Xerox — Wikipédia

Xerox executives from the East Coast, whose entire business model was selling large, centralized copiers, could not comprehend the value of small, networked, personal devices. When Steve Jobs of Apple visited PARC in 1979 in exchange for allowing Xerox to invest $1 million in Apple (a deal that would net Xerox over $100 million), he saw the future. He famously remarked, "Why aren’t you doing anything with this? This is the greatest thing." Xerox let the GUI and mouse slip away. Apple released the Lisa (1983) and Macintosh (1984). Microsoft later copied the concept for Windows. Xerox’s own attempt to commercialize the Alto, the Xerox Star (8010) in 1981, was technologically brilliant but priced at $16,000+ per workstation, a commercial failure.

The company’s destiny changed in 1938 when a patent attorney and part-time inventor, , invented electrophotography . Frustrated with the laborious process of carbon copying, Carlson created a dry, electrostatic method for reproducing images. He famously used a zinc plate covered with sulfur, a handkerchief, heat, and a static charge to create the first "copy" (the word "10-22-38 Astoria" was written on a glass slide). After being rejected by over 20 companies (including IBM and GE), Haloid took a chance on the fledgling technology.

Under CEO (1982-1990), Xerox launched a legendary turnaround. He introduced Leadership Through Quality – a company-wide total quality management (TQM) program. He also pioneered benchmarking – systematically comparing your products and processes against the best in the world (which was now Canon). This led to a massive reduction in defects, product redesign, and a new emphasis on manufacturing efficiency. The turnaround was so successful that it became a Harvard Business School case study. In 1989, Xerox won the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award , the first company to do so in the manufacturing category. xerox wikipédia

The brand name "Xerox" remains one of the most famous in the world, a genericized trademark like "Kleenex" or "Google." But the company is now a mid-tier technology services and printing firm, a resilient survivor rather than a world-beater. It serves as a powerful, cautionary ghost at the feast of every successful technology company: Are you building the future, or are you building a better buggy whip for the present?

Xerox is the quintessential tale of . It is a parable of how success can breed myopia. The company invented the PC, the GUI, Ethernet, and the laser printer – the building blocks of the 21st-century office – and gave them away for free because they didn’t fit its existing business model of selling copies per page. It is a permanent case study in business schools about the "innovator’s dilemma": The very management practices that make a company dominant in its market make it nearly incapable of responding to disruptive change. Xerox executives from the East Coast, whose entire

Xerox had invented the digital future and then failed to own it. It is the ultimate case study in – a market leader so wedded to its existing customers and profit model that it cannot see (or act on) the disruptive technology it has created. III. Decline, Restructuring, and the Japanese Onslaught (1980s–1990s) While Xerox played in the high-end, slow-to-market workstation space, its core copier business was attacked from below. Japanese companies, led by Canon , exploited a loophole. Xerox’s patents expired in the late 1970s. Canon introduced a radically different business model: the personal or desktop copier (e.g., Canon NP-200). Instead of leasing large, complex machines that required service technicians, Canon sold small, cheap, reliable copiers using a replaceable cartridge system (the "all-in-one" toner, drum, and developer unit). This shifted maintenance from a trained technician to the user.

Yet the strategic damage was permanent. Xerox had been forced to retreat from the low-end market. It remained a strong player in high-volume "production" printing and services, but it was no longer the invincible giant. The 1990s saw a series of CEOs try to redefine Xerox for the digital age. Paul Allaire (CEO 1990-1999) pushed the company into document management software and services, renaming the company The Document Company (tagline: "The Document Company – Xerox"). But the transition was painful. The core copier business was mature, and new digital initiatives were slow to profit. This is the greatest thing

The revolution arrived in 1959 with the . It was the first fully automatic plain-paper copier. You could place any document on a glass plate, press a button, and receive a clean, dry copy on ordinary, untreated paper. It was a miracle of industrial design and chemistry. The 914 was enormous, weighed 650 pounds, and had a notorious tendency to catch fire (requiring an included "scorch eliminator" – a fire extinguisher). Yet it was an instant phenomenon. Haloid, having renamed itself Xerox Corporation in 1961, created an entirely new industry. The verb "to xerox" entered the global lexicon, a testament to its dominance. II. The Golden Age and the Innovation Paradox (1970s) With a near-monopoly on copiers (protected by over 500 patents), Xerox became a cash colossus. Revenue soared from $40 million in 1960 to over $1 billion in 1968. But success bred complacency in the core business. The leadership, focused on selling and leasing copiers, famously failed to see that the future was not about better copies, but about digital information.