Ursula Burns was ready to leave Xerox for Dell. Then one phone call changed her career path

Ursula Burns was preparing to leave Xerox for a job at Dell in 2001, when the company was struggling with the possibility of bankruptcy. She had lined up the job and was about to move to Texas with her husband and two children when a call from Xerox board member Vernon Jordan prompted her to reconsider.

Burns stayed with Xerox, where she had begun as an engineering intern in 1980. In July 2009, she succeeded Anne Mulcahy as CEO, completing a journey from engineering to the company’s top leadership role.

Her rise involved years of work across manufacturing, supply-chain operations and business management. It also came after a period when she had seriously considered leaving the company.

The Vernon Jordan Conversation That Persuaded Burns to Stay at Xerox

Xerox was in serious financial trouble in 2001. CEO Rick Thoman, who had joined from IBM, had lost the confidence of investors and management, and Burns was ready to leave. She had secured a position at Dell when Jordan, a member of Xerox’s board, called her.

In her account of the conversation at a Fortune event for powerful women in business, Burns recalled that Jordan asked whether she would stay with a longtime spouse who had become ill. He then posed a second scenario, if a younger, more appealing suitor came along after years in a relationship, would she stay with the partner she had invested in or leave for something new?

Burns said she would stay in both situations. She recalled that she then realised she was key to saving Xerox.

When Burns learned that the board planned to appoint Mulcahy, another longtime Xerox executive who embraced the need for major change, as CEO, she abandoned her plan to leave.

How Ursula Burns Rose From Xerox Intern to Senior Executive

Burns began at Xerox as a summer intern in 1980. The company encouraged her to pursue a master’s degree and paid for her education. She then got a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from Columbia University in 1981, as per London Business School report. She joined Xerox full time after completing her graduate degree.

While Burns had planned to build her career as an engineer rather than become a business leader. Her work gradually brought her into decisions involving customers, product pricing and business models.

After five years in an engineering laboratory, she took on broader responsibilities. She later served as an executive assistant to Wayland Hicks, who oversaw major sales, service and administrative functions, and then to Paul Allaire, Xerox’s chairman and CEO. Those roles gave her a closer view of the company’s leadership.

During an organisational restructuring, Allaire placed Burns on a team of 20 senior employees asked to provide feedback on Xerox’s structure. She was subsequently put in charge of the office colour and fax business, a small, unprofitable unit that had no office-colour products at the time.

Her assignment was to make the business break even or close it. The role gave her experience in profit and loss management, sales, manufacturing and supply-chain operations. She later went on to manage larger businesses.

Anne Mulcahy Helped Prepare Burns for the CEO Role

Xerox’s leadership changed during its financial difficulties in 2000. Thoman was replaced by Mulcahy, who had been running the company’s Small Business division.

Burns agreed to work for Mulcahy, although she had been considering leaving largely because of the leadership situation under Thoman. Mulcahy asked her to find ways to save a couple of billion dollars in her area while continuing to run manufacturing and taking on more responsibility for supply chains and internal operations.

The two executives developed a strong working relationship. Burns said, Mulcahy'strength was in "aligning people, bringing them together to work toward a common goal. Her emotional intelligence is off the charts," adding, "It was a great way for me to take the next step in my development, which was to learn how to integrate things such as the near term and the long term. How to keep superiors informed about really important things that they wouldn’t even know to ask you about," as quoted by London Business School.

After Mulcahy had been CEO for several years, she and the board began considering succession. Given the company’s past difficulties with outside appointments, they wanted to look for a successor internally.

Burns understood that Mulcahy and board members were discussing her as a possible candidate. The board spoke with her about her commitment to Xerox and her responsibility to a company that had given her opportunities. Mulcahy told Burns she would get the CEO position but still had a couple of years of learning to do, and that she was not planning to leave immediately.

The time under Mulcahy’s guidance helped Burns prepare for the responsibilities of running the company.