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Haloid spent years refining Carlson’s invention. The key challenge was finding a better light-sensitive material; the solution was , which could hold an electrostatic charge and dissipate it when exposed to light. To brand this new process, Haloid coined the term "xerography" – from the Greek words xeros (dry) and graphein (writing). In 1949, they launched the first crude xerographic copier, Model A , but it was manual and messy.
I. The Birth of an Icon (1906–1959) The story of Xerox begins not with copying, but with photographic paper. In 1906, The Haloid Photographic Company was founded in Rochester, New York, manufacturing photographic paper and equipment. For decades, it was a small, regional player in the shadow of Eastman Kodak. xerox wikipédia
The brand name "Xerox" remains one of the most famous in the world, a genericized trademark like "Kleenex" or "Google." But the company is now a mid-tier technology services and printing firm, a resilient survivor rather than a world-beater. It serves as a powerful, cautionary ghost at the feast of every successful technology company: Are you building the future, or are you building a better buggy whip for the present? Haloid spent years refining Carlson’s invention
However, this pivot left the original hardware business weakened. The rise of the "paperless office" – ironically enabled by the scanning and digital workflow technologies Xerox had helped create – steadily eroded the demand for printing and copying. In 1949, they launched the first crude xerographic
Under CEO (1982-1990), Xerox launched a legendary turnaround. He introduced Leadership Through Quality – a company-wide total quality management (TQM) program. He also pioneered benchmarking – systematically comparing your products and processes against the best in the world (which was now Canon). This led to a massive reduction in defects, product redesign, and a new emphasis on manufacturing efficiency. The turnaround was so successful that it became a Harvard Business School case study. In 1989, Xerox won the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award , the first company to do so in the manufacturing category.
The most significant transformation was the for $6.4 billion. Overnight, Xerox became a giant in business process outsourcing (BPO) – managing payroll, healthcare claims, HR, and IT systems for corporations and governments. This was a radical departure from copiers. By 2016, services accounted for over 50% of Xerox’s revenue.