The Xerox Corporation was a legendary company known for their photocopiers. However in the late 90s, they were facing a downturn to competitor Canon. This eventually led to hiring CEO Rick Thoman, who was set to make Xerox profitable again. However there were a number of flaws, CFO Barry Romeril had done a poor job overseeing corporate finances. This led to some creative accounting which reported a $119 million write-off from a subsidiary that only brings in $400 million. Eventually this caused a lawsuit from the Securities and Exchange Commission for overstating earnings. Thoman wanted Romeril fired for incurring a 13% loss in net worth of Xerox. He also wanted to restructure global sales to better compete. Dolan, president of global sales, disagreed. The executives of Xerox were close acquaintances which led to the blocking the restructuring of global sales. Eventually, Thoman was fired. However, Xerox was on the verge of Bankruptcy for a long.
Most of the problems associated with Xerox was the management structure. The executives were close acquaintances and they didn't want to admit mistakes and change their ways of business at Xerox. However it should be noted that many of the executives were lost in their own jobs. The duties that they carried out were scattered and didn't know where to pick up. No matter how much they manipulate the financials, Xerox still needed to reshape their global sales to attract new clients while maintaining their client base.
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