What Lessons Did Cisco Learn From The Recession In 2001?

It’s very difficult to walk into any office or workplace and not finding the Cisco logo somewhere from the beginnings of 1984 in San Francisco Cisco is a largely known company throughout the world in IT creating and selling all sorts of hardware devices such as desk phones, routers, and switches as well as software. Currently holding over 80 offices worldwide and employing nearly 74,000 people around the globe with a current revenue of up to 12.6 billion so it is hard to believe that throughout its 33 years it has seen a large number of economic downfalls in 1993, 1997, 2001, 2003 and most recently 2008-09.

What lessons did Cisco learn from the recession in 2001? How did these lessons enable the company faces the subsequent economic downturns successfully? Explain.