-- Graphic Arts Online, 11/3/2008 8:52:00 AM Newsworld Corp. selected an AlphaGraphics franchise to print U.S. copies of the U.K.’s Daily Mail and Mail On Sunday. The publisher will buy a Screen Truepress Jet520 on-demand newsprint solution with a dedicated Standard Hunkeler finishing system to be installed at Dayton, NJ-based printer. AlphaGraphics parent company Pindar is based in the U.K.
We experienced this first hand in Bakersfield with Bakotopia, a social networking site I started for the Californian in 2005. Despite high traffic and audience engagement, it wasn't embraced by advertisers. But in 2007, we created a print magazine that carried the same content as the Web site (sort of a "Best of the Blogs" index).
In that year, Bakotopia more than doubled its number of advertisers, with 78% of them unique -- meaning they were new and not just carryovers from. . . . There's a great lesson in there that you won't see reflected in any punditry-filled story about the supposed "death" of newspapers. Most people aren't unsubscribing from newspapers because they're printed, but because the content isn't as relevant to their unique interests as what they read online.
The ad is a nod toward what is possible and what industry suppliers such as Hewlett Packard, Kodak and Océ are preparing for.
Notice who is missing from the list of HP, Kodak, and Oce. Not only Xerox, but Screen. This is an oversight that will be shortly corrected. While all I know is what I read on line and some Print, it looks to me that Kodak is going to have a fight on it's hands, not with HP or Oce, but with the Screen Truepress Jet520. Is it better quality, I don't know. Is it good enough? Given that Newsworld put down the cash and installed at AlphaGraphics, I'm betting it is fine.
Notice that AlphaGraphics now has UK ownership. Donnelly sold them and later bought some big BPO outfit, also based in the UK.
So where does that leave Xerox? From everything I can see it seems we are not going to get on the customized newspaper train. I could be wrong, but from what I've read, that's what it looks like to me.
Here's my two cents to people who have to get this done.
MPS owns the education and government markets . . .for now. We are making great inroads into SMB with Global Imaging and the new boxes in the last couple of years. We have a pretty large installed base of Igens and less around the world. We have to get them working in sync.
There is a window of opportunity that may close rapidly. Ricoh has joined forces with IBM. I'm thinking they are going to be pretty serious in enterprise solutions. Ricoh has the boxes, IBM has the cred. For other combos, check out Print4Pay.com. He seems to keep on top of that part of the industry.
A global information infrastructure with print output is not just another nice or silly (depending on your point of view) idea. If it's wrong, someone should say so. If it's right, we better get on the stick.
"We’ve discussed the pros and cons of government consolidation on RT before. Pros would be potentially lower cost of government (and taxes), cons would be potentially less responsiveness to your local needs.
Tom Golisano gave a speech recently to the Rochester Rotary Club where he pushed for consolidation:
Golisano, in his talk, said one first step has to be merging some local government bodies as proof there can be tax savings as a result. “I don’t understand why we need a village manager and village government in the"
I'm thinking that this is a problem we can help solve. Instead of going through the fight of consolidating political domains, why not focus on consolidating the information and the output. Info management without a Print output will not work for government. It is doomed to be a niche market with enormous scaling costs. With Print output, adoption can be quick, scaling can evolve naturally.
It's a natural for a team: MFP's from Gobal Imaging, MPS from XGS, large scale output from PGS partners.
C'mon everyone. Cancel some meetings. Stop answering your emails. Cancel some trips. Figure out how to get the team together. If you can't do it for yourselves, think of my 401K.
If we do it in Rochester first, you have the team in place, the locals will love it, we can use the Hatch Center to test it, we have Igen partners to scale it. Plus no traveling. No education. No marketing. If it works in Rochester, why wouldn't it work wherever government is broken and too expensive. That's a nice organic growth market. Even Wall Street might be able to understand it.
"Whoa! I had the call at 8:00am this morning and I was flabbergasted. My first thoughts was of this release; Xerox has become the latest technology heavyweight to issue a major round of layoffs.The company revealed on Thursday that the sagging economy has forced a reorganisation plan which could see some 3,000 jobs eliminated. Such a cut would remove five per cent of Xerox's total workforce.
Global Imaging Systems, Inc. is owned by Xerox, Global has agreed to buy Comdoc.
For the sake of almost 3,000 people who lost their jobs, was this a good move by a Xerox owned company? Heck in Rochester the other day, Xerox laid off 40% of the HR department!
Terms of the deal have not been disclosed, however I'd like to see where all of the money came from. You don't go out and lay off 3,000 workers and then buy one of the largest independent dealers for office equipment in the US."
The man has a point. How about $10 million for an employee transition project? We can spread really smart Xeroids all over the country. Plus supply of manufacturers with awesome experienced people. Plus baby boomers don't want to work full time. They just need a good health insurance, a basic pension, and broadband excess. Plus we have to figure out a way to conserve institutional memory. Plus we don't have to spend $385 million to save $200 million a year going forward. Any projection of savings in 2010 is just bookeeping bs anyway.
Why wouldn't we get this right? We get back on the side of the angels and allow Ann and Ursula to hold their heads high.
"Despite record-setting sales of $125 million last year, ComDoc agrees to acquisition
By Paula Schleis" Published on Saturday, Jan 31, 2009
Xerox is counting on a venerable office equipment supplier in Green to help it reach some 14,000 new customers in Ohio and beyond.
ComDoc, an employee-owned company founded in 1955 that has grown to more than 600 employees in four states, is expected to be acquired by the end of February.
When the ink dries, ComDoc will become part of Global Imaging Systems (GIS), which was purchased by Xerox in 2007. GIS, a wholly owned subsidiary, operates small and mid-sized regional businesses that sell and service office technology, including printers, copiers, scanners and fax machines.
ComDoc Chief Executive Officer Riley Lochridge — who was named the Sales and Marketing Executives International 2007 Executive of the Year — said the decision to be acquired was not made from a position of weakness.
ComDoc had a record-setting $125 million in sales last year.
''An offer was made that we think was good for our employees and our shareholders, . . . and it will be good for our customers,'' Lochridge said.
And in a '''rapidly consolidating marketplace,'' he said, joining forces will make the company even stronger and more competitive.
GIS has made a half-dozen acquisitions since being purchased by Xerox, according to Xerox spokesman Carl Langsenkamp.
If GIS had their own P&L or whatever. It might help Wall Street understand where organic growth is going to come from. E-paper? anyone. I'm thinking this channel could sell lots and lots of e-paper, if it works as advertised.
Now if we can figure out a really good incentive plan that gets these folks to refer work back to our production partners or to refer prospects to our production partners, that would be good.
The thing is that, except for new installs, the printers who will get it, already got it. What they need is work and prospects. Not education.
"What happens when women lead? I can’t answer that definitively but I’ve read about Xerox and its chief, Anne Mulcahy, before. She was recognized by Chief Executive magazine last June as the tops - the first time for a woman to receive this particular acknowledgement.
BNET has a cute tongue-in-cheek take of the award and the winner. In part:"
We'll keep on eye one how this works through blogosphere.
"NORWALK, Conn., Jan. 26, 2009 -- Xerox Corporation (NYSE: XRX) closed 2008 earning more than 230 industry awards, an increase of more than 20 percent over the previous year. Leading industry publications and independent testing and research firms around the world recognized Xerox office products and services for a range of attributes including image quality, performance and technical innovation."
Industry recognition is nice. Selling stuff in the market is better. E paper anyone?
: "The employee-owners of ComDoc Inc. have agreed to sell the distributor of copiers and printers to Global Imaging Systems Inc. of Tampa, a subsidiary of Xerox Corp.
The deal is expected to close by the end of the first quarter. Terms were not disclosed.
Two years ago, ComDoc moved from 42 percent employee-owned to 100 percent. The company, now in Green, was founded in Akron in 1955 as a business equipment sales and service organization by Walter G. Griffith, father-in-law of current Chairman and Chief Executive Riley Lochridge."
Does Global Imaging have a separate P&L? Is it available to look at?
A flip through the job files from our Photo-Lettering archive revealed some original type work on the Xerox logo. Note the sliver of ruby cut to thicken up the “E” a hair.
More graphic design history from the PLINC archive in due time…
read @RochesterTurning.com: "Gee, and I thought dumping 1,300 people in a depressed economy was a pretty big deal. Check out this lede in the D&C
Layoff announcements from Eastman Kodak Co. used to send shockwaves through the community, as nearly everyone had family or neighbors who worked for the film giant.
Thursday’s announcement of 1,300 local layoffs still hurts, but the Rochester area is used to bad news from the company."
"KING OF PRUSSIA, PA/ROCHESTER, NY—Jan. 29, 2009—Armed with two Xerox Corp. iGen4 presses, Conlin’s Digital Print and Copy Center can match customer brand colors quicker and produce higher quality jobs in a shorter period of time. According to the King of Prussia, PA–based print provider, the iGen4 press’ automated color matching is a competitive advantage – by delivering color excellence with less manual effort."
Here's the buried lede:
“Since installing the iGen4 presses, our print operators have cut an hour off the daily setup and maintenance routine, including the time saved with advanced color profiling,” said Bill Conlin, president, Conlin’s Digital Print and Copy Center.
I would have got that in the headline, instead of " Xerox blablabla Success blablabalbla
For me, the cranky viewer, the first paragraph reads:
"KING OF PRUSSIA, PA/ROCHESTER, NY—Jan. 29, 2009—blalblabla. . . . .Conlin’s Digital Print and Copy Center blablablablabala King of Prussia, PA blablablablabla. . . . . . with less manual effort."
"Today, in the online universe of Second Life, the island of Printalution was born. Printalution is an effort of the Graphic Communications community to create a place in Second Life where people can come to learn about the print communications industry.
On the island of Printalution, interested 'Gen Yers' (that's the targeted demographic, at least) can see introductions to the phases of printing, take print training seminars, and communicate with industry experts.
Printalution may even turn out to be a major green resource for the community, as education seminars can now be held in virtual reality rather than resource-intensive brick-and-mortar venues."
Sooner or later it's going to become mainstream that Print is the Next Big Thing.
At any rate, the blog referenced above is HotCards.com. The tag line says, they are the lowest cost full color printer in the Nation.
"One conclusion that Jim offered up was are we 'Driving Our Own Demise'?
Well, come to think of it, we are offering our customers more solutions to print and copy less along with scanning more. Along with that we sell hardware devices that put ink on paper. The manufacturers HP, Canon, Xerox, Ricoh and the rest all survive by planned obsolecense and the need for consumables. How can these manufacturers survive by reducing the amount of pages that are printed and copied every year?
I've heard from a few members in the P4P Hotel in recent days, and we continue to see an increase in the scanning of documents, in some cases users are scanning more than they copy and print. Far be it from me to be the first to start charging for scans, however I think the industry may have to go that way, especially if print and copy volumes continue to drop."
I think you've put your finger on a big deal problem. Imagine Xerox having just invented erasable paper that, as I understand it, eliminates toner and is designed for print once, after about 1 hour (don't quote me) then Print again.
It's not really a surprise that they can't figure out the business model.
My take is that it's going to be about connecting MFP's to a global output network. Print 10 copies here, print 200 copies at the inplant or the commercial printer.
Do you think that might make sense?
By the way here's the description of the blog referenced.
P4PHotel was envisioned as a means to satisfy our “Need for Knowledge” for the Copier Industry. We have developed this site for the Digital Imaging Specialist to share information and to find answers quickly! P4PHotel is a place to store our knowledge, share and make searchable our knowledge, while sharing inspirations, ideas and our passion for our industry.
"Autonomy announced last week that it will acquire Interwoven for 775 M$ in cash.
Very promising synergy between a company providing state-of-the art document and content understanding technologies, and a leader in Electronic Content Management (ECM). This will allow more automatic tagging and content analysis of your documents, directly as they enter your ECM system. Furthermore, this is a very good way for Autonomy to reinforce its position into the exploding eDiscovery space.
This is a synergy that only a few companies can provide today. Xerox very well positioned for this, with its Litigation Services branch, its Docushare ECM solution, possibly combined in the future with some of its unique “meaning extraction” technologies such as Factspotter."
"And the winner is …Where to begin on 2008’s winner? Let’s start with Xerox. First, who cares? Seriously, it’s a depressing story, if anything. One of the great innovative companies of our time which essentially gave all its ideas and intellectual property away and is now a forgotten B2B enterprise with a market cap of $6 billion, right up there with other once-important, has-been companies like Sun, Ford and US Steel."
There's much more at the link, but I'll leave it there. It's not consistent with the rules here, respect and tough love. But it's worth the read. Filter out the tone and read the content. "Has been". . . "forgotten B2B enterprise". I know we can do much better than that.
But we better face the facts in order to fix them. Perceptions, not business plans, drive stock price. Nobody is interested in a "depressing" story. The frustrating part is that Xerox could be way cool. All we have to do is "be everything we can be."
"Xerox has reported a very disappointing fourth quarter, turning in just $1 million in profit.
The company said that restructuring costs, weakness in developing markets and currency fluctuations were responsible for the disappointing quarter, but that overall results for the year were good.
“In the fourth quarter, the continued weakening economy and rapid shift in exchange rates put pressure on the business"
It's nice to see that we don't have the monopoly on "then news."
Xerox has appointed Mark Duffelen, a former top flight rugby player, to the role of director and general manager for office products in the UK.
Duffelen, who retains his responsibility for the Scottish market, joins the Xerox UK board and reports to UK and Ireland managing director, Alan Charnley."
Since the key to successful sales in a google-mart economy is to nurture fans and sell them stuff, this could be a brilliant hire.
"Whether Xerox's most recent move of getting into the global sourcing services game ends up being a successful, transformative strategy or the LCCS equivalent of sticking your derriere on the copy maker and dropping off the resulting pictures to the CFO remains to be seen. I must say, I do find it ironic that Xerox would get into the global sourcing consulting/outsourcing game just as volumes are drying up. Seriously, this move will prove itself out to be really prescient or really dumb based not only on the timing but also on Xerox's ability to understand what delivering services externally like this takes."
"CLEVELAND, OH - blablablabla white paper blablablablabla NineSigma blablablabalbla 'Defining Success in Open Innovation,' blablabalbla measurable, accumulative benefits blablablablablab proactively engaging blablablabal global innovation blablabalbal are innovation leaders blablablablabla Schlumberger, Sealed Air Corporation and Xerox."
Or the way someone at Business Wire wrote in the first place:
"CLEVELAND, OH - A new white paper released today by NineSigma addresses the often debated question of how to define success in open innovation. The white paper, 'Defining Success in Open Innovation,' discusses several measurable, accumulative benefits that companies can achieve from proactively engaging with the global innovation community. Included in the paper are examples from NineSigma's customers that are extracting value from their open innovation initiatives beyond bottom-line benefits. Featured are innovation leaders Schlumberger, Sealed Air Corporation and Xerox."
"Ten of the 13 executives run companies that would broadly be considered from the technology industry."
Ok, at least they put us in the technology industry. But, what does anyone mean by technology. Technology is a tool. Do we make tools? Well. yes we do. but don't a lot of people make tools? Doesn't Home Depot sell a lot of tools?
Check out the headline. "Rescue" is so much more dramatic than crisis management and re investment strategy. And the Journal is supposed to be serving the really smart, thinking people. Give me a break!
Meanwhile from the "news" article following the headline:
blablablabla $819 billion package of blablablablaspending and blablablablaba that the plan is too costly. blablabalblabla Corporate America blablablablabla is desperate blablablablabla slumping sales blablablabla burst of spending from blablablablabla...
blablablablabla the situation is dire," said blablablab blablablabla "incredible fear."
Good smart people, so trapped by their legacy bubble, they use words to "attract" eyeballs. They still can't figure out that it doesn't work any more. But what is the old saw about neurotics? doing the same thing and expecting different results.
So they've decided it's the End of Print. Or the Internet. Or too much debt.
We can do better than this. Most literate college kids could do better than this. In much less time. With a lot less energy. Just forget about eyeballs and concentrate on the telling the story to real people.
"DocuSign, the industry leading provider of on-demand electronic signature and electronic contract execution solutions, today announced its new DocuSign Professional Edition and DocuSign Corporate Edition are available now at www.docusign.com. The new product and support offerings were designed specifically to create a scalable cost-effective on-demand solution for businesses of all sizes to replace the expensive and inefficient process of transporting, signing, tracking, storing contracts and capturing business data."
When it came up in RSS, I thought it was our company. But,as I read through. "Xerox" showed up with HP in
According to Xerox research, businesses print more than 18 trillion pieces of paper each year and HP predicts that by 2010, 53 trillion pages will be printed worldwide.
Buried in the blablabla these folks have the right business model. SaaS functionality. Different price points for different service levels.
Blablabla= scalable, leading provider of blablablaba.scalable cost-effective on-demand solution for businesses of all sizes to blablablablaba the expensive and inefficient process of blablabla. precise management of complex workflows blablablabla.dramatically reduces NIGO (“not in good order”) rates, enables enterprises to complete more blablablabla accelerates the speed of business blablabla Given this tough economic climate, corporations are moving to blablablabla business processes and adopt proven software-as-a-service offerings that deliver immediate business benefits,
I could go on but the post is already too long. At least they didn't say ROI or transpromo or VDP.
"Plunge" is another way to attract eyeballs, I guess. Put it in the column with "meltdown", "bail out". Do a search through newspaper headlines and you'll get most of the others.
1. We are world experts in document management. 2. Our distributed in place network of Igens would allow us to distribute and print, faster, better and cheaper than anoyone else. 3. Our manufacturing partners would have useful timely information in Print to use as promotional material to stay top of mind of their customers at very little expense. 4. It would probably increase the need for toner, supplies and post sale service.
While following how the "news" communication ecology deals with reporting on us, it's become clear that it's a broken system. If they can't get our story straight, how can we reasonably expect that they will be able to communicate the much more complex ever changing story of economic redevelopment in America.
Here's what I mean.
The Fitch Ratings Press Release showed up in my RSS feed at 4:32 today. It took me less than a minute to scan the online document. Then about 30 seconds to find the parts I thought were the crux of the issue. Then another 30 seconds to cut and paste. Then about 5 or 10 minutes to think about what I chose. Then another 10 seconds to post here.
That's the real power of documents. Prepared correctly, a document is the best Search platform ever invented. If the document presents in Print, it's a mass audience. If the document presents on the web, it's a niche audience.
Another function of a document is to enable compare and contrast. You can compare and contrast my view of the world with your view of the world by scanning and searching the full PR release here. And then the AP translation of that document here.
Note how much easier this would be in Print. "Compare and contrast" is how you practice thinking. The rest is skills and character training. That's why readers have to print things out. That's why erasable paper is a game changer. It will enable thinking. That's why when textbooks are reinvented it will be a combination of Print and Kindles.
Anyway, here's what I think is most useful in the Fitch press release.
Ratings strength include: --Significant recurring post-sale revenue from vast and growing base of installed machines;
--Stable cash generating capability;
--Xerox's strong brand name and product portfolio; and
--Solid liquidity and credit metrics, especially core metrics.
Fitch's rating concerns consist of: --The impact of the global weak macroeconomic environment on sales and profitability, especially on equipment sales;
--Increasing write-offs in the financing receivables portfolio due to rising customer bankruptcies;
--Intense competition resulting in consistent equipment pricing pressure, especially in the office segment; and
--Limited organic revenue growth.
A positive rating action could result if --Growth in post sale revenue and profitability more than offsets a decline in equipment sales, allowing for total revenue growth in 2009.
--There is a material improvement in credit metrics, via debt reduction or operating profit improvement.
A negative rating action could result if: --Significant further acceleration in sales and/or profitability declines occurs, especially in post-sale, driven by reduced demand amid the current global economic downturn. Ongoing material declines in post-sale revenue would indicate that the revenue stream is more susceptible to economic factors than previously anticipated.
--Significant deterioration in the quality of the company's financing portfolio resulting in further write-offs and lower FCF.
--Free cash flow trends below Fitch's expectation, due to profitability declines and/or working capital uses, which would weaken the company's liquidity position relative to its ratings.
--A significant debt-financed acquisition outside of current expectations or resumption of share repurchases during the economic downturn.
At 5:32 PM, incoming RSS presented the Forbes posting of the AP story. The AP translated the document and slapped a copyright on the rewrite. As in:
Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed
There are two kinds of news.
One is seeing what is happening in the real world. Then crafting a story about it. The other, our sweet spot, is translating documents to craft the story we want to tell our viewers. I say viewers instead of readers because very few people have the time to read. If you want the longer story on that, I did a post on my other blog. You can find it here.
Public Relations used to be about managing the public discourse or the "news cycle." We all saw how well that worked in the last election cycle. Today, most of what passes for news is rebroadcasting PR releases. Now, that's falling apart. People don't trust the news because they have learned that most of it is recycling "news product" to attract eyeballs. But our problem is NOT to attract eyeballs. Our problem is to get the facts out to investors and customers.
So, until the news industry stops worrying about how the sky is falling, we have an opportunity. With our CEO sitting next to the President we have the best source on the planet for what the economic advisors are thinking. Given the drive for transparency, it should be public information. Because the real problem of America is to get people much smarter, much faster we can do well, by doing good.
Meanwhile, Fitch says they are concerned with questions of organic growth. Fair enough. Our global network of standards based iGen owners is one source of organic growth.. It's not the tech. Sooner or later everyone gets the tech. Now with IBM+Ricoh and Screen entering the long run transpromo in the States (I prefer to call it TransInfo) that's getting pretty crowded.
Our advantage is the deep relationships we have with the people who run the iGens on the ground. The boxes, the common concerns about growing business, the common Xerox standards and languages and maybe the most important, trusted personal relationships, have created the foundations of a huge reserve of global social capital. While the box business is settling down, we can monetize our advantage in social capital with a single minded focus on "distribute and Print".
Back to the news opportunity. To the extent that "news" organization translate documents, we can do it better. To the extent that niche publications in Print delivered to decision makers and opinion leaders has real value, we can do it better. To the extent that our country needs much smarter opinion leaders to guide the public discourse, we can make a significant difference.
The steps: 1.Gather public documents - Congressional hearing transcripts, State and regulatory transcripts, Bills in Progress, Bills Passed etc.
2. Task our PR firm with crafting stories for different niche audiences. Our audience in Dubai or London is not worried about the same things as our audience on Wall Street or Cleveland.
3. Create multiple press ready PDFs. The flat size is 14 by 20. As far as I know, we do the best 14 x 20 on the planet.
4. Move the PDF's through the Cloud to our iGen output network.
5. Get buy in from our partners. First, giving them a timely interesting publication that they can send regularly to prospects and customers.
Second, by showing them how to sell local ads in their locally produced newsletters. They will have an easy path to find new prospects, talk to existing customers and demonstrate the power of timely information about important issues.
The societal benefit is that the Xerox network is well positioned to have a significant effect on making people smarter, faster. Do well, by doing good.
Xerox used to mean Copy. Today, Xerox means Print. Anywhere.
Google it. Find it. Xerox it. Anywhere.
Revision after original post: I just did a post at my other blog, Print In the Communication Ecology, talking about the same thing to a different audience. Added at 9:27 Eastern Time. This is not as hard as it seems. Back in the day at Parsons, in the Pub Center I set up, two professionals + one very good student, organized an international exhibition of 14 x 20 posters in Belgrade in three weeks with art supplied for free from about 30 great designers from all over the globe. The money invested was about $200. It took about 3 weeks from idea to exhibition and got 35 minutes of local television time. You can watch the video on YouTube. Here's the video- stored at YouTube.
Xerox News Network? Xerox TV? It has a pretty good ROI.
"Xerox (XRX) was buffeted this quarter by forex headwinds and by a dramatic decline in revenues from developing markets. Revenues fell 14% in those markets, versus growth of 17% during Q1-308.
The company offers a more nuanced assessment of the BRIC countries on its Q408 conference call: (XRX)
As we look at the BRIC countries, the biggest impact to Xerox would be Brazil and Russia where we have sizeable high growth businesses. India is a relatively small business for us so although conditions there certainly are not great, I wouldn’t say it’s had a dramatic impact overall. As you know China, we only see either the risk or the benefit through our equity relationship with Fuji Xerox."
So if I can get a better insight on what is happening in Brazil from reading the conference call, what exactly is the value add of a newspaper?
So..in addition to Xerox TV on YuTube, how about the Xerox News Network. We can partner with Google. Then Google it. Find it. Print it. Anywhere. And the distribution points are the Xerox Global Output Network.
The education business and the news business are in deep disarray. We have the skill, the social network and the output network to enter those spaces while we're waiting for commercial print to straighten out.
"President Barack Obama sits with Xerox Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Anne Mulcahy, as he meets with business leaders to discuss the economy, Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2009, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS/Charles Dharapak"
I couldn't figure out how to grab the photo, so you'll have to click the link. Anyway, Go Anne! It's a pretty neat picture. Barak in the foreground..with the boss slightly out of focus behind him.
"In the White House's Roosevelt Room Wednesday morning, President Obama met with more than a dozen CEOs of companies ranging from Aetna to Xerox to discuss the economy and the stimulus package being voted upon in the House of Representatives."
Give me a break. Fat cat Ceo's, indeed. Now there's a pretty helpful way to frame the public discourse. Or is it a pretty helpful way to attract eyeballs?
And they wonder why the "news" business model is broken. it must be the internet's fault. (The rest of the story is about as helpful and chock full of info as the lede.)
Dear PR department: Since the news media is so lame, why not get Anne to get together with Eric Schmidt to tell us in real words what happened at the meeting. Then we could even Google it. Find it. Xerox it. Anywhere. and move it to all the commercial printers in our network. They send it out to all there customers.
The only thing this is it has to be done today. It loses about 80% of it's value the day after tmw.It's still ok next week, but the cool factor disappears.
"However, revenues from the sale of colour production presses such as the iGen4 and the 700 were up 4%. I keep looking for PR releases of Igen 4 installs and have only found 1 so far.
I keep scanning for PR releases about Igen4 installs. So far I've seen one in the states and maybe 1 or 2 in Europe. I might have missed some, but . . . So is it the 700 or the Igen4? Meanwhile, nice work at up 4% in this environment.
Post sales revenues were down 8% for the quarter, with supplies, paper and other sales of $850m down 11% year on year.
That's normal for an infrastructure revenue stream. We should probably focus on that to make it faster and easier to sell our infrastructure products.
Xerox Global Services also revealed full year growth of 3%, bringing in $3.5bn in annuity revenues.
Nice top line. But I could never figure out the bottom line on XGS. Maybe it would be cool to give XGS their own P&L?
Orlando, Fla.—Xerox Corp. CEO Anne Mulcahy is optimistic about the prospects for U.S. business innovation despite the current recession.
“There is no more important time for research and innovation investment than now,” Mulcahy told a packed room of marketing executives Tuesday at the American Marketing Association’s M.planet conference here. Mulcahy added that she was hopeful that the new administration’s economic stimulus package would take innovation into account.
“At times like this, success or failure depends on research and innovation,” Mulcahy said. During a previous economic downturn, she noted, Xerox executives considered cutting the company’s research and development funding. Instead, they cut $4 billion from elsewhere in the company’s budget and left R&D intact.
Marketing leadership within an organization also plays a vital role in tough economic times, Mulcahy said. “This is not a time to be quiet and subdued,” she said. “It is time to be bold, and marketing has to have a strong role.”
With all due respect, here's what's wrong with that approach: It's 20th century language for a Google-Mart, Obama defined world. Success or failure does indeed depend on research. But innovation depends on reflective practice in solving real world problems, either now or as close to now as possible.
For example, erasable paper. If the market does what it plausibly might do, E (as in erasable) -paper could change the rules. Sure, right now we are beneficiaries of the old rules. But I'm sure our people can figure out a way around that one.
So why not do a Google or a Wal-Mart. Start a beta, now. Maybe small design studios is a good place to test it out. Then get real people to use it. Then tell everyone about what they figured out. Then keep refining it - not the tech, the business model- until it is ready to scale. Then scale. And reap the benefits of disruptive innovation on the ground.
If someone focuses, I bet this could be done in 6 months.
Or we can keep having focus groups and meetings and . . . .Until some Indian company or a start up in Iowa figures it out, grabs market share in India. Then moves through the Middle East. Then comes to America. Then we buy them, ignore them, or compete with them or pay to partner with them.
Postscript anyone?
As for the $4 billion cut from other parts of the organization and funding research. Great. I assume the new toner farms and the last two years of equipment came from this research. Hats off, to our brilliant engineers and scientists.
But maybe we should consider starting a University and getting a revenue stream and a place to work with the next generation directly. Instead of grants to "institutes of Higher Ed", why not set up Xerox University. Pixar did it many years ago. You can read about why it's such a good strategy here and here and here. Just leave it to Steve Jobs. After all the money he made from PARC, I think it would only be fitting to make alot of money from what Pixar figured out.
Wouldn't it be cool if we didn't have to hunt through design schools to find creatives who get it. And think of all the time our people waste holding hands with folks in "Higher Education." Meanwhile all of our customers are desperate for designers who get it. The design schools don't know how to teach it. How about an employment service for people who buy boxes? We sell them the boxes. And give them access to the talent they need. Plus the smart kids go into printing. Plus our scientists can get the cred of being in a University.
Now that's post sale revenue that just goes on and on. Plus we get paid on the front end by the government! Economic stimulus program, anyone?
After all, education is the best business in America. Given what's going on in Washington it's only going to get bigger. So while, we're figuring out where the print business is going to end up. Let's consider going into the education business. Since we are really smart and don't have the legacy structure to worry about, I'm positive we could do it better, faster, cheaper than most of the players out there. Educate more kids. Support our research.
Maybe we could staff it with some of the baby boomers we have to excess to get our SG&A down to 16+%? Or with our staff who love to teach. And waste their time "educating customers." Take the same budget and educate the future generation directly.
No matter how I look at it, I can't figure out why this wouldn't work.
And marketing?
Very few people still know what we really do. Xerox is still not any where near as cool as it should it, and most of the design community thinks our latest rebrand is lame. If you don't believe me, read here.
So marketing? yes, it would probably be a good idea to get some marketing.
The good news is that our competitors are not much better. But sooner or later someone is going to figure it out.
Sam Zell is reputed to have said something like "You can't take a Pultizer to the bank." Academy Awards however do lead directly to box office the next weekend. That's why entertainment can be a great business. Mostly you lose, sometimes you win big. But at least every day you know how you're doing.
Just curious, how are we doing with the erasable paper? I'm thinking it will be boffo at the box office.
Meanwhile, in Norwalk, Conn, they think we are "a developer and manufacturer of office products and services" They're pretty close by to corporate. Maybe someone should pay them a visit, or at least make a phone call.
From The Advocate in Norwalk Conn. "Xerox Corp., Norwalk-based developer and manufacturer of office products and services, closed last year earning more than 230 industry awards, an increase of more than 20 percent over the previous year. Industry publications and independent testing and research firms around the world recognized Xerox office products and services for attributes including image quality, performance and technical innovation."
Also, Anyone have any reactions to
Yesterday, Xerox=Copy. Today, Xerox=Copy+Scan+Print Google it. Find it. Xerox it. Anywhere.
"'Google is an avalanche and it has only just begun to tumble down the mountain,' Jeff Jarvis writes in a new book called 'What Would Google Do?' that advises pretty much everyone—you, your company, entire industries, and the U.S. government—to study and ape the online juggernaut, or risk getting buried. Jarvis writes like he changes jobs, which is to say rapidly. He has been a TV critic, magazine founder, blogger, investor and professor, and if 'WWGD' occasionally goes into sound-bite overdrive (the phrase 'small is the new big' is used more than a dozen times, among other abuses), the habit can be excused as the tic of a guy who's got a lot to say about the future of technology. He spoke with NEWSWEEK's Nick Summers from Munich, where he is attending a conference in advance of the 2009 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. . . .
Now, if he adds what would Wal Mart do, it would really be helpful.
Smart Business for Everyone So maybe we need to reset the way we think about environmental responsibility. At Xerox (XRX), my job is to meet the needs of our customers and our shareholders. The thing is, what I do at my job and how I do my part for the environment are not mutually exclusive. 'Green' is not a corporate function housed in a separate unit devoted to social responsibility; green solutions and sustainable strategies are smart business—for everyone. The greener we get, the more we can reduce costs and boost efficiency. The more we reduce costs, the more productive a business can become and the better we can weather the maladies of the global business market."
Go team!
Now, if we can fix the transition for our excessed employees and get SG&A down to 16+% and get the erasable paper to the market, we'll be in really great shape when the economy starts turning around.
"We actively do business in more than 100 countries, a number of which are included in the GAO report," said Peter O'Toole, a GE spokesman. "We have great customers in those countries, and so disagree with what we believe is a misinterpretation of the report conclusion.
"Xerox's Web site listed it as having business operations in 160 countries, from factories to distributorships including many of the places the GAO reported as tax havens. . . . The concern for the government is not whether the companies operate businesses, but whether they are crediting income earned in the U.S. to those operations in tax havens, thereby depriving U.S. coffers of tax money connected to those earnings.
There's evidence that some U.S. multinationals are doing that, according to White.
In a separate report published in August 2008, the GAO found "multinationals are in fact shifting income from where they earn it to places with low tax rates." That report was limited to just seeing if it was happening, White said, and not who was doing it.
GE has a quote from a spokesman. We have someone going to our website. Maybe someone should give Rob a call and get in front of this story. Remember, President Obama is putting in place new expectations about transparency and accountability. After years of very hard work, we're mostly on the side of the angels. It would be good to stay there.
TREVOSE, PA – November 10, 2008 - Advertising Specialty Institute, the largest media and marketing organization serving the advertising specialty industry, revealed today in a groundbreaking new study that advertising specialties beat out all forms of TV, radio and print advertising as the most cost-effective advertising medium available.
The comprehensive study was completed by a team of interviewers who surveyed travelers in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Philadelphia*. Respondents were asked if they had received any advertising specialties in the last 12 months and the majority were businesspeople over age 21."
So, put on a QR code that takes their cell phone to a website, and we keep lowering the cost of marketing. Or...we let the viewers download a really cool Xerox pen. We will mail it for free, and get their contact information. Then we give those leads to everybody who touches everybody. We get a metric on the channel - how many downloaded pens, t-shirts, baseball caps. Our sales channels get the contact information, if they cross sell production capabilities of Premier Partners.
Sounds like it would cost pretty close to nothing. We cut the PR and Advertising budgets. We get to refer people to the Xerox Print Anywhere Network. And our SG&A gets closer and closer to 16+%.
The U.S. LEI increased 0.3 percent, The Conference Board Coincident Economic Index (CEI) decreased 0.5 percent and The Conference Board Lagging Economic Index (LAG) decreased 0.4 percent in December."
So I'm betting we're going to get out of this alot faster than most people think. Remember the US mobilization for WWII. We may be a unruly bunch, but once we all get on the same page . . . If I'm right, lots of people are going to need toner and paper.
The last mile is PC to TV. What do you think? My bet is 3rd quarter and then mainstream. Meanwhile, the great "How is Google going to monetize YouTube" question looks like "become a TV network and sell advertising." That seems like a good business model.
If we could sell toner and paper with their cost of sales, it would be a lot easier for me to get a good dividend while we all wait for the "Market" to come back to the real world.
At any rate, how about we do the Xerox YouTube channel and be ahead of the curve? Maybe we could use the channel to sell E-Paper directly from the web. No channels. Very quick. It's a nice way to scale before someone else does. Plus it would probably help drive SG&A down to the WalMart metric of 16+%. Maybe we could hire some recently excessed to manage it or produce the ads. Comp them based on clicks.
Or maybe some of our recently excessed could do it themselves. Or maybe some of the great creatives in our network could do it. Then sell it to us for a gezillion dollars.
read at MediaPost "The NBC/News Corp. Hulu video site will get one of the biggest marketing platforms ever for the Internet video site: this Sunday's Super Bowl to add on NBC.
The company issued a press release announcing the media buy.
Analysts note that the Super Bowl has had a price tag of $3 million for a 30-second spot, although the price tag has dropped in recent days, according to reports."
Completely agree with you. “Education” is a huge sales expense. We have partnered with Kodak to offer their Unified Worklfow as an On-Demand model. We are really pushing with Kodak the idea of SaaS as a POC since education is such a huge expense for sales in any software company
Disruptive innovation usually comes from outside big outfits. Nobody's fault. It's just that in a big outfit job one is to serve existing customers. Outsiders are not shackled with that obligation and don't have a legacy to protect.
But it seems that Centripetal has gotten Kodak's attention. Centripetal has it right.This is the way to scale distribute and print. My bet is that it could evolve into a Cloud based production infrastructure that will feed clicks all over the planet. It would probably be a good idea to buy, partner or grow this functionality for Xerox. Or at minimum make sure it connects with us as seamlessly as it probably will connect with Kodak.
Citi reiterates a 'Buy' on Xerox Corp (NYSE: XRX), lowers price target from $13 to $12.
Citi analyst says, 'While we are reducing 2009 revenue and EPS estimates to reflect unfavorable FX swings, we reiterate our Buy rating based on valuation and strong cash flow. The shares currently trade at just 7X our revised 2009 EPS despite a 15-20% free cash flow yield. Our revised target (down to $12 from $13 previously) suggests 71% upside during the coming year, although these gains are likely to be back-end loaded...On a more positive note, Post-sale revenue (which includes Equipment Rentals, Services, Financing and transactional supplies and paper sales) was flat yoy in constant currency during 4CQ08 excluding the impact of the supplies channel inventory correction. Moreover, mgmt cited stable renewal rates on Equipment Rental and Services contracts.'
Xerox Corporation (Xerox) is a technology and services enterprise."
"technology and services" still doesn't mean anything to real people, but at least it does no harm.
Did anyone else notice that President Obama used YouTube to address the nation on the economic plan? Or that the Republicans posted their response on YouTube? Obama's video got 800,000 hits as of 9:15 am on Monday. Consider what 800,000 viewers would cost through a regular media buy. Consider what a neat metric how many people choose to view a video.
What a nice way to get the information PR needs without paying a cent.
If it's managed correctly, I bet that we can find some of our "excessed" employees to manage this thing from their homes. With a base comp and an upside based on results measured by number of hits.
So...suppose we did this:
1. Find the 5 most creative people at our agency. 2. Get them to do some very cool 2 minute videos about Xerox, Xeroids, PARC, Dubai, Rochester, MFPs, Igens, etc.etc. 3. Create the Xerox channel at YouTube. 4. Then use the deep connections we've made to creatives to get them to do the same thing. 5. Have a contest for college student designers for videos that tell the story that:
Yesterday, Xerox = Copy. Today, Xerox = Print and Scan. Anywhere. as in . . . Google it. Find it. Xerox it. Anywhere.
6. And have everyone upload videos to the Xerox Channel on You Tube.
When PC to TV screen finally gets settled, we'll be ready with a massive library of videos. If they are cool enough, people will watch them for fun. And people will start to understand how really cool we are.
Meanwhile stop trying to fight our greatest brand advantage. Forget about the "registered", "copyright", "do not use this name under penalty of blablabla".
It could save us some money and wasted focus for our lawyers. Plus we could probably pay the 5 most creative ad agency folks a fraction of what the Agency costs. It might be a way to get our SG&A down to 16+%, without having to lose so many valuable people.
Plus in the era of Obama, imagine the free press coverage we would get. PR anyone?
Wonder what the plan is for all the money we've been spending for lawyers? Given that the old idea of protecting the brand through IP and litigation makes no sense in a Google-Mart world, what is the plan for the excess capacity?
Perhaps they would like to lead an employee transition program?
The final touches had been placed on one of the top securities fraud settlements in American history, but there was still one major bone of contention—how much would the plaintiffs’ attorneys receive?
That issue was settled on Jan. 14 by Judge Alvin W. Thompson in the U.S. District Court in Hartford when he awarded $120 million in attorneys’ fees, plus $3.3 million in costs, in Carlson v. Xerox.
The fees and costs are part of a $750 million settlement that Xerox, the Norwalk-based digital printer and document management company, agreed to pay to investors while facing allegations that the. . .
Note to PR: "digital printer" . Somebody should give these people a phone call. Don't bother with an email, they'll ignore it. Or someone could hand deliver a Print document. It will stay on their desk, but I bet they get it right the next time.
Of course you get what you pay for. So consider the source.
1. Design a transition program for Xerox people.
No doubt SG&A has to get down to succeed going forward. Probably WalMart's 16+% is a good target. Many Xeroids are ready to leave to try something else. Figure out ways they can work on line to create value with their deep knowledge and experience of the Company.
2. Cut any advertising or marketing that is not delivering measurable results.
But be very careful what we measure. The sales cycle is long for production equipment so it's going to hard to know exactly what the measure should be. But we have lots of smart people on board. If they are given the time, I'm sure they can do it. But TV broadcast ads on Meet the Press or other Sunday shows? That makes no sense to me.
3. Connect with the real creatives at our advertising agencies and stop paying for Print buys.
If the Print ads are in the service of deepening an ongoing relationship, that makes sense. But anything else is a waste of money. Start a Xerox channel on YouTube. (That's what Google is doing.) Make the videos cool and fun. Stop worrying about talking to organizations in ads. They don't watch ads. They love us any way and are sold by personal relations and the right price. "Nobody ever got fired for buying Xerox."
4. If 70% of our revenue is toner, supplies and post sales, align our investments with that reality.
Make it better, faster and cheaper to buy our paper and toner. Focus on delivering perceived value in return for click charges. If we don't, that's going to go away to box sales that don't have click charges attached.
5. Measure the results of our PR outfit.
Keep doing Google searches of the words that are used in the media to describe Xerox. Get a baseline on the number of "office equipment" or "copy" or the many other silly misconceptions out there. Then figure out the right words. My favorite is "world's largest color print manufacturer with a global reach" or Xerox manages a global information infrastructure with Print outlets all over the planet". I will leave the exact phrase to PR professionals.
Then negotiate a "pay for performance" compensation. As the use of the right words increase, their compensation increases. If not, then not so much.
5. Align the comp of XGS with the rest of the company or spin them off.
If they get comped on toner, supplies and post sale great. If not, give them their own P&L. And give shareholders a piece. They will probably produce better and faster. And the Market won't be so confused about what we do. Worked pretty well for Verizon. Not so much for ATT.
6. Incent the Global Imaging Systems sales channel to refer work to Xerox Print vendors.
While this might lead to some channel conflicts, perhaps a way to get this started is to do a regional division to Xerox Premier Partners. The pitch is "when it's too much to print here, send the work to X." X would still compete on price and service, but the value of the referrals increases the value of the Xerox network. Every MFP should provide an entry point to Xerox production equipment. Another thought is to connect GIS salespeople and Xerox Print vendor salespeople as teams that can cross sell to SMB.
"Before joining Kaye-Smith, Hartley was the Solutions Development Manager in the Advanced Solutions Group at Xerox Corporation, where she was responsible for the workflow and business development strategies for the commercial print marketplace. Prior to that, she was the Product Marketing Manager for North American Agent Operations at Xerox, where she was responsible for all marketing and field deployment activities for the division, including business strategy, marketing communications, sales force and specialist training and integration strategies related to the color digital print business."
I have to believe that with a little help from the Company, most employees would invent a good way to earn a living. Doesn't really need a lot of money. Just some focus.
Plus consider the "brand" building by scattering 3000 Xeroids into the communication ecology. We could probably cut the advertising budget in half. So instead of spending $375 million to excess 3,000 people, we spend $10 million and create our own loyal fan base.
Unless I've read this wrong, it seems we took a $349 million hit in the fourth quarter to save $200 million in 2009. If I understand this correctly, it doesn't make sense.
Without that hit, our profit would have been $350 million for the quarter instead of $1 million. Now that's a story that the "Market" would probably have loved. Maybe the stock price would have gone up, instead of down.
Did anyone consider investing say $10 million to start transition teams for our people? With their deep knowledge and dedication to the company I have to believe there are 100's of potential entrepreneurial possibilities.
Setting up school based education programs or small businesses or mentoring new employees organized into transition teams are just a few top of the mind approaches. If the ideas of these employees were tapped I'm sure new and exciting ways to use our strengths would have emerged.
It seems a waste of valuable social capital. There should be a way to fix this.
"NEW YORK -- Xerox Corp said on Friday it barely eked out a profit in the fourth quarter due to weak sales and US$349-million in restructuring costs, and it forecast first-quarter results below analysts' targets.
The leading provider of digital printers and document management services, whose growth is driven by sales of services and supplies for printing machines, said fourth-quarter net income was US$1-million, or nil per share, down from US$382-million, or 41 cents a share, a year earlier.
Excluding special items, including litigation charges, profit was 32 cents a share, a penny below the average Wall Street forecast, according to Reuters Estimates.
Late last year Xerox (XRX/NYSE) announced a restructuring plan that included about 3,000 job cuts, aimed at saving US$200-million in 2009. In the fourth quarter, restructuring charges were 27 cents a share."
Mail On Sunday. The publisher will buy a Screen Truepress Jet520 on-demand newsprint solution with a dedicated Standard Hunkeler finishing system to be installed at Dayton, NJ-based printer. AlphaGraphics parent company Pindar is based in the U.K.
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