Smangele Nkosi, Cisco South Africa. Photo: Karolina Komendera

Next year, Cisco will mark 40 years in business. It was founded by then-husband and wife team Leonard Bosack and Sandy Lerner in San Francisco. They were both computer scientists at Stanford University, and developed the company’s first multiprotocol router. The company is now worth over $200 billion.

A lot has changed since its beginnings in 1984, with tech giants now reassessing their spending, pandemic-related ripples in the supply chains, ‘rightsizing’ layoffs and the US and China trade conflict, among other challenges.