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Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Leaders in AI need to reinvent themselves every year, says Cisco's former CEO
John Chambers, Cisco's former CEO, said leaders need to reinvent themselves every year. Refreshing a company's strategy every two to three years is no longer sufficient in this AI age, he said. The pressure to keep up with AI is already being felt in many boardrooms. John Chambers has a message for executives in AI: Remake yourself every year or risk falling behind. "Most leaders do not reinvent themselves," said the former Cisco CEO and current VC on an episode of the "Grit" podcast published Monday. "As a leader in AI, you have to reinvent yourself, in my opinion, every year." This is because AI is moving in "internet terms" at "five times the speed" and delivering "three times the results," Chambers said. That pace means companies will succeed and fail faster than ever before, he added. He was the CEO of Cisco from 1995 to 2015. The pressure to keep up with AI is already being felt in boardrooms. JPMorgan Chase on Monday told investors that starting this year, less of its $95 billion in annual spending will go toward hiring as the bank seeks to do more with less, thanks in part to AI. LinkedIn data showed that since the fall, AI hiring has risen 30% faster than overall hiring. By 2030, 70% of the skills required for most jobs will change due to AI, the company said. Chambers, who now runs JC2 Ventures, said refreshing a company's strategy every two to three years is no longer sufficient. In this AI age, the lack of change just means "you're not getting the leverage out of it, you're chasing the new shiny object," he said. Reinvention, in his view, means rethinking everything from target market and products to how companies differentiate and go to market. Chambers said a founder he works with has grown his company 100% year-on-year and still cut his head count by 10% because he used AI "to change everything." The founder uses AI not only for his core product development, but also in sales, analytics, forecasting, and customer service, Chambers said. Large language models, often seen as the cornerstone of AI, are also quickly becoming commoditized. What sets companies apart now is how they use AI across their entire tech stack, he said. Across the tech world, executives are voicing a similar urgency — that keeping up with AI means constantly adapting, or risk falling behind. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, who considers himself an AI optimist, said the tech transition comes with responsibility. "One of the things we have to watch is that the pace of this transition may be quick, it may be quicker than other technology transitions in the past," Jassy said while speaking at the Harvard Business Review Leadership Summit last month. "We have to make sure that we're responsible about the way the algorithms work and the way the models work." Consulting firms like McKinsey and BCG are also echoing this shift. ' "About 40% of the work we do is analytics-related, AI-related, and a lot of it is moving to Gen AI," a McKinsey senior partner told BI last year. Read the original article on Business Insider
Business Insider
20-05-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
Leaders in AI need to reinvent themselves every year, says Cisco's former CEO
John Chambers has a message for executives in AI: Remake yourself every year or risk falling behind. "Most leaders do not reinvent themselves," said the former Cisco CEO and current VC on an episode of the "Grit" podcast published Monday. "As a leader in AI, you have to reinvent yourself, in my opinion, every year." This is because AI is moving in "internet terms" at "five times the speed" and delivering "three times the results," Chambers said. That pace means companies will succeed and fail faster than ever before, he added. He was the CEO of Cisco from 1995 to 2015. The pressure to keep up with AI is already being felt in boardrooms. JPMorgan Chase on Monday told investors that starting this year, less of its $95 billion in annual spending will go toward hiring as the bank seeks to do more with less, thanks in part to AI. LinkedIn data showed that since the fall, AI hiring has risen 30% faster than overall hiring. By 2030, 70% of the skills required for most jobs will change due to AI, the company said. Chambers, who now runs JC2 Ventures, said refreshing a company's strategy every two to three years is no longer sufficient. In this AI age, the lack of change just means "you're not getting the leverage out of it, you're chasing the new shiny object," he said. Reinvention, in his view, means rethinking everything from target market and products to how companies differentiate and go to market. Chambers said a founder he works with has grown his company 100% year-on-year and still cut his head count by 10% because he used AI "to change everything." The founder uses AI not only for his core product development, but also in sales, analytics, forecasting, and customer service, Chambers said. Large language models, often seen as the cornerstone of AI, are also quickly becoming commoditized. What sets companies apart now is how they use AI across their entire tech stack, he said. Across the tech world, executives are voicing a similar urgency — that keeping up with AI means constantly adapting, or risk falling behind. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, who considers himself an AI optimist, said the tech transition comes with responsibility. "One of the things we have to watch is that the pace of this transition may be quick, it may be quicker than other technology transitions in the past," Jassy said while speaking at the Harvard Business Review Leadership Summit last month. "We have to make sure that we're responsible about the way the algorithms work and the way the models work." Consulting firms like McKinsey and BCG are also echoing this shift. ' "About 40% of the work we do is analytics-related, AI-related, and a lot of it is moving to Gen AI," a McKinsey senior partner told BI last year.
Time of India
05-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy just said what TCS CEO K Krithivasan told employees when it ended work from home
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy 's recent comments on remote work echo the same sentiments that TCS CEO K Krithivasan expressed when the Indian IT giant began phasing out work-from-home policies, with both executives emphasizing that in-person collaboration is essential for company culture and innovation. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Speaking at the Harvard Business Review Leadership Summit recently, Jassy explained that Amazon's return to office mandate stems from the belief that "culture isn't something that can be instilled from a distance," mirroring Krithivasan's assertion that employees cannot be properly mentored on company culture remotely. "What you find is people riff on top of each other's ideas better if they're together," Jassy said. "Turns out, sometimes it's actually useful to interrupt each other, because you get to a faster spot, more quickly, you feel that energy." implemented a compulsory five-day return to office policy to strengthen company culture, which Jassy believes was being stretched as the company expanded. Innovation happens in person, both CEOs insist TCS began enforcing a three-day office mandate last October before recently extending it to five days for select teams. Krithivasan had stressed to empl: "We are not a bunch of 600 engineers working on work-to-hire or get paid for the time they spend. We believe working from the office is good for the associates, customers and TCS. You're talking only about work output in terms of how they deliver to customers, but how do they get mentored on culture? Similarly, Jassy emphasized that many of Amazon's inventions emerged from "messy, wandering meetings" that simply can't happen virtually. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Both executives highlighted mentorship as a key factor in their decisions. Krithivasan asked: "How do they get mentored on how they deal with customers and colleagues, which is very important for their career development?" while Jassy noted that teaching is more effective when managers can provide context after meetings. Amazon's office return is part of a larger restructuring that includes flattening the organization by increasing the ratio of individual contributors to managers by 15%.
Yahoo
03-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Andy Jassy says he's trying to restore Amazon's culture by getting rid of these 2 things
Andy Jassy said keeping a strong culture isn't a given and identified 2 issues that needed to be tackled. Jassy said remote work stifles innovation and gets in the way of culture being taught. Management layers are another key area that Amazon is seeking to reduce. Andy Jassy said he thinks Amazon has a strong company culture, but staying that way isn't a given as the company expands and parts of the business evolve. "You have to keep working on strengthening the parts of your culture that you see being stretched if you want to keep being successful culturally," Jassy said on Tuesday during a speaking event at the Harvard Business Review Leadership Summit. In an effort to restore Amazon's strong sense of culture, the company rolled out several changes, including a 5-day return to office. The CEO said the company pinpointed two problem areas it needed to tackle: remote work and bureaucracy. Jassy said many of the company's inventions have emerged from "messy, wandering meetings," where things may not initially click, but employees stick around to work it out on a whiteboard or revisit the problem and solve it later on. Since bringing employees back to the office three days a week, Jassy said the company observed an improvement in collaboration and creative problem-solving. "What you find is people riff on top of each other's ideas better if they're together," Jassy said. "Turns out, sometimes it's actually useful to interrupt each other, because you get to a faster spot, more quickly, you feel that energy." Jassy said when employees work remotely, they tend to move on to the next task after their meeting ends, and "you just don't find that type of invention together." As Amazon works to overhaul its organizational structure, Jassy said that culture isn't something that can be instilled from a distance. "When you're in a meeting together, and you're watching the body language and you're watching people's expressions, you internalize the culture much better," Jassy said. Jassy added that teaching is much more effective if you can walk over to someone after a meeting and add context or reassurance about what took place. For example, if it was a challenging topic, Jassy said he might tell a colleague, "Don't be surprised that that was a hard meeting. This is a really difficult topic." Or, he might say, for the next meeting, "think about these three things." Amazon has a concept of one-way and two-way door decisions. Jassy said the "overwhelming majority of decisions" Amazon makes are two-way door decisions, which the company has said should require minimal executive oversight. However, Jassy said it wants those decisions to be made by the people who are doing the work. Jassy said as the company has gotten larger, it's ended up with increasing layers of management. While many added processes were meant to bring organization, they've led to a place where there's "a pre-meeting for the pre-meeting for the decision," Jassy said. When it comes to actually making those decisions, employees may also feel like they lack ownership of them, Jassy said. "That's what we'd like to try and limit," Jassy said. "We really want our owners doing the real work, to own the two-way door decisions and to be able to move quickly and autonomously." The decision to increase the ratio of individual contributors to managers by 15% is part of that effort, Jassy said. The plan also includes directives for managers to take on more direct reports, slow down on senior-level hiring, and enact pay cuts for some employees. "We want to flatten our organizations, to move faster and to drive more ownership," Jassy said. Amazon did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider. Read the original article on Business Insider Sign in to access your portfolio
Business Insider
03-05-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
Andy Jassy says he's trying to restore Amazon's culture by getting rid of these 2 things
Andy Jassy said he thinks Amazon has a strong company culture, but staying that way isn't a given as the company expands and parts of the business evolve. "You have to keep working on strengthening the parts of your culture that you see being stretched if you want to keep being successful culturally," Jassy said on Tuesday during a speaking event at the Harvard Business Review Leadership Summit. In an effort to restore Amazon's strong sense of culture, the company rolled out several changes, including a 5-day return to office. The CEO said the company pinpointed two problem areas it needed to tackle: remote work and bureaucracy. Culture can't be taught remotely Jassy said many of the company's inventions have emerged from "messy, wandering meetings," where things may not initially click, but employees stick around to work it out on a whiteboard or revisit the problem and solve it later on. Since bringing employees back to the office three days a week, Jassy said the company observed an improvement in collaboration and creative problem-solving. "What you find is people riff on top of each other's ideas better if they're together," Jassy said. "Turns out, sometimes it's actually useful to interrupt each other, because you get to a faster spot, more quickly, you feel that energy." Jassy said when employees work remotely, they tend to move on to the next task after their meeting ends, and "you just don't find that type of invention together." As Amazon works to overhaul its organizational structure, Jassy said that culture isn't something that can be instilled from a distance. "When you're in a meeting together, and you're watching the body language and you're watching people's expressions, you internalize the culture much better," Jassy said. Jassy added that teaching is much more effective if you can walk over to someone after a meeting and add context or reassurance about what took place. For example, if it was a challenging topic, Jassy said he might tell a colleague, "Don't be surprised that that was a hard meeting. This is a really difficult topic." Or, he might say, for the next meeting, "think about these three things." Limiting 'pre-meetings for the pre-meetings' Amazon has a concept of one-way and two-way door decisions. Jassy said the "overwhelming majority of decisions" Amazon makes are two-way door decisions, which the company has said should require minimal executive oversight. However, Jassy said it wants those decisions to be made by the people who are doing the work. Jassy said as the company has gotten larger, it's ended up with increasing layers of management. While many added processes were meant to bring organization, they've led to a place where there's "a pre-meeting for the pre-meeting for the decision," Jassy said. When it comes to actually making those decisions, employees may also feel like they lack ownership of them, Jassy said. "That's what we'd like to try and limit," Jassy said. "We really want our owners doing the real work, to own the two-way door decisions and to be able to move quickly and autonomously." The decision to increase the ratio of individual contributors to managers by 15% is part of that effort, Jassy said. The plan also includes directives for managers to take on more direct reports, slow down on senior-level hiring, and enact pay cuts for some employees. "We want to flatten our organizations, to move faster and to drive more ownership," Jassy said. Amazon did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
