costs, asset dispositions that are expected to raise $2-$4 billion, with the goal of strengthening the company’s strategic core. Commenting on research and technology Paul Alliare commented on the intent to “secure partners for PARC and the commercialise other non-core technologies. Also the company will re-allocate R&D investment in 2 directions to underpin the company’s growth opportunities – Programs to develop value-added solutions supporting the high-end businessPrograms to extend the company’s colour capabilities Managing InnovationXerox has always been good at encouraging innovation and invention. They have created the research centres such as PARC, which is known in the industry as being a virtual breeding ground for new and innovative ideas. But Xerox has suffered from some of their attempts to be innovative in their approach to business strategy. In 1997 they appointed Rick Thoman as CEO. Thoman formally of IBM was charged with trying to bring the organisation into the new digital age. He set about positioning Xerox as a resource to manage all of a company’s documents, electronic or otherwise. This strategy was seen as a sensible one by experts but the way he set about doing it was where he ran into trouble. He wanted the sales team to be a one-stop information point for customers for all the company’s products. However he set about doing this without training the sales force and this was his downfall. The sales force was unhappy and the customers were also. Xerox has become famous for inventions, which they have not capitalised on, and in so doing they have let others bring them to the market and gain any success that was forthcoming. Xerox for instance had through one of their divisions had invented a technology which allowed field technicians to share troubleshooting tips in the field. This technology, which was known as Eureka was to be turned into a commercial product tailored fo...
