Health Issues
Case Assignment Week 3 Page.175 Questions 1-4
1- Why was the succession of Ursula Burns to the top position at Xerox considered historic?
Ursula Burns was the first African-American woman to lead a major U.S. corporation and the first female CEO to take the reins from another women in a company. After she was named CEO she was on a plane to Europe on a 30 day mission to meet with the staff outside the United States where Xerox has almost half of its sales. She wanted to meet the clients and discuss ways to get customers to buy again. Burns is a strong leader who has an unusual ability to understand the power of technology and innovation. Also, she was the first to lead a large public company. Burns has a very strong understanding of the business and its challenges. She helped downsize the workforce by close to 40% to 57,100 from 94,600. Another factor in Burn’s rise has been the strength and depth of Xerox’s commitment to diversity. In 2007, she was named president.Burns is a Xerox veteran, coming in as an intern to later joining the team full-time. She quickly went up the corporate ladder that was mostly done by white males. Also having and African-American female in such a high position was a great accomplishment.
2- Why are there so few woman and minority CEOs of large corporations?
I think there seems to be so few women and minority CEOs of large corporations because we have yet to feel that a women and/or minority can really take control of a large corporation. Or better yet I don’t think many are still not comfortable with having a women and/or minority as the face of a large corporation. It’s been a custom to have white males as the ‘leaders” for many years and has been hard to let that go. I also believe the person stepping down from the position wants to have someone “like” them to replace them and if it’s a man then they would want a man to come in. We as people don’t always do so well with changes.
3- What steps have Managers
1- Why was the succession of Ursula Burns to the top position at Xerox considered historic?
Ursula Burns was the first African-American woman to lead a major U.S. corporation and the first female CEO to take the reins from another women in a company. After she was named CEO she was on a plane to Europe on a 30 day mission to meet with the staff outside the United States where Xerox has almost half of its sales. She wanted to meet the clients and discuss ways to get customers to buy again. Burns is a strong leader who has an unusual ability to understand the power of technology and innovation. Also, she was the first to lead a large public company. Burns has a very strong understanding of the business and its challenges. She helped downsize the workforce by close to 40% to 57,100 from 94,600. Another factor in Burn’s rise has been the strength and depth of Xerox’s commitment to diversity. In 2007, she was named president.Burns is a Xerox veteran, coming in as an intern to later joining the team full-time. She quickly went up the corporate ladder that was mostly done by white males. Also having and African-American female in such a high position was a great accomplishment.
2- Why are there so few woman and minority CEOs of large corporations?
I think there seems to be so few women and minority CEOs of large corporations because we have yet to feel that a women and/or minority can really take control of a large corporation. Or better yet I don’t think many are still not comfortable with having a women and/or minority as the face of a large corporation. It’s been a custom to have white males as the ‘leaders” for many years and has been hard to let that go. I also believe the person stepping down from the position wants to have someone “like” them to replace them and if it’s a man then they would want a man to come in. We as people don’t always do so well with changes.
3- What steps have Managers