There’s no clear path to success, Xerox CEO Steve Bandrowczak told me. But whenever faced with an easy role or a difficult one, he always opted for the tougher job that would prove most beneficial to his career.
“If it was challenging, if it was hard, I always did it,” he said.
Take the salary cut. In 2005, Bandrowczak left his role as chief information officer at the logistics company DHL (No. 134 on the Fortune Global 500), overseeing a $4 billion IT budget and some 10,000 employees, to be CIO of the Beijing-headquartered Lenovo. At Lenovo, he presided over roughly 300 employees and a fraction of his former budget: $300 million.
Despite a drop in salary and manpower, the move to Lenovo allowed him to spearhead the company’s keenly watched acquisition of IBM's PC business. “I knew what we were doing would be historic, creating the first global country out of China, based in China, And I learned so much culturally and about the people.” The role stretched him in a way that proved pivotal to his career, he said, adding, “I took a huge salary cut, but the experience I gained there was invaluable.
Take the lower-ranking role. After a two-year stint as Lenovo’s CIO, reporting to the CEO, he moved to the now-defunct Canadian telecommunications company Nortel. There, he accepted a sales leadership role that was two levels below his previous title.
“I accepted that role because I had never run a sales team before, and I knew it was important to gain that experience,” he said, stressing, "I always took jobs that filled and created more capabilities on my resume.”
In August 2022, he was appointed CEO of Xerox after four years as its COO.
Ruth Umoh
ruth.umoh@fortune.com
Today's newsletter was curated by Natalie McCormick
