My Takeaway at the Bloomberg BreakAway and Milken Institute Summits

For CEOs and CFOs pursuing growth, market understanding and actionable insights, the Bloomberg BreakAway Annual Summit has been a key event to attend. I had the pleasure of participating in a energetic panel discussion on digital transformation culture at this year’s event in New York. Moderated by Bloomberg’s Brad Stone, author of The Everything Store and The Upstarts (two great books about disruption in the digital age), the panelists and I shared our experiences and challenges to remain competitive in an evolving tech landscape. Personally, it was a time for me to reflect on Cisco’s roots as an industry disrupter, and the way Cisco enhances its capability by engaging new markets through strategic acquisitions, start-up investments and constant encouragement of internal innovators.  Here is a replay of the Bloomberg discussion.

That same week, I also had the opportunity to attend the 20th Milken Institute Global Summit. Cisco is a sponsor of the Milken Institute which is dedicated to the goal of solving the world’s most stubborn challenges.  It was great to join technologists, government leaders and corporate disruptors for a focused keynote conversation on Unleashing Innovation in the context of large, established companies. It was a lively discussion where we touched on various topics around the innovation efforts within each of our companies – a key takeaway was that approaches to fielding and driving disruption can vary radically from company to company.  No easy answers—but that’s what keeps things interesting and exciting.

I’d like to thank Bloomberg Breakaway and the Milken Institute for sparking important conversations and for engaging innovators across private and public sectors as we collectively embrace the new challenges of an historic time in tech and innovation.