Interview with Darrell Minards: Make a big impression

Darrell Minards is admirably defensive about Xerox. “I know you’ll want to write ‘the copier giant’, but it’s just not our core business any more,” he says. He joined the company graduate scheme in 1987, when it truly was a copier giant. One of his first jobs involved knocking on doors, selling photocopiers. But now Xerox is a business solutions giant, helping firms to manage digital documents and, following the acquisition of IT firm ACS, providing business process outsourcing services. And Minards, interestingly for a European head of learning and development, has been a salesman for far longer than he’s been a training professional. In fact, he only began in L&D in 2006.

“I haven’t followed a traditional route to L&D by any means,” he explains. From door-to-door selling he moved to office network systems, then into the graphic arts market. Next came marketing, where he studied for a management development qualification. A few other roles followed, including strategy and planning, and business product management, before he finally moved across to L&D.