s commitment to putting its people first is more than a magnanimous gesture. That’s because everything else in an organization’s values - its products, profits and so forth - flows from its people. John Chambers is publicly recognized for a commitment to employees that may be unsurpassed among today’s CEOs. His guiding principles include:

  • Seek people who are more than satisfactory - With price and product-quality differentiations gradually disappearing, the key basis of competition is employee talent.
  • Find people who fit your culture - Not only does the job have to fit, but the culture as well. You want employees whose personal aims are aligned with your corporate aims.
  • Treat people like precious assets - Cisco says its employees are its most highly prized assets. The company backs up this assertion with action: pay, empowerment and a host of other expressions that its people are the ultimate source of success.
  • Provide a setting for superb performers - Cisco understands that it takes more than traditional inducements to retain top performers. They need intangibles like intellectually challenging assignments and a high-energy working environment.
  • Kiss non-performers goodbye - Despite record demand for good workers, you can continually upgrade your overall employee quality by dismissing the poorest performers.

Listen Constantly To Customers

In an Internet-enabled world, where buyers have instant access to products and services offered by a world of providers, the customer is more powerful, and less loyal, than ever before. Cisco has rocketed to unprecedented success on the strength of its obsessive customer concern, which is no more evident than in John Chambers himself. His customer-service principles include:

  • Asking the customer what he or she wants.
  • Letting the customer shape your strategy - Make customers integral to determing strategy and operations.
  • Tailoring offerings for discrete sales channels.
  • Maintaining top-down direct, personal customer contact - That means spending time with customers.
  • Convincing everyone in the organization of the importance of the customer.

A Succession of Businesses

When it comes to data networking, Cisco is "top-of-mind" for a range of customers who have widely divergent needs. The company responds to all of them, which reinforces its positioning in a virtuous cycle that generates current and future profitability. The customer-oriented principles in action include:

  • Being everything your customers need.
  • Being no more than your customers need.
  • Being horizontal to gain peak innovation.
  • Leveraging your winners to produce more wins.
“Chambers is happily uncomforted by Cisco’s fabulous success. Having been with IBM and Wang when those companies rested on their laurels, he manages Cisco as if competitors will bury his firm tomorrow. Given today’s competitive realities, someone could pull off such a feat. Given Cisco’s ever-present concern for such an event, no one will.”

Your company also has to make a commitment to change. To succeed in the long term, continually reassess and alter your mix of products and services to respond to customer needs. Any enduring company is actually a succession of businesses, conducted over time by an ongoing corporate entity.

Always Look to Lead

Dig beneath the surface of market dominance and you find it’s not built on magic, but smart management. Cisco goes to the top of the heap by adhering to these key guidelines.

  • Give yourself a fighting chance - Cisco CEO John Chambers isn’t going to take the company where it shouldn’t go. Stick to core competencies; stay with what you know.
  • Be, or buy, a first mover - Cisco doesn’t pretend to be the networker that’s always on the scene with the first or most. When you’re not among the first with a new technology, you’ll only catch up by acquiring one of the outfits that is.
  • Don’t forget old-fashioned salesmanship - Cisco is so integrally associated with new-world technologies that it’s easy to forget about the CEO’s sales background - and his understanding that sales will probably always call for a well-timed personal touch.
  • Leverage your leadership positions - Market leadership bestows a strength that you can leverage other ways to achieve additional market dominance.

Buy Right, Grow Right

The ever-lengthening record of failures among corporate mergers and acquisitions proves that there’s a wrong way to merge or buy. Cisco’s lengthening record of buyouts that benefit everyone involved indicates that there’s a right way, too.

  • Buy to keep moving at Internet speed - No lone company can keep up with today’s pace of change. Acquisitions can bring change into your organization.
  • Make people the primary purpose - Don’t let an acquisition target’s products and technologies be your foremost concern. What counts is the pool of talent you can add to your roster; only people have a value that can justify a rich purchase price.
  • Don’t sweat the present, buy the future - Some of Cisco’s deals don’t look good on paper - paying premium prices for companies that have yet to show a profit - but Cisco isn’t paying for what was or is, but what will be.
  • Know and respect the deal killers - John Chambers is wary of deals pursued to completion for the sake of completing the deal. When signs don’t say go, stop.
  • Make them an offer they can’t refuse - Cisco is known and respected for valuing its acquisition targets fairly and not letting minor hitches get in the way of an agreement.
  • Make sure you deliver after the deal - Cisco’s integration of acquired companies is famously fair to new employees. They respond favorably to strong inducements to stay.

If You Don’t Buy ’Em, Join ’Em

Strategic alliances can extend your reach to new technologies, markets and customers. But they only work with the sort of commitment and hard work that Cisco brings to bear, observing these most important guidelines:

  • Don’t Go It Alone - The pressures of continual change, global competition and shifting customer demands can no longer be adequately addressed by any single organization; alliance is often an effective response.
  • Have the courage to form interwoven dependencies - The way a beneficial partnership will evolve over time and can’t be detailed in advance; it must be flexible enough to respond quickly to a changing environment.
  • Create wins for others to win big yourself - Alliances are in trouble when any participant seeks to gain more than its partners from the arrangement.
  • Use alliance leverage to move faster - Continuing growth is the key promise in an alliance. Your firm joins others to exploit complementary competencies and access to each other’s markets and customers.

Fight Complacency

To avoid becoming complacent, remember these tips: past success is past, experience can be a favorite teacher, embrace paranoia, hold on to your early hunger, take the calculated risk and change your mindset to expect speedier change.

About the Author

David Stauffer  is a business writer who heads the corporate writing firm Stauffer Bury, Inc. His dozens of articles on business and management have appeared in Harvard Management Update, Across the Board, The Wall Street Journal and other business periodicals. He teaches business writing as an adjunct professor at Rocky Mountain College.

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