A senior Xerox salesman was once stopped and interrogated by the US Secret Service. It was the height of the Cuban missile crisis and he was attempting to enter the White House with a box containing bottles of what looked like gunpowder.
Now, 30 years on, the Secret Service and just about everyone else knows about copier toner. Not only are copiers common items, but the same toner technology has been carried over to laser printers, which are at least as prolific as office copiers.
Mal Johnson is Xerox's vice-president for emerging markets, a division which takes him over a fair stretch of the globe, including China.
The mainland is one of the world's most sought-after markets, but it presents interesting questions for companies such as Xerox who wish also to market direct-to-press printing technology.
One of the biggest questions facing printing technology manufacturers is which course the market will take. While Western countries gradually have moved from lead type to direct-to-press over 30-40 years, the mainland has the opportunity to jump straight into the modern era, and digital printing.
While the leap to hi-tech seems the obvious choice, the lower initial investment requirements of older technologies means that answer is far less straightforward.
