In Corporate America there are few research labs left. Basically, Wall Street tends to focus on short-term result. Why then invest lots of money on something that may take years to hit critical mass?
Well, in the case of Xerox (NYSE: XRX), the philosophy is much different. That is, its research labs are a critical part of the company's competitive advantage.
In fact, I recently had a chance to talk to Steve Hoover, who is the head of Xerox's Webster research lab.
Admittedly, I kind of envy his job. It must be cool tinkering with way-out technologies, huh?
"I try to find ways to allow ideas to bloom," said Hoover. "For example, we have meeting-free Fridays. Or, there are 'cookie days,' where we bring cookies and talk about cutting-edge ideas. It could be an interesting book, blog."
"It seems to work. Some of the recent innovations include things like text mining. With it, you can analyze huge amounts of data – regardless of language, format and location. The system then provides the most relevant answers -- not huge lists of results -- and can help deal with detecting fraud, managing risk, finding legal precedents and so on. It's like Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) on steroids.
"Another interesting technology is intelligent redaction. This essentially scans documents – interpreting their meaning – and blocking out sensitive areas. Just imagine how useful this would be in an M&A transaction or big-time litigation?
"So far, the technologies are focused on larger enterprises. But with the growth in on-demand software, it seems like a good idea to make limited versions for everyone."
Hopefully, it's something brought up at a cookie day.
Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook
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