前高管反省思科成功之道

    杰仕瑞•乌拉尔的职业生涯起步于网络领导者思科系统公司(Cisco Systems)，2008年离开后不久，她加入了一家由太阳微系统公司(Sun)创始人安迪•贝托谢姆发起的新公司，随后还加入了其他几家公司。最近接受《财富》( Fortune)记者亚当•拉辛斯基采访时，乌拉尔畅谈了最积极在思科公司学到的知识，以及她的新公司阿里斯塔网络(Arista Networks)与这位老东家之间的竞争等话题。下面是她的自述。

    2008年，阿里斯塔公司有30名工程师，正准备推出产品。2008年5月份离开思科后，我休整了一个夏天，利用这段时间评估了一下在清洁技术和社交网络领域就职的可能性，但最终还是选择重新做我的老本行。

    这家公司流淌着许多思科的基因，因为思科是最大的网络巨头。业界人士据此认为我们以后肯定会被思科收购。我们相信，我们正在打造一家独立的公司，但这种信念很难被外人理解。我认为我们现在就是这样一家公司，但在当时，这样的形象还不够清晰。我们的目标和意图并不是被思科收购。我们的确希望建立一家拥有独立生存能力的公司。让我们非常引以为傲的是，阿里斯塔能够开发出伟大的技术，提供一流的客户体验，出色和卓越的服务，同时为客户提供他们所期待的裂变性解决方案。

    我们深信我们将提供裂变性技术，这一点毫无疑问。但我认为，真正让我们非常兴奋的是，客户的购买行为出现了一种裂变。许多初创公司来来去去，相继开发出了不起的技术，但我们能够赶上这波云浪潮。安迪•贝托谢姆和我有时担心，我们进入这个市场太晚了。一个好公司的标志不仅是执行力，还包括一定的客户接受度，而这是由运气和时机确定的。我认为，我们能够把所有这一切融合在一起。

    我在思科工作了15年，其实相当于105年——每1年就像是7年一样。我是跟随思科收购的第一家公司Crescendo进入这家公司的。那是1993年的事情，思科当时的年营收大约六、七亿美元，主要从事路由器业务。首席执行官是约翰•莫格里奇，约翰•钱伯斯那时还是销售主管。这宗收购案的确让约翰•钱伯斯成为业界红人。由于他们收购Crescendo花费了9,300万美元，在接下来的那段时间里，我们就把交换机业务收入从（我也不知道具体是多少）做到了100亿到150亿美元。所有这一切并不仅仅是我们的功劳。我们获得了一大笔投资。

    有一个插曲你或许会感兴趣。每次思科收购一家公司时，他们首先会要求所有高管签下两年的合约。这个长达两年的任职要求让我感到极度痛苦。我说，“我怎么能够在一家大公司待两年时间呢？”两年感觉就像是一辈子。我为此还痛哭过一场。就这样，我在思科公司待满了两年，最终足足在那里工作了15年。但我认为，思科吸引我的一部分原因是，通过收购Crescendo，他们真的在一家大公司中培育出一种类似初创公司那样的创业氛围。

    思科给员工分发了许多带有一个箭头的T恤衫，上面写着“通往10亿之路”的字样。他们当时的年收入大约6亿美元，目标是10亿美元（思科2013财年的收入为486亿美元）。约翰•钱伯斯来找我，说：“我想让你负责交换机业务，也必须做到10亿哦。”

    10亿？我像个小姑娘似的揉了揉眼睛：“这些家伙在说什么呢？他们就连主营业务还没有做到10亿呢。”思科收购Crescendo的时候，我们的总收入才1,000万美元，现在他们竟然要求我做到10亿的规模，简直太荒唐了。

    现在回想起来，我当时给他的答复或许有些轻率。我说：“仅仅因为你在路由器市场做到了这一点，并不意味着你有本事能够把交换机业务也做到这个规模。”但约翰•钱伯斯是一个极有抱负，非常乐观的人。他说：“没错，我们能够做到。”成就思科伟业的并不是Crescendo，而是投资这笔收购交易所体现出的决心，愿景和灵感。

    Jayshree Ullal made her career at networking leader Cisco Systems, before leaving in 2008 and shortly after that joining a new company started by Andy Bechtolsheim, a founder of Sun, and several others. In a recent interview, she discussed what she learned at Cisco—and how her new company, Arista Networks, competes against it. Below, her words as told to Fortune's Adam Lashinsky.

    In 2008 Arista was 30 engineers and getting ready to launch product. I left Cisco in May of 2008, and I took the summer off to evaluate clean tech and social networking, and finally came back to my roots.

    There is a lot of Cisco DNA in this company because Cisco is the biggest networking giant. People therefore assumed we were naturally going to be acquired by Cisco. The conviction with which we believed we were building an independent company wasn't understood. I think it is today. But it wasn't very clear then. Being acquired by Cisco wasn't the goal or the intent. We were really looking to build a company with legs, and there's a lot of Arista pride in building great technology, delivering a great customer experience, providing outstanding and exceptional service, and offering our customers the disrupted solution they were looking for.

    There was no doubt in our minds that we would provide technology disruption. But I think what makes us really excited is that there's a customer disruption in buying behaviors. Lots of startups come and go and build great technology, but we were able to catch the cloud wave. And there were times when Andy [Bechtolsheim] and I feared we were late to the market. The hallmark of a good company is not just execution but some set of customer acceptance which is defined by luck and timing as well. And I think we were able to get the confluence of all that.

    I was at Cisco for 15 years. The equivalent of 105 -- every year is 7 years. I came with their very first acquisition, Crescendo. This was in 1993, when the company was $600 million, $700 million in revenue, and mostly a routing company. And John Morgridge was the CEO. John Chambers was the head of sales. And this acquisition really put John [Chambers] on the map. Crescendo, because they acquired the company for $93 million, and we went on to do anywhere from, I don't know, put the numbers at $10 billion to $15 billion in switching revenue over that period of time. All of which is not just credit to us. There was a significant investment.

    A side story there you'd be interested in. First of all, when they buy a company they ask all the key chief executives to sign up for two years. I agonized over two years. I said, "How can I ever stay in a big company for two years?" Two years felt like an eternity. I wept about that process. So I lived in Cisco two years at a time for 15 years. But I think part of why Cisco became an addiction for me was they really cultivated a startup and an entrepreneurial environment through that Crescendo acquisition as part of a larger company.

    The company had T shirts at that time with an arrow that said, "path to a billion." They were 600-something million, and their goal was to hit a billion [dollars in revenue; Cisco's fiscal-year 2013 revenues were $48.6 billion]. And John Chambers came to me and said, "I want you to do switching, and that must be another billion."

    So I rolled my eyes like teenagers do and said, "What are these guys talking about? They haven't hit a billion in their mainstream market." Crescendo was all of 10 million in revenue when they bought us, and it seemed absurd to me that they would ask me to do a billion.

    And I think I even made some flip comment to him like, "Just because you did it in routers doesn't give you a right to do this in switches." So that was John Chambers -- very aspirational and very optimistic and "Yes we can do it." It wasn't Crescendo that made Cisco, it was the commitment, the vision, and the inspiration of investing in that acquisition.