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Dreaming: What if Cisco invested $2B at home rather than South Korea?

John Chambers

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• Korea Times report
• Wall Street Journal report
• Reuters' report on Korea deal
• Cisco

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RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. – Just imagine how big this news would be in either the Carolinas or Georgia - and for the U.S.A.: Cisco Chairman and CEO John Chambers announces the following:

• The networking and high-tech giant will invest as much as $1 billion in a new research and development center

• It will make $500 million in capital to loan or invest in other telecom-related firms

• To jumpstart communication evolution, Cisco will set up a $40 million venture capital firm.

Reality check: Cisco is making the investment in South Korea.

"Cisco to Invest $2 Billion Here," the headline blasts. “President Lee thanked Chambers for ‘making a difficult decision’' at a time when the world is suffering a recession, saying Cisco's investment will help Seoul attract global investors,” the Korea Times reported Tuesday. The paper adds that Cisco “has already committed to investing about $1 billion to build its Asia-Pacific research headquarters” in Korea and will “jointly develop the Incheon Free Economic Zone (IFEZ), now under construction on the western coast on reclaimed land three times larger than Manhattan.”

Holy cow! But what about the home folks? How about onshoring some R&D and venture investing? (The latest fund-raising news in the U.S. isn't good - new funds are scarce.)

Yes, Cisco already bases most of its personnel, facilities and R&D in the U.S., from Silicon Valley to points east, including its cutting-edge campus in RTP. But like IBM and so many other high-profile companies, Cisco is investing heavily overseas in chasing emerging market dollars. According to media reports, the Cisco investment in Korea will be larger than its $1 billion play across India.

But, in a moment of fantasy, consider what a $1 billion-plus Cisco investment would mean to North Carolina’s struggling high-tech sector.

What if Chambers had picked Greenville, S.C. as a new East Coast hub to capitalize on the wealth of talent in the engineer corridor along I-85?

What if Cisco were to set up new facilities in Atlanta or its suburbs as part of a tech partnership with Georgia Tech, Emory and the University of Georgia?

If, brother and sister, if.

The U.S. economy is still the hub around which the world’s economy rotates. Last fall’s financial crisis and ensuing global meltdown proved that. China, India, South Korea and Brazil may be growing but the U.S. remains No. 1. Jobs and investment are needed here, too.

Instead, Cisco invests overseas. IBM keeps shipping jobs out of the U.S. (and, soon, Western Europe). Lenovo is going after emerging markets. GlaxoSmithKline is looking to Africa. Need I go on?

Business is global. The world is flat. Emerging markets offer opportunities for faster growth. The list goes on.

But the executives and boards so enamored with the lure of overseas opportunity should bear something in mind: Good jobs for good people and funding for research and development in the U.S. (and Europe) pay dividends, too.

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