It's no wonder that JOHN T. CHAMBERS, the supersalesman of networking giant Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO), can't wipe the grin off his face. In the five years since he has been CEO, Cisco has grown to ten times its 1994 revenues and profits. Credit Chambers' round-the-clock work ethic and obsession with customer satisfaction. He'll take a call at 2 a.m. if a customer's network is down. Wall Street is happy, too: Cisco qualifies as one of the great stocks of all time. After doubling in 1999, it is now the third most valuable company in the world, after Microsoft and General Electric. Translated into hard dollars, in just the last year, its value has grown by a stunning $180 billion.
How does he keep it up? Even the hypercompetitive Chambers, 50, admits to a bit of good luck. Cisco hit its stride just as the Internet revolution was swinging into full gear. It sells so-called routers and switches that direct data across the Net and around corporate networks, a business that grew 17% in 1999. ''There's no substitute for being in the right industry at the right time,'' he says.
But there's more to it than luck. Through a blistering streak of some 17 acquisitions in 1999 alone, Cisco has expanded into nearly every part of the networking industry. Chambers' goal is to change the way people ''live, work, play, and learn'' through Internet technology. And along the way, he wants to build Cisco into a $50 billion company in five more years.
To get there, Chambers is setting his sights beyond data networking. He has made himself into an e-commerce emissary, criss-crossing the globe to sell corporate leaders and government officials on the virtues of the Net. And he is moving Cisco into new markets. In 1999, Chambers plunked down almost $10 billion to acquire three makers of equipmment that sends Net data over fiber-optic lines. ''We're leading a revolution,'' says Chambers. ''The odds are in our favor to win.'' In his shoes, who wouldn't be smiling?
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KEY ACCOMPLISHMENTS
 Shares rose 130% in '99, to about 105
Sales up around 44%, to $14 billion
Broadened Cisco into strategic businesses such as software, consulting, and fiber-optic communications
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