A "development council" composed of several executives will replace Cisco Systems Inc CEO heir-apparent Charles Giancarlo, who has resigned.
Cisco chairman and chief executive John Chambers announced the appointment of the group of executives to oversee acquisitions and other business deals on Thursday after he confirmed Giancarlo, his chief development officer, was leaving.
Giancarlo, whose last day is Dec. 31, plans to join Silicon Valley investment firm Silver Lake as a managing director.
Chambers said in a conference call he and Giancarlo held with reporters that Cisco is shifting from a "command and control" organization to a network of task forces and other teams.
Such a structure is rare in the tech industry, where heroic and charismatic executives often cultivate loyal followings. But "management by committee" approaches have become more common in the legal and financial industries in the last decade.
Chambers said he had no intention of naming another individual to be chief development officer and he might appoint multi-person councils to lead other divisions of the company if the development council works well.
WORK TOGETHER
"I believe this type of structure will be the future, given the complexities and ... market adjacencies we're going to move into," Chambers said. "The future of our company will be about how groups work together architecturally."
Giancarlo's resignation was a rare loss for Cisco, which makes the switches, routers and other gear that enable people to use the Internet. It is the second-most valuable Silicon Valley company after Google Inc.
Cisco is often ranked among the top companies to work for nationwide, and it's known for high morale and low turnover, at least by Silicon Valley standards. In February, it also lost Mike Volpi, senior vice president and general manager in charge of the routing and service provider technology group.
The entrepreneurial Volpi, 41, said his decision to leave was influenced by a desire to build a startup "where I have my signature, my DNA, within it."
Giancarlo joined Cisco 14 years ago when it bought Ethernet switch maker Kalpana. He started Cisco's business development organization and spearheaded its aggressive acquisition strategy, even in the lean years following the dot-com crash of 2000.
During the conference call, Chambers and Giancarlo were affable and nostalgic about their long working relationship -- but they never minced words: Chambers said he has little intention of stepping down in the near future; he emphasized that he would remain CEO for at least three years, more likely five.
BIOLOGICAL CLOCK
Meanwhile, Giancarlo alluded to his ambitions to be at the helm of a company, and he was frank about the shrewd calculations he made about his career after turning 50 this year.
"I went home one day and talked to my wife and said, `Honey, I now know what you mean by a biological clock,'" Giancarlo said. "I feel young, but you do the math: I don't know what my decision process will be in five years, but I know what it is today."
Shares of Cisco closed on Thursday at US$28.28. After Giancarlo's resignation announcement, which came after the end of the regular trading day, they gained 9 cents in extended trading.
Menlo Park-based Silver Lake is a private-equity firm that invests in technology companies. Giancarlo, who will begin there Jan. 2, will work at the most senior levels in its portfolio companies, he said.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique