Cisco CEO John Chambers: Easier To Do Business In Russia

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Cisco CEO John Chambers: Easier To Do Business In Russia

Cisco CEO John Chambers spoke with FOX Business Network’s (FBN) Liz Claman at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland about his partnership with Russia and Canada. Chambers said, “Russia at the present time is easier for me to do business in than the U.S. at times” and that “the easiest country in the world to do business presently is Canada.” Chambers went on to say that the reason for the stock being up 25 percent since this past November is because Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) is “in the high-growth areas” such as cloud technology, mobility and video, which has all gone up since last quarter.

 

On Cisco’s partnership with Russia:

“Well, what has been interesting is we have formed a very good partnership with Russia.  We’ve helped them…It’s not easy to do, but actually this will shock you.  Russia at the present time is easier for me to do business in than the U.S. at times.  And that’s a tough commentary. And what you’re seeing is it doesn’t matter if it’s the top leadership or the business leaders, they look to Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) for innovation, job creation.  We’re working together in Skolkovo to create new industries, to truly partner with the MITs of the world, to create entrepreneurship, to do I-Prizes, to work together to achieve the goals in terms of employment generation and jobs, and keeping their young people at home. We do the same thing in Canada.  Probably the easiest country in the world to do business presently is Canada.  Their prime minister, who I’ll meet with, and their number two and number three in the organization, they talk about what can they do to make it easy to do business in their country.  And they know how to partner well.”

 

On what juiced Cisco’s stock to be up 25 percent since this past November:

“Well, I think people got comfortable that we would make the transition.  We’ve made five transitions in my 20 years at Cisco.  And each time this criticism, there is always elements of criticism that are fair, but we’ve emerged out of every challenge we’ve ever faced, either technology or economically stronger and with a higher percentage of the industry’s market cap. I think what it is juicing Cisco, using your words, at the present time, we’re in the high-growth areas.  All the things you hear about in technology: cloud, we grew 61 percent this last quarter; mobility, we grew 38 percent; video, we grew 30 percent. And we’re transforming from tying it together to solve a government’s needs, for example, meeting with the top leadership of Russia here, we talked about how we would create new industries. Meeting with the leadership of Canada, we talked about job increases and how you transform health care.  Meeting with Israel, we talking about security and direction.  Meeting with the U.K., we talked about how does Prime Minster Mr. Cameron literally, and his leadership team there, transform the country on innovation. So we have a chance to become the number one IT player and we’re going to go for it.”

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