Yet the two executives’ disagreement was more than a technical misunderstanding. It reflected a fundamental clash of marketing values. O’Neill saw little point in committing Xerox to selling a machine for which there was no immediate prospect of high-volume production or marketing backup. The company would not sell Livermore a prototype copier; why sell it a prototype laser printer? Goldman’s rejoinder was that there was a world of difference between introducing a new version of an old copier and launching an entirely new technology; the only way to accomplish the latter was to feed the
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