Sysco and Cisco, sound-alike corporate giants, explore joint tech project after years of name mix-ups

Sysco Corp., the US’s largest food distributor, and Cisco Systems Inc., the networking technology titan, are exploring a joint customer-data technology project after executives from both companies met for the first time at a recent Arizona conference. The encounter followed years of persistent confusion between the two firms due to their nearly identical names, a mix-up that has dogged employees at both companies for decades. Cisco’s chief people, policy and purpose officer Fran Katsoudas and Sysco’s global head of customer experience Aayush Bhatnagar struck up a conversation after Katsoudas learned Bhatnagar was also at the event. Their quick rapport led to a LinkedIn post that drew nearly 200 comments from employees at both companies, many recounting their own experiences with the name confusion. One Cisco employee noted they have the same conversation about the name mix-up ‘what seems like once a week,’ while another joked about a Cisco-Sysco romantic connection. The companies already share business ties, with Sysco purchasing technology from Cisco and Sysco trucks delivering food to Cisco offices. Their collaboration could take shape in Fremont, California, where Sysco’s supply hub is just 20 minutes north of Cisco’s San Jose headquarters. Sysco is also managing fallout from a cyclosporiasis outbreak linked to tainted iceberg lettuce from Mexico, which has sickened thousands and prompted a recall involving grower Taylor Farms. Sysco halted sales and distribution of the lettuce a day before Taylor’s recall when it learned of a potential link to the outbreak. Founded in 1969 through the merger of nine regional food distributors, Sysco’s name is short for ‘Systems and Services Company.’ Cisco, meanwhile, was named after San Francisco, near Stanford University where its founders, computer scientists Sandy Lerner and Len Bosack, worked. The two companies’ homophonic names are purely coincidental, though they are not the only sound-alike brands in corporate America. The confusion between Cisco and Sysco is unlikely to disappear anytime soon, as evidenced by comments from employees like Maria Fonferek, a former Cisco staffer who lives near Sysco’s agricultural stronghold in California’s Salinas Valley, who simply noted, ‘The struggle is real.’