John Scully: behind the scenes of Jobs's success

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

He was born in 1939 in the family of a lawyer, was educated in the field of architectural design, and then business administration. His career at Pepsico was truly lightning: by the age of 30 he had held the post of vice president.

Candidate number 1 in the presidency

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

For one of the most extraordinary projects in the history of marketing and advertising called Pepsi Challenge was also John Scully. "Pepsi" (an American businessman was confident in the superiority of his products) was compared blindly with Coca-Cola. It is interesting that he himself, taking part in the experiment, was wrong.

Getting Started with Apple

The post of Apple CEO in 1981 was occupied by Mike Markkula, the company's first investor, who at the time 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 will learn more adult models of behavior, of course, were in vain. Therefore Markkula was seriously puzzled by the search for the president for Apple.

At the time when Scully was first invited to the company Apple, it was very uncommon atmosphere - after all, Jobs, entertaining, squabbling between the company's divisions, turning it into a place of endless battles. Despite this, President Pepsico did not hide his admiration for both Jobs himself and his brainchild. From the very beginning, Steve Jobs saw between himself and Scully a lot in common and in 1983 he offered him the post of president. The legendary question of whether John Scully is going to sell soda water for the rest of his life sounded just then.

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

Jobs and Scully: differences

Over time, John Scully and Steve Jobs began to discover more and more contradictions. For Jobs, the differences between them became obvious. Scully insisted that the cost of the first Macintosh be increased by $ 500, with which Jobs was cardinally disagree. At the same time, the company entered a time of deep crisis: sales began to fall, and new products were characterized by a number of shortcomings.

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

Scully did not have the passion that Jobs had. After Jobs left the company, if in his interview he had to deal with the technical features of the product, he would say the speeches prepared beforehand by other specialists.

Of course, at the same time he remained a real marketing maestro. However, the completely different values that underlay the policies of Steve and Scully also played a critical role.

Jobs was increasingly rude to his subordinates, and between him and Scully unfolded an unambiguous confrontation over the spheres of influence. The board of directors, with whom John Scully held a meeting behind Jobs's back, decided to remove him.

Jobs leaves Apple

At that time, Jobs was left with the opportunity to manage the unit called Apple Labs. Jobs, who after a few days began to beg Scully to return everything to their seats, after a while started a conspiracy against him. But these plans were not destined to come true - it was given by the executive director of the company Jean Gosset, who subsequently took Jobs's place.

Obviously, for Scully work with Jobs seemed impossible now. The trust was undermined, and Jobs was suspended from work in the company definitively. The talented leader spent in Apple, on the verge of total collapse, a lot of reforms. He literally became the one who saved her from the final defeat. Scully took up her complete restructuring, introduced a new management system. If earlier Apple had only weak branches in the European territory, now these departments have become full-fledged structural blocks that generate profit.

Leaving Apple and Living Today

However, John Scully did not escape several critical mistakes, which resulted in his leaving the company after ten years of work. The Board of Directors forced him to leave Apple in 1993.

After many years, he admits: Jobs's dismissal was one of his biggest mistakes.

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