I certainly couldn’t. I find it tragic what this company has become and the fact that it has the potential to sink even lower, and we used to be a great company. I imagine that the professors at business schools will use xerox as an example how not to run a company.
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Seemed pretty obvious to me that this was a likely destination. Xerox seemed like a dinosaur in decline back when I started in the mid 90's.
@sxo professors don't know what they're talking about. XRX was forced by the US government to open their patent portfolio to the Ricohs, Epsons, and Fujis of the world because it was a monopoly. That's when the fall really began.
Beginning with Paul Allaire senior management had NO VISION.Through the
80’s and 90’s Xerox had the best products,
a talented and loyal workforce second to none ...Products like the 9700, Docutech,
and later I-Gen were unmatched in the industry.By 2000 with layoffs, outsourcing and plant closures Xerox had lost it path
and soul sinking year over year to the
shell of a mess it is today ..So Sorry.
YES....not surprising at all !
They've been doing this every CEO going back since the 90s when the company has 90k employees. It's just more vocal now.
Ursula was hand picked by A Mulcahy. Backed by the Board. In many ways they were both about a cult of personality. Both were promoted and fawned over by the business editors. Mulcahy pulled Xerox back from the edge but after that there wasn’t any real substance. UMB was all about herself and funding a hopeless services business with a shrinking print/copy business. Neither one of them made good decisions about the print/copy business. The other players, Ricoh, KM, HP and especially Canon, trimmed but kept investing in products. It wasn’t hard to see where it was going ... it was predicted by many when the new technologies were rolling and Xerox had nothing new (or nothing new that worked, in some cases)
Between the well documented days of “fumbling the future” at PARC and the recent declines, Xerox did some great things.
But it is still hard to see the end actually unfolding. Sad, indeed.
Too bad Xerox’s priority was to have a diversity figure as CEO vs having chosen the best person for the job.
Was pretty easy to see the end was coming once Ursula was placed on top. No leadership, no vision, incompetence.
I feel the same way, but I hold the memories of my better colleagues, teamwork and successes close to my heart. They are the way things should be.
It’s best to move on. That standard will never again be met at X.
Good luck.
'I imagine that the professors at business schools will use xerox as an example how not to run a company.'
They already do: https://www.amazon.com/Fumbling-Future-Invented-Personal-Computer-ebook/dp/B0791LWDG3