Organization Design in Action On the eve of the twenty-first century, Xerox was on top of the world, but less than two years later, many considered it a has-been. Xerox was founded in 1906 as the Haloid Company, a photographic supply house that developed the world's first xerographic copier in 1959. While the 914 copier was a money-making machine, Xerox became a victim of its own success. Leaders didn't look beyond the 70 percent gross profit margins of the 914 copier while younger, smaller companies were developing money- making products and services. Xerox's market share declined from 95 percent to 13 percent by 1982. Outsiders, however, believe the failure had to do with Xerox's dysfunctional culture which was slow to adapt and paralyzed by politics. Thoman was brought in to shake things up, but when he tried, the old guard rebelled. The failed CEO succession illustrates the massive challenge of reinventing a century-old company. Xerox had restructured, cut costs, and reinvented itself for two decades, but little had changed. In August 2001, Allaire turned over the CEO reins to Anne Mulcahy who challenged the status quo. She launched a turnaround plan that included massive cost cutting and the closing of several money-losing operations. Mulcahy thought about succession plans, and in 2009 she handed the top job to her second-in- command, Ursula Burns, the first African- American woman to head a Fortune 500 company. Burns set a new course to dominate the office of tomorrow. A decade after this American icon almost crashed, Xerox is once again admired in the corporate world