LISBON: President-elect Barack (Alfred E. Neuman) Obama has his work cut out for him when he takes office in January, what with an unpopular war, growing environmental concerns and a sagging economy. Even Cisco’s John (King Midas) Chambers warned this week that the networking giant’s revenues could fall as much as 10% in the immediate future, although the company continues to forecast double-digit growth once the current uncertainties dissipate. A Cisco slowdown is something of a shock because like the other certainties in life – death and taxes – the company has rather consistently been the IT industry’s poster child for success.

Of course there are other icons with similar sterling reputations. Under Bill (Ebenezer Scrooge) Gates, Microsoft has ridden its Windows and Office quasi-monopolies to the winner’s circle, racking up quarter after quarter of high double-digit profits. One can only wonder what would happen to their prices – and margins -- if the boys and girls from Redmond weren’t ‘investing’ in other businesses.

Apple has had its ups and downs, but since the return of Steve (Dorian Gray) Jobs, the company that marches to the beat of its own drum has dominated the music and phone industries, and dragged along the long-suffering Mac to ever-higher shipments and sales. The over-priced and under-powered computer family has racked up some impressive numbers and legions of enthusiastic supporters, which stands in sharp contrast to Microsoft’s Vista users.

Cisco has been hosting analysts and reporters in Portugal this week, and if the short-term outlook is cloudy, the company is nothing but bullish about its long-term prospects, and it’s hard to argue with them. Between its networking and collaboration businesses, it appears well-positioned to reap huge rewards, if not dominate these markets, once the economy starts growing again. The key drivers of the information economy – digital content, including video, and online collaboration and social networking – play to Cisco’s strengths. Plus it has $27 billion available to its credit arm to fuel channel sales and customer purchases, a huge advantage in this economy.

And now that it has decided to get serious about the SMB market, one can only wonder how that will play out. Cisco traditionally targets a variety of markets – currently 24 – but focuses only on those that it believes can earn at least $10 billion in annual revenues. Accounting for only 3% of its sales, SMB has been a marginal focus to date, but the company has elevated it to the $10B plateau. I’m sure that’s a comfort to its peers, including IBM, HP and Microsoft, which have been pushing the SMB agenda for years. It should be even better news for Cisco’s channel, which accounts for 85% of its sales, and should get a nice boost now that Cisco is finally ready to legitimize this market.