By Gregory Pings, editor, Corporate and Employee Communications
So there I was, standing in a store and trying to find a proper shirt to wear while I’m running. No mere vanity here! I need shirts that will wick-away my sweat and keep me cool as I train for a marathon.
A clerk approached me, asked how he can help, then took me to where the runners’ shirts are displayed. He stayed with me and answered all my questions, but they did not have the color I wanted. (OK, so that part was vain.) “No problem,” he said, and he arranged to send me the shirts from their warehouse me the next day – for the in-store price, and no shipping charges.
That guy understood the concept of the golden thread – a metaphor that illustrates how each person in a business is connected to the company’s customers.
I’m the editor of @Xerox, the electronic magazine for our employees, and our last issue asked Xerox employees to consider their connection to our customers. Xerox has 140,000 people who approach their customers in their own way. Researchers, service techs, account associates, sales reps, and – yes – editors, writers, marketers, and many more, are linked to Xerox customers. Each of us has a golden thread that we nurture with care. @Xerox has collected a number of stories that talk about our golden threads, and I offer these stories to you for your consideration.
There is one caveat to this invitation. Many of these stories include hyperlinks that will not work. That’s because those links are behind our firewall, and can be accessed only by employees. (Such is the fate of hyperlinks in an employee magazine.) But I think you’ll appreciate the articles anyway.
Consider this an invitation to see what Xerox has become – and what our people can do for your people.
Xerox, once a mainstay of copiers, printers, and reams upon reams of paper, produces an employee magazine that does not require so much as a single ounce of pulp. Our company has changed, and @Xerox describes how these changes play out in our services and our technology.
Moreover, the magazine is produced in-house by the same group that provides these publication services for our customers – that’s the design, translation into other languages, and production according to my group’s specifications.
Is this something that Xerox can do for your company?
Greg took up long-distance running about three years ago. He has competed in two half-marathons and a number of shorter races. After taking a one-year break from running, he’s training for the Philadelphia marathon. “I still can’t believe I’m doing this.”
