Exclusive Interview With John Chambers About Tech Acquisitions, Management And More (Full Transcript)

With special thanks to John Chambers (Cisco and JC2 Ventures), and Shannon Pina (JC2 Ventures).

A few weeks ago I had the great pleasure of conducting an hour-long interview with John Chambers, the former CEO of Cisco who completed 180 acquisitions.

John had just published his first book (which I read several time to prepare for the interview).

During our chat, I was impressed by his insights and thought they deserved more than the summary we wrote for TechCrunch, so you will find here the full illustrated transcript!

It is a great complement to his new book, which is a must-read if you’re involved in tech M&As.

What You Will Learn

BACKGROUND & OVERVIEW

1. Why 40% of companies might not exist in 10 years
2. The costs of missing market shifts
3. Why doing the right thing for too long is risky
4. Why John bet his Cisco career on a first acquisition in ‘93

MANAGEMENT

1. Why processes done right give you speed
2. How to handle disagreement within your team
3. How to handle a successful leadership transition
4. How various leadership styles and cultures can work

ACQUISITIONS

1. Building vs. Buying vs. Partnering vs. Investing
2. How to buy ‘next generation products’ via M&As
3. How Cisco built a replicable M&A playbook, and how you can use it
4. How customers tell you who to buy
5. Why your target’s strategy and culture must match yours
6. How failures are part of your portfolio management
7. How to approach an acquisition target
8. Why the CEO needs to be on board for acquisitions
9. How to present an acquisition target to your board
10. Why and how to keep founders, emotional leaders, and top engineers
11. Why leaders care most about track record, trust, and relationships
12. How Cisco pioneered ‘spin-ins’ and made them work

STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS (the next big thing!)

1. How the speed of innovation is accelerating, and its impact on companies and leaders
2. How graduates from top schools now go to startups to innovate
3. Why strategic partnerships with startups will be key to survival
4. Why such partnerships will be even more of an art than acquisitions

JOHN’S NEXT ACT

1. How startups IPOs are needed for job creation
2. How John supports the startups he invests in

Why This Event Series

Simply put, our fund SOSV invested in over 800 early-stage startups(including over 200 via our hardware program HAX). All of them will have to find an exit at some point.

As some of our portfolio is maturing, we realized we could help understand better the process of exits.

So in 2018, we organized seven ‘Startup Exit Masterclass’, inviting over 50 speakers (CEOs, CFOs, bankers, lawyers, VCs and startup founders) to share their experience (sign up here to hear about future events).

We ended the year on a high with John Chambers, who gave a new dimension to the words ‘fireside chat’, as our event took place at the peak of the California wildfires.