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Transcript: Anne Mulcahy, Chairman and CEO, Xerox Corporation

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STAMFORD, Connecticut (CNN) -- Anne Mulcahy has pulled off what few thought was possible. With no prior experience as a CEO, she brought legendary tech company Xerox back from the brink of bankruptcy.

The turnaround has made her one of the most powerful woman in corporate America, a battlefield she was not necessarily ready for.

CNN's Maggie Lake caught up with Mulcahy and began by asking her about corporate survival.

Lake: I read that Warren Buffett told you "you didn't get promoted you went to war." Are you still in thick of the battle for survival or has Xerox turned the corner?

Mulcahy: Well no, I think survival certainly has been accomplished and you can declare victory but that is not where we're focused. I think you have to stay focused, you have to stay intense and probably think about it more as a battle than kind of resting on your laurels. So that level of intensity is going to be there for the long term.

Lake: You were never groomed to be CEO, what in your background prepared you for this?

Mulcahy: Xerox has provided enormous opportunities for me to get a broad set of experiences over now, it is 30 years. But when I came on as president I had 25 years of just broad experiences in all parts of the business and all parts of the world and although it wasn't necessarily done with the intent of running the business I found out that it was a pretty good set of skills and capabilities to have coming into the job. And I think that the focus on people leadership at Xerox, teamwork, respect really engaging people and building teams has been critically important. When you're in a tough time, there's nothing more important than getting people committed.

Lake: As dedicated as she is to the staff, Mulcahy has had to make tough choices. In order to get Xerox back on its feet she cut the workforce by 30%. And she admits Xerox has had to work to rebuild its image as a tech innovator.

Mulcahy: What we're trying to do is really to hit the triple play. Certainly be very focused on cost and productivity, but maintaining our heritage and innovation with the best capabilities from a technological standpoint. Research and development for us has been an extraordinary focus. Making sure it is revitalized, we've basically refreshed and introduced a whole new portfolio of technologies in the last few years. One of the metrics that people use to really determine the effectiveness of your research and development is how much of your current revenues come from your latest research and development and in our case, over two-thirds of our revenue are coming from products and services that we brought to market in last two years and that is a pretty impressive ratio.

Lake: Have you found it an advantage or a disadvantage to be in the minority of women who hold CEO positions?

Mulcahy: The one area that can be a disadvantage as well as an advantage is sometimes the amount of attention and focus and certainly spotlight that because you are still somewhat of an anomaly, which can be great if it is good, not so great if it's not. You have to sort of learn to keep focused on the business, understand what your role is, it is really to serve shareholders and try to stay below the radar screen as much as possible so that you don't get distracted by an unnatural amount of attention.You just constantly have to be watching and waiting, a little bit of paranoia about that next crisis around the corner in order to make sure that you don't wake up and find yourself catching up.

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