Abstract

An assessment report of 51 recommendations has driven recent improvement efforts at Xerox. The recommendations emerged from the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award process. Xerox won the Award in 1989. The recommendations have led, for example, to a greater focus on employee empowerment. Whereas Xerox priority No. 1 remains customer satisfaction, a new priority No. 2 is: motivation and satisfaction of its people. Winning the Baldrige Award also has brought improvements in the Xerox total satisfaction guarantee, which covers customer purchases for three years. Another initiative is Xerox 2000, a long-range planning process that helped position Xerox as the document company. The planning also has brought a restructuring of the corporation into five business groups (channels, document services, office products, production systems, and supplies) and realignment of field support into customer business units. Restructuring required broader skills for managers, and so a framework of 23 leadership attitudes supports annual planning processes. To maintain its focus on quality, Xerox has developed a management model that includes 31 elements in six categories. For example, an element on managing for results in the leadership category is the basis for annual self-assessments by the corporation's organizations. The assessments are supported by outside validation and internal information sharing.