Once you put in backdoors, once you allow a government to intercept anything they want, you have to give it to other governments around the world. Once you do that, there is no privacy; there is no security. There is no protection for democracy.
In 2008, we began an initiative to outsource projects from our Israeli office to three companies in the Palestinian Territories.
I think at least my philosophy of leadership is you focus more on the areas you have to improve or the mistakes than you do on your successes. And that's just how I am in real life. I don't want to let down my customers, my employees, my shareholders.
The No. 1 country in the world to do business in is which one? To locate where you want to create jobs, where you want to have a great market? It's Canada. Even in Russia, you can build a Silicon Valley outside of Moscow.
When a market isn't in transition, gaining market share is hard - you're fighting to take one or two points of share from competitors.
There is no secure data center in the world; they have all been broken into. We can help you prepare for it and minimize the damage when it does occur.
When I look at the success of the Cisco Networking Academy program, which has reached more than 4.75 million people since 1997, I know it could have never achieved this scale without our partners. Together we provide the tools, equipment and training for our students and teachers.
To go back to a 1950s voice mentality with Title II and net neutrality would be a tremendous mistake for our country.
What I've realized is most leaders cannot reinvent themselves at the CEO level or at the operational level.
Wearable technology will tell us how well we are sleeping and whether we need to exercise. Sensors in the street will help us avoid traffic jams and find parking. Telemedicine applications will allow physicians to treat patients who are hundreds of miles away.
I think technology can change every country regardless of political party.
There's a lot to learn from President Clinton. It kills me as a strong Republican saying it, but he was the most effective president during my lifetime. And when business got out of line, he smacked them.
It's easy for me to see how a business proposition is going to play out, or who our next-generation competitors are, from taking this data point from this customer and another data point from another customer... and jump to Z.
The number one objective is that people who make the investment in digitization, whether they are governments or service providers, get a reasonable return.
I don't enjoy politics. I like to get things done, and I like Republicans and Democrats, and that doesn't always work well.
Our line of business structure has served us very well in the past, when customer segments and product requirements were very distinct.
I think it was a major mistake to revisit Title II.
It's connectivity that really makes the industrial Internet work: it's giving the right information at the right time to the right person or right machine to make the right decision.
I think, as time passes, people will come to see that the United States' credit standing is really not quite the same level as the ones that we rate AAA.
I learned another lesson from Jack Welch. It was in 1998, and at that time, we were one of the most valuable companies in the world. I said, 'Jack, what does it take to have a great company?' And he said, 'It takes major setbacks and overcoming those.'