One simply does not simply become CEO
It looks like there is a right royal battle going on at Cisco to see who will replace long-serving Chief Executive John Chambers. Chambers has been in the throne since 1995 and has turned what was a small outfit into a huge global empire. Apparently Chambers has two possible heirs and is training both of them before he exits.
While this heir and a spare approach has been tried and tested by Disney it also did not work very well for King Lear. Anyway Cisco said Chief Operating Officer Gary Moore, 63, will also assume the role of president overseeing end-to-end operations and aligning all businesses with Cisco's long-term strategy. Moore was named Cisco's COO in February 2011.
Rob Lloyd, 56, who has led the company's global operations since April 2009, will assume responsibility for Cisco's development and sales units, the company said. Chambers said that both of those leaders taking a major step forward in terms of their responsibilities and expectations and you will see me staying focused on strategy.
He added that the goal is to make this transition not just at my level very smooth. The way you do that is to move people around functionally and to give them more responsibility and then see how they do. We would have thought that was fine, but in the end only one of them will get to wear the crown, and the other will not just be content to be the hand of the king.
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Nick Farrell
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