RALEIGH – Speaking before a packed hall of chief executives in Raleigh today, former Cisco CEO John Chambers made a blunt prediction.
“Fifty percent of the companies here in this room won’t exist in a decade,” he told the 500-strong crowd gathered for the NC CEO Forum at the Raleigh Convention Center.
Think of all the long-gone Fortune 500 companies from two decades ago, he added. “It’s going to accelerate probably about two-fold.”
That’s because of the Internet of Things (IoT) and the age of connected devices. It will be the most disruptive technology of our time. Even the advent of the internet comes in second, he said.
“I’ve never seen anything in terms of what’s about to occur. Think 500 billion [connected devices] in 10 years or less.”
The possibilities are endless, especially combined with artificial intelligence: [It will] change your cancer, make your business models dramatically different, help home connectivity in ways we’re just beginning to dream about,” he said.
Moderator Diane Adams and former Cisco CEO John Chambers at CEO Forum Summit at Raleigh Convention Center on Tuesday.
However, it comes with a caveat.
“The transformation is going to be at tremendous speed, and it’s going to be brutal,” he said.
To succeed, he said, the Old North State must assume a more “risk-taking” attitude. But perhaps more important, the state needs more venture capital dollars flowing in.
“I heard it decreased recently. You need more venture capital,” he said. “The status quo is not acceptable. You need to get more venture capital.”
The state also shouldn’t be hanging its hopes on attracting projects from tech giants outside.
“Large companies will not add income for the next decade. You can compete for the Amazons location as much as you want. But you’ve got to create jobs where the future will be. You’ve got to learn how to get a startup engine that is growing at three to four times the current rate.”
As for life after Cisco, where he stepped down as CEO in 2015 replaced by Chuck Robbins after serving with the company for 25 years, he shared a brief peek.
At 70, he is now running his own venture firm, JC2 Ventures, out of San Jose, California, and mentoring CEOs of fledgling startups.
“I’m having the best time of my life,” he said.
He then offered one last tidbit of advice: “I get criticized of occasionally moving too fast, or trying to do things that others have not done. I don’t regret that at all. I wish I had done it even more. Almost every mistake that I’ve made is when I’ve moved too slow. That gets you in that much more trouble.”
