At Xerox, a Transition for the Record Books

The New York Times
Published: May 21, 2009

By ASHLEE VANCE
After eight years of hard work turning around a company in disarray, Anne M. Mulcahy has managed to make her departure as chief executive of Xerox look effortless.
During a shareholders’ meeting on Thursday, Ms. Mulcahy revealed that she would retire as chief executive in July but remain chairwoman. Her handpicked successor is Ursula M. Burns, the president of the company. The management change had been predicted for years, making it one of the least tumultuous power changes in Xerox’s recent history.
“For the better part of the past decade, she has been at my side helping to turn Xerox around and more importantly transform Xerox for a new era,” Ms. Mulcahy told the company’s shareholders about Ms. Burns.
According to Xerox, this is the first time a female chief executive has replaced another female chief executive at a Fortune 500 company. In addition, Ms. Burns is the first African-American woman to run a company this large. Xerox reported revenue of $17.6 billion in 2008.
Xerox declined to make either executive available for interviews.
Tapped to head Xerox in mid-2001, Ms. Mulcahy took over a lethargic company that had lost ground to Japanese rivals like Canon and Ricoh. Abrupt management changes and a bungled reorganization of the sales force intensified the company’s woes to the point that analysts speculated it might have to file for bankruptcy.
In addition, Xerox had endured an extensive investigation of its accounting practices by the Securities and Exchange Commission. As the chief executive, Ms. Mulcahy negotiated a settlement that put the accounting issues to rest.
Observers credit Ms. Mulcahy with helping Xerox recover by bringing its costs into line and strengthening its products. Xerox has created printers that compete better on cost and size, including the introduction this month of copiers that lower the cost of printing color documents. It has also continued to build services and technology for managing documents within large corporations.
“She has really completed a remarkable turnaround,” said Shannon Cross, the managing director of Cross Research, an equities research firm.
Ms. Mulcahy, 56, has spent 33 years at Xerox, working in roles that spanned sales, marketing and human resources. Ms. Burns, 50, is also a longtime Xerox veteran, having started as an engineering intern in 1980.
“They’re both insiders that sort of bleed toner, as it were,” said Steve Reynolds, an analyst with Lyra Research, which follows the printing and imaging industries.
As president, Ms. Burns has most recently been overseeing a large swath of Xerox’s operations. She has conducted meetings with investors and Wall Street analysts alongside Ms. Mulcahy as well.

Full Story: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/22/technology/companies/22xerox.html?_r=1&th&emc=th