Our third management function, leading,involves inspiring and motivating workers to work hard to achieve organizational goals. When Anne Mulcahy became XEROX’s CEO, the company was on the brink of bankruptcy-it was $17.1 billion in debt and had only $154 million in cash. In addition,3 years of steeply declining revenues and increasing losses had dropped the company’s stock price from $64 a share to just $4.43. Mulcahy admitted that the responsibility of turning the company around frightened her: “Northing spooked me as much as waking up in the middle of the night and thinking about 96,000 people and retirees and what would happen if this thing went south. Still,she took the job.
Mulcahy,who traveled to two and sometimes three cities a day to talk to Xerox managers and employees,implores them to “save each dollar as if it ware your own.”And at each stop, she reminded them, “Remember,by my calculations,there are [she fills in the number] selling days left in quarter.” Mulcahy said, “One of the things I care most about at Xerox is the morale and motivation the company. Engaged, motivated and feel they are making a contribution to something that is important. I spend the vast majority of my time with customer and employees, and there is nothing more important for any of us to do as leaders than communicate and engage with our two most important constituencies.”