JOHN CHAMBERS(CEO OF CISCO SYSTEMS) SHOOK HANDS WITH SARAT CHANDRA ...
WoW... it was a great feeling when John Chambers the CEO of my first company(CISCO SYSTEMS) shook hands to the people today while he came to address a meeting at Bangalore. He announced his plans of making INDIA a Globalization Centre Of EAST... I happened to be one of the many guys , who took Corner seats at the Venue... i am thankful to my state of mind at the point of choosing a seat to occoupy, as it made it possible for him to shook hands with me... The meeting started with a warm welcome to JOHN from all the BIG GUNS of INDIA branch... a traditional band followed right from the time he got down his car, till he reached the venue on a Horse cart... Many good things that i am impressed with him are.. his Body Language, his sense of humor during the entire talk , his eye contact with the audience. I started to believe that most of the leaders are natural born speakers... During the talk, he revealed that a few of his top Executives will come and stay in India for the next 3 years and see that INDIA will not only do the projects but also build a complete Product on its own and play a major role in the Market. His idea is to start a manufacturing company at Chennai to start with.. which does manufacturing of small low end phones and once the time, which he believes, comes he want to open all the windows Once... One of the interesting questions that JOHN answered today was ... " What do you think it takes to become a LEADER"... I dont know whether John had already prepared for taking such questions or not... but it looked to me that he had strong opinions on most of the things he does in his day2day life... the next moment the answer came out to be like this... " Primarily To be a successful leader one needs to be EDUCATED.. Both my parents were Doctors and they give it to me... Secondly one should have the ability to listen to OTHERS carefully and understand what it needs to be done...third is to follow the MARKET TRANSITIONS carefully....". He recalled some of his school days where he made 14 football teams comprising of 500 students.... it seems to be very hard .. is'nt it..? he said that he always does what he likes... One such example he gave was.. Once one of my friends asked me to come for an interview with IBM and I (John) said that he is not interested and then the same guy told about the 2 tickets which he had for a football match and no need to imagine where john was that evening..." Though it takes hell lot of things to become a successful leader in the world but for john all those mentioned things worked out and i dont have any doubts that he had many untold characteristics in his life that made him what he is today... The takeaway for me is to listen carefully to others at whatever they say.. anyways... getting back to the meeting thing... Through out the meeting, he addressed the employee's as a family... he insisted to even shut down the lights by which he was not able to see the people on a particular direction ,so that he can clearly see his family and enjoy that feeling...
While answering to one of the questions... John said that, he decided to choose India for further development is by looking at its CULTURE... I didnt understand which culture he was talking about... i see all sorts of people around here in INDIA and i strongly believe that we will follow all the rules and traditions... as long as they dont affect us in any manner...
Whatever might be tomarrow but at the End of the today.. myself feeling good that i met the person for whom i am working and most importantly, got a feeling that i met a person who seems to have a high morale.... For John Chambers, today might be one of the many days that he spent happily... but for me... he made it much more memorable one by "shaking my hands"......
Good Luck John... I promise that I give my best to make your dream.. your vision as mine and try to give a shape in reality...
