By Alec Hogg
In January 2006, Dimension Data was the hottest company on the JSE. A tech business which was building on huge local success to expand globally, it could seemingly do no wrong.
Such was DiData’s scale that it was the largest single client of multinational networking group Cisco, itself one of the world’s most admired companies. That made a chance early morning conversation outside the Belvedere Hotel all the more fascinating.
It was at 7am in a lengthy queue waiting for a turn through security when noticing the man ahead of me drinking a Diet Coke. A bit early for fizzy drinks, I ventured.
Not at all, responded the man who turned out to be Cisco’s CEO John Chambers: “Back home we get up at around 4am to go hunting and fishing – I don’t like coffee so get my caffeine from Diet Coke.” Chambers told me he sleeps four hours a night so gets to drink a lot of his favourite drink. “Both my parents are doctors. They don’t think its good for me, but there’s just so much to do.”
We got chatting about DiData, at the time Cisco’s “Number One partner worldwide – we’ve had out fights but we’re very close to Jeremy (Ord), Doc (Watson) and the new guys that are coming through.” In Davos you must always be prepared for the unexpected.
In conjunction with BrightRock, we have taken to sharing the stories from our recently published World Economic Forum starter pack PDF, ‘A Veterans Guide to Surviving Davos’ with you – Follow the link to download the full document.
