MY YEARS AT XEROX: The Billions Nobody Wanted

by John H. Dessauer ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 17, 1971

Recently a New Yorker cartoon pictured a conservatively dressed young man at a job interview saying, ""My heroes, sir? Those visionary men who bought Xerox in the fifties."" This book is about the men who made the fabulous profits possible and the process which concurrently revolutionized business management practices around the world in a few short years. John Dessauer, a Xerox career man who retired last year as executive vice-president and head of the Research and Engineering Division, describes it all in a non-technical, uninflected style, from Chester Carlson's little black box (from whence came the first electro-photographic process), through the frustrating years of the Haloid Company (doughty forerunner of the Xerox Corporation), the breakthroughs of the '50's, to the advent of the 914 copier and its more productive successors which have made Xerox a household name and its stockholders rich. There is a McGuffey-Reader quality about this success story, and Dessauer does not hesitate to extol scientists and engineers as the new captains of industry: ""They are developing products undreamed of a few years ago, and it is they who now seek new worlds to conquer."" Could we start with a better paper-shredder?

Pub Date: Sept. 17, 1971

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1971

Categories: NONFICTION