Xerox Corp's Turnaround Strategy
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Case Code: BSTR121 Case Length: 13 Pages Period: 1997-2003 Pub Date: 2004 Teaching Note: Available |
Price: Rs.500 Organization: Xerox Industry: Printing and Imaging Equipment Countries: US Themes: Leadership |
Abstract Case Intro 1 Case Intro 2 Excerpts
Background Note
1906 was an important year in the history of Xerox. In that year, the Haloid Company (Haloid), which later commercialized the process of photocopying, was set up. It was also the year in which Chester. F. Carlson (Carlson), the inventor of photocopier was born. Carlson was a patent attorney and part-time researcher and inventor. His job at the patent office in New York required him to make a large number of copies of important patents. Carlson, who was arthritic, found this a painful and tedious process.
This prompted him to conduct experiments in the area of photoconductivity, through which multiple copies could be made with minimal effort. Carlson experimented with 'electrophotography' in his kitchen and in 1938, applied for a patent for the process. He made the first "photocopy" using a zinc plate covered with sulfur. The words "10-22-38 Astoria" were written on a microscope slide, which was placed on top of more sulfur and under a bright light. After the slide was removed, a mirror image of the words remained. Carlson tried to sell his invention to some companies, but because the process was still rather underdeveloped, he failed. Besides, at that time, multiple copies were made using carbon paper, and people did not feel any dire need for an electronic machine.
Between 1939 and 1944, Carlson was turned away by more than 20 companies, including IBM and General Electric, who did not believe that there was a significant market for copiers. In 1944, the Battelle Memorial Institute, a non-profit organization in Columbus, Ohio, contracted with Carlson to refine his new process (Carlson was the patent attorney for a client of Battelle, and sent a copy of the patent for the company to review).
Over the next few years, the institute conducted experiments to improve the process of electro-photography. In 1947, Haloid approached Battelle to obtain a license to develop and market a copying machine based on this technology. Haloid felt that the word electro-photography was too complicated and did not have good recall value. After consulting a professor of classical languages in Ohio State University, Haloid and Carlson changed the name of the process to 'xerography', derived from Greek words which meant 'dry-writing'. Haloid decided to call the new copier machines 'Xerox' and in 1948, the word Xerox was trademarked. In 1949, the first xerographic copier called 'Model A' was introduced in the market. The copier was reasonably successful...
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