Word: xeroxers
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Less than a decade ago, Xerox was in serious trouble. The company whose name is synonymous with copying machines was steadily losing customers. As Japan's Ricoh, Canon and other new competitors muscled onto Xerox's turf, the company slumped from an 86% share of the world market for basic copiers in 1974 to just 16.6% by 1984. When a shaken Xerox finally studied its competitors more closely, the company discovered their secret weapon: the Japanese firms hewed to rigorous quality standards. Taking a hard-eyed look at its operations, Xerox discovered that it was slowly destroying itself with sloppiness...
...Xerox Chairman David Kearns took a lesson from his adversaries and in 1983 launched an all-out campaign for quality. Appealing to the firm's 100,000 workers, the company formed employee teams to encourage shop-floor innovation and cooperative problem solving. Xerox set tough new standards for every phase of its operations, from design and production to inventory management and sales. The results: manufacturing costs and product defects were cut in half, customer satisfaction increased 38%, and Xerox recaptured the lead in moderately priced copiers. Says Kearns: "At Xerox we define quality as meeting customer requirements...
...producers have the right idea in trying to modernize the atmosphere of the movies. Even classics like From Russia With Love seem a little dated these days. No one would expect the Bond of today to be a Xerox copy of the one from 20 years ago. Licence to Kill seems to be an effort to combine the staples of the old Bond--girls and gadgets--with a modern twist, a new type of hero and a new type of enemy...
When "Dug"--the name Ari wrote in his notepad for the xerox store proprietor--suggested building higher smokestacks to alleviate the problem of acid rain, Ari knew exactly what he meant. "That way the pollution would go into outer space." But then the potential side effects began to disturb Ari. "It would pollute the Martians...
Today Fred has made it to a better life. He graduated from Georgetown with a sociology degree in 1984. While working for Xerox as a marketing representative, he became active in real estate investment, calling upon several of his sports contacts. He is now taking courses at Georgetown law school. "On paper, I guess I'm a millionaire," he says...