Ursula Burns Interview: Her Path to Xerox's Top

I grew up in New York City, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, in the housing projects on Delancey Street. I was born in 1958 and lived there with my mother, older brother, and younger sister. It was the heart of the Civil Rights era, a time of great social and economic change. We were very poor, but my mother shielded us from the uncertainty. The projects were in physical disrepair and unsafe, but the people were strong families just trying to make a better life. We navigated it and had a regular family life with rules and chores.

My mother was my entire parent structure. My father was absent, but when I was 16 he called. I spoke to him for the first time, and eventually we met, but I had no real desire to know him because my mother was so complete. She was uninterested in herself and totally focused on us. She taught us life lessons: 'Make sure you happen to things' and 'Leave behind more than you take.' She was frank and forceful, but always fair.

She was born and raised in Panama and came to the United States with my father when she was 25. He served in the Army, and she was a high school graduate. She was very frank and would yell like any parent, but her sayings stuck with me. She always said, 'All you have to worry about is one acceptance,' and 'You must leave behind more than you take.' She instilled in us the importance of initiative and positive impact.

My mother was a serial bargain hunter. We would walk to flea markets and she would clean offices in exchange for dental and medical care. I hated shopping with her, but I loved walking together. She was a daycare worker, so kids were delivered to our house. After work, she would clean offices, and we would have to sit still in the chairs. It was torturous at the time, but those are the memories that come to mind.

Yeah, going to college was not a big decision at all. It was not optional. It was a normal part of our conversation: you go to high school, then college, and then what will you do? I applied to many competitive colleges, and through a program called HEOP, I got into Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute. I was behind at first, but I caught up quickly and became a tutor. Being behind actually helped me gain a unique position.

I found my voice in high school at an all-girl Catholic school. It was a thinking school; we learned to read critically, write well, and analyze. We did a project on the national budget and I learned to stand up. In college, I realized I was smarter than people thought. I rose up because I had a voice and I was smart.

I learned from my mother that if you have a chance to speak, you should speak. If you have an opinion, you should make it be known. She would always say I was wrong and strong 90% of the time, meaning I was totally off base but did it with forcefulness. So she told me to watch out for being wrong and strong. As I got older, I watched out for that. You want to be right and strong. I learned my voice throughout my life. There's a point where you can't go back. This idea of having less to lose than to gain, so I tried a lot of things. I traveled as soon as I had the chance. If somebody said do this job, I would say yes. The gain was nearer to lose in most endeavors. I learned that from my mother. I didn't make a conscious choice to go into business. At Xerox, we call it true diversity, opportunity, and hard work. I had a lot of opportunities to do all kinds of things. I never made a conscious choice to flip from here to there. My acumen started leaning towards larger global systems problems. Systems problems are how you take the customer, environment, technology, and internal to put together a solution that is best for shareholders, employees, and customers. I like complex challenges, so I went to that end because that was where I excelled.

There were a couple of defining moments in my career. The first was my first job, when I was given a lab and a guy named Dick Shack worked for me. He was a phenomenal lab technician, older and more experienced. He taught me more about life and how things really get done. The second defining moment was when I met my husband. He wasn't my husband then, but he walked out of his office and said I walked up and down the halls and never engaged. He told me about a quality of work life council meeting. I went because I thought he was cute. At that meeting, Waylon Hicks, who ran all internal functions, was doing a roundtable. Someone asked a question about bringing in women and minorities, implying that they lower standards. Waylon answered it. I spoke up and said I was astonished he would give it any time of day. After the meeting, my husband told me that Waylon Hicks runs the place. I thought the worst that can happen is I get fired. The next day, Waylon's admin called me to come to his office. I sweated about it, but when I went in, he said I was right that he could have approached the answer differently, but my approach was probably not the best. We had a back and forth that lasted years, and he became a good friend. That encounter was the start of a lot. Waylon and I are like night and day — he's a middle American conservative Republican, and I'm an urban New York liberal Democrat. We argued about everything, but I learned you can actually like and respect someone who is so different. It was a defining moment not only in work but also personally.

The first 20 years of my career I didn't even think about it. In the first 10 years, I didn't even know there was a CEO. As I got more senior, I realized what CEOs did. I remember telling Waylon on a flight that I could do a guy's job with my eyes closed. He said I didn't have credibility yet. That's when I started to realize the difference between me and them wasn't that big. They were just human beings with experience. When I started working for Paul Allaire, I met Vernon Jordan, who reinforced that I was pretty good. About five years into that, I realized I could probably be CEO. It's about accomplishment and timing. I realized I had the capacity about 10 years ago, and the possibilities about eight years ago. It worked out well, but I could have been happy as a senior executive.

It was the most amazing thing. When I was formally told I became CEO, I couldn't believe it. I kind of knew six months before, but it had to be voted on. The day it was announced, I said, 'This is the best goddamn thing in the world.' I had worked my only job at Xerox for 30 years. To be given the honor to lead it was flabbergasting. I called home, and my daughter answered. She didn't believe me. There was a huge positive uproar about being the first black female CEO and the first female-to-female CEO handoff. I expected the first but thought it would blow over. It didn't. The second I never thought about. That positive uproar still holds today, but I hope there will be more. It's all about pipeline. It takes experiences and time. We need to get people through and keep them past year seven to year seventeen. Women often opt out for various reasons. We need to figure out a structure that is more accepting of differences.

I didn't balance it very well. I kept redefining what balance meant. My definition is over your life, do you have a balance? At any specific time, I failed. When my kids were young, I failed at family because I spent more time with them. When they were older, I failed at family because I traveled. It's never balanced at a specific time. If it is, I feel unsettled.

Work hard.

Think about your future. Have a reasonably good idea of what you want it to look like. Look at the whole story. Envision the life you want to lead and live. Find something to do that you love. If you don't love it, find something else.

A mathematician or a scientist. I didn't know what engineers were. I was pretty good at that stuff. I didn't know what they got paid. I'm proud of my kids. My husband and I are trying to raise contributors to the world. They are bright, socially aware, global, and not timid.

Working at Woolworths as a cashier.

Fearless, passionate, and fast.

Albert Einstein and Martin Luther King. Einstein because he was amazingly witty and smart, a wild guy who thought of stuff without boundaries. He was a crazy guy, I love him. Martin Luther King because he was fearless. He decided not to shut up and not stay home.

Absolutely. I think women are different than men, and that's a good thing. The differences should be celebrated by men and women. I don't think there should be equality of things we do; women should have their distinct value-added place in the world that they define. So yes, I'm a big feminist.

Both early bird and night owl. Methodical. Taipei. Direct. Math. Impatient. Gap. Prepare and cram. Domestically skilled. Definitely not ten minutes early, never ten minutes late. Book smart and street smart. No doubt about it.