Who here remembers the time when working at Xerox was fun? When people had each other's backs and when everybody helped other people instead of doing their best to stab them in the back?
I do. Those were the good times that make me even sadder when I think about where we are now. How did we get here? How did things change so drastically within a decade?
I agree. I think Icahn screwed the pooch on this one. There is no interest in Xerox stock. It’s a company that will never grow organically and it’s underfunded to grow inorganically. I think he is going to auction in parts.
I like my managers, but hate this company. John V cannot be trusted. He works for Carl Ichan who is a horrible human, and Carl's only goal is to make as much money as he can, regardless who he destroys. He doesn't have as much brains as he thinks he does. Look at the people who got rich creating something, that takes some brains and talent. At this point, with his money, it doesn't take any brains. He messed up when he valued the company at 40 and killed the deal with Fuji.
I have been saying for some time now that we need leaders, not commanders.
How did we get here? Check out the year we got caught with our hands in the cookie jar. Taking all of the contract up front is AGAINST THE SEC RULES. Yet wour spokesperson got on TV and said, "We followed generally accepted accounting practices." Well, we have been trying to recover ever since. We spend $1B trying to make SOHO go and then when the aforementioned c-ap hit the fan we needed to sell 50% of our interest to FX. THAT was the absolute beginning of the end.
Quality movement in late 90s early 00s was outstanding. It was all about teamwork. We saved a company, and customers loved us again. It was something I will never forget. Today the company is a small shadow of what it used to be and it has a horrible horrible culture.
Xerox has a history of incredible innovation but clueless what to do with it. Case in point from the Internet:
"The Xerox Alto is the first computer designed from its inception to support an operating system based on a graphical user interface (GUI), later using the desktop metaphor. The first machines were introduced on 1 March 1973, a decade before mass market GUI machines arose."
A full decade BEFORE Microsoft and Dell came along....Xerox had the PC but it sat on a shelf. Imagine....Just imagine where we would have been if management were visionaries. The cycle continues to repeat itself.
"....seem...?"
We do. We have amateur sailboat sailors trying to figure out how to steer a container cargo ship. Proclaiming, "We need to be agile..."
The way to be agile is to train employees in new concepts and technologies and to hit the moving target as it becomes viable. For example 3D printing....we sure missed the boat on that one and I remember - clearly - when it was first discussed several years back.
The people are good. The products are good. But we seem to have a captain driving us the wrong direction.
I still enjoy my job and I have fun every day there. Just hate how the company is run