By Orianna Rosa Royle
Publication Date: 2026-11-11 08:03:00
So you’ve heard of KPI, ROI and EBITDA. But use the wrong acronym in front of Cisco’s president and your meeting could be killed—especially if it’s one that nobody outside the building understands.
“I don’t like acronyms, especially Cisco-manufactured acronyms that happen at runtime,” Cisco’s president and chief product officer Jeetu Patel told Fortune at a small roundtable dinner.
“If there’s a meeting and there’s acronyms that are used, there are times that I’ve just terminated the meeting.”
Patel jokingly pointed to a time he noticed staff saying “you have to get JP to approve”—without knowing they were referring to him. “I’m like, who’s JP? He’s like, that’s Jeetu Patel. I don’t even go by JP.”
But his distaste for needlessly shortening phrases and long sentences goes beyond giving bosses nicknames. He sees it as a real barrier to who feels able to speak up in a meeting.
“I actually think that using acronyms…
