Xerox Case Analysis
Dear Fred,
One and one-half (1 ½) years after joining Xerox, you achieved your primary short-term goal of becoming senior staff within five (5) years. Confronted with the current organizational restructuring in this your 6th year, you must intelligently navigate the political landscape to maintain the considerable power and influence you have acquired in order to achieve your ultimate goal of becoming a corporate officer and board member. The crossroads of the situation presented to you by Fred Hewitt has challenged the momentum of your meteoric rise at Xerox. I have examined your current situation, identified the keys to your power and spheres of your influence, and made the appropriate recommendation.
Entering an area of high uncertainty, you identified the MDC as a group that could cope with organizational uncertainty in logistics of the Xerox supply chain. Preserving Xerox’s financial resources proved most fundamental to your success. This strategy allowed you to create interdepartmental dependency, which led to the MDC becoming a non-substitutable part of the operating budgets of many departments. At a time when other departments were cutting back, you allocated greater resources at the MDC, which broadened your influence within the organization. The centrality of the MDC, along with its objective to achieve corporate inventory optimization, allowed you to satisfy strategic contingencies and increase Xerox’s ROA (a directive of Mr. Kearns).
With these successes, you gained additional formal authority, and a track record of expertise. Your diligent approach to creating a network of alliances, evidenced by dining with Tom Gunning and wooing the Multinational Steering Committee, built loyalty and goodwill, which have allowed you to be the benefactor of reciprocity. When the situation dictated it, you twice made direct appeals and politically bargained to maintain or enhance your power base, evidenced most recently when you influenced Frank
One and one-half (1 ½) years after joining Xerox, you achieved your primary short-term goal of becoming senior staff within five (5) years. Confronted with the current organizational restructuring in this your 6th year, you must intelligently navigate the political landscape to maintain the considerable power and influence you have acquired in order to achieve your ultimate goal of becoming a corporate officer and board member. The crossroads of the situation presented to you by Fred Hewitt has challenged the momentum of your meteoric rise at Xerox. I have examined your current situation, identified the keys to your power and spheres of your influence, and made the appropriate recommendation.
Entering an area of high uncertainty, you identified the MDC as a group that could cope with organizational uncertainty in logistics of the Xerox supply chain. Preserving Xerox’s financial resources proved most fundamental to your success. This strategy allowed you to create interdepartmental dependency, which led to the MDC becoming a non-substitutable part of the operating budgets of many departments. At a time when other departments were cutting back, you allocated greater resources at the MDC, which broadened your influence within the organization. The centrality of the MDC, along with its objective to achieve corporate inventory optimization, allowed you to satisfy strategic contingencies and increase Xerox’s ROA (a directive of Mr. Kearns).
With these successes, you gained additional formal authority, and a track record of expertise. Your diligent approach to creating a network of alliances, evidenced by dining with Tom Gunning and wooing the Multinational Steering Committee, built loyalty and goodwill, which have allowed you to be the benefactor of reciprocity. When the situation dictated it, you twice made direct appeals and politically bargained to maintain or enhance your power base, evidenced most recently when you influenced Frank