Cisco recently celebrated its 25th anniversary with a call to community service. Chairman and CEO John Chambers challenged every Cisco employee to volunteer four hours of service in his or her local community. The networking leader's goal is an aggregate contribution of 200,000 employee volunteer hours, which equates to approximately 25 years worth of service to the global community.
“I can think of no better way to mark Cisco’s 25th year than to focus on employing our team members' talents and energy in serving the local community,” said Chambers. “Helping people connect and collaborate is not just essential to our business - it is essential to our values.”
Cisco was Founded in 1984 by husband and wife Len Bosack and Sandy Lerner, two former Stanford University computer scientists whose efforts to enable email between computers on different networks led to the invention of the first multiprotocol router. This seminal breakthrough played a major role in fueling the growth of the Internet.
Moreover, Cisco has played a crucial role in reinforcing the profound change that the Internet has had on the world in the last 25 years. Built on a robust network infrastructure, the Internet has transformed business, driven economic development and productivity to bring people together around the world.
“In the coming quarter century, the role of the network will become even more important in driving growth, innovation and productivity in industries such as healthcare, education and energy. Looking ahead, Cisco is positioned to lead the evolution of the network to enable a ‘connected future’ which is increasingly collaborative, video-driven and personalized," Chambers added.
Twenty-five years, more than 7,000 patents and nearly 1 million employee volunteer hours, Cisco today is the worldwide leader in networking technologies that are changing how the world works, lives, plays and learns. The company’s commitment to creativity, customer satisfaction and giving back has been the secret behind Cisco’s success over the years-and it will drive the company’s ongoing mission towards shape the future of the Internet by creating unprecedented value and opportunity for customers, employees, investors and ecosystem partners.
It is worth noting that Cisco is a multinational corporation with more than 65,000 employees and annual revenue of US$36.10 billion as of 2009. Headquartered in San Jose, California, it designs and sells networking and communications technology and services.
