The only significant thing missing from this book is enough context on why Cisco has been more successful than other companies. The details are there, but the highlighting of what is significant is too light.
The essential point is that a company needs a vision, strategy, values, culture, management style, and business processes that permit it to prosper from irresistible forces and trends, regardless of how these turn out. Cisco has adhered to this perspective more than almost any other company.
The aspects of what Cisco does differently come primarily in using acquisitions to add talent and provide flexibility responses to unclear, emerging technology trends. The accomplishment here is that the talented people stay, are more productive than ever before, and fit comfortably into the Cisco culture. Hardly anyone ever does these things well.
The authors also understate the significance of how Cisco has multiplied irresistible forces. The focus on the Internet allows the company to benefit from both Moore's and Metcalfe's Laws. Because of that, Cisco has a very high stock price. That makes for low costs in acquiring and keeping top people, through the use of stock-based acquisitions and stock options. Converging technologies mean that the Internet basis allows the company to impinge on other forms of communications as the convergence occurs. All this means that Cisco has the potential to be 10 times the size of Microsoft. The key difference: Cisco is much more adept at irresistible force management.
People who want to understand more about high tech competition, how to create a successful company, and find good investments will all find this book to be valuable. I especially recommend this book to people who are about to start up a new business.
Do take the material with a little grain of salt though. As good as Cisco Systems is, they're not quite as good as this book suggests.
The Cisco legend is the tale of two sweethearts at Stanford University in the late 1970s. Sandra Lerner of the Stanford University Business School and Leonard Bosack of the computer science department wanted to send love letters to each other via email, but their respective departments used different computer networks. So Len and Sandy invented the router. Then, they conceived Cisco Systems. The router made Cisco the fastest-growing company ever. In 1999, a mere 15 years after its founding, Cisco was worth US$200 billion.
This book takes an in-depth look at one of the great success stories of the Internet age. If you like high tech business books, it doesn't get much better than this.
I bought this book expecting to hear about the excitement and struggles of an organization as it is becoming very big, very fast. This book seemed to vaguely cover this period within Cisco's history. There is very little written about the struggle and difficulties within the management that must have existed at that time.
I would not recommend this book.