Categories: Articles

Building A Next Generation Company

It’s easy to think about Google, Apple or Twitter when you think about what a "next generation" company might look like. You might even be more surprised that Cisco is not only thinking a lot about that exact topic, but actually living it, right here and now.

The video below is not for your every day, average Blog reader or half-paying-attention business professional or entrepreneur. To really get the guts of this fascinating presentation, you’re going to have to sit through the whole hour. It is time well spent. John Chambers is the President and CEO of Cisco Systems. If you’ve never spent much time reading or researching Cisco and Chambers, check out this Fast Company article: How Cisco’s CEO John Chambers is Turning the Tech Giant Socialist.

The following presentation is titled, Building the Next Generation Company: Innovation, Talent, Excellence. It was recorded in October of last year at MIT and is part of an amazing website called, MIT World:

(hat tip: Hugh McGuire).

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.