Along with transforming Cisco into a tech powerhouse during his 20 years as CEO—growing annual sales from $1.2 billion to $47 billion in 2015—John Chambers helped governments build the infrastructure to transform their economies. He opened an office in Beijing in 1994 and launched several initiatives to promote technology exchange between the U.S. and China. In 2008, he worked with the then Israeli President Shimon Peres on a digital cities initiative to help grow the Palestinian tech sector.
Chambers continues to consult with government leaders, most notably French President Emmanuel Macron and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to help nurture startup economies. Through his venture capital firm, JC2 Ventures, he’s also invested in 20 startups, nine of which have achieved and maintained billion-dollar unicorn status.
Few people understand the business landscape like Chambers, who completed 180 acquisitions during his time at the helm and led Cisco back from the devastation of the dot-com crash. I say that as both a journalist and a collaborator, having helped Chambers write a book in 2018: Connecting the Dots: Lessons for Leadership in a Startup World.
I spoke with Chambers on the eve of his visit to India this week. (He chairs the U.S. India Strategic Partnership Forum.) Along with citing statistics to back up his very bullish view of the investment climate in India, which you can hear by clicking on the video above, Chambers addressed concerns about the policies of Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
“Prime Minister Modi enjoys the largest positive representation of any leader in the world in terms of support of his people … the last time I looked it was 76%. We don’t have a US politician that’s above 50.”
Along with overseeing one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, Chambers points out that Modi “is in a tough section of the world.” Along with threats from neighbors like Pakistan, China and Iran, America’s Cold War-era policies meant India bought most of its military equipment from Russia in the latter half of the 20th Century, leaving it with a Soviet-built infrastructure that requires cordial relations with Russia to maintain.
And what of China, an economy that is five times the size of India? While Chambers says he was “one of the original bulls on China,” he argues that the current leadership has created a playing field “that is almost impossible to operate on.”
“I lost trust and so I quit investing in China,” he says. “I strongly encourage my startups not to do business in China.”
Meanwhile, Chambers describes Israel, which he also knows well, as “an amazing resilient country. Anybody who thinks they won’t come out of this in strong shape just doesn’t understand Israel.”
“The people who run startups there will often say, ‘John we’re going to fly missions during the day and work on code at night’ …It’s the reason they call it a startup nation: They’ll get knocked down and they’ll get right back up.”
“I continue to invest in Israel and absolutely would continue to invest across the Arab world.”
For more on that, the startup success story of West Virginia and the impact of dysfunction in Congress, click on the interview above.