It's a really, really concerning issue, and government, education and business all have to play together to start to reverse the trend that we're seeing here. So I believe it's the right model to solving big problems, and necessary. And I also do feel that that's an opportunity for former CEOs and other business leaders to make a contribution. Use a lot of their business skills on behalf of solving some big public-policy challenges or issues that we have to solve as a country.

Can you envision yourself getting into politics?

After 32 years at Xerox, I think it's hard to envision it. I don't think it has to be politics. There are plenty of opportunities, whether they're nonprofit opportunities or providing the kind of behind-the-scenes support that a lot of public issues require. I don't envision politics as the main thrust.

Where do you stand on the H-1B visa issue?

Obviously, we think that's a missed opportunity right now, and it's far too restrictive. I was out at our Palo Alto Research Center a couple of months ago, and the reality is that we have great people who are returning to their native countries because of restrictions here, and who could have gone on to be US-based technologists and researchers and contributors. Just at the time when we need to work harder to keep people in this country, we have less access than we've ever had before.

What is your response to unemployed IT workers who resent the H1-B visa program?

I guess I would look at it first of all and say you have to look at the amount of jobs that have been created by people who have come into this country -- the founders of places like Google and so many companies I couldn't even begin to name. And if you look at the pipeline of people graduating from our universities, the majority of these folks in doctoral programs are foreign, vs. US-based. It matters where jobs get created. These are the kinds of people that can actually create jobs, that aren't responsible for losing them. It's so much the solution vs. the problem that I find it kind of amazing that we tend to emotionally focus on an outcome because a lot of things have become commoditized and therefore do get offshored or outsourced. Innovation is a source of value creation, and it's a completely different approach to solving the problem.

How do we reverse the decline of the percentage of women in the IT profession?

We're a good example of the fact that like any other objective, focus is hugely important. For example, in IT and engineering, I just spoke to 200 interns that Xerox has brought in for the summer, and two out of five are women. With focus, you can certainly do that. But the issue is we need a bigger pipeline in general. So one of the things Xerox focuses on is raising the interest in areas like math and science in secondary schools. We take our engineers out to the classroom and have "invention days." We invest in robotics competitions. Focusing on getting the best talent suggests you ought to be inclusive, and that means not just women, but minorities need to be focused on in terms of increasing that pipeline.

Computerworld's annual IT salary survey shows that the gap in pay between US men and women is hovering in the 10 per cent-to-12 per cent range. To what do you attribute that gap to, and how do we close it?

I'm sure if you dig under it, some of that speaks to tenure. In professions, usually when you get into those discussions, the fact is women sometimes don't have the tenure that their male counterparts have. I think you fix it by paying for results -- creating a level playing field. We should be paying people for results and for contribution. Clearly, companies need to be looking and ensuring that they have a level playing ground and creating equality for good results. That's good for companies. Pay for performance plays everywhere, and that's true of men and women as well.