Cisco's new CTO talks first impressions

What's Cisco's most immediate technology need?

I don't think it's a Cisco need as much as an industry need. If you think about what's happening with the industry, you can think of it as either a convergence or a collision. Convergence because we are truly merging content, communications, computing and commerce. It's a collision because different industries come at it form different angles. Google and Amazon come form the application down into the infrastructure; infrastructure companies are going up. Wireless and wireline are converging as well. So it changes the landscape of who competes with whom in the future and who becomes your friend.

So what I think what Cisco needs more of in terms of technology and talent is moving from infrastructure to more providing the applications associated with the infrastructure. You have to think about how users interface with the technology. So user interface becomes a very important aspect that we have to think about. As the enterprise gets more consumerized, it has to be very simple, it has to be one click. It's user interface, usability -- how simple is it to set up. It's that kind of focus that we need more of.

With 22 priorities a year and major initiatives to be No. 1 or No. 2 in visual networking, collaboration, unified communications in consumer, SMB, enterprise and service provider... Is there ever a feeling that Cisco's bitten off more than it can chew?

I actually thought that when I came to Cisco. The first week I was here I sat down with (CEO) John (Chambers) and said, 'How can we have 22 priorities?' Now I'm a big believer in it. There's two ways of looking at it: One way is to say, let's just have two priorities and execute really well on those two priorities. The danger with that is nobody knows which ones are the right priorities -- you could put all of your eggs in the wrong basket. That's a huge risk.

The other reason why you need a company to be able to handle multiple things at the same time is...it's not like the same people working on video are working on virtualization. Two sets of leaders are leading those efforts. So if you want to grow from a [US]$40 billion company to a $60 billion or $80 billion company, John's vision with the councils and the boards is (correct). As I see more of that, I actually think it's a great process which companies don't have, and they fail miserably. When companies and decision making are very siloed, each business unit starts competing with the other. That can destroy a company. I'm much more a believer in the collaborative model. Just because I don't think anybody knows all of the answers, no matter how smart you think you are. The way the Internet drives information aggregation -- you can't keep up.

The trick is, what are the metrics that you are going to use across the 22 priorities? How do you replicate that model?