What Mr. Chambers can’t say is how that will happen, or when.

What’s happening to Cisco, in good ways and bad, is that everything is getting connected — from computers to people with mobile phones to sensors — across the globe. At the same time, lots of companies want a part of this networking boom, including Dell, with a new, low-cost alternative, and Arista, a maker of fast networking gear run by many former Cisco engineers.

The competition showed in Cisco’s fiscal second-quarter results. Besides the revenue drop, net income was down 55 percent, to $1.4 billion. Gross profit margins were 53 percent, compared with 61 percent a year ago.

Mr. Chambers said in an interview that he was leaning on Cisco’s networking strength: Cisco will sustain its high margins by offering companies and governments deep insights over big systems, like the workings of a major global manufacturer, or the efficient running of a big municipality. Multiple times, Mr. Chambers spoke of Cisco as part of “the Internet of Everything,” which was his way of describing a world in which two-way computing intelligence is broadly distributed. What is not yet clear is why Cisco should be the company in this lucky position to dominate.

Cisco has the gear in place, albeit at a higher cost than the competition. What it lacks are plenty of consultants who can effectively understand what businesses will need for this systems approach.

Last year, Cisco hired Martin McPhee, a veteran of Accenture, to run Cisco Consulting Services, which Mr. Chambers hopes can drive its efforts. Mr. Chambers said Mr. McPhee was making a number of new hires for that business.