Today's business leaders must increasingly focus on their company's environmental impact and corporate responsibility, Anne Mulcahy, the former Xerox chief executive officer and current chairman of the Xerox Corporation, said in a lecture in the Rockefeller Center on Wednesday.
Mulcahy began her career at Xerox as a field sales representative in 1975 "by accident," she said. She described how the lessons she learned in leadership positions within the company prepared her to handle the challenges she faced as the struggling company's CEO in 2001.
"It was certainly a low point for the company in the early part of this decade when I first became CEO," Mulcahy said in an interview with The Dartmouth. "The company was in terrible trouble, on the brink of bankruptcy, and there were moments when the problem seemed overwhelming."
Mulcahy said her family and Xerox co-workers were crucial to her organization of the rebuilding process.
"I think you have to reach out to multiple places sometimes to create a network to help and support you," Mulcahy said in the interview. "Xerox really had a culture and community which was very conducive to being able to realize your ambitions."
Mulcahy, in her lecture, said effective leaders must listen to the needs of shareholders, customers, and employees, shape a clear vision of both short-term and long-term goals for their organization, ensure that the organization invests in the future, align teams around a common set of objectives and obtain access honest critics.
"You learn a lot when you lead a company that is in a serious crisis navigating through some very turbulent times," Mulcahy said in her lecture. "I've been struck by this growing awareness in the business community that we need, today more than ever, leaders who not only strive for achievement and results, but are also concerned with impact and with legacy."
Leaders must have a "paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will to build great teams while maintaining a stoic resolve to make companies great," Mulcahy said.
Mulcahy told audience members that her first, interrelated priorities as CEO were to restore confidence in the company and to rebuild the company's reputation. Mulcahy said she assembled a team to outline a number of "strategic thrusts" for the company to work toward.
"We identified three planks to grow our business successfully," she said, describing initiatives to transform Xerox into an environmentally conscious and "services-led, technology-enabled" international corporation. "These became the execution report card that we measured ourselves on."
Mulcahy was responsible for the launch of Xerox's initiative for sustainable development, which she said she believes was crucial for the long-term development of the company.
"It became very clear to me that democracy and free enterprise on one hand, and economic development and the quality of life on the other hand, not only are linked, but they're actually synergistic," Mulcahy said. "This concept of achievement versus impact provides a powerful approach to how we think about leadership. The good news is, I don't think they're mutually exclusive."
Mulcahy attributed the gradual restoration of Xerox's reputation to efforts to network within the international business community and build relationships with employees within the company.
"Mulcahy had established a large number of relationships that she was able to call upon when she needed to," Hector Motroni '66, former senior vice president, chief staff officer and chief ethics officer under Mulcahy at Xerox, said in an interview with The Dartmouth. "They had tremendous faith in Anne and her ability to help pull Xerox out of trouble."
Motroni attended Mulcahy's lecture on Wednesday.
Now retired as CEO, Mulcahy expressed excitement about the future of women in business.
"I want to demonstrate the do-ability' to women you can have a big time career, you can have a family, you can have a life these things aren't mutually exclusive," she said in an interview. "It's becoming more and more feasible every day for women to not have to make impossible choices. Women can actually choose to be multi-dimensional and to be successful in careers."
