The Fundamentals of Business

On March 3rd, as I lay in bed with the ear bud in trying to be bored to sleep by the BBC I caught Peter Day's  BBC World Business Report. It was a wonderful interview with John Chambers, CEO of Cisco. My only complaint was it kept me awake and I really depend on the tone and cadence of the BBC after midnight to get me to sleep.

Several quotes stuck with me enough that the next morning I went online and listened to the interview again. Here they are...

"Now, and only now is the power of the network and computing changing the fundamentals of business. Before it was an enabler, now it is what business is about."

Before it "replicated things that were already going on - word processing, just faster" etc.

Peter Day from an interview with Peter Drucker over a decade ago "Drucker did not think the computer had begun to affect the way companies were managed."

John Chambers again...

"The network is the way all computing will be done. All communications will be done. That will allow you to change the nature of work. Sales won't go away, but the way you sell will change. Support won't go away, but the way you provide support will change.

"Operational excellence always trumps innovation."

"During economic downturns the statistics are 50% to 60% of the leaders who go into a downturn aren't a leader at the end of it. They hunker down. They forget about innovation and operations excellence. They just try to survive. And while they are trying to survive their peers move right by them."

Lots to stay awake about.