JohnV
Many times you have expressed your desire to make Xerox a "technology powerhouse". That would be great!
We have so much talent at Xerox, and always have been. For decades, engineers and researchers have invented so many things that we take for granted. The personal computer. The graphical user interface. Interpress, the precursor to postscript. The Ethernet. Object oriented programming. The optical mouse. So many others. Oh, and the laser printer.
Sadly, we failed to capitalize on what our people built. That was a failure on the engineers to truly see what they had, and a bigger failure on management for not knowing how to make money on it.
With these very successful failures, we continued. We entered the era of digital printing with Docutech in the '80s and made billions. We got into the insurance market (really.) We built small desktop printers for the SOHO market. We built office A3 and A4 printers for every office in America. We built iGen and family for graphics printing. We continued our mono products for hi-volume transactional printing. We experimented with continuous feed, solid ink, direct to object printing.
But we lost our way. We no longer manufactured our own A3 and A4 engines. We slowly evolved the iGen and production products. We lost hundreds of millions with our investment in solid ink. We tried to buy our way into the inkjet market with Impika.
We reformed our relationship with Fuji. Then did it again. Then who the hell knows where we are now, and if we have any relationship with Fuji or another IOT manufacturer.
People are confused. People are saddened to see us spinning with no clear direction.
Yet we still have good people. Great people. We can build anything. Anything. We can continue with the printing business, or take our product development knowledge and go into a completely different market.
But we'll fail. We are going to lose people, our best people. Our latest benefits packages makes it clear that senior management does not value our people. Senior management gets many millions of dollars in incentives, while our people continue to lose in what is supposed to be a good economy.
Our young talent is already looking for their next gig. They have no loyalty to Xerox as Xerox has shown no loyalty to them. They see every dollar in benefits cuts as a dollar lost in salary. They see us flailing not knowing who are are, and can't see themselves investing their energy into building a career here.
Our mid career people are updating resumes. They have been at Xerox for most of their careers and want to remain here, but want to get out while they can, as management has not shown us they have any real long term plan for the company.
Our long time seasoned people still feel loyalty, but are probably mostly hanging on until they get a package. It's not worth their effort to look for another job, and they stay here because it's all they've known for decades, and have many fond memories from better days.
JohnV, you and the senior management team are going to kill this company. First, we've been screwing around for months after the failed Fuji takeover. You talk about being a "technology powerhouse" but to do so requires people: keeping the people we have, and attracting young people. The benefits cut is a neon sign saying "Get Out!"
Want a tech power house? Here's how you do it.
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don't cut health benefits
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value your people
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set a clear direction for the company
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resolves the Fuji and/or new partner relationship
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invest yourself in the company; pull a Steve Jobs and give up your salary for a share of a success
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stop with the layoffs. Every. Single. Week. If you have to consolidate, do it all at once and call it done. Dragging it on is terrible for morale.
We've always been able to build the best products. In 3-4 months, when people leave for greener pastures, we won't even be able to support and sell the products we have.