It’s been nearly 100 years since Chester Carlson invented electrophotography, a process later dubbed Xerography. Carlson, a patent attorney, found a technology partner in The Haloid Company, a photo paper manufacturer and the forerunner to Xerox Corp. But it took more than 20 years, until 1958, for the first commercially offered photocopier for the office—the Xerox 914—to hit the market.
Long an industry forerunner, Xerox has been in danger of falling behind the very curve it established. The Norwalk, Connecticut-based manufacturer has found itself needing to reconcile profits, people and business. Entering the second year of Xerox’s Reinvention plan spearheaded by CEO Steve Bandrowczak, the company also announced a 15% headcount reduction at the onset of 2024. In conjunction with the cuts, several personnel changes were enacted, not the least of which was the elevation of Jacques-Edouard Gueden to the position of global chief channel and partner officer.
The warm and affable Gueden—a 35-year veteran of the organization fresh off a stint as president of EMEA operations—possesses the temperament necessary to act as a conduit between Xerox and its reseller community. He sat down with ENX Magazine to discuss Bandrowczak’s new operating model and three-pronged strategy that focuses on the core print business, global business services and IT/digital services to drive profit and revenue growth. Gueden also provided insights into the innovative tools being developed to bolster both Xerox and its reseller partners, and a holistic view of how the company will enable success as it marches forward through turbulent waters.
You’ve had a long career with Xerox, beginning in 1989 in France. Can you provide an overview of your background with the company?
Gueden: I realize I should have been more cautious when I joined in 1989, because it was on Valentine’s Day (laughing). It’s a nice anniversary to celebrate because I also met my wife at Xerox. I started in sales in my hometown of Paris, and I’ve done many things and worn many hats within the company. On the management side, I was the president of EMEA operations and became chief channel officer this year. Instead of mentioning all the roles I’ve held, I’ll just say this is the sixth time I’ve become fully devoted to the channel. When I look at it, it’s more than a third of my total tenure. I love serving the channel, and I have the feeling of being back home. I fully intend to work shoulder-to-shoulder with our partners.
You became chief channel and partner officer at the beginning of 2024. Can you share your plans and initiatives you’ve set for these first 12 months? What do you hope to accomplish?
Gueden: In January of this year, we announced a significant reorganization of our business. It includes the addition of a business-unit-led operating model, a greater focus on partner-led distribution and the establishment of a global business services organization, with the purpose to enable enterprise-wide efficiencies and productivity gains. That’s a fundamental change to how we operate. As for the channel and partner team, it’s responsible for a few things. The first is establishing a global ecosystem with the purpose of strengthening partner relationships and extending our business to be on pace with the channel. We’re constantly assessing how we go to market. The purpose for us is to identify the most efficient way to serve our clients. It means that in several markets, we’ll have a much greater reliance on the ability of our partners to provide value to our clients. By doing this, we can strengthen our core business and position ourselves to capture new ancillary opportunities over time.
2023 proved to be a challenging year for Xerox. What’s the message you’ll be conveying to dealers as you integrate into the channel and set the tone for business moving forward?
Gueden: We’ll call it a pivotal year for Xerox, as it was the first full year of our Reinvention, which is a multi-year strategy to help position the company for business and long-term sustainable growth. When we looked at the full-year numbers for the company last year, it delivered growth in earnings and cash flow despite the modest decline in revenue. We’ve done that because we’ve been successful in implementing a more flexible infrastructure. Total revenue for the full year was nearly $7 billion. Less known is that a significant portion of that total is linked with our partners.
Our partners already have a big piece of what we do. Last year, we took special and foundational actions to improve our core business. The purpose is to simplify operations to fit with today’s world. It results in a greater organizational focus and a clear path for more transformational actions in 2024 and beyond. For our partners, what does it mean? We’re committed to increasing investments in a partner-enabled, go-to-market model that supports clients in how they prefer to procure their print and digital solutions.
For 35 years, the company has had a reputation of being direct-minded, but the reality is we aren’t so direct, and we’re investing even more in our partner ecosystem. The purpose is for us to capture some additional market share. We’ll do that by increasing our reach and the reach of our partners, creating upstream value for digital services and ensuring we have the right portfolio and the right business model to meet high performance expectations. It was a critical year.
In conjunction with your appointment, CEO Steve Bandrowczak announced the three-pronged initiative designed to advance the company’s Reinvention. How can these elements combine to drive the results Xerox’s leadership seeks?
Gueden: First and foremost, we commit to results. By 2026, Reinvention is expected to deliver $300 million more in operating income above 2023 levels, and we expect to achieve a third of that improvement during 2024. It will largely be due to organizational cost savings associated with the actions that were announced in January. We have that target to improve operating profits, and it will be delivered through operating model simplification. It means we’ll continuously deliver tech to improve efficiency. And that’s the purpose of our newly created global business service organization.
The second element is we’ll simplify our geographic footprint and our offerings. That means in certain markets, we’ll replace direct-led customers with partner-led distribution. We’ll do that in markets where it makes sense for clients and partners. It also signals that we’ll now shift our product and service offering focus to areas where we have that strategic differentiation for the clients’ economic bias. We’re doing full portfolio reviews, and we’re really focusing where we can make a difference for partners and Xerox. We’ll also be able to position the company for growth. In the coming months, we’re talking about tactical investments in digital and IT services. The purpose will be to expand service penetration with new and existing clients.
What stand out as some of the watershed moments for Xerox over the past 12 months? What resonated the most with you?
Gueden: Over 115-plus years in business, Xerox has been called upon countless times to adapt and respond to change. And the last few years have been no exception. Macro trends have fundamentally altered how we live and work. The shift to hybrid workforce is here to stay, and technology will be the enabler to improve employee productivity and engagement. Workers today need help with structure, documents and automating workflows. Our purpose is to lead in this category, and we’re embracing the change and adjusting our response to how the world works.
As part of the journey, we understand that we had to change the industry narrative. Macro trends don’t have to equate to bad things for Xerox and its partners. It’s quite the opposite. It was crystallizing when last June, for the first time since the pandemic began, we had the opportunity to meet with our valued reseller partners in Miami. It was so energizing to be together, to feel the enthusiasm and the appetite for the many opportunities we can enjoy together. That’s a shift, a change and a transformation.
Last year saw Xerox refresh its VersaLink A4 family, with AltaLink A3 and production units slated for updates in 2024. What else can we expect to see this year?
Gueden: Xerox will be simplifying its core print business. And the purpose is for us to align with today’s average workplace. Clients are grappling with the evolving needs of a distributed workforce and advancing their digital transformation journey, which has never been more important than today.
The industry will see some innovative steps forward from Xerox. On the production side, you’ll see upgrades to a production ecosystem that brings innovative technology, workflow automation and personalization. And we have an end-to-end approach to productivity, from prepress to on-press to finishing. That’s the way to drive efficiencies in and cost out for our clients. The whole point for the print providers is to reduce the manual touch points and focus on delivering more value to their customers.
We’ll continue to add new AI-driven enhancements to our workflow automation solutions and services. We have software and robotic process automation to help our clients automate routine tasks and securely manage that type of information capture more effectively. We’re now building up a vast library of process automation applications that are available to our direct customers and our channel partners, and we’re pilot testing this in Canada. Again, for the past few years, we’ve been putting a greater focus on our emerging digital and IT services capabilities. The purpose here is to help clients with unstructured data, documents and workflow automation, which is somewhat related to what Xerox has been doing for years. The end goal is to launch more channel-ready offerings in this space. For Xerox, it’s about executing, and we have the opportunity to help our partners move upstream into digital services. That’s new revenue for them and higher value for their clients.
Speaking of which, talk a little about the roles security and AI will play in future Xerox technologies.
Gueden: Xerox is focused on creating AI core solutions to enhance productivity. It means improving decision-making. It means driving innovation across a range of industry sectors such as health care, legal and education. We have years of experience in document management and workflow automation, and we’re guiding our investments in research and development to create further value through the use of AI. So we’re putting all those processes on steroids, and we’re eating our own food.
Beginning three years ago, we had AI-powered bots working for us. Now, every month, we have more than three million transactions that are fully automated. Bots and artificial intelligence are everywhere, whether it’s in service, HR or finance. We’ll bring those platforms to our clients, and our goal has always been to provide clients with the highest level of support, addressing pain points and optimizing business procedures. AI allows us to automate routine tasks, increase the use of embedded sensing, and monitor and reduce reliance on an increasingly complex supply chain. We’ve organized ourselves to make some strides in that environment. We have an AI governance council and our AI Center of Excellence, both of which have been developed to focus on identifying internal and external opportunities for both ethical and impactful AI.
We’ve been working with one of our clients to create a private ChatGPT with the help of an amazing company in Italy. It will allow end-users to interact with our client’s bots to ask questions about their contract or check the status of any request that’s been submitted. It took us less than a few weeks to develop the bots, integrate the artificial intelligence and help the system learn. It’s very exciting.
Just like everyone else, Xerox takes security very seriously. We’ve adopted a multi-layered approach based on zero-trust principles. We’re using a combination of hardware, software and processes to match or exceed client standards. We still hear stories about cybersecurity breaches every day, and it’s not going away. We’re very serious about protecting clients.
What will be the keys to Xerox garnering a greater market share moving forward?
Gueden: For more than a century, Xerox has been a pioneer in technology. We’ve been continuously defining the workplace experience. Now, as our business evolves, we’ll continue to prioritize innovation and deliver the best possible hardware, software and services for our clients and partners. Also, as we accelerate year two of Reinvention, we have much to be proud of and build upon. What we’ve learned over that process is our clients and partners trust Xerox with more in-depth solutions. They come to us for intelligent document processing, digital services and IT services, as well as comprehensive field services to address the challenge of today’s hybrid workplace. Most notably, we committed to growing our IT business and extending our presence and capabilities for partners. The purpose is for us to become the solution provider of choice in the markets we serve.
Is there anything on the horizon from a program or partnership standpoint?
Gueden: Since day one in my new capacity, we’ve been reviewing our value proposition and already identified several areas where we believe we can take strides to quickly improve the ability of our partners to perform in the current marketplace. That includes AI-based pricing to accelerate cycle times in support of large pursuits, as well as AI for SD, or service delivery, to improve product uptime. Partners should expect to hear about how we’re making progress on multiple fronts. We’re also developing relationships with partners who aren’t familiar with our core industry and aren’t competitive with us. They’re talking to us because they’re starting to see the effort we’re putting into expanding workplace productivity. It’s exciting because we’re evolving our current partnerships as well as expanding our reach in the development of new ones.
What will a successful 2024 look like in your estimation?
Gueden: We’re driven by financial performance, certainly, but if we view it from a strategic level, we’ll continue to evolve at an accelerated pace. Our ability to overcome headwinds and meet full-year profit and cash flow targets is a testament to our company culture. We have a strong team discipline that’s been forged over many years, but it’s strengthened in recent years. Success is driven by our continued emphasis on our Reinvention and being a service-led, software-enabled company. In doing so, Xerox will be a lot easier to do business with, and we’ll be improving again our ability to enable success for our clients and partners. That, to me, is the true meaning of success.
