Lexmark's 3 CEOs discuss past, future and how the letter 'I' went missing

Twenty years ago, Lexmark was just a name being bandied about alongside a handful of others. In fact, the company came close to being called "Leximark," with an "i."

It's one of a number of little-known revelations that bubbled up last week, as the three CEOs who have led the Lexington printer company since it was spun off from IBM took an hour to discuss Lexmark's past, present and future with the Herald-Leader.

On Lexmark's name: "The original choice was Leximark," said Marvin Mann, the company's first CEO, from 1991 to '98.

"'Lexi' came from lexicon, pertaining to words. 'Mark' was marks on paper. Today, that's kind of obsolete. There's a lot more than words on paper and a lot more than paper. But that was the original idea. ...

"We sent it around the world to the various foreign units to check it out. The Europeans came back and said that if we take the 'i' out, it would be better. They had been practicing answering the telephone and said it's much weaker than if you just said 'Lexmark.' We took their advice."

On choosing Lexmark's diamond logo: "The diamond says a lot," Mann said. "It's precious, it's quality, it's hard, it's long-lasting. We made it red to stand out, and that became the Lexmark logo."

On the pros and cons of running a global technology firm from Central Kentucky: "The world has changed a lot in 20 years," said current CEO Paul Rooke, who was named to the post in 2010, "and the advancement of technologies really allow you to operate out of most anywhere. ... Lexington is still a wonderful place to bring employees. It's not too small; it's not too big. It's a wonderful city with a lot of diverse things in it, and it's been helpful in terms of retaining employees."

On Lexington's role during Lexmark's first 20 years: "It was the heart of our (research and development) and manufacturing back in 1991," Rooke said. "We've expanded over the years. We had to take advantage of competitive advantages that were available globally. We're a global company and we must compete. So over time, manufacturing did shift out of Lexington.

"We have a diverse R&D network ... between Lexington, Kolkata (India), Cebu (Philippines), Shawnee (Kan.) and Boulder (Colo.). ... Lexington plays a key role, but it's a different role than it was in 1991. We've been able to maintain a stable number of employees here that are higher-value work than there was in 1991."

On growing the company: "We focused on the customers," Mann said. "We used our technology to do things other people weren't doing. We had people out working all across the country and world with retailers and then banks. We would go in and learn how they did their business and come up with solutions for them. As a result, we very quickly gained share in some of those market segments. ...

"That approach taught us a lot because we were light on our feet. When the people out in the field recognized an opportunity, it got fed back to the development people, and there was tight communication. As a result of that, we made tremendous progress fairly early on.

"We had good technology, but for a good while, we didn't have a lot of leadership technology but had leadership in applying the technology to customers' needs."

On the company's greatest accomplishments: "Our company's come a long way in our 20 years," said Paul Curlander, who was CEO from 1998 to 2010. "We've globalized the company. We sell in over 170 countries around the world. ... We've had a lot of expansion in the business. We were in the U.S. and were in 12 core countries in Europe when we started."

On the competition's effect on Lexmark's technology over the years: "There were others ahead of us," Rooke said. "We had large competitors — Hewlett-Packard, Canon — that had laser engines and inkjet engines in the marketplace.

"You could call us a fast follower. With the spinout from IBM, we had a better ability to invest more directly in those, and we quickly followed with our own technology.

"We combined those with our market approach to really create unique versions of those that went deeper with our customers than perhaps our competition did, which began to really differentiate us."

On the headquarters being in Connecticut until 1996: "In an early large meeting of employees, somebody asked me why it was there, and I said, 'That's where my wife lives,'" Mann said. "But there was a lot more to it than that.

"We recruited both from IBM and other firms a very small number of the key executives into the company. Frankly, it would have been difficult to get some of those people to take the job and move to Lexington. ...

"After we took the company public (in 1995), we moved it to Lexington. ... If I remember right, we only moved one of those executives to Lexington and all of the rest retired and moved on. ... We never had more than 16 people in the (Connecticut) headquarters including secretaries."

On printers' names: "There was a time when one of the names we'd chosen became a little more important than we thought it would," Mann said, referring to the Optra series of laser printers.

"We decided it was best to focus on Lexmark and not have product names (only letters such as the X series for multifunction printers, C for color lasers and so on).

"Some of our people wanted to stay with that name and push it, but we concluded, and rightfully so, that we should focus on Lexmark and the brand."

(The company in the past couple of years has again dabbled in names for its inkjet line, offering up printers like the Platinum and the new Genesis.)

On the past: "In talking with the older people," Mann said, "they all remember the day when it was announced that this business was being sold. One man said, 'That was the worst day of my life.'

"But things worked out really very well. Person after person said we're so much better off than we would have been because this business became the key focus and everybody got behind it. ...

"People have just enjoyed working for Lexmark, a smaller company where they have more freedom and can get things done. ... Even the younger people who have come in recent years and don't know me from Adam, they're very upbeat. They've been through some challenging times as the market turned down and they've had to work very, very hard, but their spirit is good."

On the future: "Technologies are going to come and go as we've seen over the last 20 years," Rooke said. "It's hard to say what's going to happen over the next 20, but what has served us well is our intimacy with our customers. Our best ideas come from our customers. If we stay close to them, even as technology ebbs and flows, and develop with our customers and for our customers, we'll be fine."

On brand awareness: "In the early years, people would say, 'Where do you work?'" Mann said. "You said Lexmark, and they had never heard of that. Now, you don't find many people on an airplane who don't know Lexmark."

This story was originally published April 4, 2011 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Lexmark's 3 CEOs discuss past, future and how the letter 'I' went missing."