It’s been a whirlwind start to 2025, with a trio of events on my docket—Executive Connection Summit, Sharp Road Show and Xerox Global Partner Summit—spanning a seven-week period from late January to mid-March. We all have our share of airport horror stories, most of them centered on planes not working or TSA agents not caring. I’ll quickly share with you the tale of “getting busted” while in the security queue at McCarren/Harry Reid (Las Vegas) International.
The Xerox partner event had wrapped up, and Thursday was slated to be a travel day home. Little did I know what would happen at LAS. It’s funny to look back on it now, but at the time, it was frustrating for those of us who tend to be a bit anxious. The fear is missing a flight without a later option available, getting thrown out of the airport and forced to sleep on the streets for a night. Not sure if that’s a thing, but it certainly sounds plausible.
Flying from Vegas to Philly means there are precious few places to eat near the D gates we generally take off from. Thus, an indigestible meal from BK crossed my mind as scores of us trudged through security, with passengers filing by twos past the drug-sniffing K9 officer. Upon reaching the two-person parade, we were told to wait as the dog was given a breather in the form of a hearty head and body rub from his handler. I turned to the passenger waiting beside me and said, “He must be taking a ‘good boy’ break.” One quick smirk later, my new-found friend and I did the perp walk past the pooch. I’m guessing the dog heard my little joke and didn’t appreciate it because he apparently detected a substance. So the two of us were pulled out of line to get a more granular inspection.
For the record, the suspicious substance discovery was something of a letdown. There was no getting growled at by the dog. He didn’t knock us down. We weren’t led away in handcuffs. No nightstick to the noggin. In fact, the K9 didn’t react at all. Maybe while our backs were turned, he lifted a paw and pointed in our general direction. Once again, reality fell way short of the embellishments we’ve come to expect from TV.
We were led to a roped-off section, then our baggage was sent through the scanner. About 15 minutes later, the wand scan on all my bags was completed, and the TSA agent sheepishly said, “Um, we didn’t find anything. You can go.” That left me with 30 minutes to get to the gate, choke down a Whopper with cheese and then board the plane. Pass the TUMS.
SPEAKING OF XEROX, if you haven’t read it yet, there’s a Two-Minute Drill Q&A with President John Bruno at ENXmag.com that explores the Lexmark acquisition. Between that deal, the ITsavvy addition announced last October and a slew of new tools to help dealers grow their businesses exponentially, the manufacturer seems to have its sights set on grabbing a bigger share of the market pie.
Perhaps the biggest addition, however, was the subtraction of dissident shareholder Carl Icahn. Xerox paid $542 million for Icahn’s shares in the fall of 2023, and it’s a strategy that carries equal importance to the ITsavvy and Lexmark moves. In tandem with an infusion of new blood on the company’s board of directors, Xerox was able to shift focus away from only driving shareholder value to also making investments that help create more opportunities for its dealer partners.
Moving forward, the manufacturer will be hammering on the IT and A4 categories, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see it add more category specialists in the not-too-distant future. But what becomes of Lexmark’s new 9 series of A3 printers and MFPs? Bruno is unable to comment on the subject until the deal is finalized (pending regulatory approvals) this summer. The same holds true for personnel, particularly people such as Clark Bugg. The VP of North America channel sales is an industry treasure who’s synonymous with Lexmark, and Xerox should make every effort to keep him on board.
WE’RE ON FACEBOOK, and yes, this publication is only about 10 years late to the party. But ENX needed to have a presence to better connect with our industry friends, especially dealers. We’ll be sharing your posts, particularly fundraisers, non-profit/charity events, summer events and other goings-on. Be sure to look us up and give us a follow. We’re still in the process of following every Elite Dealer, and we’ll get to all the industry contributors shortly.
