Xerox Corporation was founded in 1906 as Haloid Photographic
Company, a manufacturer of paper and equipment for photographers. In 1946
Haloid bought the right to develop Chester Carlson’s process for printing
images using an electrically charged drum and dry powder (hence “xerography,”
or “dry writing”). The company’s name was changed from “Haloid Xerox” to “Xerox”
in 1961. Headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut, Xerox has 140,000 employees in
160 countries. The main About Us page is Xerox at a
Glance.
OVERALL GRADE: A
Personality: A
Highlighted quotes from Chairman and CEO Ursula M. Burns
appear throughout the Xerox About Us pages. We have seldom seen the words of the leader of a
company used more effectively to indicate the values of the company and
the direction it’s going. Also exceptional is Burns’s
bio, an engaging story that begins with her summer internship at Xerox and
relates her rise through the ranks, including links to pages for departments
she was involved with. The sidebar on the right side and the “Ursula Burns in
the News” subhead give easy access to speeches and interviews.
Our Commandment 3
of About Us pages is, “Reveal thy personality.” Often the best way to do that
is to recount the founder’s vision. But Xerox is no longer primarily concerned
with photography or photocopies, so the extensive quotes from the current CEO
are better suited to show the direction the company is going.
Products/Services: B
The main About Us
page is an overview of the company, including a brief summary (with an optional video in a small box: bravo!) and information on the number of employees,
active patents, R&D spending, leadership, locations, and core values. Side
menus allow access to company information, products and services, and helpful
resources. This page packs a lot of information into an uncluttered layout, but,
perplexingly, there are no links where we’re clearly invited to learn more: “Do
you have what it takes to join the team?”, “See how we’ve been creating
business solutions for more than a century.”
The News page is
excellent and comprehensive. Tweets appear in a scrolling column on the left, blog
posts in the center. On the right are subheads for Xerox’s own press releases (available
via search or by category), for Multimedia, and for Additional Resources
(including press contacts). At the bottom of the page are Featured Images. Although
this page appears uncluttered, it accomplishes the phenomenal task of allowing visitors
to choose between a wide range of options, mostly without scrolling or loading new
pages.
The Timeline of
Business Innovation and Design is a disappointment. We can’t get an overview
of the company history: instead, we’re forced to slog through decade by decade.
A short narrative history above the timeline would be very welcome.
Incidentally, as historians and philologists, we’d love to read the derivation
of the Xerox name as part of the business history. These shortcomings are extra-disappointing
because Xerox’s history
video, featuring 75 years in 75 seconds, is exemplary corporate
storytelling.
Accessibility: A
Xerox’s Contact Us
pages offer a wealth of well-organized information. The main page gives seven
choices (e.g., Billing and Account Administration, Research and Innovation).
Clicking on one takes us to a three-column page with information on specific
divisions (e.g., Palo Alto Research Center, Xerox India Innovation Hub). For
each division, we can see not only contact information, but what the division
focuses on (e.g., strategic materials research, multimedia research, systems integration,
document management). Providing contact information in this much detail reads
as a sure sign that Xerox does indeed want to hear from us.
TAKEAWAY
If your CEO often lectures or gives interviews, as Xerox’s
does, quotes should feature prominently on your About Us pages. If your company
issues press releases, blog posts, and tweets, and is often mentioned in the
media as well, make it easy for visitors to your site to find all that
information easily.
Does your Web site’s “About Us” section
accurately convey your organization’s history and capabilities? Every two weeks
we evaluate one example, grading it in three areas that are key to potential
customers: Personality (Who are you?), Products/Services (What can you do for
us?), and Accessibility (How can we reach you?). To talk about your About Us
page, contact us!
Today’s example was chosen at random;
CorporateHistory.net has no ties to this company.
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