Xerox

QUESTION #1

“Charity starts at home. You think about the United States.” John’s greatest obstacle was a fragmented structure where the greater good of the whole organization was second to the individual operating units. These units were separately producing and marketing copiers. Each unit had different packaging, hardware, software and part names.

Although he lacked operational control he knew it was critical to have cooperation between the US and Europe. An integrated multinational approach was required to create efficiencies; he needed agreement across all operating units. In a hierarchical corporation like Xerox this was not going to be easy.

He lacked the experience within the industry, specifically related to logistics, and was being continually challenged by his peers. As his successes grew his peers were not challenging him in the same way, this was problematic. His successes resulted in an increased budget, this created animosity. Strong open relationships with his peers were crucial.

MDC’s mission and tasks weren’t aligned with John’s objectives, this was essential for success. Additionally, Xerox saw the MDC as purely computer system development. This made it difficult to receive funding for other objectives.

Resources were lacking. Any spending which took place was required to be offset by savings through efficiencies in that fiscal year. He was also short on manpower, any time spent by a Xerox employee on an MDC task resulted in less time spent elsewhere. This limited his options.

QUESTION #2

John developed his relationship with Les Elstein as a result of their being little support by the U.S. Marketing Group (USMG) for a multinational approach. Les was part of the Corporate Information Management group and had the ability to go directly to the Corporate Information Services Board (CISB). John identified this and began forming a relationship with Les through multiple conversations. During these conversations it was...