John Scully: behind the scenes of Jobs' success

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

John Scully, former president of Pepsico, took over as CEO of Apple in 1983.

He was born in 1939 to a lawyer's family and was educated in architectural design and later in business administration. His career at Pepsico was truly lightning fast: by the age of 30 he was a vice president.

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When Apple needed a reliable leader, unthinkable marketing achievements made him the most attractive candidate. Scully, like Jobs, was a workaholic and perfectionist. In his youth, he successfully overcame a stutter. But even this was not enough - in order to become a brilliant speaker, in his youth he attended the theater and trained at home, copying the manner of the actors' performances.

Behind one of the most extraordinary projects in the history of marketing and advertising called the Pepsi Challenge was also John Scully. "Pepsi" (an American businessman was confident in the superiority of hisproduct) was compared to Coca-Cola by blind buyers. It is interesting that he himself, having taken part in the experiment, made a mistake.

Get Started at Apple

The post of CEO of Apple in 1981 was taken by Mike Markkula, the first investor in the company, who once invested $ 250,000 in its development. Mike did not plan to stay in this position for a long time, promising his wife to work there for no more than three years. However, his hopes that by this time Steve Jobs would adopt more adult patterns of behavior, of course, turned out to be futile. Therefore, Markkula was seriously puzzled by the search for a president for Apple.

At the time when Sculley was first invited to Apple, there was a very extraordinary atmosphere in it - after all, Jobs, having fun, pitted the company's divisions against each other, turning it into a place of endless battles. Despite this, the president of Pepsico did not hide his admiration for both Jobs himself and his brainchild. From the very beginning, Steve Jobs saw a lot in common between himself and Scully and in 1983 offered him the position of president. The legendary question of whether John Scully was going to sell sparkling water for the rest of his life was asked at that time.

Subsequently, it turned out that their similarity was completely illusory, but, having met, Scully and Jobs were in euphoria from communicating with each other and exchanging creative ideas.

Jobs and Scully: Differences

In time John Scully and SteveJobs began to discover more and more contradictions. For Jobs, the differences between the two became clear. Scully insisted that the cost of the first Macintosh be increased by $500, with which Jobs strongly disagreed. At the same time, the company entered an era of deep crisis: sales began to fall, and new products were characterized by a number of shortcomings.

Scully's goal, unlike Jobs, was to extract value, to make the most of marketing strategies.

Scully didn't have the passion that Jobs had. After Jobs left the company, if in his interviews he had to touch on the technical features of products, he made speeches prepared in advance by other specialists.

Of course, he was still a marketing maestro. However, the very different values that underpinned Steve and Scully's policies were also a critical factor.

Jobs became increasingly rude to his subordinates, and between him and Scully unfolded an unambiguous confrontation for spheres of influence. The Board of Directors, with whom John Scully had a meeting behind Jobs's back, decided to remove him.

Jobs leaves Apple

At that time, Jobs was given the opportunity to lead a division called Apple Labs. Jobs, who a few days later began to beg Scully to return everything to its place, after a while started a conspiracy against him. But these plans were not destined to come true - he was issued by the company's CEO Jean Gosse, who later took the place of Jobs.

Obviously, for Scully, working with Jobs seemed impossible now. Trust was shattered, and Jobs was permanently removed from the company. A talented leader spent a lot of reforms in Apple, which is on the verge of complete collapse. He literally became the one who saved her from final defeat. Scully took up its complete restructuring, introduced a new management system. If earlier Apple had only weak branches in the European territory, now these divisions have become full-fledged structural blocks that bring profit.

Leaving Apple and living today

However, John Scully did not avoid several critical mistakes, as a result of which he left the company after ten years of work. The Board of Directors forced him to leave Apple in 1993.

After many years, he admits that firing Jobs was one of his biggest mistakes.

Now John Scully, aged 71, lives with his third wife in Palm Beach, Florida, and is engaged in venture capital investment.