I′m leaving Cisco - after close to 11 years. Blog 1 out of 2 on a career move

After eleven incredible, tumultuous, and educational years at one of the best companies in the world, I have decided to leave Cisco and commence a next chapter in my working life. I will share very soon as to what that next step will be. For now, it suffices to say that it’s simply a great moment to make a change. Change is good. Change is healthy. It forces you to redefine yourself. Stagnant water risks becoming smelly after a while – keep it flowing. That goes for all of us.

Here is how it all got started. In 2006 I was presenting to one of the greater Reykjavik mayors in my capacity of executive director at INEC, a network organization for smart cities. I was preaching the merits of open broadband models when he interrupted me and said: “Do you know a guy by the name of Nicola Villa? He works at Cisco. He′s got the same narrative as you do.” I did not know Nic at the time, who was a young and coming leader at IBSG, Cisco, the company′s then think-and-Act Tank. We had that proverbial coffee. Roughly at the same time, Cisco′s John Chambers made a commitment to Bill Clinton. John said “Mr President: We are going to demonstrate to you how network technologies can help green cities.” These were the months following the release of Al Gore′s ‘Inconvenient Truth’. The Connected Urban Development commitment was born: one of the first smart city programs initiated by large enterprise (many others would follow). Nicola′s team was to lead it. CUD concerned a smart city collaboration involving the cities of San Francisco, Amsterdam and Seoul. Work commenced late 2006, and Nic called me asking to join his team early 2007. I recall doing job interviews with one of IBSG most colourful leaders: Simon Willis. He questioned me on my work experience in Cambodia in the early nineties, serving the United Nations peace keeping operation. “Sorry - you can′t have that at Cisco” was his short response to my story on having my own Russian made U.N. helicopter for transport over Cambodia.

My IBSG years were intensely educational and a lot of fun. No one in that team fitted into a standard box. Impossible team to manage (tip to the hat to those that tried). And we made incredible impact, globally. Other than IBM, I think few teams or companies can be credited to have put smart cities on the agenda as much as that team did at the time.

Smart cities matured as a topic in the world and within the company. In later years I joined the Smart+Connected Communities team at Cisco, and again I had the incredible fortune to work with awesome people: Wim Elfrink, Anil Menon, Arvind Satyam, Hardik Bhatt, John Baekelmans, Amr Salem – to name just a few. Many of them became friends or mentors, or both. In all, another chapter to be incredibly grateful for.

In my final chapter (2014-2017) I ended up in my current role: digitization lead for North Europe – providing thought leadership and business development on the innovative edges of the company for the northern European chunks of Cisco′s operations, with an emphasis on what I was and am best at: smart cities. During those years I led our work in Copenhagen, among others and helped Cisco′s Kinetic for Cities platform mature. Rarely was I part of a more benign team, a kinder group than the North Europe leadership team, led at first by Peter Karlstromer and next by Niklas Andersson. It was an honour to be part of its board.

Three weeks ago I wrote to my colleagues internally about my coming departure. I wrote: “I feel deeply grateful. As a European I have always envied Americans a bit for having that time in the year where you celebrate ‘Thanksgiving’ – a great tradition. This message happens to coincide with that time of the year. I feel deeply grateful for all the things I was allowed to do, learn, share, work on, invent, collaborate on, write, present. There simply is no second Cisco. It doesn′t exist. John said we were going to change the world. I think, in fact, we have. Incredible Tribe. These 11 years I′ll have with me forever.” I will add here I found that this tribe continues beyond the boundaries of Cisco employment, with many former Cisco leaders ending up in great places, collectively representing an alumni network of incredible quality.

I have nothing more to add. Let the next chapter commence.

On February 1, 2018 I will start in my new position – a new chapter to elaborate on in a new blog in a new year. Happy holidays all.

Bas