Storm Ventures & The Sage of Silicon Valley — John Chambers

Last night we had the distinguished honor of hosting an intimate gathering between our portfolio companies and John Chambers — the Executive Chairman and former CEO Cisco.

John has had a remarkable career. Under his tenure as CEO, Cisco grew from $70 million in annual revenues to its current run-rate of approximately $46 billion — what we would call “hyper-growth.” Beyond his work at Cisco, John has been, and continues to be, a world economic leader helping nations strategically think about how to successfully implement and grow technology based economies at scale. Many of individuals here at Storm had the pleasure of reporting to John in the years after Cisco acquired StrataCom, and last night we had the pleasure of exposing members of our portfolio to the sagely advice of one of the most influential men in technology.

The Role of the CEO

One of the clear and universal words of advice that John gave our CEO’s was that no matter the size of the company, a CEO’s job can be broken down into four “simple” functions.

1. Setting vision and strategy — CEO’s are the captains of their ship, they need to know where the company is going and have to knowledge on how to get there.
2. Hiring and develop the right team to execute that vision — You can’t man the ship alone, you need to find, train, and retain the right team.
3. Culture building — The CEO needs to be an active participant in the culture. The CEO’s job is to be the builder of culture and to make sure that he/she rewards people in a consistent manner to the culture they’re trying to promote.
4. Communication — You can’t be successful with any of the first three steps if you can’t communicate. This has less to do with talking, and more to do with listening.

First Impressions

Over the last few months, there have been a lot of conversations among individuals here at Storm about how good communicators immediately and effortlessly engage their audience. We saw this just a few weeks ago when Will Smith engaged the audience by rapping and getting people standing right before he wow-ed us by talking about how is entire career revolved around being authentic marketing — Great job Marketo on choosing your keynote!

Last night we saw John do this in a way that awed the room. First he took public questions on the spot, our companies didn’t hold back asking him questions that included macro technological trends, firing yesterdays superstars, managing remote teams, private v. public cloud, net neutrality, etc. John had a well thought out and informed response to every question. Second, he switched tables after EVERY course. This meant everyone got an opportunity to engage and learn from John in close quarters.

The response from the event has been overwhelming. So from everyone here at Storm, thank you John for taking the time to give back to the community and for missing your mid-court seats at last nights Warriors game. You taught us all a lot, and left a lasting impression on us all.

We hope you enjoy the small token of our appreciation and continue to have success in the truly transformational work you’ve continued.