为什么思科董事会选了他作为新CEO？

    2000年4月，《财富》杂志封面曾以《他是全世界最好的CEO吗？》为题，对思科CEO约翰•钱伯斯进行过报道。当时这家网络巨头的市值迅猛增长，一度突破5500亿美元，甚至超过了微软。那会儿也是互联网泡沫的巅峰。

    如果把思科比做一只“热气球”，那一刻它已升至九霄云外。

    但钱伯斯很快发现，这只气球要向地面坠毁，他得在自由落体中小心驾驶。在触及历史高点后，思科的股价一直在15-30美元区间波动，再也没有回到80美元的峰值。

    周一，这家公司宣布钱伯斯将卸任，暂定于7月底出任执行董事长。科技界对此早有预料，但许多人都好奇，他选定的接班人——查克•罗宾斯是何方神圣？思科董事会为什么会选中他来掌舵？为什么没选其他人，比如之前人们认为在CEO争夺战中处于领先位置的销售和研发业务总裁罗伯特•劳埃德？此外，罗宾斯有能耐重振这家多年来奋力挣扎的公司，带领它重拾往日荣光吗？

    思科新CEO其人

    消息公布后，在闭门新闻发布会上准备回答各路问题时，钱伯斯的声音听起来轻快愉悦。“罗宾斯就是一台执行机器。”他称赞了继任者的工作效率，语调还是一贯的柔和缓慢。“他目光长远，胸怀大略，而且能落实到实际结果中。”随后，他撇下电话中的记者，直接对罗宾斯说：“我最欣赏你的一点是你学的很快，你知道自己懂什么，也知道自己不了解什么。”说完这句，钱伯斯把麦克风递给了罗宾斯，象征性地完成了一次“火炬传递”。

    罗宾斯是互联网行业资深人士，有17年的工作经验。他此前担任思科高级副总裁，负责全球运营。1997年，罗宾斯以会计经理身份加入思科。他经历了思科业务的急剧滑坡，在此过程中不断承担更重要的职务和责任。

    罗宾斯说：“今天发布的消息让我受宠若惊，也倍感荣幸。”接着，他回顾了思科的光辉过去，并大致介绍了今后的前进方向。他说：“回想20世纪90年代末，思科曾多么强大。”不过，他接下来表示：“我们将要迎接的下一波浪潮将是物联网带来的数字化。”物联网的英文缩写为IoT，意思是将以前不联网的家电与设备连入互联网。“这一波的规模将是以往任何一次的两到三倍。”

    从罗宾斯的描述中，与会者隐约窥见了思科的未来。随后他谈到“连接与融合”，比如说，应用程序和科技基础设施的结合让网络系统更灵活，更便于管理（如果思科不能迅速适应，这种趋势就有可能威胁其核心业务）。罗宾斯还提到，将利用思科的联网传感器和设备积累的信息，创建具有分析功能的智能应用层，在信息搜集和处理方面都具有“优势”。

    In April 2000, Fortune magazine featured Cisco CEO John Chambers on our cover and asked, “Is he the best CEO in the world?” The networking giant’s market capitalization had exploded at the turn of the millennium, soaring to more than $550 billion—topping even Microsoft’s. It was the apogee of the dot-com bubble.

    If Cisco CSCO -0.96% had been a hot air balloon, this was the moment it had ascended into the stratosphere.

    But Chambers soon found himself forced to pilot the free-falling airship as it crashed back down to Earth. Since it reached those lofty heights, the company’s share price has consistently wavered between about $15 and $30, never again regaining the $80 peak it reached.

    On Monday, the company announced that Chambers will be captain no longer, assuming the title of executive chairman at the end of July. The move, long anticipated by those in the technology industry, leaves many to wonder about his elected successor: Who exactly is Chuck Robbins? Why did the company’s board of directors select him to take the helm—rather than, say, president of sales and development Robert Lloyd, who some considered a frontrunner in the contest? And does Robbins have it in him to revive a company that has struggled for years to reclaim its pre-bust glory?

    Meet Cisco’s new CEO

    As he prepares for a round of questioning after the announcement of the news, Chambers sounds buoyant and breezy on a private Monday afternoon call with reporters. “Chuck is just an execution machine,” he says in his easy drawl, praising Robbins’ productivity. “He take vision and strategy and turns them into results.” Forgetting his audience for a moment, Chambers addresses Robbins directly before passing him the proverbial mic—and torch. “What I like most of all is you’re a fast learner,” he says. “You know what you know, and you know what you don’t know.”

    Robbins, a 17-year veteran of the networking business, most recently served as Cisco’s senior vice president of worldwide field operations. Joining the company as an account manager in 1997, he survived the business’s downward hurtle and assumed increasingly important roles and responsibilities within the organization.

    “I’m obviously very humbled and very honored with the announcement made today,” Robbins says, going on to invoke Cisco’s halcyon days and painting, in broad strokes, where he intends to steer the company. “Think about what we did in the late ’90s,” he says. “The next wave we’re facing is digitization through IoT,” he says, abbreviating “the Internet of Things,” the technology trend of connecting historically non-networked appliances and devices to the Internet. “It’s going to be two-to-three times bigger than anything in the past.”

    Glimpses of Robbins’ vision are perceptible on the call. He proceeds to talk about “connectivity and convergence,” for example, the merging of applications and technologic infrastructure, allowing for a more flexible and easily manageable system of networking. (One that threatens to gobble Cisco’s core business if it cannot adapt quickly enough.) He mentions how he would like to leverage the information garnered from all the company’s network-connected sensors and devices, and to create application layers offering analytics and intelligence, that are sourced and processed “at edge.”