CEOs can’t sit back waiting for the next normal to plan investments: Cisco’s Chuck Robbins on Trump tariffs

Chuck Robbins, Chairman and CEO of Cisco

Uncertainties around the US’ trade policies is making it difficult for CEOs to adapt their supply chain strategy, technology giant Cisco Systems’ CEO and Chair Chuck Robbins said during his visit to Mumbai on July 9.

Responding to a question on the ongoing global trade tensions and impact on Cisco’s investment plan and manufacturing supply chain strategy, Robbins said, “We don't know the end game. That's one of the biggest issues that CEOs have today, is we just don't know where it's all going to land.”

“Until we understand that, it's very difficult to adapt your supply chain strategy, because you don't want to go spend $20 million or $30 million to move some aspect of it just to find out that the tariffs switch on you into the new place you move it to. So, we're all waiting, and we've been in deep communication with the White House about the uncertainty. We just need to get to clarity so we can actually respond,” he said.

Taking a leaf from his years of experience, Robbins said the CEO community over the past 10-20 years have been living from crisis to crisis, and there never really was some “beautiful normal” that he could remember.

“It's just with everything going on in the world, you've got the geopolitics, the nationalism, the sovereignty requirements, the breaking down of traditional systems around the world. We've got ground wars, tariffs, we've had supply chain shocks, we've had inflation. These are just things we deal with,” Robbins said.

He added, “Most CEOs are not sitting back saying, well, when things get back to normal, we'll start investing again, because this is normal. It is what it is. Most companies are probably in the same boat we are. They are waiting to understand where this tariff stuff lands before we can really adapt our supply chain.”

Cisco’s India Opportunity

Cisco has been actively investing in India over the years. As it completes over three decades in the country, it has seven sales offices — New Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Pune, Kolkata, and Hyderabad.

Last year, Cisco launched its first manufacturing facility in Chennai, aimed to drive $1.3 billion in revenue and create over 1,200 jobs.

Also Read: ‘India is one of the biggest opportunities in the world for us’: Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins

Robbins said, “India is one of the biggest opportunities in the world for us. If you look out over the next five to ten years, I'm not sure there's another place on the planet where you would expect the growth that we should see here.”

“To challenge the team, we've obviously been continuing our investments here. We've been here for 30 years. We started manufacturing here two years ago. We had a single product then, now we added two more products here…So, we're ahead of schedule relative to our expectations,” he added.