• Financial Times, Monday, July 16, 2007 11:15 AM

The introduction of Web 2.0 technologies marks "the very beginning of the next phase of creativity, that will last, I think, a minimum of 10 years, probably 15 years," says John Chambers, the chairman and chief executive of Cisco Systems. But how does the introduction of social media tools help drive business? Tthe power of [connecting] many to many allows you to do things at a dramatically different speed."

For large corporations, Web 2.0 tools like wikis, teleconferencing and social networking allow interaction on a much larger--and more personal--scale. Chambers said firms should let people use these tools -- in and out of the company -- to increase the pace of their business operations, enhance sales models and interact more productively with customers.

However, Chambers acknowledges that "there's a hesitancy...about taking risk by some of the established companies and that actually creates an opportunity for us," he said. Indeed, Cisco was once the world's biggest company by market capitalization, surpassing Microsoft during the Internet bubble of the late 1990s.

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