Interviews with Digital Media Thought Leaders
When Xerox Stock Was Like Apple’s
Podcast Audio | Posted by Phil Leigh on June 14, 2007
At one time Xerox stock captured the fascination of investors much like Apple’s has in recent years. That’s because the placements of Xerox copiers regularly beat the expectations of stock analysts covering Xerox, as did copier usage. For years, the amplified effect of those two factors on bottom line earnings growth was the envy of nearly every other public company. If you would like to learn how the Xerox of an earlier era did it, this interview is for you.
Our guest today is Charley Ellis who is the author of Joe Wilson and the Creation of Xerox.
Joe Wilson would likely be the first to admit that many contributed to the creation of Xerox. But he was the glue that held everyone together. Without Wilson, adoption of the technology might have been delayed by decades. Computer printers would have remained impact devices for decades longer. The laser printer might not have seen the light of day until recently.
The story has so many remarkable facets that if it were a work of fiction readers might criticize the plot for being too fantastic and contrived.
First, in the late 1960s Forbes Magazine incorrectly listed Chester Carlson, who was the inventor of Xerography, as one of the richest men in America. He wrote the magazine informing them that they ranked him too high on their “wealthy Americans” list because he had anonymously donated two-thirds of his fortune away in earlier years.
His mother died when he was only a teen, and his father had tuberculosis. Chester had to work for a living as an adolescent while he and his dad lived in a house with a concrete floor. Despite this, he somehow graduated from Cal Tech during the Great Depression.
Second, when Wilson’s company was looking for funding he sought financial partnerships with all the important office equipment companies in the United States, but every one turned him down.
Third, IBM declined to partner with Xerox in the formative years. They hired Arthur D. Little to do a nearly year-long study of the product potential which concluded that the market size was too small. Later, after Xerox was an obvious success, IBM told Wilson that it should be granted an exclusive license to compete so that Xerox would not run afoul of antitrust regulations.
Fourth, during an era when the company was a shinning success, Wilson’s publicity-hungry lawyer permitted Life Magazine to prominently feature a story implying he (the lawyer) was the “man behind Xerox”. While this infuriated his wife, Wilson seems to have been largely silent.
Fifth, Xerography was invented during the Great Depression, in an era when businesses were risk averse. It was brought to commercial success by a lab in Columbus, Ohio and a modest company in upstate New York. While the cities were far from being technological backwaters, neither were they the leading centers.
Length: This audio interview is about 21 minutes long.
Categories: Podcast Audio
Tags: copying, duplicating, electrostatic imaging, imaging, inkjet printers, laser printers, printing, xerox
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