MT5012 2013-02-21

Xerox Case Study

Q1. What kind of strategic planning process (bottom-up or top-down) did Xerox follow for its turnaround? What interference can you make about the effectiveness of this approach?

I would recognize Xerox’s strategic planning process as a top-down one, considering a lot of emphasis in the case is put on the major change achieved by the CEO Mulcahy. This could indicate that many of the ideas regarding cutting costs and regaining growth descended from one person, or a limited number of people at least. And by only including top-management in an overall strategy decision-making could then be defined as a top-down approach. More, I think it is reasonable to believe that Mulcahy’s swift initial action
It was important to indicate a new CEO in the company with limited the box. Seeing that Mulcahy’s board of directors recognizes the

2. The marketing campaign in 2002 that put Xerox back on the map. It gave Xerox necessary momentum in its sales, which allowed them financially to increase marketing expenditures. This in turn has lead to several successful marketing campaigns.

3. Continuous R&D to stay in the forefront, with help and ideas from customers. Xerox had a reputation of being innovative, and it was important to have something special to stand out with during the turnaround since new actors had entered the market.

Q4. What specific steps did Xerox take to restore its brand equity?
Significant cost reduction, which made it possible to do a fresh restart.
Advertisements, highlighting achieved benefits for companies like InterContinental Hotels Group.
Maintain being a company focusing on R&D, e.g. going for color printing relatively early and providing a significantly broad product range.

Q5. Does Xerox have a foundation for competitive advantage? Why or why not?

Xerox is synonymous with copy printing in several countries, but that is not fully beneficial all the time. If the brand name would be considered to be a generic noun or verb, Xerox risk losing the trademark. But, this had lead to that even though Xerox does not offer any consumer products; its brand awareness is remarkably high among them. And since it ultimately