????2000年4月，《財富》雜志封面曾以《他是全世界最好的CEO嗎？》為題，對思科CEO約翰?錢伯斯進行過報道。當時這家網絡巨頭的市值迅猛增長，一度突破5500億美元，甚至超過了微軟。那會兒也是互聯網泡沫的巔峰。

????如果把思科比做一只“熱氣球”，那一刻它已升至九霄云外。

????但錢伯斯很快發現，這只氣球要向地面墜毀，他得在自由落體中小心駕駛。在觸及歷史高點后，思科的股價一直在15-30美元區間波動，再也沒有回到80美元的峰值。

????周一，這家公司宣布錢伯斯將卸任，暫定于7月底出任執行董事長。科技界對此早有預料，但許多人都好奇，他選定的接班人——查克?羅賓斯是何方神圣？思科董事會為什么會選中他來掌舵？為什么沒選其他人，比如之前人們認為在CEO爭奪戰中處于領先位置的銷售和研發業務總裁羅伯特?勞埃德？此外，羅賓斯有能耐重振這家多年來奮力掙扎的公司，帶領它重拾往日榮光嗎？

????思科新CEO其人

????消息公布后，在閉門新聞發布會上準備回答各路問題時，錢伯斯的聲音聽起來輕快愉悅?！傲_賓斯就是一臺執行機器?！彼Q贊了繼任者的工作效率，語調還是一貫的柔和緩慢?！八抗忾L遠，胸懷大略，而且能落實到實際結果中?！彪S后，他撇下電話中的記者，直接對羅賓斯說：“我最欣賞你的一點是你學的很快，你知道自己懂什么，也知道自己不了解什么。”說完這句，錢伯斯把麥克風遞給了羅賓斯，象征性地完成了一次“火炬傳遞”。

????羅賓斯是互聯網行業資深人士，有17年的工作經驗。他此前擔任思科高級副總裁，負責全球運營。1997年，羅賓斯以會計經理身份加入思科。他經歷了思科業務的急劇滑坡，在此過程中不斷承擔更重要的職務和責任。

????羅賓斯說：“今天發布的消息讓我受寵若驚，也倍感榮幸。”接著，他回顧了思科的光輝過去，并大致介紹了今后的前進方向。他說：“回想20世紀90年代末，思科曾多么強大。”不過，他接下來表示：“我們將要迎接的下一波浪潮將是物聯網帶來的數字化?！蔽锫摼W的英文縮寫為IoT，意思是將以前不聯網的家電與設備連入互聯網。“這一波的規模將是以往任何一次的兩到三倍?！?/p>

????從羅賓斯的描述中，與會者隱約窺見了思科的未來。隨后他談到“連接與融合”，比如說，應用程序和科技基礎設施的結合讓網絡系統更靈活，更便于管理（如果思科不能迅速適應，這種趨勢就有可能威脅其核心業務）。羅賓斯還提到，將利用思科的聯網傳感器和設備積累的信息，創建具有分析功能的智能應用層，在信息搜集和處理方面都具有“優勢”。

????In April 2000, Fortune magazine featured Cisco CEO John Chambers on our cover and asked, “Is he the best CEO in the world?” The networking giant’s market capitalization had exploded at the turn of the millennium, soaring to more than $550 billion—topping even Microsoft’s. It was the apogee of the dot-com bubble.

????If Cisco CSCO -0.96% had been a hot air balloon, this was the moment it had ascended into the stratosphere.

????But Chambers soon found himself forced to pilot the free-falling airship as it crashed back down to Earth. Since it reached those lofty heights, the company’s share price has consistently wavered between about $15 and $30, never again regaining the $80 peak it reached.

????On Monday, the company announced that Chambers will be captain no longer, assuming the title of executive chairman at the end of July. The move, long anticipated by those in the technology industry, leaves many to wonder about his elected successor: Who exactly is Chuck Robbins? Why did the company’s board of directors select him to take the helm—rather than, say, president of sales and development Robert Lloyd, who some considered a frontrunner in the contest? And does Robbins have it in him to revive a company that has struggled for years to reclaim its pre-bust glory?

????Meet Cisco’s new CEO

????As he prepares for a round of questioning after the announcement of the news, Chambers sounds buoyant and breezy on a private Monday afternoon call with reporters. “Chuck is just an execution machine,” he says in his easy drawl, praising Robbins’ productivity. “He take vision and strategy and turns them into results.” Forgetting his audience for a moment, Chambers addresses Robbins directly before passing him the proverbial mic—and torch. “What I like most of all is you’re a fast learner,” he says. “You know what you know, and you know what you don’t know.”

????Robbins, a 17-year veteran of the networking business, most recently served as Cisco’s senior vice president of worldwide field operations. Joining the company as an account manager in 1997, he survived the business’s downward hurtle and assumed increasingly important roles and responsibilities within the organization.

????“I’m obviously very humbled and very honored with the announcement made today,” Robbins says, going on to invoke Cisco’s halcyon days and painting, in broad strokes, where he intends to steer the company. “Think about what we did in the late ’90s,” he says. “The next wave we’re facing is digitization through IoT,” he says, abbreviating “the Internet of Things,” the technology trend of connecting historically non-networked appliances and devices to the Internet. “It’s going to be two-to-three times bigger than anything in the past.”

????Glimpses of Robbins’ vision are perceptible on the call. He proceeds to talk about “connectivity and convergence,” for example, the merging of applications and technologic infrastructure, allowing for a more flexible and easily manageable system of networking. (One that threatens to gobble Cisco’s core business if it cannot adapt quickly enough.) He mentions how he would like to leverage the information garnered from all the company’s network-connected sensors and devices, and to create application layers offering analytics and intelligence, that are sourced and processed “at edge.”