Cisco UnAuthorized [Hardcover]

Jeffrey S. Young (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 26, 2001

Over the course of one treacherous year, Cisco Systems, the company that wired the Information Age, has seen its stock price crumble and its market domination challenged. For the first time ever, there are whispers about this Silicon Valley titan. Does Cisco still have what it takes to continue its mastery over the New Economy, a world in which lightening-fast shifts in technology and market demand can destroy, in the blink of an eye, billion-dollar corporations and garage start-ups alike?




"A great book about a great company by a great writer."
— Guy Kawasaki CEO, Garage.com and author of Rules for Revolutionaries



In this engrossing book, bestselling author and high-tech chronicler Jeffrey S. Young goes deep inside the new information technology that is radically changing the face of business and, at the same time, profoundly touching each of our lives. Standing alone in the eye of this electronic maelstrom is Cisco Systems, a company whose personality and drive mirror that of its tenacious CEO, John Chambers.

Through guts and guile, Chambers has built an extraordinarily aggressive company that owns the infrastructure through which more than 75 percent of the world's data travels. This remarkable achievement, however, is now under withering assault from all sides. Today, Cisco's domination of the $100 billion net-working market is threatened not only by such multinational corporations as Nortel and Lucent but also by a new breed of start-ups that are sprouting like weeds. Young, savvy com-panies such as Juniper, Redback, ONI, Sycamore, and others are moving with speed and agility to beat the giants at their own game. As John Chambers has said on many occasions, the guys he fears most are the ones who can start out with a blank sheet of paper. Today, there are lots of guys with blank sheets of paper.

s is a story of packets and photons, routers, fiber optics, and waves in an era of limitless wealth and opportunity. Yet it is also a human tale, with a handful of business warriors trying to take control of the future in the midst of technology wars and brutal competition. The stakes are nothing less than control of the future of information.

luding exclusive interviews with key high-tech executives, Cisco Unauthorized is an unforgettable portrait of a remarkable company, a brilliant CEO, and a defining moment in the Information Age.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

Over the course of one treacherous year, Cisco Systems, the company that wired the Information Age, has seen its stock price crumble and its market domination challenged. For the first time ever, there are whispers about this Silicon Valley titan. Does Cisco still have what it takes to continue its mastery over the New Economy, a world in which lightening-fast shifts in technology and market demand can destroy, in the blink of an eye, billion-dollar corporations and garage start-ups alike?




"A great book about a great company by a great writer."
â?? Guy Kawasaki CEO, Garage.com and author of Rules for Revolutionaries



In this engrossing book, bestselling author and high-tech chronicler Jeffrey S. Young goes deep inside the new information technology that is radically changing the face of business and, at the same time, profoundly touching each of our lives. Standing alone in the eye of this electronic maelstrom is Cisco Systems, a company whose personality and drive mirror that of its tenacious CEO, John Chambers.

Through guts and guile, Chambers has built an extraordinarily aggressive company that owns the infrastructure through which more than 75 percent of the world's data travels. This remarkable achievement, however, is now under withering assault from all sides. Today, Cisco's domination of the $100 billion net-working market is threatened not only by such multinational corporations as Nortel and Lucent but also by a new breed of start-ups that are sprouting like weeds. Young, savvy com-panies such as Juniper, Redback, ONI, Sycamore, and others are moving with speed and agility to beat the giants at their own game. As John Chambers has said on many occasions, the guys he fears most are the ones who can start out with a blank sheet of paper. Today, there are lots of guys with blank sheets of paper.

s is a story of packets and photons, routers, fiber optics, and waves in an era of limitless wealth and opportunity. Yet it is also a human tale, with a handful of business warriors trying to take control of the future in the midst of technology wars and brutal competition. The stakes are nothing less than control of the future of information.

luding exclusive interviews with key high-tech executives, Cisco Unauthorized is an unforgettable portrait of a remarkable company, a brilliant CEO, and a defining moment in the Information Age.

From the Back Cover

Over the course of one treacherous year, Cisco Systems, the company that wired the Information Age, has seen its stock price crumble and its market domination challenged. For the first time ever, there are whispers about this Silicon Valley titan. Does Cisco still have what it takes to continue its mastery over the New Economy, a world in which lightening-fast shifts in technology and market demand can destroy, in the blink of an eye, billion-dollar corporations and garage start-ups alike?

In this engrossing book, bestselling author and high-tech chronicler Jeffrey S. Young goes deep inside the new information technology that is radically changing the face of business and, at the same time, profoundly touching each of our lives. Standing alone in the eye of this electronic maelstrom is Cisco Systems, a company whose personality and drive mirror that of its tenacious CEO, John Chambers.

Through guts and guile, Chambers has built an extraordinarily aggressive company that owns the infrastructure through which more than 75 percent of the world's data travels. This remarkable achievement, however, is now under withering assault from all sides. Today, Cisco's domination of the billion-dollar networking market is threatened not only by such multinational corporations as Nortel and Lucent but also by a new breed of start-ups that are sprouting like weeds. Young, savvy companies such as Juniper, Redback, ONI, and others are moving with speed and agility to beat the giants at their own game. As John Chambers has said on many occasions, the guys he fears most are the ones who can start out with a blank sheet of paper. Today, there are lots of guys with blank sheets of paper.

This is a story of packets and photons, routers, fiber optics, and waves in an era of limitless wealth and opportunity. Yet it is also a human tale, with a handful of business warriors trying to take control of the future in the midst of technology wars and brutal competition. The stakes are nothing less than control of the future of information.

Including exclusive interviews with key high-tech executives, Cisco Unauthorized is an unforgettable portrait of a remarkable company, a brilliant CEO, and a defining moment in the Information Age.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Prima Lifestyles (January 26, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0761527753
• ISBN-13: 978-0761527756
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,180,941 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gorilla Of Networking, February 20, 2001

By 

Sridhar Sukumaran "sid" (Piscataway NJ United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cisco UnAuthorized (Hardcover)

Jeff Young gives a clear and indepth analysis of the networking industry-its past, present and future.The title 'Cisco Unauthorized' seems apt given that a networking giant like Cisco may influence writers to glorify itself in every page and line of the book.It carries an independent analysis of Cisco in the light of the changes that are taking place in the industry whether it is new & emerging technologies,competitors. or your next door neighbor.Jeff outlines the major competitors Nortel, Juniper, Redback, Lucent and others to try to tell a story about where the industry maybe headed and who's going to survive. The reader begins, thinking that the future is Cisco,the be all end all in networking, and leaves feeling that the race is far from finished.I had some important take aways from the book. It makes you wonder what Cisco would be like without John Chambers.Would the superpower be tamed after Chambers the way Coca Cola was after Goizuetta?Can it continue growing the way it used to?Is the stock beating today, saying something about tomorrow?Has Cisco lost the edge? More than giving you an answer, "Cisco Unauthorized' is designed to make you think about what the future is and how it will affect the common man. I highly recommnd this book to hard core techies who are highly insulated and blinded by their tech knowledge and qualifications. In addition i would recommend anyone to pick up a copy and try to picture the world 5 years hence and how it may affect each one of us directly or otherwise. A must read for all corporate executives and business school students.. BE AWARE & STAY AHEAD.....

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Tedious, May 23, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Cisco UnAuthorized (Hardcover)

As a former employee of Cisco Systems, I was interested in finding out what goes on at the executive level, and how well Cisco is really doing versus its competition. However, that is not what this book delivers. Instead, it is a tedious repetition of "gee whiz" numbers and hyperbole about the internet. It sounds like it was written by John Chambers, not about him. It does not delve past Chambers's carefully crafted public persona to reveal anything noteworthy about the real person. It does not go into any detail about the workings of Cisco's highly regarded executive team. One third of the book is not even about Cisco, and there does not seem to be any information in the book that is not part of the public record. The book reads like a public relations handout. The only "unauthorized" thing in this book is probably the wording of the title.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Narrative Continues, July 11, 2001

By 

Robert Morris (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cisco UnAuthorized (Hardcover)

Any discussion of Cisco Systems either now or in weeks to come may soon prove inadequate, if not flat-out wrong. When Young wrote this book, neither he nor anyone else at that time (including decision-makers at Cisco) could have predicted what has since happened and not-happened in the company and in its industry. It was once said of Soviet historians that they could predict the past with absolute accuracy. The comments which follow are based on the book as published, not as it would have been written with the wisdom of hindsight.

Young organizes his material within four Parts: The Cisco Myth, Competition at the Speed of Light, Fault Lines, and Into the Void. He explains that his book "is particularly;y concerned with the period from the beginnings of the dot-com frenzy in early 1999 to the industry's winter of discontent at the end of 2000. It is a portrait of an extraordinary company, its charismatic leader, and the world it is creating, discovering, exploiting, and fashioning. But there is also a dark side to the story, a hollowness at the core of this great company that is symptomatic of much of the Internet generation, and an arrogance that afflicts Cisco particularly." Young makes it very clear that what he presents is his version of the Cisco "story" as of when the book went to press.

John Chambers, CEO of Cisco, is one of the focal points. Young quotes Chambers extensively and, I think, does so with circumspection. For example, "Make no mistake about it", Chambers asserts, "the Internet is nothing short of the second Industrial Revolution. Industry is going to change. You have to make the change or you won't survive. They key is how to do it without your existing business. And one of the toughest challenges is figuring out the new channels. Timing is the key." This has been one of the key verses of Chambers' mantra for almost a decade.

Throughout the book, Young offers his own analysis of the nature and extent of Cisco's response to "the toughest challenges" under Chambers' leadership. He concludes, "Maybe Coyote Valley is where the future is going to be created. Maybe it will not. But it will happen on Internet time supplied by Cisco. John T. Chambers and Cisco, have created the first great empire of the Information Age by selling pickaxes, Levis, and quicksilver to the early miners. Now they're going to sell them to everyone else too. In the process [if they succeed], they'll fulfill the vision printed on the plastic ID card that each of its wears....'We are going to change the way people work, live, play, and learn.'" Chambers remains wholly committed to that vision. Obviously, the full story has yet to be told but in his book, Young has made a strong effort to understand and then explain both Chambers and his company. He shares several rather strong opinions of his own about Cisco's acquisitions (70 companies in five years), its outsourcing model, and its competitors such as Lucent, Nortel, Juniper, and Redback.

His readers must now ask questions such as these: Can and will Cisco regain ground lost during the past 6-8 months? What are the most serious barriers to doing that? Young asserts that Cisco has relied on a "dangerous business model." To what extent (if any) has that business model been modified in recent months? Even if modified, can and will it prove equal to new as well as on-going challenges which lie ahead?

My own opinion is that Cisco will continue to experience problems but that it will regain much of its momentum and cap value, if not to the extent it once possessed. I share Young's concern about what he calls "one glaring hole: succession" but based on what I have recently observed, Cisco has a rather deep executive bench and Chambers, meanwhile, seems much more inclined to develop that talent than he once was. So, what we have with this book is one man's analysis of a CEO and his company, based on extensive research. Will every reader agree with Young's opinions? Of course not. If there is a revised edition, Young may well modify (if not repudiate) several of his own conclusions. For those who read this book, he increases their understanding of a great company within a major industry. He raises some very important questions about both and then offers his own answers. Each reader must then take it from there. Fair enough.