"the innovotion orm of the xerox Corporat|on"

PARC
W Palo Alto Research Center, is a research and co-
development company in Palo Alto, CaliIornia, with a
distinguished reputation Ior its contributions to
inIormation technology and hardware systems.
W ncorporated in 1970 as an independent but wholly owned
subsidiary oI Xerox, PARC has been responsible Ior such
well known and important developments as:
Laser printing,
Ethernet,
%he modern Personal Computer,
Graphical user interface (GUI)
Cont.
W a blank check & 10 years without corporate interIerence
W Weekly bean bag room meetings
W Soon, computer scientists recognized PARC as the leading
source oI research on how people interact with computers
W &% the decision to make PARC an independent Iirm,
proved to be a double-edged sword Ior Xerox
W Xerox`s loose management encouraged PARC to overstep
its charter, which was to do research, and not the basics oI
product development.
W Researchers used their Iree time to explore concepts Ior
personal computing that has since swept the industry.
AL%
W y mid-1970`s they made an expensive machine named
ALTO that had some attributes oI PC, which was
supposed to serve as a research prototype.
W t became so popular inside XEROX that PARC`s
researcher began to see it as an commercialized product.
W Product Development, however was the turI oI another
Xerox group, which was champoining a rival machine
called STAR (later as Xerox`s 8010)
S1A8 vs AL1C
RIVALARY
W 9A8C rebels goL over 100 AL1Cs lnsLalled ln a few
companles unlverslLys t xerox unwllllng Lo supporL
AL1C llquldaLed Lhe whole LesLmarkeLlng group ln 1980
W ohn Lllenby (Manager) founded Crld SysLems and used
concepL of blLmapped dlsplay flrsL used ln AL1C
W 8en WegbrelL (Manager) and hls 2 colleagues were
plcked by ConvergenL 1echnologles Lo make word
processlng program uslng plece Lable" (developed aL
9A8C)
W Charles Slmoyl (creaLed 88AvC a LexL edlLlng sofLware)
was hlred by MlcrosofL and laLer helped ln developlng
MlcrosofL Word a sLreamllned verslon of 8ravo
ConL
W Lawrence Tesler was hired by Steve Jobs to
use many Ieatures oI SmallTalk (a set oI
programming tools developed at PARC)
W The engineering manager oI Apple`s
Macintosh also came Irom PARC, where his
last big project was PC.
xerox's Loss
W Xerox had the chance to make it big in personal
computers with PARC`s creations ALTO, only iI
they had launched a less expensive ALTO in the late
1970`s
W Unlike the STAR, the ALTO was an open
computer, easy Ior outsiders to program.
W Xerox Iailed to Ioresee that today`s microcomputers
would be as powerIul as yesterday`s mainIrame
computers and that the cost oI computer memory
would decline 31 a year
Why xerox dldn'L launch AL1C?
W Xerox had and still has the ulterior motives in the
copier market, as the competition keeps
increasing
W Companies like Xerox that can sell complete
oIIice systems (printers, data-storage devices)
have a stronger grip on their customers than do
suppliers oI stand-alone equipments
W Thus the STAR which works well only when
hooked up with other Xerox gears, seemed to Iit
the company`s strategy better than Iree-standing
little computers would (ALTO).
xerox's Approach
W Xerox wanted to build absolutely the best oIIice
system instead oI taking things bit by bit
W or Example. Xerox had big hopes on a PARC
invented cable, Ethernet. Watching the success of
Ethernet, Xerox raised the cost drastically
($5,000/connection). %his discouraged sales but
the new chip technology sliced the cost and over
70 office equipment makers were using Ethernet.
%he temporary set-back helped Ethernet in
becoming the industry standard.
ConL
W xerox's supporL of 9A8C has never wavered wlLh
Lhe budgeL of $33 mllllon LhaL year
W xerox's 1
sL
prlorlLy ls Lo expand Lhe number of
xerox producLs LhaL wlll communlcaLe over
LLherneL
W Maklng wlnner ouL of S1A8 would Lake more
efforL because Lhe Lechnology ls old and plus lLs
very expenslve
W xerox wanLs Lo brlng ouL a less cosLly verslon of
Lhe $13000 S1A8 so as Lo narrow Lhe markeL
share of Apple's LlSA
9A8C 1oday
W AfLer 3 decades as a dlvlslon of xerox 9A8C
was Lransformed ln 2002 lnLo an lndependenL
wholly owned subsldlary company dedlcaLed
Lo developlng and maLurlng advances ln
sclence and buslness concepLs wlLh Lhe
supporL of commerclal parLners and cllenLs
ConL
W xerox remalns Lhe companys largesL cusLomer
(30) buL 9A8C has numerous oLher
corporaLe and venLure cllenLs ln dlfferenL
flelds of use Lhan xerox lncludlng vMware
lu[lLsu ual nlppon 9rlnLlng Co LLd (un9)
Samsung nLC Sollocus 9owerseL and many
more
Conclusion
When a company wanLs Lo make lL blg ln a
new buslness a solld base of Lechnology ls
necessary 8uL lLs hardly sufflclenL WlLhouL a
clear undersLandlng of corporaLe sLraLegy and
pressure from hungry markeLlng group even
Lhe besL LechnologlsLs can geL ouL of hand
1he Lrlcky parL ls Lo sLrlke a balance beLween
encouraglng creaLlvlLy and geLLlng money's
worLh
@- CU!