John Chambers, the former CEO of Cisco Systems, says he can size up a business, determine their culture, and determine whether or not they are customer focused in less than 5 minutes. Chambers should know because he acquired scores of companies to grow Cisco systems into one of the top computer networking players.
First, he looks at the location of the offices. He looks to see if the employees are out where the natural light is and if the offices of the managers are located toward the middle. Office size and location shows if a company’s commitment is more to enrich managers or support employees where the real work gets done.
Next, he looks at the type of furniture that is in the office. High-end offices with rich mahogany furniture says that the business is too internally focused. Chambers likes to see plain furniture, which shows that the business is more frugal.
He then looks to see if employees are tied to the success of the business in some way such as having stock options. If there are stock options, he also looks to see how they are distributed between employees and managers to determine the culture.
Finally, John Chambers says you can learn a lot about a company by what it places on the walls. He looks to see what is important to them. For instance, are there pictures of family, sporting events, and other outings or is there just some store bought art with little meaning? Sizing up a business, whether as a potential vendor or acquisition target, can tell you a lot about their customer focus and culture.
