Here’s an extract from The Cisco Way – Just Released on Kindle in 12 countries – US, UK, DE, FR, ES, IT, NL, JP, BR, MX, AU, IN.
The Six CCs
Prepare (for the future), listen (carefully to your customers
and your people), learn (importantly, capture the
lessons for wider reuse), and execute (flawlessly and tenaciously,
carefully measuring the effectiveness of your
performance along the way) with one unwavering goal
in mind—to lead in every market transition, to become
the number one or two player in the selected markets.
There is one other key facet of Cisco’s culture (the
sixth CC) that continues to put it squarely in the leadership
quadrant. It is learning to adjust. All successful
companies do that well. Venture-capital firms—firms
that provide seed money as investment to companies
in the early stages in return for equity—fund companies
with the right team (not the right plan) that know
how to adjust and navigate through the pivots when
things are not going to plan.
To lead in market transitions, you must learn to
listen to your customer, continually read the market
dynamics, and be nimble enough to adopt a new strategy
when needed to continue to lead. This is the underlying
critical success factor that has spawned the
strategies and frameworks discussed in this book—
they were born out of necessity to adjust.
I like to think of these as the six critical competencies
(CCs), as depicted in exhibit 1. These six CCs (prepare,
listen, learn, execute, lead, and be ready to adjust) permeate
the rest of this book. They are also the most vital
ingredients for every one of the strategies and frameworks
presented here. To ensure effective and successful
deployment of any of the winning strategies and
frameworks, you must first bring these six CCs into play.