OPEN UNIVERSITY OF MAURITIUS

ASSIGNMENT 1


Module QUALITY MANAGEMENT
Assignment Title Assignment 1 CASE STUDY:
Xerox Puts the Customer First: A Powerful Competitive Strategy
Date: 24/8/2014 Word Limit: 3000 Date Due: 27/9/2014

Please attach the Assignment Form A and the Lecturer assessment Form B as front pages of your
assignment.

ASSIGNMENT FORMAT
1. Word limit: Your assignment (excluding index, cover page, list of references and appendices)
must not exceed 3000 words.
2. You assignment must include a Table of Contents Page.
3. Text: Font Arial or Times Roman (12), spacing 1.5 lines
4. All text must be justified at each margin
5. Your answers must include any theories, charts, tables, appendices or exhibits necessary to
support your answers, analysis and recommendations.
6. References At least 10 sources of reference (textbooks, journals, press reports, internet, etc.)
must be included in your list of reference.
7. The Harvard System of referencing must be used.

HINT: HOW TO PREPARE A CASE
There is no standard way to prepare a case; here is one approach.
1. Skim to determine what the case is about and the type of information you are given. In
particular, look at a few paragraphs at the beginning and at the end of the case, and at the
exhibits provided.
2. Read the case carefully. Visualise the situation; put yourself in the place of the manager;
become involved with the manager's problems. Note the key problems as you read through
the case.
3. Review the case and sort the relevant facts by the problem(s) to which they relate.
4. Develop recommendations and use your analysis of the case to support them.

QUALITY MANGEMENT CASE STUDY
Read the following case study carefully and answer all Questions.

Xerox Puts the Customer First: A Powerful Competitive Strategy
Introduction
The "customer" has become business's key focal point in the 1990s. Everyone is talking about the
need to understand customer requirements, capture the words of the customer, and do what's right
for the customer. Frequently, too few organisations have put the strategies and systems in place to
deliver on this commitment. In addition, most organisations do not really understand the bottom-
line benefits of providing excellent customer service and support.
A recent study in the Harvard Review has reported that customer service can boost profits from 25
percent to 80 percent, depending on the specific industry. There are many intangible benefits as
well, giving a company substantial advantages over its competition.
Customer Orientation
The heart of Xerox's approach to Total Quality Control (TQC), which we call leadership Through
Quality, is the customer. Our focus begins with the customerthe most important asset a company
can have.
The foundation for our TQC approach was laid back in the early 1960s, when Xerox established a
philosophy built on six principles:
We succeed through satisfied customers.
We value our employees.
We aspire to deliver quality and excellence in all we do.
We require a premium return on assets.
We use technology to develop market leadership.
We behave responsibly as a corporate citizen.
This philosophy, which starts with a customer focus, also emphasises our most valuable internal
asset, our employees. The remaining principles support the cornerstone of our corporate philosophy
of succeeding through satisfied customers. This philosophy has served as our guide since the early
1960s, when it was first written by Joseph Wilson, our founder.
Developing customer orientation and putting it into daily practice, however, is often easier said than
done. That was the case with Xerox, and it continues to be the challenge today. In the early to late
1960s, when we were the dominant player in the copier/duplicator business, we lost sight of the
customer. As a consequence, competition was able to capture a significant share of the market-a
market we created with the introduction of the first plain-paper copier in 1959. Competition
increased to the point that it threatened the very survival of Xerox in the early 1980s
Recognising the competitive threat at hand, David Kearns, our CEO, called the top 25 Xerox
executives together in early 1983, at our Leesburg Training Center outside Washington, DC, to
focus on changes required to meet the competitive challenge. During this meeting the senior team
agreed to embark on a Total Quality Journey and wrote the Xerox Quality Policy. The policy, which
has remained unchanged since 1983, reads:
Xerox is a Quality company.
Quality is the basic business principle for Xerox.
Quality means providing our external and internal customers with innovative products and
services that satisfy their requirements.
Quality improvement is the job of every Xerox employee.
Focusing on the Customer
Our approach is built on the foundation of satisfying customer requirements Customers can be either
external customers or internal customers, whose work outputs form a chain that supports the external
customer.
"Customer satisfaction" has been the top, number one corporate priority since 1987, when the three
corporate priorities were first ranked. These three corporate priorities are:
Customer satisfaction
Return on assets
Market share
This ranking is driven by the belief that focusing on and satisfying customers and meeting their
requirements will drive an improved return-on-assets performance and result in an increase in market
share. Said differently, customer satisfaction is our priority amongst priorities, a point that was
reiterated by our chairman and CEO Paul Allaire in recent communications to the entire Xerox
workforce.
At Xerox, we believe that to succeed as a corporation we must establish a customer-first mentality
and ingrain this mentality into the corporate culture. To do this first requires an organisation to
develop and deploy a customer-first direction and establish hard, measurable objectives to ensure
goal achievement. The words of the customer must become an integral part of and drive the
management process. This is achieved by providing processes-systems that operate within a support-
ive environment to achieve continuous improvement in customer satisfaction. Lastly, a company
must incorporate the words of the customer into its reward system. If the company is successful,
repeat business will follow, and customers will say, "These are the people I want to do business
with." (See the inset box, Leadership Through Quality.)
Leadership Through Quality
Leadership Through Quality. The strategy required a transition team and five other mechanisms for change that continue to be
used today at Xerox.
The five mechanisms are:
1. Standards and measurement tools and processes provide all Xerox people with new ways of assessing and performing their
work, solving problems, and improving quality. Tools to do this include a six-step Problem-Solving Process; a nine-step
Quality Improvement Process; Competitive Benchmarking; an emphasis on error prevention and doing things right the first
time; and techniques for determining the cost of quality.
2. Recognition and reward ensures that Xerox people are encouraged and motivated to practice the behaviours of Leadership
Through Quality. Both individuals and groups are recognised for their quality improvements whether that takes the form of a
simple thank-you or a cash bonus.
3. Communications ensure that all Xerox people are kept informed of the objectives and priorities of the corporation in general
and their work group in particular and how they are doing in meeting these priorities. Communications includes both formal
media, such as magazines, films, and communications events, as well as informal means, such as staff meetings.
4. Training provides every Xerox person worldwide with an understanding of Leadership Through Quality and a working
knowledge of the tools and techniques for quality improvement. Training is delivered in "family groups" consisting of a
manager and his or her direct reports. The manager, assisted by a professional trainer, conducts the weeklong problem-solving
and quality-improvement training.
After training, the manager guides the family group in the use of the quality process in an on-the-job project.
This method of training top managers first and having them participate in the training of their subordinates is called a training
"cascade." This enables the management chain to practice the "learn, use, leader inspired" sequence to reinforce the quality
improvement objectives of the training.
5. Management behaviours and actions ensure that the management team-at all levels of the corporation-provides the
necessary leadership, sets the right tone, and acts as examples for the successful implementation of Leadership Through
Quality. Managers must not only espouse the principles of Leadership Through Quality, but also practice them day-in and day-
out. In other words, managers must walk like they talk.
But simply telling the workforce that customer satisfaction is a priority is not sufficient. We have
established objectives relating to customer satisfaction. First, we want to satisfy our customers by
meeting or exceeding their expectations-delighting them. Second, we want to become the benchmark
in customer satisfaction in all of our customer interactions. Third, we want to ensure we have year-
over-year continuous improvement until 100 percent of our customers rate us "very satisfied" with all
of our products and services.
We feel that satisfying customers is not enough. We strongly believe that "delighted" customers
provide Xerox a decisive competitive advantage in the marketplace, creating customer and brand
loyalty. Delighted customers remain loyal, permitting retention of the customer base and repurchases
of your products and services. Ideally, we would like our customers to think only about Xerox!
Additionally, a company gains the power of referrals from delighted customers. Recent research
shows that customers who are "very satisfied" are six times more likely to repurchase Xerox
productsand to recommend the purchase of Xerox products to their colleagues and friendsthan
those who rate us "satisfied." Hence, the organisation's focus is on going beyond just satisfying the
customer.
We want to also be able to provide our customers with unique offerings. With these offerings, we are
quite often able to enjoy price premiums and reduce non-conformance costsleading to increased
profit margins. These elements combined lead to an expanding market share, which in turn results in
an increased return-on-assets performance (see Display 1).
DISPLAY 1: Customer First
Our Vision: Delighted customers provide Xerox a decisive competitive advantage in the marketplace.


Priorities Supported
The corporate priorities are supported annually by corporate objectives developed to enable and
support the achievement of the priorities. For 1991, four objectives were established:
Increase revenue growth with greater focus on awareness and coverage.
Develop more reliable new products in less time, at less cost.
Improve productivity by simplifying the way we do business.
Improve employee satisfaction and motivation through increased empowerment.
These objectives are deployed by the various operating units downward through their respective
organisations.
The process Xerox uses to deploy these objectives in the United States Marketing Group (USMG)
is called Managing for Results. Similar processes exist in major operating units, although they
may be titled differently. Within USMG, objectives are deployed from the USMG president to the
Field Management Team, then to each of the 65 district partnerships, and finally to hundreds of
individuals and teams who have specific goals and targets that support the attainment of the
corporate priorities and objectives. Structurally, the Managing for Results process looks like
Display 2.
DISPLAY 2: United States Marketing Group: Managing for Results Process


Philosophy/Values: Underlying attitudes and beliefs that shape the organisation's
fundamental approach to its business.

Mission: Defines the organisation's unique purpose. It should answer the questions: Who are
we? What do we do? For whom do we do it? And Why do we do it?
Vision: Given our mission, our vision is the ideals, hopes, and dreams we hold in our hearts
and minds. It is these larger dreams that bring meaning to what we are doing.
Goals: The end results that we strive to obtain. Goals provide structured guidance toward
accomplishing the mission. They are generally strategic in nature and are 3-5 years out.
Strategies: Document the pathways that we have chosen to reach our goals.

Priorities: What we must now achieve in support of our strategies to accomplish our goals.
Specific to a timeframe of generally 12-18 months. They are measurable outcomes.

Objectives: Define how we will carry out our objectives.

Measurements: The dimensions used to indicate our progress or predict our success

Xerox defines customer satisfaction as meeting or exceeding customer expectations. We call this
expected and unexpected quality. We find that when people obtain unexpected quality, they share
this by word of mouth with their colleagues and friends. Customer expectations and desires are
influenced by the following factors:
Word-of-mouth experiences.
Past or current experiences with existing or potential suppliers.
The images a person has formulated over time of an organisation's products through
advertising, which influence the way they think and the expectations they develop.
This means that Xerox must live up to high customer expectations to achieve customer
satisfaction.
Process Focus
In addition to placing a heavy emphasis on satisfying the customer, our Leadership Through
Quality process also focuses attention on the achievement of business results through a
disciplined process. We believe it is our work processes that drive business results, and improved
business results are a result of improved work processes. We further believe that our work
processes begin and end with the customer. Meeting and exceeding customer requirements and
expectations is a continuous closed-loop process that includes marketing, research and
development, manufacturing, and customer operations. Customer operations include all those ac-
tivities that touch the final customer; at Xerox this includes sales, service, administrative
operations, and distribution organisations.
The schematic in Display 3 is an example. It depicts the continuous customer assurance closed-loop
process within Xerox. It starts with marketing that performs an integrating functionan essential
rote. Marketing obtains the words, the voice, the ideas, and the wants of the customer through a
variety of channels, some of which are discussed and reviewed later.
DISPLAY 3: Continuous Customer Assurance


Our research and development organisations then translate the words of the customer into specific
products and services. After being developed, products flow into manufacturing, where these are
not only manufactured but tested to ensure their quality meets or exceeds identified customer
requirements.
After manufacturing, products are installed in customers' locations and are continually monitored to
ensure that the customer is using the equipment as it was intended and it is performing to their
requirements.
Continuing the Customer Focus
Once the product is installed, we activate an account management process. This process helps us
manage the ongoing relationships with our customers. Our sales representatives are required to
understand the customer's business, problems, and objectives. With this information, we can then
develop solutions for our customers and recommend specific actions. Additional input is provided
through customer surveys, and our query and complaint problem management systems help us to
understand issues requiring further attention or improvement.
Our preoccupation with the customer even extends to our new-hire orientation strategy. For the last
five to six years, new technical hires entering Xerox have started work at our training center in
Leesburg. Following a two-week orientation to the company, which includes being trained in our
Leadership Through Quality process and training on some of our products, new hires spend the next
six weeks traveling with a Xerox salesperson and service person to experience first-hand the issue of
customer satisfaction. Our feeling is that these new hires will enter their technical careers with a
customer focus they will long remember. Down the road, as these people begin to design and
develop new products and services, they will do so with the mind-set of the customer, based on their
early experience.
Gathering the "Words of the Customer"
At Xerox, we feel that any issue we find is a golden nugget that gives us an opportunity to increase
customer satisfaction. A number of key approaches have been developed and used to assist in
identifying these golden nuggets. Some examples of the ways Xerox captures the "words of the
customer" include:
Market segment analysis: Xerox realized early on that different marketplace segments have
different customer requirements. To assist us in understanding this difference, we developed and
use a process to identify and understand these requirements by market segment. Display 4
graphically displays the process we use.
DISPIAY 4 Customer First: Marketing Customer Requirements Understanding by Segment


Starting with the customer, we identify customer samples by specific market segment and develop
the process that will be used to capture those customers' requirements. With this information, we
then develop a customer requirements profile, while concurrently evaluating the customer's work
process. Additionally, we incorporate other sources of customer requirements that come to lightall
the time collecting and documenting the "words of the customer."

We analyse, synthesize, and validate these requirements with the customer to ensure they reflect
exact needs. Customer satisfaction measurement criteria are then established, and we evaluate our
ability to achieve the established targets.
All this information is fed into our marketing and product-planning process and the cycle repeats
itself so that we can continuously refine requirements for that market segment.
Customer visits: Xerox people continually visit customers to understand their requirements first-
hand. This is supported through our Xerox account management process, in which every
salesperson develops an in-depth understanding of the customer's needs and work processes. Our
Focused Executive Program includes the top 150 Xerox people who are assigned responsibility for
interfacing with their assigned accounts and must have at least two meetings per year to gather and
understand customer requirements.
Customer councils: We employ councils that bring a group of our customers together so that we
can better understand future needs and what we are currently doing right, and, most importantly,
identify areas in which we can improve.
Focus groups: Xerox uses this traditional market research technique to understand customer
requirements and/or problems in a specific area.
Executive Communication Exchange (ECE): These sessions bring together our customers with
our top management and focus on issues the customers wish to discuss, including their future
needs.
Surveys: Customer satisfaction surveys provide input from our customers on how they view us and
rate us.
Customer queries and complaints: These two mechanisms provide additional sources of input
that identify specific areas and opportunities for improvement.
Customer problem management system: This system is employed to identify and address
customers' problems with software and systems.
Market research: Extensive market research provides insights on customers' requirements when
we have requests for quotations or bids or are considering the development of a new product.
All of these mechanisms provide valuable input on customer requirementsthe basis for our
approach to Total Quality. Armed with the "words of the customer," we can then begin the product
development process, using the customer's requirements as the basis on which to design and
develop new product offerings.
Product Delivery Process
Our Product Delivery Process (PDP) is a formal process that enables us to consistently deliver
leadership products and systems to worldwide markets. PDP can be defined as the cycle of
integrated planning, engineering, manufacturing, marketing, launch, and management review
activities that enable delivery of world-class Xerox products to end-user customers. It is important
to note that each of the major functions is represented in the PDP process and they play an
interactive role throughout the development and delivery process.
Although the PDP process is continuous, its specific phase structure allows timing of program
activities and establishes logical decision points at which management reviews, assesses, and
approves the progression through the seven phases of the process.
The seven phases of PDP, along with some of the key phase descriptors are:
1. Preconcept: This phase begins with identified business need/market opportunities being
validated, specific product goals developed, prime architecture and technology sets selected to
meet end-customer requirements, and communications established with operating units.
2. Concept: Technology readiness demonstrated for hardware, software and supplies; production-
intent design plan reviewed and initiated; program quality, cost, and delivery targets (QCD)
defined; and business case finalized based on QCD/customer satisfaction targets.
3. Design: Production-intent design completed incorporating full-feature set of the proposed
product, baseline model built following an iterative development cycle and tested against pre-
established QCD performance criteria, integrated program planning completed, program
worldwide launch strategy developed and approved.
4. Demonstration: Product design stability and production readiness demonstrated through
iterative pilot build and evaluation of production commitment baseline model; manufacturing
readiness for production scale-up verified by pilot production build.
5. Production: Manufacturing scale-up to full production capability completed, product customer
acceptability verified through formal acceptance testing, field readiness for worldwide product
introduction and market engagement confirmed.
6. Launch: Product introduced to end-user market, product performance verified against
QCD/customer satisfaction commitments, and field and market performance assessed.
7. Maintenance: Production build to meet worldwide demand continues, revenue and profit
optimized through product improvement and/or maintenance activities, and asset
management/product end-of-life strategies coordinated and translated into plans for ongoing
support, and ultimately, product withdrawal and service discontinuance by the operating units.
This disciplined approach assists the Product Delivery Teams, the integrated team of people
actually developing new products, to deliver products that meet the needs and expectations of the
customer, while achieving benchmark quality, cost, and delivery targets. It further provides the
framework that focuses all the individuals' and organisations' efforts into a seamless, worldwide
quality process.
Sustaining Customer Satisfaction
Once products are developed and delivered to customers, our job of assessing the level of customer
satisfaction and seeking continuous improvement has just begun. We use our Customer Satisfaction
Improvement model, illustrated in Display 5, to continually assess and improve at the district level
our performance in this vital area. We are intent on continuously improving the ratings customers give us
on their satisfaction level with our products and services, until we obtain a level of 100 percent satisfaction.

DISPLAY 5: Customer Satisfaction Improvement Model

Data elements:
Periodic Xerox Internal measures Systemic national Leadership
customer surveys of work processes and local issues through
and outputs quality tools
Periodic Xerox and Cost of quality
competitive Employee surveys/ impacts Tracking of
customer surveys roundtable solutions and
Input into improvements
Post-installation and Functional functional plans
cancellation competitive Inspection
customer surveys bench marking
studies Closed loop
Customer query/ with customer
complaint data Account review on corrective
process actions
Customer panels/
user/focus groups Feedback to/
from employees
Customer visits
Feedback to/
from customers
via user groups

The improvement cycle starts by collecting assessments and perceptions from our customers from
the numerous sources and means reviewed earlier. We add to this information our assessment of
internal processes and outputs. This includes internal work processes and their associated
measurements, gathered from employee surveys and roundtables to capture input from our people.
Competitive benchmarking studies, in which we evaluate various organisations that we feel, have
functional expertise that we might learn from, are used. For instance, in the United States, we have
benchmarked L.L. Bean, a mail-order house, for its logistics and distribution processes because we
felt they were world class. In the process we learned a great deal that assisted us in improving our
logistics and distribution processes.
Also, we have an account review process in place, where we formally sit down with customers to
understand in greater detail their view of us and areas where we have opportunities to improve.
Using all the information developed from the internal and external assessments, we prioritize the
issues impacting customer satisfaction. We evaluate the cost of quality, use Pareto diagrams to
identify key issues, and then incorporate these challenges into our functional plans. We develop and
deploy corrective actions to improve our work processes, using our Leadership Through Quality
process and tools. We track the status of action plans, inspect the work process, and employ a
closed-loop process with our customers on corrective actions being taken. This ensures they are
addressing and correcting the identified and agreed upon issues.
We also give feedback to employees on their ideas and share information with them from the input
we receive from customer user groups and roundtable discussions.
Our customer satisfaction improvement model is a closed-loop model that incorporates the essence
of the Total Quality Control process cycle of Plan, Do, Check, and Act.
Another integral part of the Customer Satisfaction Management and Improvement System is the
Post Installation Survey. This survey is administered by the district office seven days after a Xerox
product has been installed. The focus is on the operator, the person who uses the equipment, and
asks the person to evaluate our delivery process, our installation process, and our support activities.
The information obtained from this survey is fed into the Customer Complaint Management
System, and resulting issues are prioritized using Pareto charts and other statistical tools to drive a
continuous improvement cycle.
Another input to our Customer Satisfaction Management and Improvement Systems is the data
developed through periodic surveys conducted with customers. Our prime customer survey
mechanism is our Customer Satisfaction Measurement System (CSMS). On a five-point scale
customers rate Xerox according to their perceptions of our performance against their requirements:
Very dissatisfied
Dissatisfied
Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied
Satisfied
Very satisfied
The "very satisfied" and "satisfied" categories provide us with the measurement of the percent
satisfied. We are not content to have only satisfied customers, we want very satisfied customers.
Every customer that has had a product installed for six months or more is eligible. The periodic
survey is an ongoing process, with customers surveyed at least every third year. We distribute about
40,000 surveys each month. Of these, we receive between 10,000 and 12,000 completed surveys, or
a 25 to 30 percent return rate. Of the surveys sent out, approximately 50 percent go to the operators
who use the equipment; about 25 percent go to decision makers, those who made the decision to
buy Xerox products; and 25 percent to the administrators who handle the billing and other
administrative contacts with Xerox.
Our customer survey response data is loaded into our centralized computer system, and each week
the data is downloaded to each of our 65 district offices. This data provides additional input to the
District Customer Satisfaction Management and Improvement System.
The heart of this process at the district level is the Customer Resolution Group. This group acts as a
focal point for coordinating the resolution of customer issues and analyses the data for the district
management team. They bring issues to management and the workforce so that each can develop
countermeasures to ensure that the key issues are being addressed and resolved.
One unique aspect of the District Customer Satisfaction Management Improvement System is the
Customer Complaint Handling Process. Within each of the district offices is a Customer Relations
Group, commonly referred to as the CRG. This group uses the Customer Complaint Handling
Process, which is a cross-functional approach to resolving customers' issues. Once a customer brings
an issue to our attention, the individual taking the complaint owns the complaint until it is resolved.
The Customer Complaint Management System has been mechanized so customers' issues are
electronically downloaded to a closed-loop system, and the system has been enhanced to enable
multiple screen capability that shows the specific customer's service history, billing history, and
other data.
District Partnership Management Team
Every district is managed by a partnership composed of the managers of sales, service, and business
operations. The purpose of this triumvirate is to ensure that we are constantly focusing, across all
functions, on customers and doing what is right for them, independent of the specific function
involved. The partnership functions as a team and makes the necessary functional trade-offs to
ensure that the voice of the customer is being responded to. The partnership team is appraised and
receives bonuses as a team.
The district partnership uses our Management Assessment and Action Process (Display 6) to take
the words of the customer, obtained from customer surveys and complaint analyses, and drives an
improvement effort. From the percent-dissatisfied information, they identify the key few
dissatisfiers using a Pareto analysis. Work is then focused on using an Ishikawa, or fishbone diagram
to understand the root cause of the problem. If the issues are under the districts control, the district
develops an action plan, identifies the responsible person, and finally projects what impact the
countermeasures being proposed will have on improving customer satisfaction. This process also
identifies activities that are not controllable at the district level, but are controllable at a higher level
in the corporation. These issues are then transferred to the organisation that has the capability to fix
them.
We have closely tied the partnership bonus to their performance, which is measured by customer
satisfaction. Each district has a percent customer-satisfied target, and measurements are supplied
from our CSMS survey. The CSMS target is tied to the districts past performance, and the target
established reflects a year-over-year improvement over the most current level of performance. If the
district does not meet the customer satisfaction target, there is no bonus for the district partnership
as a team. The rating factor to achieving a bonus is the attainment of the district's target for customer
satisfaction. Additionally, the customer satisfaction element is weighted at 35 percent of the total
bonusmaking customer satisfaction a significant element in the bonus plan.
DISPIAY 6: District Customer Satisfaction Management and Improvement System: Management Assessment and Action


Customer Satisfaction Guarantee
The Xerox measure of quality is our customer's satisfaction. To further demonstrate our commitment to our
customers, in late 1990 we offered an unprecedented three-year Total Satisfaction Guarantee on all Xerox
equipment. This guarantee is based solely on the customer's level of satisfaction with Xerox equipment.
The terms and conditions of the guarantee are simple and written in layman's terms. The Xerox Total
Satisfaction Guarantee reads as follows:
If you are not satisfied with your Xerox equipment, at your request Xerox will replace it with an
identical model or a machine with comparable features and capabilities.
The term of the Xerox Total Satisfaction Guarantee is three years from equipment delivery. If the
newly delivered equipment is financed by Xerox for more than 3 years, the Guarantee will apply
during the entire term of your Xerox financing.
This Xerox Total Satisfaction Guarantee applies to Xerox equipment acquired by you from Xerox
(including sales agents and participating dealers and retailers) and continuously maintained by
Xerox or its authorized representatives under a manufacturer's warranty or a service contract. This
Guarantee applies to all equipment acquired on or after September 5, 1990, and is not applicable to
equipment damaged or destroyed due to an act of God.
This guarantee assures customers of a long-term level of Xerox support and commitment based on
their individual needs and requirements.
Customer Focus Payback
Within Xerox, customer focus has a long history and tradition. In 1964, Joseph Wilson, the founder
of Xerox, made the following statement regarding the customer: "In the long run our customers are
going to determine whether we have a job or whether we do not. Their attitude toward us is going
to be the factor determining our success."
Unfortunately, in our period of very rapid growth and business success, we lost Sight of this
important value and focus. However, we returned to this basic belief as we became increasingly
aware of the important role the customer plays in our success.
Since beginning the Xerox Quality journey with a renewed focus on satisfying customer
requirements, Xerox has achieved a substantial turnaround in its business. Since 1985, customer
satisfaction with Xerox products and services, as measured by our Customer Satisfaction
Measurement Systems, has increased over 42 percent. Perhaps more telling is the turnaround in our
return-on-assets (ROA) performance, which has almost doubled since 1986.
At Xerox, the customer is truly king and has our undivided attention. Why? Because it makes good
business sense!
Source: This case was written by Norman E. Rickard, President of Xerox Business. Reprinted with
permission from The McGraw-Hill Companies from Gregory Bounds, Cases in Quality (Homewood, II:
Business One Irwin, 1996).

QUESTIONS

1. Describe the conditions that Xerox faced when deciding to launch Leadership Through Quality, is
the customer strategy. (15 Marks)
2 Discuss some of the tools Xerox uses to gather the views of the customer and assess
customer satisfaction. (20 Marks)
3. Discuss Xerox's process focus and its relationship to business results. (15 Marks)
4. Identify the activities and initiatives that Xerox uses to drive a customer focus into the
organisation. Map each of these onto one or more of the stages of the Managing for Results
Process in Display 2. Explain how each relates to the stage where you placed it. (20 Marks)
5. What other opportunities does Xerox have for driving a customer focus into the business?
(15 Marks)
6. Describe how Xerox's culture encourages and supports continual improvement and innovation?
(15 Marks)
(TOTAL MARKS 100)

Students are expected to describe and use relevant diagram, models and theories to support their
arguments wherever appropriate.