But it's just vapor, a memory, like the smell of smoke in a room that's not seen a cigarette - nor a human occupant - for a decade. The "go getters" have long since retired and moved on to greener pastures - so the people who remain - who believe they are guardians of the legacy - are simply pretenders to the throne.
Like the inhabitants of Europe in Medieval Times, they hold no loyalty to nation-Xerox - they've sworn blood oaths of allegiance to parochial chieftains, who’ve cobbled together primitive corporate tribes. Ruling with an iron fist wrapped in glove woven in equal parts fear and unpredictability, these “thought-leaders” envelope themselves in paper and pitiable process, insulating themselves from the realities of the outside world.
Like medieval wanderers, their subjects sometimes happen across evidence of the great civilization that came before...a more advanced, incredibly strong people that vanished - and they are bemused as a Visigoth would be in front of the majesty of a vast Roman aqueduct.
For like after the fall of the Roman Empire - where the knowledge to make concrete was lost for 1000 years - the inhabitants of the present-day Xerox have lost the knowledge to innovate, to create, to excel at what was once deemed improbable or even impossible. And I say "knowledge" not "ability" - as using the phrase "lost the ability" would infer that the ability was once a present to begin with.
When walking through the cavernous, empty halls or deserted, dusty laboratories, one sometimes hears the whispers of those who came before emanating from someone who has vague recollections of a time period they never lived in but heard about. Speaking in a language something akin to "tongues", these unfortunate souls look at Xerox as it could be and ask "Why not?" Invariably, these holders of these mere strings of truth are quickly set upon by ravenous marauders, who beat into submission (with Six Sigma manuals and three hour internal non-customer facing process Webex meetings) these unfortunate souls whose only sin was to dare to dream of what once was and could be again.
