The Haloid Company was a well-established company founded in 1906 that manufactured photographic paper and equipment.1
Despite the company’s success Joseph C. Wilson, its CEO, took interest in a new invention that could potentially lead to a new product in the market. Wilson was intrigued by the work of Chester F. Carlson, who invented a process to print images using dry powder and an electrically charged plate. This technology was the origin of the famous, and now ubiquitous, photocopy machine.2
Even though the technology needed refinement, in 1956 Wilson and Carlson partnered in a joint venture to create Xerox. The goal was to develop and bring this new product—the photocopy machine—to the market.
It’s important to note that the birth of Xerox was a result of “invention” combined with “vision.” Innovation was at the heart of Xerox enterprise culture, which led it to become a phenomenal business success with great international market share.
True to its innovation roots, in 1970 Xerox opened the Palo Alto Research Center—known as Xerox PARC—in Palo Alto, California, with a world-class team of experts in information and physical sciences, drawn together to create “The Office of the Future.”3
Xerox PARC’s unique task was to create new computer technologies and hardware systems to bring innovation to Xerox. It was filled with top technology scientists. Working there was a dream because Xerox PARC had all the resources to develop new ideas and pursue new inventions.4
Due to these favorable conditions, Xerox PARC was at the heart of numerous revolutionary computer developments such as laser printing, network technologies like the Ethernet, the modern personal computer, graphical user interface (GUI), object-oriented programming, ubiquitous computing, electronic reusable paper, amorphous silicon (a-Si) applications, the computer mouse, and advancing Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) for semiconductors.5
You may not have understood all these terms, but most of them are what currently make your cellphone run, the Internet work, and many other things we take for granted function.
Even though Xerox PARC was a dream place for creative people, it soon became a place of great frustration. Many of the new technologies that originated at Xerox PARC were ignored by Xerox management and left on the shelf. This situation created frustration among the inventors, who were aware of the potential of the products they created.6
How did Xerox—a company born as a result of invention and vision—start to ignore new, fantastic inventions that its own scientists were creating? How did it lose the essence that gave birth to the company?
The reason for this outcome is no better explained than in the words of Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple.
“If you are a product person at IBM or Xerox, so you make a better copier or a better computer. So what? When you have a monopoly market share, the company is not any more successful. So the people who can make the company more successful are sales and marketing people, and they end up running the companies. And the product people get driven out of decision-making forums. And the companies forget what it means to make great products. The product sensibility and the product genius that brought them to that monopolistic position gets rotted out by people running these companies who have no conception of a good product versus a bad product. They have no conception of the craftsmanship that’s required to take a good idea and turn it into a good product.”7
In summary: when sales take over, the original spirit that defined the company gets lost.
The frustration of the people working at Xerox PARC was real. The executives of Xerox were even nicknamed “toner heads.”8 Xerox’s management would come to Xerox PARC to hear presentations on revolutionary, technological inventions, but they had no idea or understanding of the radical inventions they were being shown. They couldn’t see the value of these new inventions. For them the main question was: will this result in the SALES of more photocopy machines?
Among the people working at Xerox PARC were John Warnock and Charles Geschke. They were researching new software for future Xerox printer plans. At this point they came up with a revolutionary idea: the possibility of a computer language for printers that had the potential to create a new kind of product and expand into a new market.9
Convinced of the value of their idea, Warnock and Geshke pursued multiple meetings and presentations with Xerox management to show their revolutionary idea. But Xerox executives, the “toner heads,” didn’t see the potential of their invention and ignored them.
After multiple attempts Warnock and Geshke got so frustrated at being ignored by Xerox management, that by 1982 they quit their jobs at Xerox PARC and founded their own company: Adobe Inc.10
Soon after Adobe was created it launched PostScript, its first product. PostScript is a programming language that continues to be the standard language for printers until today. How does a printer know what to print? Well, PostScript tells it how.
Later Adobe invented and introduced to the market the famous Adobe PDF file format, which has become the standard format used to share documents.
Not letting an opportunity slip away, Adobe purchased Photoshop in 1995 and redefined itself as the leader in the digital graphic market.
Today Adobe is a multinational company worth billions of dollars, with an annual revenue of about US$12 billion. We use and are familiar with many Adobe products.
In 2002 Xerox PARC separated from Xerox and became just PARC, an independent company dedicated to developing and maturing advances in science and business concepts.11
What happened to Xerox? Well, Xerox is still a big company that has maintained its market status by buying other companies for their products.
However, Xerox doesn’t own Adobe, which they could have. This didn’t happen because Xerox was too busy selling photocopy machines.
The story of Xerox and Adobe is just one example of similar, big business downfalls. There seems to be a pattern: the larger a company becomes, the more the vision that created them gets lost because “sales take over.”
When “sales take over” the original vision, or first love, gets lost.
In Revelation 2:4 God scolds one of the churches by saying: “But here is something I hold against you. You have turned away from the love you had at first” (NIRV).
What Jesus is saying here is: you have forgotten what it means to be my follower, something else has your attention and you are not who you used to be.
In the book of Mark we find an interesting encounter: the story of Jesus and the rich young man (Mark 10:17-31, NIRV).
“As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him. He fell on his knees before Jesus. ‘Good teacher,’ he said, ‘what must I do to receive eternal life?’” (v. 17).
Jesus replied:
“You know what the commandments say. ‘Do not murder. Do not commit adultery. Do not steal. Do not be a false witness. Do not cheat. Honor your father and mother’” (v. 19).
“‘Teacher,’ he said, ‘I have obeyed all those commandments since I was a boy’” (v. 20).
Perhaps today the young ruler would say: Teacher, I am the best photocopy machine seller this company has ever had. I’ve been the best since I was a boy!
“Jesus looked at him and loved him. ‘You are missing one thing,’ he said. ‘Go and sell everything you have. Give the money to those who are poor. You will have treasure in heaven. Then come and follow me’” (v. 21).
Jesus told the young ruler to go back and focus on what it meant to be a true Christian: to get ready for God’s Kingdom by serving others.
“The man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he was very rich” (v. 22).
This rich young man must have had such a large market share monopoly that he just couldn’t let it go. Being rich wasn’t only about money or possessions, but about the social connections and position the rich young man had attained for himself. Richness doesn’t stand alone, there is always a complex structure supporting it.
The young man completely understood what Jesus was asking of him, but didn’t view it as the way to be successful in life. So he decided to keep doing what made him successful and rich on Earth and move away from eternal life.
“Jesus looked around. He said to his disciples, ‘How hard it is for rich people to enter God’s kingdom!’” (v. 23).
How hard it is for someone who has a large personal investment in something to give it up and enter God’s kingdom!
“Is it hard for a camel to go through the eye of a needle? It is even harder for someone who is rich to enter God’s kingdom!” (v. 25).
This happens because when “sales take over,” it becomes harder to recognize what made us followers of Jesus in the first place, and we get busy and enchanted “selling photocopy machines.”
In Revelation 3:17 God talks about the dangers of letting “sales take over.” In this verse God is actually addressing us at this time: “You say, ‘I am rich. I’ve become wealthy and don’t need anything.’ But you don’t realize how pitiful and miserable you have become. You are poor, blind and naked” (NIRV).
We always run the risk of getting lost in the comfort or success we’ve built here on Earth, and we may no longer see why we became followers of Jesus.
Each of us should evaluate our personal lives and try to recognize which elements we treasure so much to the point of making us blind to the many blessings God offers, especially if we just let go of earthly treasures and remember our first love.
As Revelation 3:20 says: “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in. I will eat with that person, and they will eat with me” (NIRV).
Do not let “sales” take over your spiritual life!
Copyright Italo Osorio 2022
- https://www.britannica.com/topic/Xerox-Corporation
- https://biography.yourdictionary.com/joseph-chamberlain-wilson
- https://www.xerox.com/en-us/about/history-timeline
- https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/05/16/creation-myth
- https://www.parc.com/about-parc/parc-history/
- https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/05/16/creation-myth
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7aUJyJbJMw
- https://medium.com/the-lean-product-lifecycle/as-xerox-parc-nears-half-a-century-the-lesson-learned-is-that-business-models-matter-76941002991e
- https://lemelson.mit.edu/resources/charles-geschke-and-john-warnock
- https://lemelson.mit.edu/resources/charles-geschke-and-john-warnock
- https://www.parc.com/about-parc/parc-history/