The ability to persevere in the face of what may seem impossible odds is the story of Ursula Burns, who began her career as an engineering intern at Xerox and rose to become CEO of the company in 2009. Burns talked with Pearl Doherty about her career at Xerox. More on Ursula Burns at http://bit.ly/16Zv6vp [video] and http://bit.ly/14tE3cr [article].

1. The ability to persevere in the face
of what may seem impossible odds
is the story of Ursula Burns,who
began her career as an engineering
intern at Xerox and rose to become
CEO of the company in 2009.
Burns talked with Pearl Doherty
about her career at Xerox.
pearl doherty Looking back, how do
you view your journey from a poor New
York City neighbourhood to becoming one
of the most powerful businesswomen in
the world?
ursula burns If you just look at the
demographics — I was a poor black
woman in a poor black family — you
would think there was no way in the
world that there would be options
available to me.The reality is, despite
that, I had very few limitations when
I was growing up. I was raised by my
mother, who was extremely poor, in
a very poor neighbourhood, basically
a ghetto. My mother told me very
early in life — and my brother and
sister as well — that where we were
was not who we were.Where you
live, she pointed out, has nothing to
do with who you are.Who you are
is about your character, it’s about
the amount of energy you put into
things, it’s about how much control
you take of your whole life. She really
believed that you control your destiny,
LEADINGTHE
WAY
interviewUrsulaBurns
your future. So, when I was a kid, she
couldn’t change where we lived; but
she could invest a disproportionate
amount of her energy and her
resources towards our education.
PD Schooling, then, was key to
your success.
UB My mother’s highest pay, ever,
was $4,400 a year; yet, somehow she
managed to send me to a high school
that cost $65 a month. Multiply that
by three and you realise that half of her
salary went to our education. Early on,
I realised that this was a big deal. She
paid the money and I had to learn; I
knew my job was to get great grades.
My school didn’t offer advanced
mathematics or physics labs.What
we did was read and write — and
then write some more; it was a basic
education.We knew basic mathematics
and we knew how to study and learn.
The road out
PD Given how little in the way of
advanced studies were available to you,
what brought you to even think about
going into engineering?
UB In high school, one of the most
important things that you do is take
the SAT exam for college admittance.
Before that, you take a preliminary
SAT called the PSAT.When I took
the PSAT, the highest score I got was
in maths. As a result, I decided (along
Who you are is
about your character,
it’s about the amount
of energy you put
into things, it’s
about how much
control you take of
your whole life.
Ursula Burns
Watch our full interview
with Ursula Burns at
www.london.edu/bsr
BUSINESS
10 BUSINESS STRATEGY REVIEW ISSUE 1– 2012

2. URSULA BURNS: THE FIRST AFRICAN-AMERICAN WOMAN TO LEAD A MAJOR US CORPORATION
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Ursula Burns Leading the Way

3. what amounts to an elementary
chemistry class as well as a pre-
calculus class, I applied to several
colleges stating that I sought to
become an engineer. Surprisingly,
I was accepted at every school I
applied to. I got in via what they
call a ‘higher education opportunity
programme’, which was for kids who
have the potential to do college-level
work but hadn’t completed any of the
precursor courses.The idea behind
the programme was that, when you
entered college, you would take all
these remedial courses and then go on.
PD I take it you were successful in
your studies.
UB I enjoyed college and did well.When
I was almost finished with my degree,
a lot of different companies came on
campus to talk with us. One was the
Xerox Corporation, and it wanted me
to continue in school, get my master’s
degree and then come work for them. I
liked what I heard, so I spent a summer
as an intern at Xerox.Those whom I
worked for liked me, and Xerox put
me in a programme that paid for me
to go to graduate school at Columbia.
The rest, as they say, is history.
01 US President Barack Obama speaks
during a meeting of the President’s
Export Council with Ursula Burns, in
Washington DC, US
02 Xerox Corporation headquarters in
Norwalk, Connecticut, US
with my guidance counsellor) that I
would focus on maths. At that time,
in the late 1960s and early 1970s, if
you were a woman, there were three
things that a Catholic school thought
you could do.The first was to be a
nurse, the second was to be a teacher
and the third was to be a nun. Of these
three things, none fit my personality.
So I began to explore. I discovered
a book in the library that laid out
colleges by competitiveness, but it also
had a section on careers. I remember
looking through that section of the
book exploring what kind of career
you can get after four years of college.
PD Did you want to go to college?
UB Keep in mind, that in my family,
you had to go to college.There was
no other option. Although my mother
had no money to pay for college, her
assumption was that, if we got into
college, we would figure it out. For
me, the question was what career
could I choose that paid the most
money if I had that college degree. It
seemed that the best choice for me
was to become a chemical engineer.
So, I said, “Okay, that’s what I’ll do.”
Even though I had taken only
I wasn’t
inspired
to go into
business. My
intention was
never to go
into business
per se, to be
a business
leader...
Ursula Burns
...How did
you move into
management?
Pearl Doherty
01
02
gettyimages
PressAssociation
BUSINESS
12 BUSINESS STRATEGY REVIEW ISSUE 1– 2012

4. The road up
PD You entered Xerox as an engineer.
How did you move into management?
UB I wasn’t inspired to go into
business. My intention was never
to go into business per se, to be
a business leader. It was to be an
engineer. However, the further I got
into engineering, the more I found that
I had to connect with customers and
understand more and more business
models. I had to learn how this great
set of solutions that I was developing
would be priced, who would buy it
and how it would be used. As a result,
I became more and more familiar
with business elements. So, to grow
as an engineer, I had to grow and to
broaden myself out of engineering
and into business. As I did that, I got
paid more money; and the world of
business became more and more
interesting. It was kind of a natural
progression.There was no way to really
stay solely in engineering. In order for
me to practice my engineering to its
fullest, I had to grow. Now, managing
a business is what I love most; now, it’s
natural to be in that world every day.
PD What events or personal traits made it
possible for you to work your way up from
intern to CEO?
UB First, Xerox is all about
opportunities; and the company was
focused on diversity long before other
companies were.When you come to
work at Xerox, there’s time devoted
to training. Obviously, a lot of it is
technical training about xerography.
There’s also training about how to
work in a team. But what they’re
most interested in is your raw talent
and in your individuality. Xerox was
not interested in bringing you in and
changing you into something else.
They didn’t want me to be like all
the other engineers in the company.
When Xerox interviewed me, I
was urban, black and a woman. As
such, I had a certain approach to
things and a certain way of speaking
and Xerox was very interested in that.
At Xerox, the question is whether
(given the opportunity) you can
actually make good. Can you put in
the hard work needed to become a
success story? For Xerox, a success
story is not about money; it’s about
accomplishing a lot. It’s leaving behind
— in the workplace, the communities
you work in and the clients that you
work for — more than you take away.
When we engage with a client, we try
to understand what their problems
are and to solve them in a way so that
they say that working with Xerox was
a great experience.That approach to
business resonated with me, and it
made me happy with what I was doing.
PD And you moved from engineering to
management when...
UB After I worked in an engineering
lab for five years, someone stopped
me in the hall and said, you know,
you’ve been here for a long time. Don’t
you think you would be interested in
understanding what we really do as a
growingup
Born September 20, 1958,
in New York City, Burns grew
up in the Baruch Houses, a
New York City housing project.
The daughter of Panamanian
immigrants, she attended
Cathedral High School, an
all-girl Catholic school. She
then earned a BSc degree
in Mechanical Engineering
from Polytechnic Institute
of NYU in 1980 and an MSc
in Mechanical Engineering
from Columbia University a
year later.
EARLYCAREER
Burns joined Xerox in 1980 as
a summer intern. She worked
in various roles in product
development and planning.
Her career took an unexpected
turn in January 1990, when
Wayland Hicks, then a senior
executive, offered her a job as
his executive assistant. The
following year, she became
executive assistant to then
chairman and chief executive,
Paul Allaire. From 1992
through 2000, she led several
business teams including the
office colour and fax business
and the office network
printing business.
TOTHECSUITE
In 2000, she was named
senior vice president of
Corporate Strategic Services
and put in charge of
manufacturing and supply
chain operations. Following
that, she took on the broader
role of leading Xerox’s global
research as well as product
development, marketing
and delivery. At that time,
she began working closely
with soon-to-be CEO Anne
Mulcahy in what both
women describe as a true
partnership. She was named
CEO in July 2009, succeeding
Mulcahy, who remained as
chairwoman until May 2010.
Ursula Burns
03 Housing developments on the
Lower East Side, New York, US
04 Chester Carlson, inventor of the
first xerographic apparatus
03 04
Reuters
CourtesyofXeroxCorporation
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Ursula Burns Leading the Way

5. How did you
find that role?
Pearl Doherty
It was a phenomenal
job, an amazing
experience! Basically,
what I did was travel
with the CEO and
learn what was
required to operate
a huge corporate
enterprise.
Ursula Burns
company? I said that I thought I knew
what we did.We do experiments. He
said, “No.There are customers and
businesses and pricing, and there’re
a whole bunch of people all over the
United States and all over the world
who work for this company.”That
person was Dick Shell, and he got
me involved in work-life issues at the
company. It was during the touchy-
feely time of American corporations,
and we all were involved in things that
would make employees feel better and
get more engaged in the company.
From that, I gained broader
experience. Although I stayed in
engineering, I began to run some
small engineering teams.Then, I
was asked to work on a team doing
pricing on one of the solutions that
I was developing. I knew nothing
about pricing, but I was assigned
to work at pricing an accessory for
one of the machines. I had to start
thinking about new questions, such
as “How do you place a value on this
particular part of a customer solution
and how do you price it so people
could and would buy it?” Going
through that exercise was the first
major opening I had to the business
side, and it was really intriguing.
PD And you must have been good at it.
UB I obviously did that reasonably well
because, from then on, I was asked
to do more and more business-type
things. I spent a couple of years doing
pricing and forecasting and trying
to tie that back to how we set up the
manufacturing line to be the most
efficient.Then, I was pulled back into
engineering to run an even bigger
challenge, a very large programme; and
I spent quite a bit of time going back
and forth to Japan and other countries.
By the time I was in my seventh or
eighth year at Xerox, I had travelled to
just about every continent in the world.
PD What was the next step in your
evolution as a manager?
UB I was asked to be the executive
assistant forWayland Hicks, who ran
almost all of the sales, service and
admin functions for the company
worldwide. I worked for him for about
nine months. But this was at a time
when I was ready to go back home
because I was about to get married
— to Lloyd Bean, a fellow Xeroxer.
At that point, Paul Allaire, who was
then chairman and CEO, called me
into his office and asked me to be his
executive assistant. I felt I was beyond
that kind of role. I asked why I should
do it. He paused a little while, then said,
“Because I’m the CEO, and I asked you
to do it.” It was one of my first lessons
in not getting too big for your britches,
not assuming that you know all the
answers.When the CEO of a company
asks you to do something, you should
be honoured. So, I ended up taking
the job and staying in it for two years.
PD How did you find that role?
UB It was a phenomenal job, an
amazing experience! Basically, what
I did was travel with the CEO and
learn what was required to operate
a huge corporate enterprise. Some
of the work was being the person
who is the most accessible for him
when nobody else was around. For
example, when you’re in the car or
you’re stuck at the airport or trying
to go through a speech, it’s just this
intimacy with someone who would
normally be speaking to the CFO or
whoever, but they are not there, and
you are.The assignment taught me
that there was a lot more to business
than just engineering or just pricing
and forecasting.There was all this
political stuff that CEOs and business
leaders are involved in. I also discovered
that the level of stress involved in
leading was significantly higher than
I thought it was, and that the level
of control was significantly lower.
Anyway, it was a great job and
it taught me a lot because of Paul’s
personality.The other men I had
worked for had a more hard-driving,
aggressive approach to business, a
more ‘military’ approach. Paul was
exactly the opposite. He liked the
ballet, and he would leave work early
sometimes and go to the ballet with
his wife. It taught me that you could
actually have a life and be a business
success. It gave me hope. Paul
showed me that you could actually
fit into a company and still do things
outside the company that you like.
New firsts
PD What was the next major step in your
rise to the top?
UB After I’d been working with Paul
for a couple of years, Xerox went
through a big organisational redesign.
Paul placed me on the team in charge
of that, a team composed of the top
continued on page 16
Paul Allaire, who
was then chairman
and CEO, called me
into his office and
asked me to be his
executive assistant.
Ursula Burns
BUSINESS
14 BUSINESS STRATEGY REVIEW ISSUE 1– 2012

6. labourforce
The discrepancy between
women and men in earnings
and promotions grows greater
the higher you look up the
corporate ladder. A 2011 report
by Catalyst Research found that
women made up 46.3 per cent
of the US labour force and that
50.6 per cent of women were in
management, professional and
related occupations. However,
only 15.4 per cent of female
Fortune 500 corporate officers
were women and only 14.8 per
cent of Fortune 500 board seats
were held by women. Catalyst
also found that there were only
12 female CEOs of Fortune
500 companies and only 22
female CEOS in Fortune 1000
companies.
post-mba
In 2010, BusinessWeek reported
on a Catalyst survey that found
that “even after correcting for
years of experience, industry
and global region... women were
more likely than men to start
their first post-MBA job at a
lower level. That basic finding
held even when considering only
men and women who aspired to
senior executive level positions
and even among survey
respondents who did not have
children. Overall, 60 per cent of
women started on the post-MBA
career ladder at the lowest of
rungs, entry-level positions. For
men, that number was 46 per
cent.” The survey also noted
that men “had higher starting
salaries than women — even
after taking all the same factors
into account. Overall, men had a
pay premium in their first post-
MBA jobs of $4,600.”
race
When the issue of race is added
to the equation, a study by the
Alliance for Board Diversity
has found that not much has
changed over the last 100 years
when it comes to the number
of women and minorities on
corporate boards. The study
noted that “white males hold
72.9 per cent of the total
number of seats on Fortune
100 corporate boards and
white women hold another
14.5 per cent. Therefore, only
12.6 per cent of the seats are
held by members of under
represented minority groups.
African-Americans hold a total
of 6.3 per cent of the seats,
although they represent 13
per cent of the population.
Hispanics and Native American
citizens are also shut out almost
completely.”
leaders
Catalyst pointed out that “Avon
CEO Andrea Jung became the
first non-white woman to lead
a major US company in 1999.
Frank D. Raines, former chief
of Fannie Mae, became the first
African-American CEO of a top
company the same year.... By
2007, there were seven black
men running major corporations.
Since then, three have left.
While other black women have
run major divisions, Burns is
the first to lead a large public
company.”
One of the most frequent observations about
Ursula Burns’ success is the fact that she is the
first African-American woman to lead a major
US corporation and the first female CEO to take
the reins from another woman. Given the rise
in women graduating from college (in 2010,
55 per cent of American women but only 45
per cent of American men between 25 and 29
graduated) and the percentage of women now
in the workforce, this represents a failure on
the part of business to utilise a key resource.
barriersforwomen
Avon CEO
Andrea Jung
became the
first non-
white woman
to lead a
major US
company
in 1999.
Catalyst Research
White women hold 14.5 per cent
of the total number of seats on
Fortune 100 corporate boards.
White males hold 72.9 per cent
In 2010, 55 per cent of American
women but only 45 per cent of
American men between 25 and 29
graduated from college
Overall, 60 per cent of women
started on the post-MBA career
ladder at the lowest of rungs,
entry-level positions. For men, that
number was 46 per cent
60
%
55%
14.5%
Reuters
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Ursula Burns Leading the Way

7. 20 people in the company — and
me — primarily so I could give
him direct feedback on what was
happening.The team suggested that
we divide the company into some 20
business units, one of which was a
really small, unprofitable, unpopular
one that was called Facsimile. I was
honoured for my service on this team
by being given this business unit to run.
Literally from engineer to learning a
little bit about business to becoming
executive assistant to now being the
vice president and general manager
of office colour — which had no
products — and fax. I remember that
I felt like I had arrived in the world.
Paul gave me the position and then
added, “Break even or close it down.”
It was the best possible job for me
at the time because I had never run
an integrated business in my life. I
had never had the responsibility to
deliver a PL or to work directly with
a sales team or to work directly with
manufacturing and connect all the
things in the rest of the supply chain.
Now, I had to generate revenue and
not lose a dollar in the business. It was
great. I had 100 people on the team
in Dallas and was able to call them all
together and have a communications
meeting in five minutes. I had a
great time. After that, I moved on to
manage bigger and bigger businesses.
PD Wasn’t it around that time that Xerox
began to have big problems?What role did
you have during those difficult days?
UB Indeed, we did get into severe
trouble in 2000. At the time, I was
basically running the manufacturing
portion of our business.We had
brought in a CEO from IBM and that
leadership change didn’t go very well.
We ended up replacing him with Anne
Mulcahy, the most unlikely CEO in
the world. At the time, she was running
our Small Business division. Soon
after the decision to choose her was
made, Paul Allaire called me and said,
“We’re going to make Anne CEO.
Would you work for Anne?” I said,
“Sure”. At this point, I was thinking of
leaving the company primarily because
of the old CEO. It’s not because I
didn’t like him personally. I just didn’t
think we were on the right track.
PD What was it like to work for a just-
appointed CEO?
Well, Anne and I met and she told
me that what she wanted me to do
was find a way to save a couple of
billion dollars in my portion of the
business. She wanted me to stay and
to run manufacturing and take on
more of the supply chain and the
internal workings of the company. It
was another great experience, even
though under very bad circumstances.
PD You and Mulcahy formed a
remarkable team,one that led to the first
time a woman CEO was replaced by
another woman.Can you describe that
relationship?
Anne was great. Her strength was in
aligning people, bringing them together
to work toward a common goal. Her
emotional intelligence is off the charts.
Basically, all I had to do was tell her
when I was stuck with a problem or
I had a dilemma. Otherwise, I could
go off and do my thing. It was a great
way for me to take the next step in
my development, which was to learn
how to integrate things such as the
near term and the long term. How to
keep superiors informed about really
important things that they wouldn’t
even know to ask you about.
After Anne was CEO for several
years, she and the board began to
think about succession planning.They
felt they should look inside, especially
given our history of trouble when we
brought someone in from outside. I
understood that Anne and some board
members were speaking about me. I
was known inside the company because
I ran a number of operations; and I was
known outside the company because I
was a black, female engineer running
a big portion of a major company.
PD This was before Xerox needed a new
CEO,wasn’t it?
Yes. At that time, Anne was not ready
to leave. She was doing a great job;
but there was the question of timing,
of how much commitment you can
get from the individual who is sitting
there, waiting. So, the board spoke to
me about commitment and about my
responsibility to a place that had given
me a whole bunch of opportunities.
Anne spoke to me also and explained
that I would get the position but that
I had a couple of years of learning
to do and that she was not leaving
for a while. It was perfect. Under
her guidance, I learned an enormous
amount of what it would take and, in
2009, the role of CEO became mine.
Resources
Adam Bryant, ‘Xerox’s new
chief tries to redefine its
culture’, The New York Times,
(February 20, 2010).
nytimes.com
‘Women at the top’, In the
Financial Times’ 2011 list of the
top 50 women in world business,
Burns was ranked number 4.
ft.com
Ellen McGirt, ‘Fresh copy:
How Ursula Burns reinvented
Xerox’, Fast Company.
fastcompany.com
pearl doherty
pdoherty@london.edu
Doherty is In-House Producer,
Director and Production
Manager of London Business
School. She previously
worked at BBC Television.
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