Ross Fowler - AGSM Advisory Council Member

AUTHOR: Editor   DATE: 03.11.04   ISSUE 3, 2004
Cisco chief executive officer and AGSM Advisory Council member Ross Fowler says two recent luncheons with MBA students helped him reflect and form his own opinions on business issues.

Cisco has hosted two recent luncheon events for AGSM students at the company’s premises.

“The questions were very good, they were highly aware of the issues the IT industry had faced over the past few years and they were well briefed, enquiring and engaging,” says Fowler.

“I found answering student questions helped me form my own opinions so I got a lot out of it as well.”
Photo: Ross Fowler

Fowler, who has had a long association with the AGSM through his previous position at Alcatel, describes the events as an “opportunity to share ideas.”

“I talked to them about some of the experiences I’ve had in my career and we had a fairly open dialogue,” he says.

“We also talked about what had happened in the IT industry over the last few years, with the boom to bust and the management challenges that it created.”

Another topic was how the IT industry functions as “an eco system.”

“The lesson is that no company can survive on its own and we are really all in this together,” says Fowler.

“That opened the way to talk about some of the cultural things in the industry.”

Fowler says the student feedback was positive, with some saying they enjoyed the opportunity to engage with a management practitioner “and understand issues at first hand, rather than third hand through text books.”

This echoed the role of the AGSM Advisory Council, which was there to help ensure that the school is aligned to the needs and realities of industry.