Reinventing Yourself: Lessons Learned from Xerox

From the Wall Street Journal| Feb 7, 2010

The Xerox that Anne Mulcahy inherited in 2001 wasn't in the best
shape. The company was losing hundreds of millions of dollars, and the
price of its stock had fallen into single digits.

Ms. Mulcahy had worked for Xerox for 25 years, and as the new CEO
she didn't want to hurt the company's culture, declare bankruptcy or
cut research and development -- though many advisers pushed for those
things.

Courtesy Alexandra Levit

Alexandra Levit

Instead,
Ms. Mulcahy shut down unprofitable businesses and cut $2.5 billion out
of Xerox's cost structure. She was determined to create an organization
that would march into the 21st century happy with what it could offer
customers and employees. By 2006, Xerox was earning annual profits of
over $1 billion.

Ms. Mulcahy's experience reinventing an iconic company has lessons for individuals reinventing themselves. Here are some:

Build on a Crisis: As author and
organizational behavior expert Jim Collins relates in "How the Mighty
Fall," Ms. Mulcahy drew her against-all-odds survival instincts from
Caroline Alexander's "The Endurance," which chronicles how adventurer
Ernest Shackleton rescued his men in an Antarctic ice storm.

For those who made it through 2009 a little worse for wear, the
first lesson we can learn from reinvented companies like Xerox is that,
in the words of Mr. Collins, "you can fall far and still come back."
The ability to work through a crisis, such as a period of unemployment,
increases your strength and character in the long term. "If we look at
companies such as Procter & Gamble and Johnson & Johnson that
have sustained greatness for a long time, we see that most struggled
through and lived to see the end of the Great Depression," he says.
You, too, should remember that anyone who has worked for a while has
inevitably suffered a variety of setbacks. The lessons you learn today
will likely translate into qualities and experiences you can tout later.

Start With Your Values and Proceed Slowly:
What does Mr. Collins tell organizations that are suffering through an
identity crisis and aren't sure which way to turn? "They first have to
ask themselves what they're truly passionate about, then, how they can
make a contribution, and finally, how they can be the best at what they
do," he says. You, in turn, should ask yourself the same sort of
questions -- what are you good at, what do you love, how can you
improve your skills -- to get a foundation for reinventing a career or
simply taking it up a notch at work.

Mr. Collins's research shows that many companies go bust because
they try to do too much too quickly, and this is a relevant point for
people reinventing themselves. "Just like with companies, an
individual's growth must be disciplined, with a focus on building a
cumulative body of work and gradually improving performance," he says.

Don't Go Overboard: Both companies and individuals should consider whether reinvention needs to be drastic -- in many cases, it does not.

"Best Buy succeeded instead of Circuit City because it revitalized
its core business instead of continuously rolling out new concepts,"
Mr. Collins says. "Re-invigorating your career doesn't always mean
doing something completely new. Look at Beethoven -- should he have
left music to become a painter? No, but a different type of symphony
might have been interesting."

Write to Alexandra Levit at reinvent@wsj.com