Did you see the December 2008 cover story of FAST COMPANY?   The title reads: Cisco Gets Radical and the subtitle is How CEO John Chambers is turning the Tech giant into a socialist enterprise.  What is he talking about?  Read the article.  What's the company's No.1 blog?  It's about collaboration. 

John Chambers is quoted as saying "some people need a command-and-control environment.....(but that's not the way of the future)....We now have a whole pool of talent who can lead these working groups, like mini CEO's and COO's.  We're growing ideas but we're growing people as well...where I might have had two potential successors, I now have 500." (p.134)

And they are scaling up, in a collaborative way.  "The global marketplace and the ubiquity of Web 2.0 tools demand a workforce empoowered to generate ideas, solve problems and contribute to the greater good without micromanagement." writes the author, Ellen McGirt (p.135)

Here's an excerpt from the Fast Company website:

Cisco's CEO John Chambers On How to Weather the Downturn
By Fast Company Staff
• "Focus on what we can influence, and not over- or underreact to things we cannot. It's a question of living in the world as it is, not the way we want it to be."

• Assess the damage externally -- vendors, customers, colleagues. "In 2001, we went to our customers in energy, manufacturing, and automotive, to name a few. We asked, 'How are you handling this?' "

• "Ask yourself, 'Is this a market-driven phenomenon or did we do it to ourselves?' " Based on the answers you get, formulate a response. "In 2001, our strategy was working extremely well before the downturn, and it seemed to be working from the customers' side, so we said it was 90-10. That turned out to be about right."

• Make a determination of how long this will last and how deep it is going to be. "Prepare yourself for it to be longer and deeper than you think. And then build flexibility to adjust quickly if you need to."

• Get ready for the upturn. "What's our vision for where this industry is going with or without us?" That, he says, is a five-year horizon. "What is our differentiated strategy within that vision?" That's a two- to four-year plan. "How are we going to execute in the next 12 to 18 months?"