Science & Tech Quote by Antonio Perez

“Xerox did OK” is the kind of understatement that reads polite while landing a quiet punch. Perez frames the company’s digital pivot as competent-but-uninspired, then pivots to the real agenda: narrowing the definition of success until it fits Xerox’s comfort zone. The line about the consumer market isn’t just an excuse; it’s a boundary marker. He’s arguing that failure can be reclassified as irrelevance if you declare the battlefield wasn’t yours.

As a statesman’s remark (or at least adopting that posture), it carries the logic of governance: define jurisdictions, assign responsibilities, manage expectations. “They’re not a consumer brand” functions like a diplomatic memo. It turns a strategic weakness into an identity claim, suggesting that ambition outside the office and enterprise sphere would be a category error. That’s less analysis than narrative control.

Then he spikes the whole thing with a memorable barb: “They don’t even know how to spell consumer.” The joke works because it’s deliberately unfair. Xerox certainly can spell it; what they can’t do is speak it - the language of retail intimacy, fast product cycles, design fetish, and marketing swagger. The insult compresses decades of corporate culture into one syllable: con-sum-er, a word that implies seduction rather than procurement.

The subtext is a warning masquerading as comfort. In tech transitions, “we’re not that kind of company” is often how incumbents domesticate disruption. It reassures insiders, but it also telegraphs to competitors exactly where the walls are - and where they aren’t.