It's the infamous, IKON iceberg. Won't this thing EVER melt?
When the MPSA struggled for months to determine the definition of MpS we stumbled and bumbled our way in the dark.
Each of us had different views and perspectives: OEM's, Independent dealers, toner reman's, parts suppliers, consultants, and end users. Oh, and ONE VAR.(Jus sayin)
I was impatient - we needed something NOW and I had a definition ready to go.
My version did not include reference to hardware, but the MPSA had to include 'devices'.
I didn't want the word 'print' but quickly acquiesced agreeing that 'print' allowed the concept to be easily identifiable.
Here is what we, the MPSA came up with:
"Managed print services is the active management and optimization of document output devices and related business processes." - MPSA, July, 2010
"...the act of managing components and processes associated with moving, saving and presenting information in the form of documents..." - DOTC, March, 2010
And here is my current definition of MOS(MpS):
"...the act of managing the optimization of resources and processes associated with information ..." - GRW, 5/9/2011
Why would I be so insistent about leaving 'hardware' out of the equation? I don't want to be pigeon-holed, I don't think real MpS has anything to do with hardware or even PRINT.
Most importantly, I didn't want those who felt like I, to find this weakness and project above the MPSA definition.
This Unprovoked Attack on Me, is an Attack on You.
From my friends at CRN - Computer Reseller News, no less.
I have no idea how I even popped up on their radar, but apparently, I ruffled some back room feathers. I am an easy target, my name is all over my blog, unlike the fictitious "Paige Coverage"; an obvious Xerox marketing creation, and yes, I actually have real pictures of me.
Thank goodness I didn't post pics of my children, for they would have been thrown under the bus with me.
What befuddles me, beyond comprehension, is what nerve have I struck?
Perhaps the Xerox folks I have been working with for the last year, evaluating PagePack and ColorCube as possible offerings here at SIGMAnet, will be able to answer that question.
Perhaps the members from TeamXerox, who I met with last week during a Synnex event, can help me understand why I would consider moving forward, or even recommend anything from Xerox to my executives, prospects, clients, members of the MPSA, or the thousands of DOTC readers.
Read and tread lightly for this isn't just an attack on me. No, this goes deeper. Much.
What Paige/Xerox has done is shown its colors - they don't like, they don't want, dissension.
THEY FEAR CHANGE, THEY FEAR YOU, THEY FEAR US.
Paige is a creation, like the Monkeys and a shill for Xerox. Paige represents the will and vision of the Big X. For all we know, Paige Coverage is Ursala Burns. In the end, Paige is Ursala.
The Summer of 2011 DOTC vs. X - un-fuking believable. Oh the fun we are going to have...
And yes, I know this is all a sham to get more hits on their small, pathetic site - God, I love this country.
Read on...
Greg Walters Leaves a Trail of His Own Ignorance
Posted by Paige Coverage on Jun 21, 2011 11:27:02 AM
When he's not parading past you his music library or posting You Tube videos on his site, Greg Walters hacks out a confounding and scattershot blog called "The Death of The Copier is the Death of MPS."
Presently he's mourning the sad and premature death of E Street Band saxophonist Clarence Clemons, but he'll soon be back to getting his facts wrong, and contradicting himself with his bizarre attempts to frighten you out of a business he himself claims to be successful in: Managed Print Services (MPS).
Like spotting someone you've placed a restraining order on, I was reminded of Greg when a colleague forwarded me this rusting blog of his from December.
In it, Walters rekindles his addiction to managed print defamation by claiming that:
“Just as everyone figures out how to spell MPS, industry pundits kill it. Photizo called heavy growth rates in MPS Engagements through 2015 - of course this was back in the "olden days" - 2009! Last year at Lyra, consultants and statisticians explained that we will never return to the same levels of units (copier) sold, pre-2009.”
Same level of copier units sold? This is not an argument for the death of managed print services.
And Walters – who describes himself as “an MPS Practice Manager at medium-sized west coast VAR/MSP (whose) GP is consistently at 48% - fleet is doubling year to year, my goal is to quadruple in 2011” – should know this.
Managed print services is not about pushing boxes, anymore than managed IT services are about selling more PCs, or virtualization is about selling more servers, or cloud computing is about selling more storage hardware. A managed service is about optimizing existing resources. Sure it’s nice to sell some hardware, and everyone does. But service dollars outdistance hardware and software sales by a country mile, and have so increasingly for years.
Walters’ blog post goes on to feature quotes from those either too unsure of themselves to enter the managed print market, or are under the misconception that “it will make us millions on printer revenue.”
Walters’ opinions are just plain nonsense sprinkled with rock music lyrics, and no reputable technology reseller of any kind would allow this child to speak in front of their employees or customers.
It’s a shame that just as everyone figures out that certain blogs and social media sites can be of benefit to helping the channel drive more revenue through services, irresponsible self-promoters like Greg Walters come along to contaminate the well.
At least - by his own admission - no one is foolish enough to pay Greg Walters to write.
There was a time when the only MPS information one could find, was is supplied by direct marketing firms with content referring to advertising print jobs.
Then, slowly, the trainers got involved, starting to pitch MPS as nothing more than CPC in different garb. Releasing loosely disguised marketing pieces as white papers.
InfoTrends wasn't there.
Gartner, didn't care.
CompTIA was years away from getting in.
There was no PagePack, Twitter or FaceBook
Back then, if you 'googled' Managed Print Services, nothing came back.
But one day, a few returns started to populate the Google alert you set up for "Managed Print Services"(ok, I know I was the first one ever to do this, back in the day)
And somehow, a complete Managed Print Services article appeared. The brainchild of some firm whose name you didn't know how to pronounce.
The 2011 Global MPS Conference is part of history.
I have a unique view of both the evolution of the show and our industry.
It goes a bit like this:
-Year One, 2009: What the hell is this thing called MPS?
-Year Two, 2010: I've made so many mistakes. How in the heck do we make the change?
-Year Three, 2011: Now what? There has got to be more.
So, as a proponent of MPS, as one of the first evangelists. As a fully engaged, MPS Practice Manager.
As a "thought leader", somebody who has spoken at each MPS Conference, sat on panels of experts, queried the titans, investigated every single MPS package, program, and type; as a dangerous, True Believer -
How can I possibly, in good faith, call for the destruction of Managed Print Services?
How?
Well, welcome back my friends to the show that never ends, step inside...
Ed and the gang over at Photizo are going to kill me for the headline, let alone the picture.
Let me explain.
Three years ago few talked about real Managed Print Services - but Photizo was.
Toner re-man guys were saying, "...we've been doing MPS for 25 years..." - this before most defined MPS.
I am not kidding, at ITEX, 2009 one schmoe had the gall to say this to my face, and then try to sell me on remanufactured, color toner cartridges.
Indeed, so many folks tried to define MPS in their likeness, it became really funny to watch. And those doing all the defining had never DONE MPS. But Photizo had The MPS Adoption Model.
Back then, copier guys were simply trying to stay alive - not much has changed today - the OEM's had no clue and the IT sector saw nothing wrong with 2 point printer deals, attached to CarePacks. Okay, so maybe that hasn't changed all that much either.
The 2011 Global MPS Conference is going to be huge - to date, the number of registered matches the number of attendees at the 2009 Conference.
When most charge for the honor of speaking and need to piggy-back with other, failing conferences, how many shows do you know that are experiencing an INCREASE in attendance?
Why paint MPS all black? Why kill MPS after just three short years? Why blacken the Sun?
I've said it before. Change releases fear and fear motivates.
Contrary to what the Imaging Intelligentsia bloviate, we are not witnessing the beginning of the End Managed Print Services - we are seeing the last gasp of "Print Services"(it's the "M" - stupid)
I had, yet another, epiphany the other day while sitting in front of a prospect, reviewing his fleet over my 8-page "Approach Document", poking through the pain, and proposing an MPS S1 Engagement.
I realized that this and every, single, assessment have had one thing in common - overcapacity.
11x17 at 1% of volume; duplex at 4% of volume; fax machines physically next to MFPs with fax capability next to laser printers; 5-year leases; fuser assemblies and toner sitting next to oh so many client's Canon/Xerox/Ricoh/Konica/Copier-De-Jour.
I thought to myself,
"What's going to happen when everybody realizes they don't need a copier?"
Last week I sat in on a Lexmark MPS webinar - the OEM doesn't matter as much as the customer (always) - Columbia.
As a matter of fact, 60 seconds into the show, I felt I wasn't going to make it past five minutes. I mean, I expect to be "pitched" but a read speech? I swear it was pre-recorded. OMG.
Toughing it out, my staying power was rewarded.
Mike Leeper, Global IT, Columbia, presented a frank, honest, and downright refreshing story of his MPS implementation. Two years into a successful MPS Engagement breaking 10 years of status quo.
Now, I am familiar with the DOW Chemical MPS and Nationwide MPS Project, so I have a good framework for comparison. Both DOW and Nationwide are successful, cost-reducing examples.
I won't bore you with the many details except these:
1. Moved decision process out of Facilities
2. Past decision process was very hardware-centric
3. Print Vendors were just like "...used car salespeople..."
4. Printing was considered boring
5. Success hinged on selling internally and continually communicating
6. Network-only devices considered
7. Project reduced costs by 37%
8. Reduced printed output by 1 million images
9. Effectively "killed" all the previous copiers(DOTC) - zero remained
The last two should send chills up the spine of every OEM and induce the booted, incumbent to hurl - through his nose.
MPS engagements like these are the Pure MPS - how can you commoditize this?
But wait, commoditizing is exactly what the manufacturers want - get all this MPS stuff boiled down to the most basic, simplistic, lowest common denominator. Make it easy enough for a monkey or copier rep(jk!)to sell.
Create tools that kill the art of MPS, and stifle creativity and growth by automatically creating proposals and QBR marketing slicks. Just press F7.
Cram MPS into the old, "slay it and move on" sales model. As long as that MPS engagement includes 11x17, an unused duplex, and a fax machine with every copier.
Back to my prospect.
As happens with like-minded folks, conversations travel the spectrum of technical subjects, tangents really. Some would say, tangents get in the way of the close. Yeah, right.
So we talked about the Agile methodology, Google, SaaS, dual-monitors, MPS(reducing output), CIOtalkRadio.com, and the new control end-users share via social networking.
How, today, the ultimate buyer has more choices and how everybody is collaborating. I told him MPS really expanded around the world because of the new social media - the buzz started online.
I expressed my belief that finally, in my little world of copiers/output devices, the shift from Supply (copier OEM) to Demand-driven(ultimate end-user)is taking place.
The party may not be over but fewer and fewer will be attending...
I think he was being polite when he agreed with me.
Either way, we decided to move forward with an MPS S1 Engagement.
So, now that I have a close, I guess I should strike out and "slay" another one, right?
I stopped in at the Lyra Symposium last week, in Palm Springs: The Road to Recovery.
The year is what it is so far, my schedule has been filled with activities associated with what I call, my "day job".
So, I was able to catch just one day, the day with all the MPS data and presentations.
I was present for 8 hours and can safely say, there were no copier reps in attendance; if by copier reps I mean folks who would be on the phone closing a single copier deal between sessions, which I do, there were none.
I also believe the majority of attendees may have sold face-to-face in the past, just not in the past 24 hours.
Be that as it may, the data presented by Lyra is priceless.
Especially to we who sell, we in the thick, in the smoke, in the fire.
I am not advocating every Selling Professional attend this and other symposiums, but, I do recommend getting synopsis or any other information you can, from your manufacturer rep or your sales manager (yeah, right, sure...). Why?
Information is King in your personal, and professional development. Your "personal, professional development" might get lip service from management - but it is just that, lip service. When the chips are down, you tell me who gets the ax.
The more you know, the more you can see where your dealership/management is falling down and the easier it is to chart your own course.
My top five Value-Adds from Lyra- 2010:
Historical data mined from their extensive database of devices, monitored by PrintFleet, is presented in spaghetti graphs.
Detailed analysis of each copier and printer manufacturer's financial standing and projections.
Unrivaled views of our industry, where it was, where it is, and where it might end up.
Current reflections and projections around the economic free-fall and the Day After.
And of course, especially this year, Managed Print Services and the "experts" who extol the virtues of MPS.
--------------- The Number One piece of information, significant to me, personally -
The recession has bottomed out, but we will not get to pre-recession placement levels.
As a matter of fact, according to Steve and Lyra, we will be losing 2 million units in placement - they will never come back.
It's like 2 million copiers just died.
Huh. If only somebody had seen this coming and publicized his views somewhere easily accessible to others...that person could come up with a snappy title like, "Your industry is Dying"...or something...
IT IS THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT. - again.
Second, to MPS, the next big subject was the economy and the Road to Recovery.
The Industry -
In a nutshell, the industry leaders all sucked wind, some more than others, but still, they all ate it, in 2009. An occasional silver lining here and there, accounting trickery, but no surprises.
Steve Reynolds' presentation started by defining the Cyclical vs Secular effect of a recession:
Cyclical, meaning a temporary sharp drop followed by a sharp recovery
Secular, meaning the recession causes a permanent and fundamental change in behavior
I have seen for a year now, the economy changing the fundamental way businesses do business. Especially when relating to printing and documents - this is SECULAR.
To quote Steve, "...once enterprises have discovered and implemented more cost-effective processes with less or no printing, they will not go back..."
Indeed, monochrome laser printers, MFP, and color printer shipments will be flat through 2013. The only bright spot is color MFP with a moderate increase(approx. 250,000 units) between 2010 and 2013.
And if that isn't bad enough, Steve expects a price war to erupt.
You see, as the recession is declared "over", customers will creep back into the market with caution. Hungry vendors will be pressured into getting their share of the new demand.
The feeble and hungry will drop prices to move the product, the last gasp.
The strong and carnivorous will lower prices to kill the remaining, weaker players. It's a Japanese model practiced and perfected by Wal*Mart.
Imagine HP reducing their MFP pricing AND toner by 50%. An M9050 for 5k and $40.00 toner? Real, HP toner? Where's your MPS savior now, third-party toner guy?
Vector this with Photizo's and others' belief of a 50% failure rate, in the BTA channel, by those who have not embraced MPS we have ourselves an honest-to-goodness Perfect Storm.
Your customers are or already have realized they DON'T NEED AS MANY devices and that they don't need to stock thousands' worth of toner in closets.
Why? Because the recession made them look for areas of cost reduction, and the constraints of the last 4 quarters, forced all of us to do with less.
For example, did you lose customers because they couldn't get HP CM6040s even though they gave you a PO last August?
No, you, the VAR/Dealer didn't lose customers. You helped your client get through "these trying times" by encouraging patience and utilizing their existing systems.
Or maybe you helped your client extend his lease on a month-to-month basis. Copier still works?
We in the field didn't lose customers - HP and the industry, lost placements, lost "clicks" and lost face.
Managed Print Services -
Managed Print Services was all the rage.
Both Ricoh and HP talked about MPS, albeit from the Enterprise level. Well, to be fair, Tom Codd's (HP) presentation included one slide dedicated to HP's commitment to driving MPS expertise into the Channel - through Synnex, et el.
Another slide depicting HP's product lineup, in order to show the Canon relationship as a good fit, DID NOT SHOW EDGELINE.
Edgeline? What? Never heard of it...next?
Twice, the name "MPS" was assaulted as not adequate - especially the "P". The phrase "Business Process Outsourcing" was bantered about a couple of times.
It was felt that the current MPS ROI is immediate, but where does one go from there?
"One-word kid..." Software, the future is in software.
Yup, the Third Stage of MPS is, Enhance the Business Process. We barely get people into the 1st and 2nd stages and already stage 3 is upon us. Really? No, really? Business Process Optimization/Outsource?
Are we to expect a channel that still thinks color and duplexing are value prop's possess the wear with all to talk software and "business process"?
And SELL this? For Greenbacks? (which is just as good as money)
Right.
When a member of the audience asked, "...how do we motivate a copier salesperson to sell software?" the collective response was, are you ready for this, "...increase the commissions on software until you modify the salesperson's behavior..."
I nearly upchucked in my lap, right then and there. And I was a bit insulted. If I was holding a watered-down drink in my hand, I would have thrown it in their faces.
Is this all they, these experts, think to motivate the Selling Professional? A few more duckets?
We are truly doomed.
My summary:
MPS is now being swung around by the big players, the definition is being molded in their likeness and most of the data and "play" presented is a product of and pertains to, "Enterprise" level engagements. One exception that I can see, is Xerox. X seems to be working 'on'(instead of with) their channel, time will tell.
The economy is in a rebound, but our industry will never be the same. More ships will merge or sink, and more dealers will jump into MPS, listen to old skool consultants, run it as a Marketing Campaign and fail. Managed Print Services is a Secular change for dealers; it is not "just like when color came out..."
More MPS Professionals will end up working at OfficeMax, Staples, or RiKON. ------------------- Click to email me.
Within the MPS Ecosystem, the struggle is moving between back-room infrastructure and field-level acumen.
Just like everything else the "experts" attempt to do, we selling professionals, are being classified; boxed in, and commoditized.
The questions now are, "What type of person do I need to employ as an MPS Sales Executive?"
"How many appointments should my team generate to reach a close?"
"What is a good monthly revenue/sales/profit number an MPS rep should hit?"
It is apparent that the "copier mentality" is only a fraction of what is needed to bring home MPS Engagements. That is of course unless you simply start defining your CPC agreements as MPS Engagements. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot!
And by the way, if your manager/owner/principal is plugging MPS Assessments into your "normal" copier funnel, you know, "15 face to face meetings per week, 5 Demos, 3 MPS Assessments, 1.5 closes per week", you are far, far removed from an MPS Practice.
Managed Print Services is not a bolt-on marketing scheme.
So, does MPS need Hunters or does MPS need Farmers?
The answer is Both - The answer is Neither.
We need Professionals who can do both; who can do it all. "Hunter" - Find it, Kill it, move on. "Farmer" - Move in after the kill, bury it, water it, reap.
It may be just me but I tend to think of selling "farmers" akin to vegetarians. And as you know, another name for a vegetarian is a "hunter with bad aim..."
I don't care what anybody says, real MPS is different - it is a Hybrid process, Hybrid product, Hybrid service, Hybrid business model. How can we expect the same old selling models and formulas to prevail?
How can anyone presume to tell Selling Professionals how to go about selling MPS(Hybrid), if those selling professionals are not Hybrid themselves?
What? Huh? Am I saying that there is MORE to selling than PROCESS?
Am I?
Goodness gracious, great balls of fire! Should I feel a slight agitation around my neck? Like John had when Herod came by, ready to fulfill Solome's wish? (don't get it? Go here)
Yeah - sure, sales is more than process, tell that to HP/Xerox - I often wonder how the enterprise clients feel, knowing they are part of a "process". Perhaps they feel like Velveeta?
There are, without fail, little flecks of hope, sparkling in the distance whenever I hear somebody say they are looking to hire folks from outside the industry. People with Insurance or market/advertising sales experience - not a bad start, I understand the premise. But there are challenges here as well.
Any ex-AFLAC agent is going to absolutely Laugh Out Loud when his MPS compensation plan doesn't have monthly residuals for life. The insurance industry invented that model for crying out loud.
And you are going to tell them that after developing a relationship he gets a one-time hit, a pat on the back, and a kick in the buttocks? Really? And this fresh, new, vibrant talent is going to break down your door, demanding a MPS selling position because why?
HA! But encouraging... This is my thought; don't let "them" define you. Try, endeavor, toil against the meat grinder. And the best way to do this is to improve yourself, for yourself not your boss.
Does this mean attending company paid, useless, painful, Death-by-Powerpoint, speeds and feeds sales training classes?
Yes.
Does this mean picking up a book, if they still print them, about the latest, rehashed from the 80s, business strategies?
Yes.
Does this mean making every, single plant tour or walk-thru a field trip, learning not only how many output devices exist, but also how they run their business?
Yes.
Does this mean that everything you see and experience is yours, not your bosses, and improves you as a Selling Professional?
Yes.
Does this mean that one, tiny atom in my fingernail could be one little...tiny universe?
Here's a message for all of us in the trenches, trying to sell MPS against ALL COMPETITION, including internal competition: The MPS Ecosystem is wide open for excited, daring, bold Selling Professionals - we work for the person in the mirror, not the one scrolling through the Monday morning sales meeting slide deck.
Don't think of yourself as either a "Farmer" or a "Hunter". Be both, Be better, be more.
One step closer to the Death of the Copier - "Magic Fabric"
The Propeller-Heads at M.I.T. are perfecting an "optical fabric" that can be used to "gather and image".
These professors have created a polymer fiber that can detect the angle, intensity, phase, and wavelength of light hitting it, information that can be used to re-create a picture of an object without a lens.
Without A Lens.
Digital or analogue. A4 or A3. Copier, Fax, MFP, MFD, Mopier, plotter, scanner, Edgeline or ColorCube - they ALL HAVE A LENS.
When we remove the lens, we kill the copy part of a copier - or do we?
In an unpredictable and amusing way, HP's announcement today regarding the Printing Payback Guarantee, triggered negative reaction from the PIA.
You will remember the PIA is the Printing Industries of America.
They bill themselves as "...the world's largest graphic arts trade association..." and today chastised HP for leaving it's core business to start printing greeting cards.
Hang on, this is going to be fun...
From the PIA Press release...
"...It is with disappointment, therefore, that Printing Industries of America learned of HP's latest offering -- managed print services, which was advertised with great fanfare in this morning's Wall Street Journal. "We are always concerned when a major vendor in our industry deviates from its core offerings to venture into managing print solutions, which the private sector has competitively provided for hundreds of years," notes Michael Makin, President and CEO of Printing Industries of America..."
Go ahead, read it again...
HP is deviating from "its core offerings to venture into managing print solutions..."?
Whiskey...Tango...Foxtrot!
LOL! The PIA are the folks printing your wedding invitations, posters, handbooks,etc.
What is your definition of Managed Print Services?
I am pretty sure it is not online customer job tickets, soft proofing of files on line, job status, retrieval of jobs and files, instant notification of job arrivals and proof approvals, and a product catalog.
Wait. It might not now be, but maybe it SHOULD be someday---? I was in absolute shock - stunned actually.
I didn't understand when murmurings appeared on Twitter about "PIA's negative reaction to HP's announcement" - who the heck is PIA?
Did Ben kill a fly during the press conference?
How could anyone respond negatively to a simple guarantee?
Alias, a PR was issued, and the third ugly head of ignorance around the definition of Managed Print Services spewed forth.
I doubt very much that my comment will be posted on their board - I have been accused of sometimes being "blunt".
The PR is here. Go now, enjoy. My comment, that will never see the light of day, or smell the sweet scent of ink, is below:
OMG!
There is no way an organization that has been around for "100 years" can be so stupid...right?
"HP...Compromising their position..."
LOL! Bufoons!
I would urge all PIA members to re-evaluate their membership if this is the kind of direction the PIA leadership hands down.
Stunning...absolutely stunning...
You could have at least Googled "Managed Print Services" - even on dial-up the correct information could have saved you this embarrassment.
From the book, How the Mighty Fall and Why Some Companies Never Give In By Jim Collins.
On the Business Week site, excerpts from the new book, talk about the five warning signs of impending, corporate doom, the "Five Stages of Decline". How to recognize them and what to do when you do.
As an example, the first sign "STAGE 1: HUBRIS BORN OF SUCCESS", can be applied to everyone from AIG, the failed dot.coms, automotive union leaders, and all the way back to manufacturers of buggy whips.
I found his reflection on Xerox and Churchill poignant beyond the five indicators. Enjoy.
"...When Anne Mulcahy became chief executive of Xerox (XRX) in 2001, she inherited a company mired in Stage 4. With Xerox's debt-to-equity ratio above 900%, Moody's (MCO) rated its bonds as junk. With $19 billion in debt and only $100 million in cash, Mulcahy described the situation as "terrifying."
Mulcahy had never planned or expected to become CEO, describing her ascension as a total surprise. The consummate insider, she'd worked for nearly a quarter-century at Xerox, never drawing outside attention. For Mulcahy, it was all about Xerox, not about her. In fact, we found only four feature articles about Mulcahy during her first three years as CEO, a surprisingly small number given how few women become CEOs of storied companies.
Some observers questioned whether this insider, this unknown team player who had Xerox DNA baked into her chromosomes, would have the ferocious will needed to save the company.
They needn't have worried.
Their first clue might have come from reading her favorite book, Caroline Alexander's The Endurance, which chronicles how, against all odds, adventurer Ernest Shackleton rescued his men after their ship splintered into thousands of pieces as Antarctic ice crushed in around it in 1916. Drawing inspiration from Shackleton, Mulcahy didn't take a weekend off for two years. She shut down a number of businesses, including the inkjet-printer unit she'd championed earlier in her career, and cut $2.5 billion out of Xerox's cost structure.
Not that she found these decisions easy— "I don't think I want them to get easy," she later reflected—but they were necessary to stave off utter catastrophe. During its darkest days, Xerox faced the very real threat of bankruptcy, yet Mulcahy rebuffed with steely silence her advisers' repeated suggestions that she consider Chapter 11. She also held fast against a torrent of advice from outsiders to cut research and development to save the company, noting that a return to greatness depended on both tough cost-cutting and long-term investment. She actually increased R&D as a percentage of sales during that bleak period.
For 2000 and 2001, Xerox posted a total of nearly $367 million in losses. By 2006, Xerox posted profits in excess of $1 billion and sported a much stronger balance sheet. And in 2008, Chief Executive magazine selected Mulcahy as CEO of the Year. At the time of this writing in 2008, Xerox's transition has been going strong for seven years—no guarantee, of course, that it will continue to climb, but an impressive recovery from the early 2000s..." -------
So as you can see, the author has a firm understanding of historical, Xerox recovery - and he uses Bank of America as a blaring example of the Five Indicators of Doom - if we drop all the names, all the big companies, we can apply these Five Indicators to our individual situations.
In sales, the Hubris from Success, can bring the "best" down.
Striking a chord, the author reflects that "failure is a state of mind". Meaning, failure is not total until you refuse to get up again.
Another excerpt, inspired by Winston Churchill:
"...Never give in. Be willing to kill failed business ideas, even to shutter big operations you've been in for a long time, but never give up on the idea of building a great company. Be willing to evolve into an entirely different portfolio of activities, even to the point of zero overlap with what you do today, but never give up on the principles that define your culture. Be willing to embrace loss, to endure pain, to temporarily lose freedoms, but never give up faith in your ability to prevail. Be willing to form alliances with former adversaries, to accept necessary compromise, but never—ever—give up on your core values.
The path out of darkness begins with those exasperatingly persistent individuals who are constitutionally incapable of capitulation. It's one thing to suffer a staggering defeat—as will likely happen to every enduring business and social enterprise at some point in its history—and entirely another to give up on the values and aspirations that make the protracted struggle worthwhile.
Failure is not so much a physical state as a state of mind; success is falling down—and getting up one more time—without end..." ------
This phrase: "...Be willing to kill failed business ideas, even to shutter big operations you've been in for a long time, but never give up on the idea of building a great company..." rings bold, harsh and reminds me of HP.
Remember, Xerox once sold workstations and invented the mouse.
Copiers, printers, Blades, paper, toner, MPS, PM, managed services, paperclips - if you sell, keep selling, sell today, sell in a recession, sell in a depression, sell even though the gov't takes half, never stop.
You sell. You don't run from history.
You make it.
It's tough out here - but here we are.
Thing is, it can always be worse -
Superbowl, 2002. Just months after 911.
The nation was in mourning - we needed something to get ourselves back up. Soldiers were cool again.
Do you remember the Empty Sky's of 9-12? That was scary.
Superbowl, for us, represented something more than a football game - it meant we were still here, the US, we Americans were still standing.
Still here to do what we Americans do: watch football, buy music, dance in the frickin streets, flaunt those who hate us, those who would kill us, and to sell.
We were celebrating life while remembering those who went before us.
It took a few crazy Muslims to tear down the towers.
But a rock band from Ireland, it's lead crooner sporting goofy blue shades, helped us remember who we are and helped us tell the world, we weren't going anywhere.
Let the cube rats play in the dark. Let the sales managers who have forgotten their passion and left their soul somewhere in the corporate cafeteria, try to keep score.
Keep going, no matter who, no matter what gets in your way - don't let them win.
Not the congressmen we elect, not the fat, lazy, bureaucrats, not your covetous neighbors, not the terrorists or that overly pompous PA can keep you down. You know the score.
It can all end tomorrow, for them it will be a period at the end of an empty life.
For us, we who make things out of nothing, we will be complete.
