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Summary: Growing Pains in Silicon Valley, from ugly duckling to swan
Review: Cisco Systems is known among the information technology elite as one of the most successful companies to emerge from Silicon Valley in many years. Just as Intel and Microsoft soared to lofty heights with the rise of the personal computer, Cisco Systems is flying high on the success of the Internet. The company, which make routers, black boxes that route information through a network-acting as a sort of data traffic light-has captured 80% of the market for routers used as the backbone of the Internet.The Cisco legend is the tale of two sweethearts at Stanford University in the late 1970s. Sandra Lerner of the Stanford University Business School and Leonard Bosack of the computer science department wanted to send love letters to each other via email, but their respective departments used different computer networks. So Len and Sandy invented the router. Then, they conceived Cisco Systems. The router made Cisco the fastest-growing company ever. In 1999, a mere 15 years after its founding, Cisco was worth US$200 billion. This book takes an in-depth look at one of the great success stories of the Internet age. If you like high tech business books, it doesn't get much better than this.
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Summary: Informative, Concise, No Silicon-Valley Tabloid Nonsense
Review: Doing justice to what today is a $452 billion dollar company, is fundamentally a challenge, to do so in such a brief book is outstanding. In the short time since this book was written, Cisco has passed the landmark of a 300 billion dollar Market Capitilization, as mentioned in the book, and raced right through $400 billion and even $450 billion. It is now the 2nd most valuable company in the world, second only to Microsoft, and is seriously being spoken of as a rival to Microsoft for reaching the level of 1 Trillion Dollars of Market Capitalization. If the rates of value increase as they historically have, Cisco wins. This book has technical detail, but is not overly burdened so as to discourage anyone interested in Cisco's Story. The book gives a clear overview of the company's history, the CEO'S who have run the company to date, and the vision of the Current CEO Mr. Chambers. Cisco has an astonishing record of absorbing 61 companies, the last time I saw a number listed, and they do so with more success than any company in History. The retention of top executives and the staff of the companies acquired, exceeds any other industry benchmarks. Even if you have no interest in the technology, the Management of this Company is extraordinary by any measure, and has been recognized as such. This work will give you a great deal of knowledge, in a surprisingly brief book. Truly excellent.
Rating: 
Summary: Agree; Puff Piece
Review: I agree with the reviewer who called this a puff piece. Cisco has feet of clay in the internet telephony, voice-video-data over IP and fiber optic internet connection spaces. They are especially out of it in internet telephony and fiber optics. Further, valuation in "Cisco dollars" is a problem soon to be shared by many "New Age"companies; specifically, extreme valuation supported more by hopes and wishes than anything truly tangible. Personally, I would bet on Nortel Networks. Lucent and the others are also rans and disqualified by the Jack Welch 1st., 2nd. or not at all philosophy.
Rating:
Summary: Comprehensive coverage of Cisco
Review: I found this book about Cisco relatively short but comprehensive in the key elements of what makes the company a success. These elements consist of modern management, modern leadership, cutting edge business strategy and the pioneering use of electronic commerce. The most interesting parts of the book are the business strategy of Cisco buying other startups that could challenge the company with innovative technology. Also, interesting is the Cisco attitude of not buying the mythical company but a group of individual people and trying to integrate them into the Cisco culture. Of interest is the fact that most other company purchases fail. However, at Cisco they succeed and have allowed the company to remain on top. The second interesting area the book deals with is Cisco's pioneering use of electronic commerce. The book goes into detail about the Cisco electronic commerce schemes. Overall the book is well written and enjoyable to read.
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Summary: Bought the book because of the review
Review: I must confess I bought the book because of the review I read here on Amazon by the Cisco employee. Figured if they complained about it, there must be something to the book. I think this this is the real story about CISCO and as an investor, I loved reading about the inner workings.
Rating:
Summary: Comprehensive and Clear
Review: I really think the previous reader was being a bit unfair to the book--though I'm not a Cisco insider, so there certainly could be errors. He complained that the book didn't talk about Cisco almost giving away its source code? The biggest mistake he can think of is that Cisco _almost_ did something wrong. I found the book to not be a puff piece at all--it's definitely from an outsider's point of view. "Making the Cisco Connection" clearly delineates the processes and people that have made Cisco successful, and at least mentions their problems. John Chambers, Cisco's poster-boy CEO, comes off as being brilliant but kind of freaky, a benevolent dictator. The book didn't gloss over the fact that the founders were kicked out, or that Cisco workers often live like droids. But it doesn't ignore the fact that most of the workers are very, very rich. I found the Cisco story a lot more interesting than that of all the dot-com startups. After all, Cisco actually makes something. And it's been around a long time (15 years) compared to the Web companies that get glossy books. I really enjoyed this book.
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Summary: Really a great book for me
Review: I want to buy it soon after I read this book from my friend!
Rating:
Summary: The great book
Review: I want to see our company in thailand like cisco.
Rating: 
Summary: Reasonable corp history....from an outsiders perspective
Review: Like a previous reviewer I am also a cisco veteran.....although only 6 years. It appears that the book was written without any access to insiders and with that caveat the book is an adequate compilation of events that happened over last 10-15 years. Most info is culled from other interviews and articles over the years but it is put together chronologically and in one place. However, i do agree with my colleague comments below that a lot more powerful book could have been written with access to execs and other insiders. The result would probably have looked more like an HBR Case Study and so had a lot smaller target audience. This book isnt in the calibre of Yoffies's 'Competing on Internet time' which focussed on Netscape for just that reason. Nor does it have the personal perspective of Jim Clark's ' netscape time'. Its probably closest to the recent book on SUN, 'High Noon' by Karen Southwick. In summary a reasonable corporate profile written from secondary information that somehow misses the mark for those of us who have been privileged to work @ Cisco. For the rest of the world probably a reasonable start....but hopefully not the last book written about cisco.
Rating:
Summary: A Fabulous Read
Review: My wife actually pointed this book out to me. If you enjoyed reading Nerds 2.0.1, or books of that genre, you will love this book. Aside from being a historical book about Cisco and separating truth-from-fiction, this book would make a much better movie than the "Pirates of Silicon Valley." Sorry, I'm not going to give details about the book. What's the point of reading it then? Definitely an ejoyable read!
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